Synthesia Bricked on 10.5" iPad Pro

Trouble with Synthesia, your keyboard, or adapter? Think you found a bug?
When describing problems, always mention your OS and game version (shown at the bottom of the title screen).

If your keyboard has USB or MIDI ports, there is a tremendously high chance (>99%) it will work with Synthesia. See what you'll need on the keyboards page.
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alexsmbaratti
Posts: 5

Post by alexsmbaratti »

I have the newly released 10.5" iPad Pro and I have found that Synthesia is not optimized at all for it. By not optimized, I mean the entire screen is shifted and the buttons do not respond where they are placed. It would seem that the buttons are shifted, but their "hit boxes" are shifted somewhere else. My guess is that everything had static pixel values on it, so with the screen change, everything went crazy. I should note that the aspect ratio is still 4:3 on the 10.5" model. Please fix this. I use this app so much and it's a shame to see that it is useless on my new iPad.
Spoiler:
Screenshot from the 10.5" iPad Pro. Note how the top blue bar is completely cut off and song recitals is half cut off.
Screenshot from the 10.5" iPad Pro. Note how the top blue bar is completely cut off and song recitals is half cut off.
IMG_0011.PNG (578.5 KiB) Viewed 8516 times
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

How frustrating! This is nearly the same symptom that occurred when the first iPad Pro was released. We released an update a few days later to fix that problem. Strange that their new hardware has caused something similar again. (For what it's worth: the positions aren't statically defined. We just ask the system for the size of the display and it seems to keep giving back weirder and weirder answers.)

We'll get it fixed. And soon. Sorry!
alexsmbaratti
Posts: 5

Post by alexsmbaratti »

Thank you very much for the speedy reply. I'm very glad to know that the app is well-supported to this day. Best of luck fixing the issue. :D
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Sure enough: apparently intentionally broken by Apple.
Stack Overflow wrote:... apps that set UIRequiresFullScreen in the Info.plist will run at 1024x768pt on the 10.5". [...] I suspect this may be a deliberate backward compatibility feature because nobody's app is expecting the new size. Build with Xcode 9 and you opt in.
So the solution is to get the beta version of their development tools and simply recompile the exact same code to get the correct behavior. They were trying to be helpful by not letting old apps "see" the new/unusual resolution unexpectedly.

... but only if the device is running iOS 11, which hasn't been released yet.

... and you can't submit apps to the store using beta versions of Apple's tools.

So we're stuck with the other alternatives:
- Pretend the app can be used in any orientation and in split-screen mode (when that will look just as bad as the current problem).
- Completely eschew all those beautiful new pixels and just fix the current rendering problem so the "backwards compatible", scaled-up view actually shows up correctly.

Yuck.

I just spent one of our two direct, code-level, technical support requests that Apple gives its developers each year (first one we've ever used!) to ask if there are any better alternatives. Once we hear an answer -- and now that I've got a 10.5" Pro sitting in front of me -- it should only be a day or two before the update goes live. (Apple's review time has come way down over the last year, so it's fast now!)
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Hmm, we just heard back from Apple and the answer was what I had expected: there isn't a good answer.

Now, with the first public beta of iOS 11 that was released yesterday and Apple's messaging about iOS 11's release date changing from "the fall" to "this summer", things are starting to get tricky. We could probably scrape together a "fix" that used the scaling (so everything is an inch larger). Or, if iOS 11 is really coming so soon, we could just wait it out, recompile with the new Xcode, and submit an update when it hits.

That solution feels less hacky, it prevents an extra non-update from cropping up in the App Store for all of Synthesia's other users, and it requires zero development time. I'm kind of leaning that way.
alexsmbaratti
Posts: 5

Post by alexsmbaratti »

Hmm... That doesn't sound like Apple, releasing a major update in the summer. If that is the case, then I suppose I would be willing to wait that out.
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

I was hopeful for a minute that the iOS 10.3.3 Beta 5 that was just released today might also contain the fix... but after trying it (with both versions of Xcode), it does not. That would have been much sooner than iOS 11.
antonix
Posts: 1

Post by antonix »

Hi there, I got the same problem. Upgraded to iPad Pro 10.5 and can't use Synthesia anymore. Do you guys have a plan to fix it or should exchange my iPad for the old one while I still can. What is the ETA for fix?
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Right now we're waiting for Apple to fix their combined Xcode/iOS bug that only affects the 10.5" model. That fix is in the version of Xcode that will be released the same day as iOS 11. So the ETA is 1-2 days after iOS 11 is released.

The rumor mill is predicting iOS 11 will be released in about a month or so. (That does still feel a ways out. I'm still on the fence about possibly cobbling together a workaround in the interim to poorly scale the app as best as Apple's bug will allow us.)
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Ah ha! Someone found a trick to get it working with Apple's current tools. (Which technically means the answer we got back from Apple was incorrect. :lol: )

I'm going to test this internally and if it does solve the problem, we can push an update in the next day or so.
alexsmbaratti
Posts: 5

Post by alexsmbaratti »

Wow! That's awesome! Sorry to hear you're working on a holiday. Thanks for keeping us updated!
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Their workaround works!

Synthesia 10.3.2 submitted to the App Store. If everything goes smoothly, there should be an update in ~2 days (after Apple's review process is complete).
alexsmbaratti
Posts: 5

Post by alexsmbaratti »

Update is up! Thank you so much for your replies and support! Best of luck with future development! :D

(Also, while I'm at it, thanks for adding the FNAF and Undertale songs to Synthesia. Awesome touch.)
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Yeah, that was a very fast Apple review! Their average is ~36 hours right now, but it only took about 18.

I usually try not to pester users for reviews, but if you are satisfied, the time just after a new update is posted is an especially sensitive one for an app's rating. :D
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