iPad 2 sneaks closer to console gaming with 1080p Real Racing 2 HDTV output
Apple's iPad has expanded upon the casual gaming beachhead the company first discovered to be a popular role for its iPod touch. Now, developers are working to deliver titles that combine motion-based play with 1080p HDTV output.
Australian developer Firemint has announced it will be supporting 1080p direct HDTV output from its Real Racing 2 HD title on iPad 2.
Unlike Apple's standard video mirroring mode, which can display any iPad 2 game or other app on a big screen, the new title will provide full resolution output without the black letterboxing bands or need for resolution scaling.
The developer says it's the first iOS app for iPad 2 to take advantage of custom 1080p video output, and can use an external HDTV display to show the main action of the racing game while the iPad 2 itself depicts a map of the racetrack.
Users play using the iPad as a controller, making use of its multitouch screen and motion controls, as iPad 2 now includes both accelerometer and gyroscope sensors.
New HDMI and existing VGA output adapters for iPad enable games to leap from the tablet to an external display for a console-like gaming experience, further entrenching Apple into a market it has long ignored.
This winter, the developer of World of Goo reported that its iPad launch exceeded its previous sales and revenue records for both Nintendo WiiWare and Steam desktop gaming, as well as the indie markets for Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade and Sony's PS3 PlayStation Network, establishing new legitimacy for Apple's iOS as a significant gaming platform.
Australian developer Firemint has announced it will be supporting 1080p direct HDTV output from its Real Racing 2 HD title on iPad 2.
Unlike Apple's standard video mirroring mode, which can display any iPad 2 game or other app on a big screen, the new title will provide full resolution output without the black letterboxing bands or need for resolution scaling.
The developer says it's the first iOS app for iPad 2 to take advantage of custom 1080p video output, and can use an external HDTV display to show the main action of the racing game while the iPad 2 itself depicts a map of the racetrack.
Users play using the iPad as a controller, making use of its multitouch screen and motion controls, as iPad 2 now includes both accelerometer and gyroscope sensors.
New HDMI and existing VGA output adapters for iPad enable games to leap from the tablet to an external display for a console-like gaming experience, further entrenching Apple into a market it has long ignored.
This winter, the developer of World of Goo reported that its iPad launch exceeded its previous sales and revenue records for both Nintendo WiiWare and Steam desktop gaming, as well as the indie markets for Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade and Sony's PS3 PlayStation Network, establishing new legitimacy for Apple's iOS as a significant gaming platform.
Comments
This is pretty cool stuff.
I can't help thinking how ridiculous it looks having that unwieldy HDMI breakout adapter hanging off the side of the iPad. A wifi connection between the iPad and TV would be so much more elegant.
1st place. What did I win?
A swift kick in the pants...
This is nice to see in iOS games... Looking forward for more implements...
1st place. What did I win?
This is pretty cool stuff.
I can't help thinking how ridiculous it looks having that unwieldy HDMI breakout adapter hanging off the side of the iPad. A wifi connection between the iPad and TV would be so much more elegant.
It would be more elegant, but we need to consider the max bit rate and latency that would occur from pushing this content over your home?s WiFi, through a router and into an AppleTV to process. Even over 802.11n I worry about this being an issue.
That said, I think there is plenty of room for incorporating the iOS-based iDevices used in a home with an AppleTV over WiFi and hope that Apple will be surprising us with an AppleTV SDK and App Store this year.
Perhaps it?s still too soon to have an HD racing game with 4 drivers all using their iOS-based iDevices to drive while the main screen is transmitting 4 different section, one for each driver?s car, but thinking smaller, displaying stats of ?a? race and an overhead view of the track on the HDTV would likely allow for 1080p content with only the simplistic data of position on track and stats being relayed to the AppleTV to project in real time.
There are plenty of other games that would be better suited for a ?family? environment and be very simple to make. Scrabble? has already done this with the iPad. You can use a single iPad for the game board and iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads as the 4 tile boards. You flick the letters to the main board and then arrange them. It even remembers what side of the board you are on after you rotate the screen once on your turn. This and many other games seems like it would be trivial to adapt to this model.
And I agree, I think the HDMI adaptor looks rather inelegant for an Apple product. Although, Apple has a penchant for selling all sorts of adaptors for $30-$40.
The iPad 3 no doubt will have an HDMI port.
Best
If Apple gets Air Play to support this then they will have a big gaming win on their hands, wouldn't hurt Apple TV sales either!
Somehow it seems to me to need a steering wheel!
