macnn/ipodnn
11/24/2008, 10:25am, EST
Monday, November 24th
Second-gen iPod touch critically faster than first
The second-generation iPod touch is substantially faster than the first, to the point of affecting app design, a game developer notes. Handheld Games observes that in writing TouchSports Tennis, it was forced to reduce polygonal detail on players to 800 in zoomed-out views, and 1,000 in close-ups. This is because the first-gen Touch "chokes" when displaying the constant 1,500 polygons possible for each player with the second-gen model, says Handheld CEO Thomas Fessler.
The main processor on the second-gen Touch is said to be have been boosted from 412MHz to 532MHz, which additionally improves loading times. This also makes the player Apple's fastest handheld, as all others are limited to the 412MHz level. It is thought though that CPU speed is not the only factor contributing to performance, as the iPhone 3G rates faster than the original iPhone, which is in turn faster than the first-gen Touch. This could be related to graphics processing tweaks, but Apple has not published detailed specifications.
Filed under: iPod, gaming
Other story tags: iPod touch
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Too fast? Idiot.
A game developer complaining about hardware being too fast just demonstrates that he doesn't know his trade.
He's not complaining...
Fessler is not complaining about the hardware being too fast, just that his company had to change things so the games would play equally well on both iPod touches:"Our first step to increase fps performance was to introduce hardware dependent levels of detail. Where we can easily display two 1500 polygon tennis players with 32 bones each on the iPod touch 2G and maintain fast and fluid game play, the original iPod touch just chokes, and in some instances so do the iPhones. To speed up the touch, we reduced the players to 800 polygons in farther away moments of gameplay, and are now using 1000 polygon models for close ups, bringing the original iPod touch game play performance level close to that of the iPhone 3G. We’ve taken this approach across the board with great results."
Who's the real idiot here
Wow, an anonymous guest quick to accuse that an actual pro game developer doesn't know his trade....
Real classy, noob.
CPU Levels
"all others are limited to the 412MHz level"
Correct if I'm wrong, but aren't the CPUs in the iPhones and iPods 600MHz throttled down to 412MHz? The originals were 400MHz and then bumped up to 412MHz after the 1.1 OS update.
Sorry
double post...
haha
Love how people are COMPLAINING about faster hardware. The only issue here is Apple should have let devs know so they could test it on both.