As others have mentioned, it is missing the ripple effect on the water. Odd as I can't imagine the iPad couldn't do something similar.
really? Even the ipad version is missing the ripple effect? I LOVE Riven, I would die to beable to play it on the go, it would be my dream game on IOS. But I only have an itouch 5th and the iphone version is really watered down. Though the Iphone 4S and 5 are more than powerful enough to handle Riven aswell. It's really too bad there are too many lazy ports. If they ever update the iphone version to near perfect, I would buy it instantly. Until then I have to play it tethered to my computer with my download from gog.
The iPad is way more powerful than the average desktop computer at the time when Riven was released. My guess is that the missing water ripple effect is a budget issue, as someone would probably have to spend time creating masks outlining every image featuring water. The iPad could easily handle the runtime water animation, that's for sure.
I know I am incredibly late to this thread, but I will just share my opinion about the game here. I throughly enjoyed RealMyst. I loved the idea of enhanced graphics and the fluid and smooth free movement involve in a beautiful 3D land. However, after being obsessed with it, I have mixed feelings about Riven For IPad. Now, I knew, from the reviews, that there was no 3D movement involved and the graphics werent changed. I thought it wouldnt bother me personally as I played a ton of point and click game with no 3D environment. I paid the high premium price of $5.99 and was so excited to fire it up. I was enjoying it at first, but later on after making progress, I really dont know how long I will stick with it. The graphics are at a terribly low resolution, and the animations are incredibly jerky. I ended up skipping most of them because I was uncomfortable watching clunky low res animations like that. Other than, the navigation was also confusing. You could swipe photos from left to right, but sometimes I didnt know where exactly I was going. So these sum up my complaints. I still have it on my 2017 iPad because it keeps calling me back sometimes despite these complaints. I think I will stick with it for a little longer despite these complaints, but I think they will bother me for a while at least.