If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Tech Focus: Firemint on iPad 2 development

Digital Foundry talks with the makers of Real Racing on the challenges and opportunities of high-end iOS development

Digital FoundryJohn Carmack is on the record as saying that the vast majority of RAGE downloads were for the HD version, suggesting that cutting edge games find their audience on the newer iOS devices. Real Racing 2 also supports all iOS devices - do you concur with Carmack's analysis that cutting edge games are mostly played on newer hardware? Is there a point where you will target OpenGL ES 2.0 devices only?
Rob Murray

Yes, I agree with John Carmack that cutting-edge games would be mostly played on newer hardware. Our attitude is to do our best to support older hardware where we can, not because there are a lot of users on the older hardware, but simply because there are some users there and every customer matters. However there is a limit to what we can do and it is getting very difficult to support OpenGL ES 1.0 devices with 3D games as the gap grows.

Digital FoundryFrom a developmental perspective, what are the major technological advantages in targeting the newer OpenGL ES 2.0 hardware?
Rob Murray

OpenGL ES 2.0 has vertex and pixel shader support which is fundamental to some of the advanced rendering and lighting effects that can be seen in Real Racing 2. The newer hardware is also faster than the older hardware so you are able to push more geometry and texture through the pipeline and you are able to achieve smooth performance more easily.

The iPad 2 hardware allows us to run [Real Racing 2 HD] fully anti-aliased with a much higher polygon count and texture resolution at a higher frame rate with numerous extra effects turned on.

Digital FoundryiPad 1 runs older SGX535 GPU hardware that received a speed-bump from its debut in iPhone 3GS, but had to service a much higher resolution. Was this part of the reason Real Racing 2 HD was delayed on iPad? What were the technical challenges in producing this version?
Rob Murray

If we could have had the iPad 1 version of Real Racing 2 ready for Christmas, we would have launched it at Christmas. So yes, it is right to speculate that we were having trouble with the build on that device. The challenge for us was that with the bigger screen you can see more detail and you also require a higher frame rate.

So for the graphics on iPad to be perceived as equivalent in quality to the iPhone 4 it wasn't enough to just get the game so that it could run the same game at the same speed on the iPad, we actually had to speed the game up significantly at the same time as adding even more detail. Just to be clear, not only did we require that the iPad version had more detail than the iPhone, but we also required that it would run at a higher frame rate.

After we had solved both of those problems, all we would have is a game that would be perceived as similar to the iPhone 4 version. So the big screen was a big problem. We are on top of it now, we have been working for so many months on iPad optimisations and we have a build that looks great and runs well on iPad 1.

The exciting thing of course was that we were also working on an awesome build of the game in anticipation of the iPad 2. The iPad 2 is out there now, Real Racing 2 HD looks absolutely gorgeous on it, and plays like a dream, and it will even support full 1080p output with the next update! So it's all great now.

Digital FoundryWhen Apple releases a new iOS upgrade, is there a new QA/validation procedure carried out on your existing library of games? There's been discussion that iPad 1 3D performance improved significantly with a recent upgrade - was that borne out by your testing?
Rob Murray

Yes, we noticed that Real Racing 2 HD runs much better on the latest iOS, so they have definitely improved something there. We recommend to our users that they upgrade their iPads to the latest OS for the best performance.

Digital Foundryid Software's RAGE HD supports TV-out on the iPad and iPhone 4 - conceivably, could you have supported video output on older devices with Real Racing 2?
Rob Murray

While we could have technically implemented a similar sort of video out functionality on older devices, we could not have provided the requisite user experience along with that functionality and the devices don't have the power to drive two screens at once while running Real Racing 2.

Real Racing 2 HD on iPad 2 supports 1080p out at 30 frames per second along with dual screen display showing the necessary race telemetry on your iPad screen. You steer with your iPad and it all feels great. It doesn't have to compromise on resolution, on usability or on gameplay, and that is what we are so excited about it.

Our users will be happy with this feature on iPad 2, I don't think they would be happy with what we could deliver on older devices.

Digital FoundryThere's been a lot of discussion around Apple's claims of "up to 9x performance increase" from the GPU in iPad 2. Based on your real life testing with Real Racing 2, do these claims stack up? What happens when you run your iPad 2 code on iPad 1?
Rob Murray

The iPad 2 hardware allows us to run the game fully anti-aliased with a much higher polygon count and texture resolution at a higher frame rate with numerous extra effects turned on. The original iPad's specifications don't allow for these improvements - however, we've found ways of making it look great on the older hardware.

If it was possible to run the exact iPad 2 code on iPad 1 then it would run very, very slowly. Once you have seen 1080p output running, I think you would agree with Apple's estimate of 9x performance increase in graphics.

Related topics
Author
Richard Leadbetter avatar

Richard Leadbetter

Technology Editor, Digital Foundry

Rich has been a games journalist since the days of 16-bit and specialises in technical analysis. He's commonly known around Eurogamer as the Blacksmith of the Future.