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[RecidivistSW]

That is the ratio in resolution between the new (4.7 in) and last generation iPhones.    That is a really ugly number, especially if you have pixel art in your game.  It seems like a no brainer that Apple would keep the width a multiple of 320 (the width of the original iPhone).  Transition from original iPhones to retina was *relatively* painless because retina images were exactly 2x the size of the original.  This transition will be painful for devs.  The 5.5 in iPhone complicates things even more.  Not only does it not share a resolution common denominator with older devices, it doesn't even share a common denominator with the 4.7 in iPhone (ratio of resolution is 1.44 ??!?).  This will drive devs away from using pixel art towards real time rendered art and maybe even SVG (although to my knowledge a good vector solution for iOS doesn't exist currently).  Pain!

[joseph ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

that's just about 1.75.

So if your pixel art is scaled 4x, you just would be shrinking every pixel by 1/4th? If your pixel art is scaled 8x (more of the kind of resolution where this kind of scaling issue is meaningful) I think it'd be a literally imperceptible change?

(this probably belongs in a technical subforum)

[Blademasterbobo]

you just scale it up by w/e round number you can and then show a bit more or less of the playing area. it's not that difficult.

[RecidivistSW]

that's just about 1.75.

So if your pixel art is scaled 4x, you just would be shrinking every pixel by 1/4th? If your pixel art is scaled 8x (more of the kind of resolution where this kind of scaling issue is meaningful) I think it'd be a literally imperceptible change?

(this probably belongs in a technical subforum)

Where do you get 1.75 from? (I'm legitimately asking, there are many different resolutions to compare at this point it's hard to tell.)

If you compare 1x iPhone resolution (which a lot of pixel art is done in) with the new 4.7 in iPhone 6, the ratio in resolution is 2.34375  ( 750/320 ).  I don't think that is a scaling ratio that will look good on any animated sprite.

[RecidivistSW]

you just scale it up by w/e round number you can and then show a bit more or less of the playing area. it's not that difficult.

Well, yeah, I understand that, but it's more of a headache than you are making it out to be.  Yesterday, an iOS dev had to consider the 4 in iPhone and maybe the 2x iPad and 3.5 in iPhone.  Those could all be covered with 2x images and relatively slight adjustment in playing area.  Now there are devices that are 2.34x and 3.375x.  Those are ugly numbers.  The few prerelease articles I read seemed to assume that the new iPhone would be 3x and 4x with the same width:height ratio as the iPhone 5.  That transition would have been *trivial*.  This one will be a pain for a lot of devs and not even worth the effort for many.  Yes, it's eminently doable, but it's a time sink that iOS devs previously didn't have to worry about.

[joseph ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

that's just about 1.75.

So if your pixel art is scaled 4x, you just would be shrinking every pixel by 1/4th? If your pixel art is scaled 8x (more of the kind of resolution where this kind of scaling issue is meaningful) I think it'd be a literally imperceptible change?

(this probably belongs in a technical subforum)

Where do you get 1.75 from? (I'm legitimately asking, there are many different resolutions to compare at this point it's hard to tell.)

If you compare 1x iPhone resolution (which a lot of pixel art is done in) with the new 4.7 in iPhone 6, the ratio in resolution is 2.34375  ( 750/320 ).  I don't think that is a scaling ratio that will look good on any animated sprite.

oh, just bad reading, im sorry, i read the res as 1.*71...

but if it's 1.17 that's an even smaller difference from the nearest round number / even easier to solve. scale your pixel art and then shrink/stretch the pixels * n or just crop .n off the edges. no probbo. screen is too high res for this to matter. If your art is high-resolution enough that you can see the difference in losing microns off of the edge of a pixel, it's high resolution enough that you can just scale it.

[joseph ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

native

Le'ts say 2x for 1st gen iphone

4x for ip4

5.2x for ip6 4.7 inch.


edit: EXTREME CASE
Maybe becuase of our game code we have to literally stretch it to fit the new aspect ratio. Let's scale it now, at this res, to 150% with, morphing it from 1:1 to 2:1...

[RecidivistSW]

5.2x for ip6 4.7 inch.

Hey, thanks for showing this.  My concerns have be assuaged.  

[joseph ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

no problem. it's easy to get stuck in the mindset of thinking of all of your pixel art at x1, and get concerned about weird detailed technical stuff with pixel art (because, obviously if you were scaling by arbitrary ratios down at the native pixel res, stuff would get messed up fast) but at the kind of resolutions modern games run it's basically a non-issue.

[RecidivistSW]

no problem. it's easy to get stuck in the mindset of thinking of all of your pixel art at x1, and get concerned about weird detailed technical stuff with pixel art (because, obviously if you were scaling by arbitrary ratios down at the native pixel res, stuff would get messed up fast) but at the kind of resolutions modern games run it's basically a non-issue.

Am I right to think that a dev could still run into trouble if their "1x" was the iPhone 5 resolution?  Wouldn't that prevent them from scaling to iPhone 6 (i.e. 1.17x)?

[Blademasterbobo]

the iphone 5 is 1136 x 640, so if that's your native res, you either have really high res art or a large playing area. high res art = less noticeable scaling issues, large playing area = just crop it a bit

note that you have similar issues with basically any console, especially if you're on a console that uses televisions, and especially especially if you're on multiple consoles / handhelds.

even with pcs, really, since netbooks have really weird resolutions.

[joseph ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

no problem. it's easy to get stuck in the mindset of thinking of all of your pixel art at x1, and get concerned about weird detailed technical stuff with pixel art (because, obviously if you were scaling by arbitrary ratios down at the native pixel res, stuff would get messed up fast) but at the kind of resolutions modern games run it's basically a non-issue.

Am I right to think that a dev could still run into trouble if their "1x" was the iPhone 5 resolution?  Wouldn't that prevent them from scaling to iPhone 6 (i.e. 1.17x)?

Theoretically & conceptually: yes, you will lose pixels here and there.

Practically: Not whatsoever. The resolution is so high that lossy kinds of scaling (supersampling) will work just fine. Each visually distinguishable element of the shape will hold up just fine with virtually any amount of scaling/stretching. Consider the resolutions you play 3d games at -- is art ever messed up by perspective/scale? of course not. Play the same game at 320x256 and it will become pixel soup.