Contents
- Introduction
- The Approach
- Two Key Principles
- Scale Modes
- Scaling on iOS
- Scaling on Android
- FAQ
Introduction
Every year, many new mobile devices get introduced with flagship devices from Apple, Google and Samsung getting refreshed annually. With each new generation comes different screen sizes to support. How do you make your app look good on each device in a consistent and satisfactory way?
The Approach
To make a game fit each device's screen, we need to do two things:
-
Resize the game to fill/fit each device's screen. This is what our Scale Modes do.
- Use higher resolution graphics on higher resolution screens. The original iPhone sported a 480 x 320 resolution. Today's flagships are up to 1920 x 1080 or even higher. Higher-resolution graphics are necessary to keep a game looking crisp.
Two Key Principles
Design the game at 1x (Standard) resolution.
Regardless of what the game is targeted towards, you'll be designing your game at a standard (1x) resolution. This means that, if your game was designed to be a 480 x 320 game (to fit the original iPhone), the game size is 480 x 320. The scaling happens automatically at runtime depending on the device used to play the game, so for example, it would run at 1x scale on the original iPhone, at 2x scale on an iPhone 4 and at 4x scale on an iPad Air.
Draw and import your graphics at 4x resolution.
In contrast, you'll want to draw your graphics as large as you can. If your base resolution is 480 x 320, then quadruple that is 1920 x 1280, which will accomodate recent iPads and Android flagships.
Note: When you import your graphics (at 4x - the default), Stencyl will automatically generate a set of 1x, 1.5, 2x, 3x graphics to use on lower-resolution devices.
Scale Modes - What to do with the extra space?
In a perfect world, every device would be an exact multiple of the base resolution (480 x 320). Unfortunately, this isn't the case because each device's aspect ratio is different. This means that after using high-res graphics to scale a game up to 2x or 4x, some extra space can remain.
Under Settings > Mobile > Display is a Scale Mode dropdown for both iOS and Android. This dropdown controls how the extra space is handled.
Demo
No Scaling (Letterboxing)
After selecting the multiple to draw at, this mode will will not perform any resizing. The unused space is left blank.
Full Screen
After selecting the multiple to draw at, this mode will display the game "as is" without any further scaling. Anchors to the top-left. This will cause more of the game to be shown on certain device and less on others.
Stretch to Fit
Stretches the game to fill the entire screen. If the aspect ratio of the screen and game differ, this will slightly distort the image.
Scale to Fit (Letterbox)
Stretches the game until the larger game dimension fits the screen, while preserving the game's aspect ratio. Because of this, a small portion of the screen will remain blank.
Scale to Fit (Fill)
Stretches the game until the smaller game dimension fits the screen, while preserving the game's aspect ratio. Because of this, a small portion of the game will be chopped off.
Scale to Fit (Full Screen) <-- RECOMMENDED FOR MOST GAMES
Acts just like Letterbox, except that the extra portions of the screen are displayed. This will cause more of the game to be shown on certain device and less on others. (Added in Stencyl 3.1. Isn't part of the demo above.)
Scaling on iOS
The following table lists what scales each iOS device will run at.
iPhone
| Device | Screen Resolution | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone Original/3G/3GS | 480 x 320 | 1x |
| iPhone 4/4S | 960 x 640 | 2x |
| iPhone 5/5S/5C | 1136 x 640 | 2x |
| iPhone 6/6S | 1334 x 750 | 2x |
| iPhone 6/6S Plus | 1920 x 1080 | 3x |
iPod
| Device | Screen Resolution | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| iPod Touch 2/3 | 480 x 320 | 1x |
| iPod Touch 4 | 960 x 640 | 2x |
| iPod Touch 5/6 | 1136 x 640 | 2x |
iPad
| Device | Screen Resolution | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| iPad 1/2 | 1024 x 768 | 2x |
| iPad Mini | 1024 x 768 | 2x |
| iPad 3/4 iPad Air 1/2 |
2048 x 1536 | 4x |
| iPad Mini 2/3/4 | 2048 x 1536 | 4x |
| iPad Pro | 2732 x 2048 | 4x |
Scaling on Android
The following table lists what scales common Android devices will run at. Instead of covering everything, we've picked out devices that are representative of that class and tried to hit all the major screen resolutions.
