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HiDPI Retina Images in Mountain Lion, Already Functional in OS X Lion

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ArsTechnica reports on the discovery of Retina-sized artwork in OS X Mountain Lion's.

A source with access to the latest Mountain Lion preview alerted Ars that double-sized graphics have popped up in some unexpected places, once again suggesting that Apple may be close to releasing MacBooks with high pixel-density screens.

We'd previously spotted these same Retina-sized graphics in the Lion beta of Apple's new Messages application.

As well, we've found in our testing that Apple's HiDPI mode in Lion is already fully functional and will use the Retina assets appropriately. These screens show the Lion Messages app running in HiDPI mode.

hidpib
HiDPI mode on OS X 10.7. Left: Retina enabled, Right: Non-Retina

The left image shows that Lion with HiDPI mode enabled uses the full resolution Retina artwork from the Messages app to improve the pixel sharpness of the images. When the Retina assets are selectively removed from the app (right), you can see it fall back to the normal non-Retina images bundled.

Users will be able to test this themselves to full effect when Air Display is updated to support Mac HiDPI mode on the new iPad. Apple's Messages Beta for Lion is one of the few Mac applications that are already Retina-enabled to a large degree. Some elements, such as font rendering will automatically scale upwards as it does on the iPad.

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Top Rated Comments

arn Avatar
arn
189 months ago
How's that news? The Ars Lion review already had a section about Lions HiDPI mode.
all kinda old news, but you have a Mac retina app (Messages) to play with.

arn
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
QuarterSwede Avatar
QuarterSwede
189 months ago
This is like one of those spot the difference competitions. Is there supposed to be a visible difference between the two images? If there is I can't see it lol.

‘Bout time we had some lovin for the Mac. Roll on retina Macs - just as long as they’re not so glossy I have to squint to see the image like I do now in certain lighting.
It's the silhouette that's sharp on the left and pixelated on the right.

This one shows the difference much more clearly. From another MR article (https://www.macrumors.com/2012/03/21/air-display-to-let-you-use-the-new-ipad-as-a-hidpi-retina-display-for-your-mac/).

MacRumors content image
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
K
Kludge420
189 months ago
The good news is when Apple puts the beautiful hires displays in the iMac and MacBook Pros they will finally have to put a decent video card into them by default.

The bad news is Apple will once again put in just enough horse power to drive the new display but we won't see any real improvement for gaming. Just like the iPad 3rd gen.

Of course when you're looking at a 27 inch Retina display you'll be too busy drooling for much of that to matter.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
N
neilpryde23
189 months ago
Retina display would be awesome but I really want IPS display!!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gugy Avatar
gugy
189 months ago
PLEASE!!!!:D
Larger than 30" ACD with matte screen. Come on Apple, 27" is too small. :eek:
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S
slapple
189 months ago
But is the Mac OS X any closer to having resolution independence?

I want to stop running my 1680x1050 15" MBP in the slightly blurry non-native 1440x852 resolution. (I do that because all the text at 1680x1050 looks too small.)
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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