We have done some informal testing of BGEE on iOS 7, and it seems to be working without an issue. There may be a slight increase in load/save times, but other than that we've observed no other problems.
That being said, with our efforts focused on getting the open beta ready, we have not done any formal QA of BGEE on iOS 7. Since you cannot revert to iOS 6 after upgrading, you may want to hold off on upgrading until we've done further testing.
They're what? Around a month back from a multi-month hiatus from this thing due to legal issues. Did you, perhaps, expect that the entire team was doing business as usual during the legal issues despite all the posts telling you they had to stop work?
You can see in my profile I'm a beta tester so nothing I say here will be taken at face value. Lets try this.
Everyone involved from the devs to the beta testers to the translators to anyone else volunteering is doing the best they can to get this to you. I don't know how many times you can be told this and still not believe it. Try this: Go through a few threads here and count the number of blue posts...then ask yourself when you saw a development and forum staff this engaged with the client community.
We all care. This particular game (and it's sister: BG2) were some of the most formative pieces of software to the vast majority of us on this forum that we've EVER played. Find a modding community for any other game that's lasted almost 20 years and still going strong. These two pieces of software are potentially the single most important computer games EVER produced for CRPG gaming, and the number of people who have played, followed and almost worshiped these games since their initial introduction is pretty huge. There are VERY FEW people on these forums that in some way shape form or fashion do not care about this software...and I can tell you from PERSONAL experience that all of the developers, testers and forum managers I deal with on an almost daily basis are some of the single most committed people to this game you would ever find.
This isn't angry birds or where's my water @Teischus. There's some real code involved here and with real code comes real bugs.
There are a significant number more beta testers now than there were at launch...and with more testers comes more bug reports that the developers have to sort through and work with. You do not stop a software development effort flat and then expect it to be up on it's feet 10 seconds after it's restarted.
Please be assured, there is real effort and real care being put into this software. That you don't have a patch in your hands means that the patch isn't ready to be put into your hands. This isn't some evil corporate plot to steal your money, your first born child, or run over your dog with a lawn mower, try applying occam's razor to this and realizing that it's likely because it's just not ready yet.
That's not due to anyone's incompetence, stupidity, incapability or uncaringness. It's due to the fact that there is simply A LOT of work. Rome wasn't built in a day...nor was Baldur's Gate. Be patient please.
Haha. nice speach, Illydth. Thats the reason after all: "real code with real bugs"... wow!
But anyway, I'm with Teischus... This patch - especially with full German support as originally proclaimed - will never ever arrive on my iPad. I am pretty sure with this. Anbody want to make a bet? :-)
@PoeserPube being a beta tester I'll have to refuse the bet... you know... unfair advantage on my side
On a more serious note the problem of other languages right now is that adding them makes BG bigger than the App Store 2gb limit, text alone makes BG around 2.2gb, let's not even count audio. A solution for this problem is being studied.
And before anyone asks, further detail can't be provided right now.
The filesize for the textfiles is maybe 1-2mb, with jb u can simply put your language in game and it works! I can wait for translated voices, but why dont you add just the damn textfiles? Dont get it.. And translation is finished almost 6 months ago
@PoeserPube being a beta tester I'll have to refuse the bet... you know... unfair advantage on my side
On a more serious note the problem of other languages right now is that adding them makes BG bigger than the App Store 2gb limit, text alone makes BG around 2.2gb, let's not even count audio. A solution for this problem is being studied.
And before anyone asks, further detail can't be provided right now.
A suggestion: Would it not be possible to make the language into languagepacks downloaded separately? Like add-ons/ free dlc?
Is the 2gb app store limit for apps while on app store or a size limit for apps on the pad?
Currently, in app purchases for BGEE and most apps works by enabling or disabling content which is already downloaded. It is theoretically possible to have in-app downloadable content, but we would have to implement the downloader as part of the app, and set up the server infrastructure to spport it (or pay Apple for the space). Our priority is currently to get the BG:EE update finished and to get BGII:EE ready to go.
I'm going to bring this conversation back to iOS7 instead of "When is the patch!"
I've gone ahead and downloaded it on my iPad and am doing some testing. So far so good. I have a set of saves to go through the major transition points and hope to be able to post good news on that sometime this weekend.
As it sits, it LOOKS like iOS7 is fully functional with BG:EE (note I said iOS7 is functional with BG:EE, not the other way around...we all know the reason to own an iPad is BG:EE! )
I'll ensure the major quest stuff works as intended and post back as soon as I know.
