Will I be rejected from the iOS App Store if I submit a game for the iPad that targets the iPad2 resolution 1024x768 not the iPad3 ... I don't have an iPad3 so can't test on a device. All my art is already rendered for the iPad2 and it would be hard for me to re-generate the stuff I did by hand so I just want to release like this and let the ipad3 scale the app up which I think is what it will do by default?

Retina support is not required to launch an app.

There are also a ton of games for the iPad 3 that render at original iPad resolution, because the increased pixel count on the 3 brings the GPU to its knees.

I hear the iPad 4 upped the GPU power significantly, which largely resolved the issue, but there is still a tradeoff to be made between resolution and graphical fidelity.

it should be fairly easy to support it natively since it's the same aspect ratio, and you can test on the simulator. Just get one or a few beta testers w/ the device you need and ask them to test the game for you.

In theory it should be easy. My problem is that I am super disorganized and I started thi project basically before the iPad3 existed so the early art work I did is targeted at the lower res. I do things like generate sprite frames via python and then style them with photshop layer styles enmass using Adobe Bridge -- I do lots of stuff like that -- a lot of partially generated art that is the output of variou stages of generation. Trouble is I don't remember how I did a lot of it and I would have to run all the stages again tweaked for a bigger size to regenerate my sprite sheets.

There should be no lack of people willing to do this, just try places like Touch Arcade.

How do I do this without already being in the App store? I mean how can I deploy my game to testers devices if they are not registered Apple developers?

Make an ad-hoc build of your app.
All you need from the other person is his or her 40-character device ID.
That person does not need to be a developer; this is often how you send your game to review sites etc. before launch.

As for your resolution, you won’t be rejected for not supporting retina mode (IE just setting contentScaleFactor to 1.0f by force), but if your app also has to run on iPhone devices you might be rejected if you hard-code the resolution (even if you aren’t you will be required by the consumers to fix it), which means you would need to be resolution-agnostic anyway. If you are only supporting iPad devices this won’t be a problem, but I would generally always go with resolution-agnostic apps in the future.

Strategies include positioning HUD icons or things not by X/Y position but by distance from the nearest screen border (images will seem smaller on retina devices but that is quite common in past PC games) or using an orthographic projection that projects the smaller screen size based on your design onto the larger screen, using adjusting the width to maintain the proper ratio.


L. Spiro

I know it's been awhile since this thread was active, but I just read an article about Apple now requiring apps to not use the UDID, with enforcement starting May 1. Another change taking place on May 1, however, is that apps will also be required to support retina displays. I haven't read too much to know exactly what "support" means, but I thought I'd post here just to let you know you may want to take a serious look at adding good support for retina displays, because after May 1 you will be rejected from the app store if you don't.

I know it's been awhile since this thread was active, but I just read an article about Apple now requiring apps to not use the UDID, with enforcement starting May 1. Another change taking place on May 1, however, is that apps will also be required to support retina displays. I haven't read too much to know exactly what "support" means, but I thought I'd post here just to let you know you may want to take a serious look at adding good support for retina displays, because after May 1 you will be rejected from the app store if you don't.

Thanks for posting this. The article I saw just talked about for iPhones; my game will be iPad only so don't know the new guideline applies, but I'm thinking I'm going to have to do this.

Edit: just posted in the relevant Apple developer forum ... will post back here if I get an authoritative reply.

I can't get a straight answer on this but am starting to realize from various forums that there is no straight answer to get. Basically, your app needs to "look nice" on a retina display meaning it is totally up to Apple. I think my game would be good-looking enough scaled up to pass, to be honest, but I don't want to risk it so am going to redo all my art. Also is an excuse to get a new iPad, I guess.

Basically, your app needs to "look nice" on a retina display meaning it is totally up to Apple.

So as I see it, there are two factors here: visual fidelity, and performance.

- For visual fidelity is basically demanding that you not just throw the same low-res sprites onto the retina display, or they will look no better than on the low-res device.

- For performance they want you to make sure your app can actually push enough pixels for the retina display. The iPad 3 in particular has the retina display, but it doesn't have the souped up GPU of the iPad 4, and this can be an issue.