| Device | Screen Resolution | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| First-Gen Devices | 480 x 320 | 1x |
| Nexus S | 800 x 480 | 1.5x |
| Moto E | 960 x 540 | 1.5x |
| Nexus 7 (2012) | 1280 x 800 | 2x |
| Moto G | 1280 x 720 | 2x |
| Moto X (2014) | 1920 x 1080 | 3x |
| Nexus 6 | 2560 x 1440 | 4x |
FAQ
Do I absolutely have to design my graphics at 4x?
You can import at a lower scale such as 1x or 2x (you can tell Stencyl what scale you are importing at, at the time that you import), and Stencyl will generate the hi-res variants. This is useful for retro games.
What does the Phone-Only mode do?
It forces the game to max out at 2x resolution, even on tablets and smartphones where a higher resolution could be used. With most device resolutions trending well past the 2x point now, we think this isn't all that useful and may remove it in the future.
What does Tablet-Only mode do?
Tablet-only mode is useful for tablet-only games. You still must import your graphics at 4x, but we’ll omit the inapplicable (1x) sets from the app at publication time to save you a little bit of space.
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I think you should update the demo. It does not work on my browser anymore (flash is deprecated).
0
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-1
Hi Jon,
Thank you for the updates on this article.
I have a question: Are the images of Ghost Song representative of scale to fit "letterbox" and "fullscreen"? if I understand the explanation of "letterbox", then the character indicators up left of the game screen shouldn't be chopped.
1
Just to make sure I'm understanding this correctly:
1. I need to import all of my graphics and backgrounds at 4x, or at their high resolution, for HD display
and
2. AFTER the import, I need to design at 1x?
Does this mean, I still make a room size 480x320?
What if I'm not making a game for a mobile device, but only for PC and TV?
3
I'm curious how to export a SWF flash file for uploading to sites like newgrounds in a smaller scale. When you play it in a browser the default output is my ipad size, and i have to right click on the flash player and select "show all" to shrink it down to the embeded player size.
1
Could you guys update this thread please ?
A lot of people are interested that now the new iphone sizes are out !
Thanks
1
I have a similar question to Jezus101.
We've used a StencylForge Tile set which is 32x32, and we've imported graphics at 4x.
Each of our scenes is set to 15X10 tiles, or 480x320 landscape.
Informed by your notes above:
1) "Design at 1x (Standard) resolution. Regardless of what the game is targeted towards, you'll be designing your game at a standard resolution, most commonly at 480 x 320"
2) "Draw and import your graphics at 4x resolution"
We're trying to design a game that can scale to either iPhone or iPad (and maybe in future to Android mobile devices, but for now we're just trying iOS).
We're able to get a build onto an iPad, but regardless of what Mobile screen scaling we apply, it always sizes to about the size of an iPhone.
Do we need to build the game at 4x instead ?? - meaning either:
a) 1,920 x 1,280, with 15tiles * 10 tiles of 128 x 128 ?? Which would mean we'd need either an entirely different Tile set, or to resize them to 128 x 128? or...
b) 1,920 x 1,280 with 60 tiles * 40 tiles of 32 x32, and basically, like a "retina" display, make 4 of our 32X32 tiles for what we would have designed as 1 tile in 480x320?
Or try something else?? Building it at 4x seems inconsistent with your recommendation to design for 480x320...
Please help clarify... Thanks so much. I've got a 3rd, 4th, and 5th grader who've built a game as a summer project, and they can't wait to get it scaled and show their friends... Thanks again.
3
Or if you import graphics at 4x but change setting to 2x will this improve frame rate or once there in the at 4x thats it? I'm trying to get the frame rate up with out having to reimport hundreds of graphics.
0