Currently, in app purchases for BGEE and most apps works by enabling or disabling content which is already downloaded. It is theoretically possible to have in-app downloadable content, but we would have to implement the downloader as part of the app, and set up the server infrastructure to spport it (or pay Apple for the space). Our priority is currently to get the BG:EE update finished and to get BGII:EE ready to go.
Some games (for example Broken sword 1 and 2) use iTunes feature for add documents to apps...
Has anyone been running this in the new iOS7? How was the experience? I still haven't downloaded the new OS, i will probably do it this weekend, but i wanted to know first if the iaps remained available (as there were problems reinstalling bgee and loosing the iap).
Some games (for example Broken sword 1 and 2) use iTunes feature for add documents to apps...
As long as BeamDog doesn't charge anything for the additional data, they could even host the language packs in any format and on any server so that anyone can download them; then the BG:EE app could act as handler just to open (i.e. install) them. The 2-GB limit is for the app itself, but there's no limit about how much data it can store.
@Cerevant, let me know if I should expand on this idea
@alnair I have not doubt that it can be done, but right now it would be a significant new feature that I don't think fits with our current priorities of getting the patch & BGII:EE out.
I'm not committing to anything at this point, but there are a number of tablet enhancements being considered for future updates.
I have iOS 7 on my iPad mini and can report that all is fine with baldurs gate. My painting app,(procreate)however now crashes and deletes my paintings and photo edits:( iOS 7 it's self, I do not care for. Some features are good, like control center, but there was nothing wrong with the way the app icons looked before. I can't zoom out my wallpaper anymore, and iTunes Radio isn't all that I had hoped for. It's also rather laggy. That is saying a lot for me, I am quite the apple purist. I still think an iPhone is better than any other samsung or android product, despite this.
@Cerevant All right, and good to know about the enhancements (even though I don't own any tablet).
Just to clarify, however, what I was suggesting is a simpler alternative to downloadable in-app content, which as you said isn't feasible right now.
The only modification required in the app would be having it register as handler for .tlk and whatever extension the voiceover files have, then just copy them in the right position when they're opened. Pretty simple stuff, actually, assuming the app has at least a loader portion relying on CocoaTouch (as opposed to being completely lower-level C++, I mean).
Edit: I'm quite sure the App Delegate (which is where all the new code would be) is pretty much not optional.
@alnair Understood, but it is still a feature, and those of us on the QA side are trying very hard to remind those on the Dev side that we are in a feature freeze
Just wanted to update the thread on iOS7 and BG:EE.
I ran my usual "New Release" test which is a transition test from Chapters 1 -> 7. The point of this is not to test all of the content but to test that the game can progress form chapter to chapter without crashing/experiencing problems. Anything else is skippable, these transition points are critical path.
I can verify that on my iPad3 I've managed to properly transition from chapter 1 -> chapter 7 without interruption.
I'd call the game as playable as it was on iOS6. We're all, obviously, still waiting on the rendering update that will make spells and such usable again. I can say that iOS7 is no SLOWER than on iOS6 (Stinking Cloud trap in Durlag's definitely slows the game down to a crawl, but no worse than it did on the prior OS).
@PoeserPube being a beta tester I'll have to refuse the bet... you know... unfair advantage on my side
Seems as If I have won my bet... Still no German Support with patch 1.2 and after about a 150month wait... So, what will be my reward? Some money back, maybe?
Seems as If I have won my bet... Still no German Support with patch 1.2 and after about a 150month wait... So, what will be my reward? Some money back, maybe?
Actually, I think you may have lost your bet. When you first bought BGEE, the money you put down was a gamble that German support was coming shortly. If the support had come, you would have won and the money would have turned into a working (for you) copy of BGEE. Since the support hasn't come, you've lost your stakes.
Of course I am hoping that your bet will pay off and the German language support will come, but I think I can understand that you don't wish to gamble any further.
Comments
That being said, with our efforts focused on getting the open beta ready, we have not done any formal QA of BGEE on iOS 7. Since you cannot revert to iOS 6 after upgrading, you may want to hold off on upgrading until we've done further testing.
They're what? Around a month back from a multi-month hiatus from this thing due to legal issues. Did you, perhaps, expect that the entire team was doing business as usual during the legal issues despite all the posts telling you they had to stop work?
You can see in my profile I'm a beta tester so nothing I say here will be taken at face value. Lets try this.
