Modding: higher resolution OpenGL games for iPhone 4

Welcome to the first part of the series dedicated to modding, i.e. modifications within iOS. In the first part, we will show how it is possible to easily modify the graphics of some games to the native resolution of the iPhone 4, so that they are "retina ready"

If you have played any of the graphically non-updated games on the iPhone 4, you may have been put off by the "pixelated" image, which does not provide the same gaming experience as games marked HD, i.e. games with high resolution. Unfortunately, many of the games probably won't even get an update, so we, the users, will have to help ourselves. For this we will need the following things:

• Jailbroken iPhone with iOS 4.1
• Filesystem access (OpenSSH for SSH clients or afc2dd for i-FunBox, both from Cydia)
• File Manager – Total Commander with the appropriate plugin, WinSCP whether i-FunBox
• Retinasizer from Cydia

It is the last named application, or rather tweak, that is the creator of that magic with graphics. And what does he actually do? Simply, it forces the OpenGL library to render 3D graphics at the iPhone's native resolution. Retinasizer natively supports these seven games, where no further modifications are required after installation (except PES 2010, see below):

• Sonic 4
• PES 2010 (Konami)
• Zombie Infection (Gameloft)
• ACE Combat (Namco)
• Tiger Woods Golf (EA)
• Sim City Deluxe (EA)
• Street Fighter 4 (Capcom)
• Touch Pets: Cats (ngmoco)
• FAST (SGN)

If you would like to increase the resolution of other games, you need to manually edit the file Retinasizer.plist, which you can find in the directory /Library/MobileSubstrate/DynamicLibraries/. The procedure is as follows:

1. First you need to find out the "Bundle ID" of the specific game. You can find it in the file iTunesMetadata.plist, which is located in the directory User/Applications/[game folder].app/ and, like all other files with this extension, can be opened in Notepad. For better orientation, I recommend using i-FunBox as a file manager, which can hash (app code) to convert directly to the name of the app.
2. Copy the text found in to the clipboard. For Rayman 2, the text looks like this: com.gameloft.Rayman2.
3. Open the file Retinasizer.plist. Several pieces of data are already in round brackets. Add a comma after the last one so it looks like this – "com.ea.pandyinc"- after the comma do it Tab indent 3 times and paste the copied text into the roadways, so now the last item in parentheses looks like this: “com.gameloft.Rayman2”.
4. Save the changes. If you use i-FunBox, you need to copy the Retinasizer.plist to the desktop and overwrite the original one with the changed file.
5. If you did everything right, you should see a significant improvement in graphics after launching the game.

Gallery

iFunBox

i-FunBox environment

plist

This is what the finished modified Retinasizer.plist looks like

ID

The text highlighted in yellow is the "Bundle ID" you are looking for

Of course, this procedure does not work for all games, on the contrary, in many games this change can completely throw off the graphics, the game will be choppy, or the touch control will not work properly. If this happens, don't panic, just delete the text you put in Retinasizer.plist. So you can test which of your games will work 100%. Among the properly functioning games you will find, for example:

• Rayman 2
• galaxy on fire
• Super Monkey Ball 1&2
• Dungeon Hunter
• Castle of Magic
• Rally Master Pro

On ours forum you will find a list of working games including the necessary “Bundle ID” and if you come across a working one yourself, be sure to share it with others in the forum.

Note on PES 2010 – For this great soccer game, which is currently available in the App Store for €0,79, you need to modify the “Bundle ID” in the Retinasizer.plist, specifically from “com.konami.pes2010” to “com.konami-europe. dog2010". After this edit, the graphics change should be reflected. After all, you can best see the difference in the following gallery. On the left is the original resolution, on the right is the "retinized" resolution.

Gallery #2

castle2

castle1

smb1noretina

smb1retina

boostnorethine

boostretina

peshd

We should have graphics, but what to do with the buttons and especially with the blurry icon on the Springboard? Find out in the next episode…

Discussion of the article

[myth]

It's just a pity that it requires a Jailbreak...

[brands]

If it's that simple and any mere mortal with a jailbroken iPhone can do it, I think Apple could have made these game modifications.

[Lukas]

Aren't games marked HD only for iPad by chance...?