Here are the few steps how to do that ?
I didn’t want to introduce an asset catalog.
Adding the following to info.plist worked for me. (I edited it as a “source code”.) I then named the images Default-667h@2x.png and Default-736h@3x.png
<key>UILaunchImages</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>UILaunchImageMinimumOSVersion</key>
<string>8.0</string>
<key>UILaunchImageName</key>
<string>Default-667h</string>
<key>UILaunchImageOrientation</key>
<string>Portrait</string>
<key>UILaunchImageSize</key>
<string>{375, 667}</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>UILaunchImageMinimumOSVersion</key>
<string>8.0</string>
<key>UILaunchImageName</key>
<string>Default-736h</string>
<key>UILaunchImageOrientation</key>
<string>Portrait</string>
<key>UILaunchImageSize</key>
<string>{414, 736}</string>
</dict>
</array>
Apple’s website claims that the resolution is 1080p: 1920 x 1080
However, the launch screen required by Xcode (6.0.1) is 2208 x 1242.
The iPhone 6 Plus renders internally using @3x assets at a virtual resolution of 2208×1242 (with 736×414points), then samples that down for display. The same as using a scaled resolution on a Retina MacBook — it lets them hit an integral multiple for pixel assets while still having e.g. 12pt text look the same size on the screen.
So, yes, the launch screens need to be that size.
The maths:
The 6, the 5s, the 5, the 4s and the 4 are all 326 pixels per inch, and use @2x assets to stick to the approximately 160 points per inch of all previous devices.
The 6 Plus is 401 pixels per inch. So it’d hypothetically need roughly @2.46x assets. Instead Apple uses @3x assets and scales the complete output down to about 84% of its natural size.
In practice Apple has decided to go with more like 87%, turning the 1080 into 1242. No doubt that was to find something as close as possible to 84% that still produced integral sizes in both directions — 1242/1080 = 2208/1920 exactly, whereas if you’d turned the 1080 into, say, 1286, you’d somehow need to render 2286.22 pixels vertically to scale well.
When the App is built for the new phones the resolutions available are: Retina HD 5.5 (iPhone 6 Plus) 1242 x 2208 and Retina HD 4.7 (iPhone 6) 750 x 1334. This is causing the confusion above. To build Apps that utilize the full screen size of the new phones add LaunchImages in the sizes: 1242 x 2208, 2208 x 1242 and 750 x 1334.
Size for iPhone 6 Plus with @3x scaling (Apple name: Retina HD 5.5), Coordinate space: 414 x 736 points and 1242 x 2208 pixels, 401 ppi, screen physical size is 2.7 x 4.8 in or 68 x 122 mm
Screen bounds: {{0, 0}, {414, 736}}, Screen resolution: <UIScreen: 0x7f97fad330b0; bounds = {{0, 0}, {414, 736}}; mode = <UIScreenMode: 0x7f97fae1ce00; size = 1242.000000 x 2208.000000>>, scale: 3.000000, nativeScale: 3.000000
Size for iPhone 6 with @2x scaling (Apple name: Retina HD 4.7), Coordinate space: 375 x 667 points and750 x 1334 pixels, 326 ppi, screen physical size is 2.3 x 4.1 in or 58 x 104 mm
Screen bounds: {{0, 0}, {375, 667}}, Screen resolution: <UIScreen: 0x7fa01b5182d0; bounds = {{0, 0}, {375, 667}}; mode = <UIScreenMode: 0x7fa01b711760; size = 750.000000 x 1334.000000>>, scale: 2.000000, nativeScale: 2.000000
And iPhone 5 for comparison is 640 x 1136, iPhone 4 640 x 960.
Here is the code I used to check this out:
UIScreen *mainScreen = [UIScreen mainScreen];
NSLog(@”Screen bounds: %@, Screen resolution: %@, scale: %f, nativeScale: %f”,
NSStringFromCGRect(mainScreen.bounds), mainScreen.coordinateSpace, mainScreen.scale, mainScreen.nativeScale);
It explains the differences between old iPhones, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. You can see comparison of screen sizes in points, rendered pixels and physical pixels. You will also find answer to your question there:
iPhone 6 Plus – with Retina display HD. Scaling factor is 3 and the image is afterwards downscaled from rendered 2208 × 1242 pixels to 1920 × 1080 pixels.
The downscaling ratio is 1920 / 2208 = 1080 / 1242 = 20 / 23. That means every 23 pixels from the original render have to be mapped to 20 physical pixels. In other words the image is scaled down to approximately 87% of its original size.
Use this demo images if you want.
iDipakSonara 