The reason the graphics don't look right in these cases is usually because the game hasn't been coded to recognise the new device itself (not just the processor), so if there is a problem, this would be simply not taking advantage of that hardware at best, and at worst actively pushing the settings down to the lowest possible in a kind of safe "compatibility mode", or displaying them in the wrong place, etc. The same thing has happened with new devices in the past. Mm-hmm, people raising the issue over at MR and other places have also noted that reinstalling the affected games has addressed the graphical issues entirely in a number of them. This isn't an iOS 7 issue, so the games this doesn't work for are basically going to need to be individually updated for compatibility by the developers, exactly as they were in past years where the same thing happened to newly-released, unrecognised devices. Bad news is there'll be a bit of a wait, but the good news is that it really didn't take very long for these problems to be addressed the last time, so it shouldn't take long for them to be addressed this time around either. The wait might be mildly irritating, but in the meantime I'd suggest reinstalling the affected games to see if that helps.
Many issues with games on iPad Air. Hello There, Long time lurker around these forums, and now since i purchased an iPad Air 64GB on the release date, I finally decided to become a member to be able to post. I also have an iPad 4th gen 64GB with iOS 7.0.3 so I'm doing direct comparisons. I have many major issues with a lot of games on the new iPad Air. I'm guessing that the apps needs updates for iOS 64-bit compatibilty, but somehow I'm wondering if there is something wrong with my Air. Perhaps a bad memory chip or something, because loading times on several apps are a lot worse than on my iPad 4th gen? Here are some examples: - Death Rally. Is now unplayable on the Air. On the 4th gen it is a smooth 60FPS, but on the Air there are major slowdowns and it's very laggy. - PopCap Games (Bejeweled HD & Plants Vs Zombies 1) Takes "forever" to start and load the games. 2-3 minutes before I can play them. Bejeweled HD starts with a black screen and then loads sloooowly, but I cannot see the loading progression. - NFS Most Wanted, Starts quickly, but loading a track takes considerably longer than on the iPad 4th gen. - Mediocre Games (Granny Smith and Sprinkle Islands). Black backgrounds and scaling issues (I think an update is released for Sprinkle Island but I haven't tried it yet to see if it is fixed.) - Real Racing 3. Scaling issues. Think it is resolved with an OTA update from EA. Framerates are quite a lot worse on the Air. - Real Racing 2 HD. This game is on low graphic settings on the Air. Many effects missing and the asphalt is low resolution. Probably the lowest graphical setting available. But still the framerate is worse than on iPad 4. - Flick Kick Football. Major scaling issues, unplayable. Probabaly will never be updated either. - Asphalt 7. Almost unplayable. Really bad framerates compared to the IPad 4. - Asphalt 8. Runs OK, but stutters a lot compared to the 4. Also framerates dips a lot more frequently than on the 4th gen. On crashes it goes to a crawl sometimes. Never happened on the 4. - Temple Run 2. Scaling issues, draw distance is really bad. Please... if any of you have the Air and the above apps (especially Bejeweled HD or PvsZ1) try them and see if you have the same issues, since I am almost positive that I have a bad memory chip due to the extremely long loading times. Sorry for the long post, but I had to count the games that I'm having issues with so far. These are quite a lot of games, and I still haven't tried all my apps. Will try more later and update this post.
Thanks for the info; keep posting as you discover more. Several of the games in your list (including Real Racing 3 and Temple Run 2) have been noted by others as well, so the issues you're experiencing are unlikely to be due to an actual defect in your device.
No problem! Just wanted to share my experience and see if anyone else is noticing the same with the other games that I listed. I'll update my post as soon as I have tried more games (@work now) But I'm mostly worried about Bejeweled HD and P.vs.Z 1, since these are the games that makes me think that there is something wrong with my device.
