realMyst for iPad

Jamie Marchant · **Posted:** Sun Jun 17, 2012 3:26 pm

WOW! Great review seems like the loading screens are annoying. The load times would be better on a PC and the controls would be better as well.

lzoetje · **Posted:** Mon Jun 18, 2012 1:29 am

Robin wrote:

I can't say that I agree that the controls are completely "counter intuitive", but having to block the screen view when traveling isn't optimal.

A pair of invisible "thumb sliders" at the lower left and right sides of the screen would serve better for forward, back, and turns, and then make use of the angle sensing feature to adjust your view up and down. Just a thought, but then, part of my work involves designing human-machine interfaces... :wink:

It sounds like that would work well, it works fairly well with games like LostWinds.

On the other hand I am getting a message on my iPad2 wifi that i cannot buy it it needs a camera to play? yet it states that it is compatible ...anyone?

markringo · **Joined:** Fri Apr 09, 2010 3:29 am **Posts:** 21

yeah i bought it immediately when i saw it on app store.
enhanced graphics! with pixel shadder effect on water.... :lol:

Robin · **Posted:** Mon Jun 18, 2012 4:06 am

OK, I have it on my "new" iPad, and my original thoughts on the subject of the interface stand. The interface is not bad, but takes a little getting used to, that's all.

I still think the "dual slider" control method would perhaps be a better option for getting around though. (Sort of like the two-lever steering control found on many of today's zero-turn lawn mowers.) One objection posted to this seems to be referring to fixed-location controls on the sides of the screen. That's not how I would do it. The control zero-points would start where ever you put your thumbs down next to the edge, and wouldn't be at all visible unless you turned that ON as an option. Control "gain" for the amount of movement required would also be adjustable. Ergonomically, this method makes more sense to me for rapid travel or moving around obstacles. The current touch and slide interface is still good for fine control or changing your view up and down.

Something might be done with the tilt-sensing ability of the iPad, but so far, the applications I've tried that use it leave something to be desired. One "star chart" application in particular needs better signal filtering as you change angles, and perhaps some other adjustment capability, but it's fun to play with.

P.S. I'm wondering if it might be possible to improve the "loading lag" if you could "pre-load" in the background any place that would require it when you get within a certain range. While this would be possible on most any regular computer these days, I'm not sure the iPad has enough memory or the multi-tasking capability required. Still, it might be worth looking into, if it hasn't been already.

vidkid7 · **Posted:** Wed Jun 20, 2012 7:41 pm

Hm... I was looking forward to picking this up along with an iPad later this year or early next, but after watching some videos, I guess I'll just stick to the PC version and hope someone can hack the better textures and shaders onto that one. The random blips of loading are pretty embarrassing, the framerate is disappointing for a game originally released over ten years ago, and the odd changes in place (what's up with the new elevator in the library?) all add up to a rather awkward looking experience.

Oh well, maybe it'll get fixed with a patch or two.

Horatio · **Posted:** Mon Aug 13, 2012 9:15 pm

Just wanted to say that I downloaded and played this in July 2012 on the iPad 2, prior to the latest patch update. It worked pretty darned well, in my opinion, and the only complaints I had were the low-res book images and text, and the short delays throughout the game with the preloads in various parts of the ages.

I downloaded the patch this weekend, and love the higher-resolution text/image fixes. The preload delays are still part of the experience, but overall it's quite fun to play on the iPad, to me.

Hopefully, they can improve other aspects down the road, but in the meantime, I highly recommend the purchase!

Jamie Marchant · **Posted:** Tue Aug 14, 2012 2:05 pm

Nice to see a positive review of the game.

Rudolfson · **Posted:** Tue Nov 20, 2012 5:34 pm

RealMYST for ipad is better than the original realMYST.

Now I want input from a player of realMYST that started out with realMYST without having played MYST. Does such a player exist?

Jamie Marchant · **Posted:** Tue Nov 20, 2012 6:22 pm

Quote:

RealMYST for ipad is better than the original realMYST.

What do you think makes it better?

Rudolfson · **Posted:** Tue Nov 20, 2012 9:17 pm

Jamie Marchant wrote:

Quote:

RealMYST for ipad is better than the original realMYST.

What do you think makes it better?

For me!
It plays better. The original had more and pretttier effects like turbulent sky, and day cycle on MYST. I liked to stand and watch that. But moving around was very confusing. I know I would never have had the patience to play it had it been a first experience. As I knew my way exactly I went searching for the Rime clues 'til I had them all. I very much liked stoneship with all the beautiful effects there. But playing the actual game... I could not have done it, had I already not done it, so to speak.
Now with the touch screen interface I feel I'm in total control. I can walk about without getting confused.
That was really what my prior question was about. I seriously doubt that anyone bought realMYST for PC or Mac and managed to play it had they not allready played MYST. I hope I'm wrong but that is my impression of the games playability.
Now the ipad version plays better than MYST (for me) so that is grand. The prettier effects I can only miss because I've seen them

So now you know why it definitely is a better game for me.

btw Chogon forgot to update the list of ios game releases with realMYST. I came across it a few weeks ago on app store while looking for something else.

edit: to add to what Robin says. As you see I like the control and prefer it over the two thumb control and similar as there is no action involved in the game ( I think this is important to consider.) I had to "invert Look" to get it intuitive, but then it was a breeze. The tap/hold to start moving. And the tap/turn to stay in position and look around just was in my fingers. So intuitive I never even realized that i did it until asked here why I think it is good! So I use "Turn While moving" and "Invert Look". But I just came across a problem. I tried the rotation simulation on mechanical. Whimsical behaviour to say the least.

Jamie Marchant · **Posted:** Tue Nov 20, 2012 10:17 pm

Thanks for the explanation. So when do we get an Android port

.

veralun · **Posted:** Thu Feb 21, 2013 1:48 pm

Cyan updated and cleaned up realMyst for iPad

They also have updated Myst for iPhone & iPod touch

matthornb · **Posted:** Tue Jul 16, 2013 6:56 pm

Nice. Given that Unity 3d is a really cross-platform piece of middleware, it'd make sense to release this variant of RealMyst on other systems, including Android, PC, and Mac OS X.

I think the Amazon app store would be a good place to release for Android as that place already has had a track record for this sort of game - look at "The Room" and its success, that's another first-person point-and-click adventure that is in detailed realtime 3d, it (like RealMyst) has a substantial filesize and the Amazon app store allows that -and I'm pretty sure the current Kindle Fire has enough RAM (1 GB) and storage capacity (10+ GB) to handle installing and running RealMyst.

Google Play had a 50MB limit for a long time but now has allowed for expansions of up to 4GB (in other words, the core app itself can only be 50MB but it can download additional data of up to 4 GB while installing) so you could maybe make things work there too with a bit of effort.

I know that Android users traditionally are more hesitant to buy paid apps than iOS users so if some of the known statistics posted by developers are a good indication, you can likely expect an Android RealMyst to make about 10-40% as many sales as the iOS version. Not sure if that'd be worth it to Cyan Worlds, you'll have to crunch the numbers for yourselves I guess.

realMyst for iPad

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