ipad multitouch limitations?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Stroffolino, Apr 5, 2010.

  1. Stroffolino

    Stroffolino Well-Known Member
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    Apr 28, 2009
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    A few months back, folk were wondering what ipad touch limits were. On the ipod/iphone, it's a max of 5 simultaneous touches, with wacky behavior if a sixth touch occurs. Now that people are getting their hands on ipad hardware, has anyone confirmed the actual limitations? There was thought that Apple might relax it to allow for as many as 10 touches, but I haven't seen this confirmed.
     
  2. mrWalrus

    mrWalrus Well-Known Member

    Dec 20, 2008
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    As far as I can tell, the iPad is still limited to five touches. At least as far as game salad is concerned.
     
  3. Mew2468

    Mew2468 Well-Known Member

    Oct 20, 2008
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    I'm nearly 100% sure that the five touch limit still applies to the iPad.
     
  4. Hmar9333

    Hmar9333 Well-Known Member

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    I'm pretty sure it's 10...
     
  5. Stroffolino

    Stroffolino Well-Known Member
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    Hopefully someone will be able to test the limit on real hardware and will be able to answer definitively without guessing. I'd do it myself, but I won't have a development iPad for at least a few more weeks.
     
  6. NickFalk

    NickFalk Well-Known Member

    :confused: Of topic I know, but just how do you manage to use six touches for anything practical on an iPhone?

    I seem to recall reading in some of Apple's docs that the 5 touch limit was just in software though, and that it theoretically could be unlimited touches. It would be a real shame if the five touch limit is still in place for a device as large as the iPad so I'm also curious about this.
     
  7. DrummerB

    DrummerB Well-Known Member

    Jan 17, 2009
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    TapTap Revenge multiplayer. When 2 players need to hit 3 notes each at the same time, one of them will probably fail :cool:
     
  8. JazzFlight

    JazzFlight Well-Known Member

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    Using Shiny Drum, a free iPad app, I was able to light up 10 of its drum pads using all of my fingers.

    So it's at least 10 points so far, confirmed.
     
  9. lord-sam

    lord-sam Well-Known Member

    Feb 25, 2009
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    How silly that it's limited. I'd say 20 atleast. That way 2 people can play
     
  10. steelfires

    steelfires Well-Known Member

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    lol. Actually it's true. just tested it out. When playing when your friend, the trick is to try to do it as soon as possible, while still hitting the note.
     
  11. Mew2468

    Mew2468 Well-Known Member

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    I remember reading a while back that it was still 5 (of course, that was still during speculation), but I'm thinking that I could be wrong because the Plants Vs. Zombies app description says "dig into multi-touch gameplay exclusively on iPad. Play with up to 11 simultaneous touch points and challenge all your fingers!".

    Edit: Whoops, didn't read to the bottom of the thread. Silly me. Never mind. :)
     
  12. Deth4U2

    Deth4U2 Well-Known Member

    Aug 19, 2009
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    I was able to play 8 simultaneous notes in Pro Keys as well.
     
  13. Facetime

    Facetime New Member

    Apr 23, 2010
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    BoardBox also supports up to 11 simultaneous touches, so that would appear to be the limit.
     
  14. If I remember correctly limitation of 5 touches are for 1 object instance so you can track more touches if you have several touch-places. But that needs testing.
     
  15. bomber

    bomber Well-Known Member

    Nov 9, 2008
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    It's said to be 11 on iPad and 5 on iPhone/iPod. I've seen the touch input taking up to 50% CPU time on first-gen devices so it was probably mainly an artificial limit based on the CPU speed. Correctly detecting the finger center and distinct fingers can be quite complex.
     
  16. WellSpentYouth

    WellSpentYouth Well-Known Member

    Jan 11, 2009
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    So far, 10 seems to work, but since I am alone (at the moment) and I don't want to put my toes on my iPad, it stays at 10 :)
     

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