Invent a Leather Band to wrap around the iPad, covering the black bezel... Yep... Fine Leather, that'll get you feeling like your behind the steering wheel of a high performance vehicle!
Apple has the "Smart Cover"... This can be called the "Racing Cover"!
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Unfortunately, WiFi cannot accommodate anywhere near enough bandwidth to transmit a 1080p signal to a separate device. AirPlay works by buffering the file to another device, not by sending the decoded a/v signal to the device. I don't think any wireless protocol is available to the consumer that can accommodate what an HDMI cable can do, but in any case, it would be impossible over AirPlay.
Unless the game plays on AppleTV with a controller client on the iPad, iPod, or iPhone.
It would be more elegant, but we need to consider the max bit rate and latency that would occur from pushing this content over your home?s WiFi, through a router and into an AppleTV to process. Even over 802.11n I worry about this being an issue.
I think Airplay uses ad-hoc networking - essentially a rebrand of Wi-Di like Thunderbolt is to Light Peak, although Thunderbolt is Intel's brand name too - so it basically connects directly from the iPad to the ATV using full 802.11n. Should be low latency, high bandwidth.
There are a couple of examples with the adaptor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qulUJrnriOI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2haG2ZLtwo
Games will need to be modified to go widescreen but this is certainly a very good development.
The iPhone 5 will do this too though and if they can output to an HDTV at 1080p, they could have output to a 10" iPad touch screen too but costs may not make it worthwhile to do it.
Anyway, the iPhone will be better for HDTV gaming due to the form factor and weight. The only immediate concern for both would be battery life when projecting 1080p over wifi continuously. The HDMI cable would be far better in this regard.
Good steps in the right direction though but more developers still need to get their titles on the platform, even older ones. So many big cross-platform titles that can come over.
iPad 2 sneaks closer to console gaming
Um… no. Look, AI. It’s sort of cute when you, Gruber, and other pro-Apple outlets try to claim that Apple is somehow chewing into the console games market, but… the fact is, they aren’t. The iPod Touch (and iPhone to a lesser extent) are certainly excelling at the entry-level, casual games market. After all, for people who just want to play something simple on the subway ride to work or while waiting in line somewhere, why spend $250 on a 3DS? Apple’s done a great job of getting into that market.
But there are very few people out there who are going to spend $500+ on an iPad and $40 on an HDMI adapter when they can get an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 for half that. Just isn’t going to happen. If anything, the iPad will slightly cannibalize the gaming segment of the iPod Touch user base.
I love AI, Daring Fireball, and my Apple products, but Apple-oriented sites really have to rethink how they look at the gaming market. Angry Birds and Real Racing HD are not the ruin of, or even legitimate competition for, Assassin’s Creed, Final Fantasy, Call of Duty, Battlefield, anything named Mario, Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport, or any other long-running console franchise I can list here. Just is not. There’s a huge blind spot among Apple punditry when it comes to gaming.
Unless the game plays on AppleTV with a controller client on the iPad, iPod, or iPhone.
Yes, you are absolutely correct. But while I would hope the next AppleTV could do this, I don't expect Apple will come through; if they did, it would be a serious deviation from their previous precedents. But who knows, the money they are making with App Store games may entice them to go in that direction.
Um… no. Look, AI. It’s sort of cute when you, Gruber, and other pro-Apple outlets try to claim that Apple is somehow chewing into the console games market, but… the fact is, they aren’t. The iPod Touch (and iPhone to a lesser extent) are certainly excelling at the entry-level, casual games market. After all, for people who just want to play something simple on the subway ride to work or while waiting in line somewhere, why spend $250 on a 3DS? Apple’s done a great job of getting into that market.
But there are very few people out there who are going to spend $500+ on an iPad and $40 on an HDMI adapter when they can get an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 for half that. Just isn’t going to happen. If anything, the iPad will slightly cannibalize the gaming segment of the iPod Touch user base.
I love AI, Daring Fireball, and my Apple products, but Apple-oriented sites really have to rethink how they look at the gaming market. Angry Birds and Real Racing HD are not the ruin of, or even legitimate competition for, Assassin’s Creed, Final Fantasy, Call of Duty, Battlefield, anything named Mario, Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport, or any other long-running console franchise I can list here. Just is not. There’s a huge blind spot among Apple punditry when it comes to gaming.