This is worrying! There are 2 possibilities for this this problem: a) iOS: If this is a core iOS issue, then this could be easily fixed from Apple by updating iOS 7, and make the iPad Air run 32-bit games in the same quality at the same framerate as iPad 4. b) Developer: If this is an issue with developers needing to support their apps to 64-bit, then this is a huge problem. Older games will never be updated, and newer games will take so much time to be updated. So we need to wait for the upcoming games that are tested for iPad Air to work as advertised. However, I have a theory. I think this could be an issue with the A7 chip itself. With the iPhone 5s, the A7 chip could handle running 32-bit apps and games smoothly because it only needs to run them at 1136x640. Meanwhile on the iPad Air, the same A7 chip needs to handle 32-bit apps and games at 2048x1536. So maybe the chip can't handle 32-bit apps at this resolution, therefore it opts to run them at the lowest quality possible. If this is true, then Apple messed up bad! Hopefully I'm wrong and it only becomes a minor iOS issue that Apple can update and be done with it.
It's not that worrying, really; the exact same thing has happened before and everything turned out fine then, so there's no reason to believe it won't be sorted this time as well. Based on the previous time this same problem arose, the highly simplified explanation is that the iPad Air as a device is literally not being recognised, and the app in question doesn't know what to do with it as a result. For most (if not all) of the affected games, the good news is that the problems don't stem from the operating system, underpowered processors or unmanageable screen resolutions, but in many cases (some graphical catastrophes have been resolved simply by reinstalling the game in question) fixing the issues is going to require developer attention.
I also have an IPad Air and I would say the effects are top notch. RR3 plays like a dream with much improved visuals. The menus and touch screen being far more responsive than even the IPad 4. Seems strange that things have been poor for some people. Makes sense though and fingers crossed that the newer games will be updated soon. Worrying though on some of the older favourites (haven't tried any yet) but i suspect some of the older ones won't see an update.
OK, so I see that an update for Asphalt 8 is live. I will download it later today and report back if there are any framerate improvements / fixes. I've heard of reports of flickering screens on the Air, but haven't noticed this myself (yet).
Update So, I just installed the updates for Sprinkle Islands and Asphalt 8. - Asphalt 8. Runs a little bit better, but it is still smoother on the iPad 4. I don't think this update was to optimize it for the iPad Air. - Sprinkle Island. Semi-fixed... no more black backgrounds, but now instead it crashes on level 1 after about 20-30 seconds of gameplay. Everytime! But luckily I was past level 1 before the update and the other levels seem to work without crashing. Will test more games tonight and update. Still waiting for a friendly iPad Air owner who can confirm or deny the long startup times for Bejeweled HD or PvsZ1.
Thank you so much for verifying! That makes me more posivite that the long loading times does not have anything to do with a hardware defect on my Air. Do you also have the black screen while loading and only the music in the background while loading (approx 40-45sec) ? Then it must be the app itself. I also tried redownloading Plants vs Zombies, and it still loads a looong time before I can press to get to the main menu.
Thanks! Thanks for your replies Killercow and DannyTheElite! I'm really happy to know that my iPad is working correctly, I was a bit nervous for a while there I hope PopCap gets around to update the games so that we can enjoy the overall faster loading times (which I have noticed a bit in other games). I have tried some more games this evening, comparing them directly with my iPad 4, and the ones in my previous list are mostly the ones I'm having issues with. My other 60-ish games seem to run just as well on the Air, with slightly improved loading times. But most of my games already ran at 60fps, so I haven't noticed any performance increases or decreases in my game library, except the ones mentioned before. So when the apps get the needed updates, I will be one happy camper!
I highly doubt these issues have anything to due with the x64 processor. 32 bit games run as x32 Apps so no issues there. Now what has changed is the integrated GPU included in the A7 processor. The PowerVR G6430 is the newest generation GPU and the A7 processor is the first chip in the world to incorporate it. The A5 and A6 processors shared the same generation PowerVR technology although different models. What I'm getting at is that I believed some games are going to need to be optimized for the PowerVR G6430 GPU. It's not uncommon to see similar issues with PC graphics cards after a new generation of products are released. Relax the iPad Air is state of the art technology and it will take a bit for the software to catch up to it.
If you look at this situation on the bright side, many games would be fixed by the time Ipad Mini with retina display is released. So, it is probably a wise move by Apple to release the new Ipad Mini at a later date.
