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My iPad 1 Experiences

XtopherXtopher Member Posts: 9
in iPad (Archive)
I'll preface this by being fair and saying that the iTunes store does officially list the app for iPad 2 / OS 5.1 and above. But it does run on an iPad 1. Kind of. I have to force-quit every other app before BG will launch. It will run great for about 10 to 15 minutes, then crash. It almost always crashes when playing a cinematic. There are also lots of little fiddly bugs, like sometimes clicks don't register, characters start walking in a random direction on game load, etc.

I'm surprised it was approved by Apple at all, and I would strongly suggest anyone thinking of trying it on the iPad 1 to skip it and play on another platform (when available!). The engine must be pretty clunky. I know the iPad 1 is limited on resources, but considering an iPad 1 can run high-end audio applications and lots of other games with much higher graphic quality, I'm surprised that the small amount going on in BG at any given time causes such a resource load.

YMMV

Comments

  • XtopherXtopher Member Posts: 9
    Actually, let me modify the above statement... it crashes "every" time when playing the cinematic when trying to get to the Arms in, which makes the primary mission completely broken and blocked.
  • CerevantCerevant Member Posts: 2,314
    Have you rebooted your iPad before playing?
  • ScooterScooter Member Posts: 182
    Do a reboot before you play every time and quick save very often. This is what I've been doing and haven't encountered any bugs that make it annoying, crashes happen occasionally but due to the fast save and load times its not a a big deal to me, I'm really enjoying it :)
  • BytebrainBytebrain Member Posts: 602
    There's a lot going on in BG at any given time. Graphics aren't the only thing stressing a processor.
    BG:EE simply needs more memory than the iPad 1 can provide.
    Even on an iPad 3 it's advisable to force quit any other open application.

    As advices above, reboot before playing BG:EE on iPad 1.
  • mimohmimoh Member Posts: 1
    there has already been a lot of discussion on this, so you should have been warned that Ipad 1 is not fully stable. I have been waiting for the game since day 1 of the announce, and I only have an Ipad 1, so you can immagine how disapointed I was when I saw that Ipad 1 was not playable when releases.

    With the new update, I was really excited to be able to download it, and I am NOT disapointed.
    The game sure crashes a lot (more or less every 15 minutes, when changing zone or playing a cinematic, ...), but the quick save and the really small loading time makes it not so annoying. The game runs pretty smoothly so far (still waiting for big fights with lots of effects).

    I fully understand that someone downloading the game on Ipad 1 without knowing that it is not fully compatible would be really pissed, but if you are aware of Ipad 1 limitation on BG1, then I don't see the point in beeing disapointed.
  • XtopherXtopher Member Posts: 9
    >there has already been a lot of discussion on this, so you should have been warned that Ipad 1 is not fully stable.

    Yeah, wasn't complaining as if it was new. I was sharing my experiences for anyone else who may be considering running this app on an iPad 1. For me, crashing every 15 minutes is pretty bad. I don't expect I'll be able to play the game much longer.

    >There's a lot going on in BG at any given time.

    Not really. The older engine architecture is the source of the overhead, not the actual active tasks. The one demanding task that the iPad 1 just isn't up to is rendering multiple transparencies/sprites at once, and you don't get away from that without a complete re-write of the rendering engine and probably several supporting systems. There are many apps that do far more at once and run very smoothly on the iPad 1. That being said, completely re-architecting an existing software app that's filled with data is not an easy task, and I don't fault the developers for that. But at the end of the day, I still wouldn't recommend anyone actually try to play this game on the iPad 1. Anyone other than die-hard fans will have a very crappy experience.
  • DeeDee Member Posts: 10,447


    Not really. The older engine architecture is the source of the overhead, not the actual active tasks. The one demanding task that the iPad 1 just isn't up to is rendering multiple transparencies/sprites at once, and you don't get away from that without a complete re-write of the rendering engine and probably several supporting systems. There are many apps that do far more at once and run very smoothly on the iPad 1. That being said, completely re-architecting an existing software app that's filled with data is not an easy task, and I don't fault the developers for that. But at the end of the day, I still wouldn't recommend anyone actually try to play this game on the iPad 1. Anyone other than die-hard fans will have a very crappy experience.
    Oddly enough, this is precisely what we're doing at the moment. ;)
  • peraltarhperaltarh Member Posts: 1
    I have an Ipad 1 with iOS 5.1.1 and when I tried to install it it failed saying that the it required a newer iOS. Checking on forums I found that the first version required iOS6. (BG 1.0.2)

    Can the new version (1.0.3) be intaled on an iPAD 1 with iOS 5.1.1 (9B206)??
  • PlanescapePlanescape Member Posts: 1
    I installed the last version on my ipad1 yesterday. No Crash until now.
  • CerevantCerevant Member Posts: 2,314
    To repeat the company line - it works, but memory is tight. The game will crash when it runs out of memory, and there isn't much that can be done about it. Reboot before you play, and save often.
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