I really am getting tired of the name "casual games." I agree that the iPad is not a good home for something like a FPS or a 3D platformer, but that doesn't mean that an iPad couldn't handle appropriate new and old "core" genres that are better suited to the iPad. For instance, I can easily see something like Total War: Shogun 2 being made for the iPad, and if you think that is a "casual" game, you should tell that to the PC "core" crowd. Also, apart from Apple probably disallowing it, there really isn't a reason a developer couldn't make a game for which a PS3 controller could be connected to an iPad or iPhone.
But there are very few people out there who are going to spend $500+ on an iPad and $40 on an HDMI adapter when they can get an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 for half that. Just isn’t going to happen. If anything, the iPad will slightly cannibalize the gaming segment of the iPod Touch user base.
And then can they carry their XBox around with them as a general purpose computing device? Can they run word processing, sound editing, presentation creation, technical diagraming, data base or photo editing software on it?
The comparison always seems to be between buying a console, exclusively to play games, and buying an iPad, exclusively to play games-- but of course that's never the case. An iPad gives you games plus a great deal more.
So if games are absolutely what you want, then sure, you'll get a console. But it's shortsighted to imagine that their aren't a good number of people who would trade off state of the art game play for really good game play plus mobile computing.
Unless the game plays on AppleTV with a controller client on the iPad, iPod, or iPhone.
yes! but with only 8G of SSD and 256M of RAM plus an older A4 processor chip, ATV 2 may not be able. think of ATV 2 and iPad 1 as a pair, with limited abilities. then think of iPad 2 and an upcoming ATV 3 (with a bigger SSD, 512M RAM and an A5 chip) as a pair with much more powerful abilities. including what you suggest. dynamite! this fall i bet.
[edit] and oh, i forgot the third shoe. what about Game Center? if it works with this two-screen setup ...
The comparison always seems to be between buying a console, exclusively to play games, and buying an iPad, excessively to play games-- but of course that's never the case. An iPad gives you games plus a great deal more.
No one’s arguing that the Xbox 360 or PS3 can do as much or more than an iPad.
The contention in the AI article is that the iPad is beginning to infringe upon the territory of console gaming. It is not.
Um? no. Look, AI. It?s sort of cute when you, Gruber, and other pro-Apple outlets try to claim that Apple is somehow chewing into the console games market, but? the fact is, they aren?t. The iPod Touch (and iPhone to a lesser extent) are certainly excelling at the entry-level, casual games market. After all, for people who just want to play something simple on the subway ride to work or while waiting in line somewhere, why spend $250 on a 3DS? Apple?s done a great job of getting into that market.
But there are very few people out there who are going to spend $500+ on an iPad and $40 on an HDMI adapter when they can get an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 for half that. Just isn?t going to happen. If anything, the iPad will slightly cannibalize the gaming segment of the iPod Touch user base.
I love AI, Daring Fireball, and my Apple products, but Apple-oriented sites really have to rethink how they look at the gaming market. Angry Birds and Real Racing HD are not the ruin of, or even legitimate competition for, Assassin?s Creed, Final Fantasy, Call of Duty, Battlefield, anything named Mario, Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport, or any other long-running console franchise I can list here. Just is not. There?s a huge blind spot among Apple punditry when it comes to gaming.
well dude, you are right that the hard core gamers who are addicted to the XBox or PS3 will not switch to iPad gaming in large numbers.
but then there is the other 95% of digital consumers that might go for it instead. we may not count in your eyes, but we sure do at the cash register.
No one?s arguing that the Xbox 360 or PS3 can do as much or more than an iPad.
The contention in the AI article is that the iPad is beginning to infringe upon the territory of console gaming. It is not.
How do you know that? Is it really inconceivable that people have purchased a console because there wasn't anything else even approaching that for use on a TV, but given the choice between a dedicated console and an iPad they might choose the iPad as their gaming device, once those games hit a certain threshold of sophistication?
How do you know that? Is it really inconceivable that people have purchased a console because there wasn't anything else even approaching that for use on a TV, but given the choice between a dedicated console and an iPad they might choose the iPad as their gaming device, once those games hit a certain threshold of sophistication?
And we do have evidence to support that the most powerful gaming systems are the most commonly bought or used. There is the Nintendo Wii far outselling those other more powerful consoles. There is also the PS2 still being a popular choice long after newer, more powerful consoles hit the market.
PS: I’ve come to hate the term “casual gamer” because it seems to only be used by those who smugly consider themselves better than others that plays games on electronic devices, and has this odd air of their gaming inclinations being professional in nature. The point of gaming, of any kind, is to entertain not to measure one’s dick and self esteem by how many gigaflops or gigafucks or whatever are needed to play the game. Let the game designers pat themselves on the back for that, not the damn players who forked over $50 for the game.