What happens on Retina?

General JUCE discussion
1

I am programming a stand-alone OSX application. But I do not have a Retina Mac, just a normal Mac.

So I am wondering: what happens if someone with a Retina display runs my JUCE application? Is it going to be very small? Or is it going to get scaled up automatically?

I am using the OpenGL renderer, in case that matters.

2

You can debug retina using 'Quartz debug',  a tool supplied by Apple.

From Xcode

  • Choose Xcode >> Open Developer Tools >> More Developer Tools
  • Sign in to developer.apple.com.
  • You should then see the Downloads for Apple Developers.
  • Download the 'Graphics Tools for Xcode' (this contains Quarts Debug amongst other things)
  • Open the '.dmg' disk image
  • Drag Quartz Debug.app into /Applications/Utilities (it can also be run directly from the disk image)
  • Open Quartz Debug.app
  • Choose Window >> UI Resolution
  • Tick 'Enable HiDPI' display modes
  • Log out and back in again
  • Open System Preferences
  • Choose Displays
  • For each monitor you want to debug in retina, choose Resolution: Scaled
  • Select the option labeled '(HiDPI)'

You will now find your screen acts as thou it is a retina screen (warning you won't fit much on it given that everything will be signitcantly larger as it uses real pixels)

To be honest you shouldn't find you have to do too much, the size of the window and the pixel you draw to will still be the same size and resolution as far as you're concerned, but if you have images you may like to switch to alternative 2x resolution images.

3

Hello Anthony,

thanks for the detailed description. Did not know, such a tool existed. Unfortunately it does not work for me. No HiDPI modes available after log out/log in and also the Tick box "Enable HiDPI" automatically gets deselected after login.

I am guessing, my Mac might be too old (Late 2008 13'' MacBook).