iOS 7

[dTb]

Looks like no thread have been started yet about iOS 7 changes, so let's do it !

 

A guy already made extensive tests, the public part of the results is here :

http://www.mobilexweb.com/blog/ios7-beta-safari-html5

 

And the biggest part is still under NDA so we cannot talk publicly about it, but you can still read if you have a dev account :

https://devforums.apple.com/thread/193183

 

I hope this NDA will end some time before the public release 

[rich]

Most of those tests don't relate to games sadly. From what I've seen so far in my own testing iOS7 is going to really screw up html5 games for us.

[mentuat]

Eeek

Do you mean it will screw up existing games in some way? Or screw up future games because html5 performance has been affected?

[rich]

Yes it screws up existing games. It's not performance, that doesn't seem to have changed much, but you can no longer go 'full screen', the usual hack doesn't work and they've removed the full screen button as well. So games now look super tiny and shitty as a result. All of them.

[benny!]

Hmmm ... somehow I fear Apple (ie. Safari) could become the second Microsoft (ie. IE6,7,8) when it comes to HTML5 progress.

[Gio]

Indeed, they will inevitably try to protect their business model... if anyone could make amazing html5 apps that work in the browser, Apple won't make any money through app store sales. So I expect it to get even worse in the short term.

 

The question is when they'll give in, with Android and now Windows Phone getting more and more of their market share.

[rich]

I hear that theory a lot (that they hold back the web to allow apps to prosper). Here is why I don't think it holds up:

 

1) It wouldn't matter one bit if web games ran at the same speed as native, as there is still no easy and seamless way to monetise them. Flash games online prove this, very few actually make money directly via sales and even fewer make money via IAPs outside of established social networks. Most make money via ads.

 

2) They have done more than any other company to advance the speed of canvas rendering on mobile. Google are only JUST catching up. Apple have blazed the trail for years.

 

3) They introduced decent audio support first as well. Web Audio in iOS6 resolved the vast majority of audio issues that have plagued mobile since day 1. Android again, still playing catch-up here.

 

4) You can't play web games offline. That's a massive issue for a lot of mobile gamers.

 

5) There is no discovery model (i.e. App Store). You have to know where to browse. Apple is all about making it easy for customers to find great new content, this doesn't happen on the web.

 

They could enable WebGL and open up true native rendering/fullscreen tomorrow and it wouldn't make one jot of difference to app store sales. Think how many millions of apps are downloaded per week, the sort of things that are possible in them now - you can't match this in the web regardless of rendering speed imho.

 

I don't believe for a second this change has anything to do with html5 games, it has everything to do with the new philosophy of iOS7. It's just frustrating it rubs the wrong way for games, but I've raised it on their forums with their staff, so am curious to await their response.

[Gio]

It may very well be, I obviously have no proof and don't want to get into the argument of who's helping html5 on mobile the most - I think in some way they all are, even Microsoft.

 

I have to say I'm still not convinced by your points above though.

 

Points 1 and 5 are a bit like chicken and egg - there is no discovery model for web games, and there are no standard ways of doing IAP's on the mobile web, that's true. But if mobile web apps ran as fast as native apps, maybe there would be some major portal, that people trust, to manage IAP's and purchases? You know, something like Steam. Of course, until there's a Steam-like portal for the mobile web, this won't happen. And until there are lots of quality web apps, a Steam-like portal won't exist either (why would people go there if the Apple App Store offers better apps).

 

Web Audio is very cool, but still a webkit-only thing at the moment. You know what would have been way more useful: allowing people to load and play audio on iOS like they do on Chrome and Firefox. It's quite straightforward, and it's irritating that it isn't possible.

 

You can also play web games offline - with some limitations, especially for the cache size, but still... if we had lots of quality bigger games, the cache size limits may increase?

 

But the one thing that makes me quite suspicious, is that Apple never allowed any other browser implementations on iOS. If they didn't care about the potential of, say, Chrome porting their web store to iOS, well... they would.

 

Then again, this is, of course, all speculation. I would also like to know what they tell you, so please post here when they do!

 

All in all, trying to make html5 games work on Apple devices is a frustrating experience. But, to be fair, it's frustrating in different ways on all the other platforms as well, except desktop browsers (and Firefox, which is just great ).

[sbat]

rich - but judging from the screenshots bottom "status bar" is gone? Some articles even position that as "only mode available now is fullscreen"  http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/06/20/inside-ios-7-safari-gains-portrait-fullscreen-unified-search-bar-visual-tabs. 

 

Maybe if game is made bit less tall, but cover entire width, it is not that bad? 

 

I don't have a device to test though, my iPod at my home office is not compatible with 7.0. Only other idea I have now is to force user to swipe up (and cause scroll) with some clever UI layout. ;-) Like swipe to start the game.

 

Also, is "homescreen web apps" affected by the change? Or they are still fullscreen?