Same here, very bad how they sell it as a 3rd gen, mine is only a month old. Not the end of the world though, gaming is still ace, just could be that bit better!
I think it would be a big mistake doing an ipad version, you already said you want to concentrate on the sequel to make it even more amazing, the ipad version would just delay the sequel. Plus the ipad doesn't have the userbase you need to make enough profit to meet the development costs, stick to the iphone/touch, that is a 80+ million userbase, better than the 600k userbase on the ipad! Also hearing from many developers how underpowered the ipad is, very concerning considering how new the device is, that's 11 developers that have said that now!
iPad screen size is 5 times larger than the iPhone, but the GPU (according to reports) is only about 1.5 times faster than the one on the iPhone 3Gs.
Argh, I know! I wanted this thing out the door on Monday! Unfortunately we had a few glitches we had to work out that came up at the last minute in QA. It just got sent into Apple though. If their turnaround times haven't changed drastically it should be ready Monday or Tuesday I'm hoping. It's close! Very, very close!
people say that, but it isn't that simple. A big issue with the 3GS is the architecture. The person who said that then continued to say "turn on shaders on the iPad and things get really ugly." but any dev knows it's not as simple as "turn on shaders." The A4 is a new architecture; its memory bus is different, its interconnects are different, its whole optimization target is probably different. It would be (actually not too bad an analogy) like taking XBox360 code and putting it on a PS3 with minimal changes and expecting it to run well. Here's what we know: if it is true, then the iPad can process exactly 1.5x the geometry that the 3GS can via GPU (not verified), the iPad apears to have roughly 1.5x the pixel pushing power as the 3GS based on framerate and unoptimized code. That's patently impossible, though. Why? Because that would make it far slower than the old iTouch, yet it runs programs from them more than fine. I can't even begin to get into the complexities of why some fast software on the 3GS might be really slow on the iPad and vice versa... Here's my take: we'll see when OS4 comes out with proper drivers. I keep feeling like it was released with a hacked OS3.2 because OS4 couldn't make the iPad release.
Sorry what?!? OS4 won't make the ipad's hardware any better lol, and you mention proper drivers?! the ipod/ipad doesn't use drivers, completely different, the hardware in the ipad isn't great, lots of developers have said the same thing over and over, The ipad is 1.5 times more powerful (at the most) than the 3GS but it has to render in a much much higher resolution and 5x larger screen, this basically means that the 3GS is more powerful than the ipad in terms of real time performance.
It's a bit delayed. But in youre plus account you can see the new awards that come with the update!! So its really a matter of time i guess
Sorry about the delay guys. It's in Apple's hands now. They aren't turning things around as quickly as they did with our last update unfortunately...
sweet! thanks for the update...QQ will the updated additions to the plot line require a full replay of the game or will it pick up at the end of the current version?
There isn't any plot line change per se. The update is really aimed at a new playthrough, since we did a lot of balance adjustments and things like the new Alien Tech will only be available for discovery on new playthroughs. But we will do a live update of your save game file, and some things like the new License Level 7, new equipment and new enemy behaviors will update live. Looks like we just moved to In Review, so there is a good shot we'll be live in the next 24hrs. Yay! Here is the update blurb you'll see on iTunes: _____________________ We've been hard at work putting this new update together for our fans, and taking a game you already love and making it EVEN BETTER! First up, eye candy! Using our brand new Mercury Graphics engine, we make our asteroids and ships look INCREDIBLE on the 3GS and 3rd gen iPod Touch. You gotta see it to believe it! Next, more equipment! Unlock the new License Level 7 to get access to elite, ultra-expensive new tech that makes your awesome ship even MORE AWESOME! For the hardcore player, there is now the ultimate Space Miner challenge - UltracORE mode! Can you beat the game with ONLY ONE LIFE on the hardest difficulty? We give you some help though - in the form of five new Alien Tech - all designed to help you survive the rigors of space! We also spent some time re-balancing our difficulty levels and level progression. Expect things to be a little more challenging on your next visit to Gritstone Mining! And now you can spread the word to your friends and followers via our new integration with Facebook and Twitter! Get a new message posted on your wall or feed when you beat the game, telling everyone of your awesome mining exploits! And finally, since we were in there making all these other changes, we decided to give you ten more Plus+ awards to unlock. Can you complete every challenge Space Miner has to offer? Now that is a BIG update! Don't wait, grab it now and re-discover the world of Space Miner once again!
Why do you think there are not drivers? iPhone OS exports openGL ES which is an industry standard API. There has to be something that translates openGL ES calls into stuff that executes on a particular GPU architecture. One thing that I think you guys are confusing is the difference between fill-rate and geometry processing power. Geometry is tied to CPU/GPU speed where as fill-rate is tied to memory bandwidth. A 1.5X improvement to geometry processing (which is usually the most expensive part of 3D0 rendering is huge. The good news is that geometry processing is resolution independent. This means you can put more objects with higher vertex counts in your scene. Now the bad news is 5x the pixels means you need 5x the fill-rate to give the same frame rate unless they boost memory bandwidth. This is not as bad as you think because final painting is still a smaller faction of the rendering pipeline. This probably means you should avoid using fragment shaders on iPad. I haven't seen Vernan's new graphics but my guess is he decided to use fragment shaders and that is why he is getting hammered now. It may be advantageous to moving these effects to the CPU on iPad. So the upshot of this is you have to tune your graphics differently on an iPad.
great stuff! thanks for continueing to put time into the game..I happened to have paied full price for it and think it's well worth it...
