WQ 2.7 Mobile Version Update

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loboLoco
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Re: WQ 2.7 Mobile Version Update

Post by loboLoco » Sat May 14, 2016 4:11 pm

We've been making solid progress with the tablet version, and I've got good news and bad news.

We'll start with the bad news. I had always planned to ensure that the game would run on iPad 2 and newer. However, due to a variety of reasons, there's simply no way now to get the game to run on devices with only 512MB of RAM memory. It did before, though barely, but simply doesn't now with the latest version of the game (and with iOS 9, which may be part of the reason as well.) Nor does it run quite well enough on iPad 3. So minimum requirement for iPad will be iPad 4. Anything newer will run it too (except for the original iPad Mini, which is simply a smaller iPad 2) . The latest iPads run it quite nicely -- though unfortunately, none of them can handle the improved terrain graphics in 2.7 Mac/Windows. We're stuck with the old terrains from 2.5.

That's the bad news. What's the good news? We're going to release it for phones as well as tablets. Why? Well, people have been requesting it all along, of course, and we do like to make people happy. But the other reason is that the game actually runs better on phones than tablets, for several reasons:

* Phone screens generally have lower resolutions than tablets, so the same CPU/GPU will run the game faster than on a comparable tablet.
* People generally get a new phone every two years, but hold onto tablets much longer, so people are more likely to have a phone that can run the game better than their tablet will.

We've managed to solve the challenges with the graphical interface on a small phone screen -- though I'd recommend a phone screen at least 4.5" in diameter. (We've got special scaling for 4" screens but it is pretty tight.)

We don't have a release date yet, but I'm pretty sure it'll be in June for iOS. The Android/Kindle release will be as soon thereafter as we can manage.

It will require a separate purchase from the Mac/Windows version (mainly though not entirely due to App Store rules).
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Re: WQ 2.7 Mobile Version Update

Post by Rikkuzilla » Sat May 14, 2016 4:22 pm

Well, any news is better than no news! Very curious to see how the game will play on a phone (although I'm not much into mobile gaming). But I'm so excited (and proud) to see WolfQuest making another big step!
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Re: WQ 2.7 Mobile Version Update

Post by Koa » Sat May 14, 2016 4:38 pm

That's great news about the phones; I never imagined WolfQuest would be avaliable for phones all those years ago, but it looks like everything is moving along. I am sure many members of the WolfQuest community will appreciate the game's new adaptation to phones!

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Re: WQ 2.7 Mobile Version Update

Post by Kamaal » Sat May 14, 2016 4:39 pm

That's quite interesting; to be honest I didn't expect to see that come true. Well done!

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Re: WQ 2.7 Mobile Version Update

Post by Weylenn » Sat May 14, 2016 4:41 pm

Any info regarding the Ipad Pro? It has 4 gigs of ram, plus the fact the screen is bigger. I can imagine it being able to run the improved terrain.

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Re: WQ 2.7 Mobile Version Update

Post by loboLoco » Sat May 14, 2016 5:26 pm

Weylenn wrote:Any info regarding the Ipad Pro? It has 4 gigs of ram, plus the fact the screen is bigger. I can imagine it being able to run the improved terrain.
Actually, the improved terrain uses shaders that iOS simply can't render. It's not just about GPU.
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Re: WQ 2.7 Mobile Version Update

Post by Sambhur » Sat May 14, 2016 7:40 pm

This is exciting news! It's great that people will finally be able to get what they've been asking for (if they have the right phone model hahah).

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Re: WQ 2.7 Mobile Version Update

Post by Weylenn » Sun May 15, 2016 11:03 am

Is it possible to have the updated textures but no shaders that iOS can't render? Placeholder shaders that iOS can handle?

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Re: WQ 2.7 Mobile Version Update

Post by 7KodaWolf7 » Sun May 15, 2016 11:13 am

Awesome stuff! This is great to hear! :) :wolf:

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Re: WQ 2.7 Mobile Version Update

Post by loboLoco » Sun May 15, 2016 11:18 am

Weylenn wrote:Is it possible to have the updated textures but no shaders that iOS can't render? Placeholder shaders that iOS can handle?
It does use the same textures. The magic is in the shaders.
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Re: WQ 2.7 Mobile Version Update

Post by Weylenn » Mon May 16, 2016 1:59 pm

loboLoco wrote:
Weylenn wrote:Is it possible to have the updated textures but no shaders that iOS can't render? Placeholder shaders that iOS can handle?
It does use the same textures. The magic is in the shaders.
Is it possible to use alternate shaders and implement it as a patch later? I saw some iPad games that looked to have nice effects. What stuff are you missing out on? Specular lighting and whatnot?

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Re: WQ 2.7 Mobile Version Update

Post by loboLoco » Mon May 16, 2016 2:21 pm

iOS simply doesn't support the shader model that these fancy terrain shaders require. I wish there was a way around it, but alas. (And even if it could, I doubt it would run smoothly on mobile devices, which are simply not optimized to render large open 3D environments.)
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Re: WQ 2.7 Mobile Version Update

Post by loboLoco » Sat May 28, 2016 9:18 am

Anybody got an iPad 4 and want to beta-test the mobile version? PM if so.

How to identify an iPad 4: Look on the back of it for the model number, which would be one of these for that model:

A1458 | MD510LL/A
A1459 | MD516LL/A
A1460 | MD522LL/A
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Re: WQ 2.7 Mobile Version Update

Post by duskypack » Sat May 28, 2016 9:45 am

loboLoco wrote:Anybody got an iPad 4 and want to beta-test the mobile version? PM if so.

How to identify an iPad 4: Look on the back of it for the model number, which would be one of these for that model:

A1458 | MD510LL/A
A1459 | MD516LL/A
A1460 | MD522LL/A

I was looking at my model number and it's those exact number, but with a 3 (A1458|MD513LL/A). Would that still work? I've wanted to beta-test for a while.

Edit: Yep, it's an iPad 4.

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Re: WQ 2.7 Mobile Version Update

Post by Wolvencall » Mon May 30, 2016 4:39 pm

will the new patch coming out in june be at the same time as the android tablets?

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