Everyone involved from the devs to the beta testers to the translators to anyone else volunteering is doing the best they can to get this to you. I don't know how many times you can be told this and still not believe it. Try this: Go through a few threads here and count the number of blue posts...then ask yourself when you saw a development and forum staff this engaged with the client community.
We all care. This particular game (and it's sister: BG2) were some of the most formative pieces of software to the vast majority of us on this forum that we've EVER played. Find a modding community for any other game that's lasted almost 20 years and still going strong. These two pieces of software are potentially the single most important computer games EVER produced for CRPG gaming, and the number of people who have played, followed and almost worshiped these games since their initial introduction is pretty huge. There are VERY FEW people on these forums that in some way shape form or fashion do not care about this software...and I can tell you from PERSONAL experience that all of the developers, testers and forum managers I deal with on an almost daily basis are some of the single most committed people to this game you would ever find.
This isn't angry birds or where's my water @Teischus. There's some real code involved here and with real code comes real bugs.
There are a significant number more beta testers now than there were at launch...and with more testers comes more bug reports that the developers have to sort through and work with. You do not stop a software development effort flat and then expect it to be up on it's feet 10 seconds after it's restarted.
Please be assured, there is real effort and real care being put into this software. That you don't have a patch in your hands means that the patch isn't ready to be put into your hands. This isn't some evil corporate plot to steal your money, your first born child, or run over your dog with a lawn mower, try applying occam's razor to this and realizing that it's likely because it's just not ready yet.
That's not due to anyone's incompetence, stupidity, incapability or uncaringness. It's due to the fact that there is simply A LOT of work. Rome wasn't built in a day...nor was Baldur's Gate. Be patient please.
Thats the reason after all: "real code with real bugs"... wow!
But anyway, I'm with Teischus... This patch - especially with full German support as originally proclaimed - will never ever arrive on my iPad. I am pretty sure with this. Anbody want to make a bet? :-)
On a more serious note the problem of other languages right now is that adding them makes BG bigger than the App Store 2gb limit, text alone makes BG around 2.2gb, let's not even count audio. A solution for this problem is being studied.
And before anyone asks, further detail can't be provided right now.
A suggestion: Would it not be possible to make the language into languagepacks downloaded separately? Like add-ons/ free dlc?
Is the 2gb app store limit for apps while on app store or a size limit for apps on the pad?
I've gone ahead and downloaded it on my iPad and am doing some testing. So far so good. I have a set of saves to go through the major transition points and hope to be able to post good news on that sometime this weekend.
As it sits, it LOOKS like iOS7 is fully functional with BG:EE (note I said iOS7 is functional with BG:EE, not the other way around...we all know the reason to own an iPad is BG:EE!
I'll ensure the major quest stuff works as intended and post back as soon as I know.
http://www.revolution.co.uk/support/bs1dc/
(Yes.... I'm annoyed for the delay of patch and language files...)
@Cerevant, let me know if I should expand on this idea
I'm not committing to anything at this point, but there are a number of tablet enhancements being considered for future updates.
iOS 7 it's self, I do not care for. Some features are good, like control center, but there was nothing wrong with the way the app icons looked before. I can't zoom out my wallpaper anymore, and iTunes Radio isn't all that I had hoped for. It's also rather laggy. That is saying a lot for me, I am quite the apple purist. I still think an iPhone is better than any other samsung or android product, despite this.
Just to clarify, however, what I was suggesting is a simpler alternative to downloadable in-app content, which as you said isn't feasible right now.
The only modification required in the app would be having it register as handler for .tlk and whatever extension the voiceover files have, then just copy them in the right position when they're opened. Pretty simple stuff, actually
, assuming the app has at least a loader portion relying on CocoaTouch (as opposed to being completely lower-level C++, I mean).Edit: I'm quite sure the App Delegate (which is where all the new code would be) is pretty much not optional.
I ran my usual "New Release" test which is a transition test from Chapters 1 -> 7. The point of this is not to test all of the content but to test that the game can progress form chapter to chapter without crashing/experiencing problems. Anything else is skippable, these transition points are critical path.
I can verify that on my iPad3 I've managed to properly transition from chapter 1 -> chapter 7 without interruption.
I'd call the game as playable as it was on iOS6. We're all, obviously, still waiting on the rendering update that will make spells and such usable again. I can say that iOS7 is no SLOWER than on iOS6 (Stinking Cloud trap in Durlag's definitely slows the game down to a crawl, but no worse than it did on the prior OS).
YMMV.
Of course I am hoping that your bet will pay off and the German language support will come, but I think I can understand that you don't wish to gamble any further.