•iPhone Unity and me•

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by WellSpentYouth, Sep 24, 2009.

  1. WellSpentYouth

    WellSpentYouth Well-Known Member

    Jan 11, 2009
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    #1 WellSpentYouth, Sep 24, 2009
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2009
    I have downloaded the Unity demo and I am experimenting with the engine. With help from a friend (Arkanigon here at TA), I have grown to like Unity 3D! I have a few questions though...


    1. If I wanted to make a decent 3D game with Unity (for iPhone and iPod® Touch, and ability to test on my device along the way), what, where (I know on Unity3D.com, but I don't want to buy the wrong thing. Would Unity Indie ($199.99) and Unity iPhone Indie ($399.99) be good? What do you use?), and how much will it be?


    2. Is it possible to import 3D models from AutoCad/Inventor into Unity?


    3. With the correct Unity 3D software, is it easy to publish your games on iTunes? Does it give you the .app file that you can compress and submit as the binary?


    4. Does Unity 3D for iPhone make it fairly simple to use control, say a ball rolling on a flat plane, left and right with the accelerometer (think Super Monkey Ball)?


    Thank you very much!
     
  2. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5 Well-Known Member

    #2 Eric5h5, Sep 24, 2009
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2009
    Sure.

    Unity Pro and Unity iPhone Advanced, which is $3000 total. However, that's just because I can. ;) Actually, I had already been using Unity Pro for quite some time, before the iPhone was around, and they had a sale on Unity iPhone Advanced, which saved me a couple hundred $ or so. Aside from not having the Unity splash screen, I don't think Realmaze3D would be noticeably different with Unity iPhone Basic. You can always upgrade later if you want. (If you're fortunate enough to end up on the top 10 list and start making > $100,000/year, you will have to upgrade as mentioned in the licensing, but I doubt you'll mind....)

    As long as you can get the models in .obj or .fbx format, you can load them into Unity. Keep in mind that CAD models tend to be horrifically bad for real-time 3D, especially on something so limited like the iPhone. It's highly likely you'd be better off using 3D apps intended for game usage, with models made specifically for the iPhone.

    Yes; Unity creates a project that is compiled in Xcode, so what you end up with is no different from any other app.

    Yes, that would be pretty trivial because of the built-in physics engine.

    --Eric
     
  3. WellSpentYouth

    WellSpentYouth Well-Known Member

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    I would like to have my own splash screen, but not $2,400.00 like :p

    Ok, the reason I want to use Cad models is because my dad is a good Cad modeller and he would love to help with my games. I can stick with circles, squares, and other basic shapes though. RealMaze 3D is a wonderful game and it doesn't really have any shapes besides flat walls (the ladders are an exception).


    Great! That helps because I know Xcode pretty well. If they had an iPhone Unity demo I would have known that ;)

    I don't see what physics has to do with the motion sensor, but I love the physics engine! It has really been FAB-U-LOUS!!!

    Thank you so much Eric!
     
  4. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5 Well-Known Member

    #4 Eric5h5, Sep 24, 2009
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2009
    You can still have your own; it's just that the Unity one has to be first.

    It's not the shapes that are the problem, it's the number of polygons. A circle could end up being made of thousands of polygons, whereas ideally you'd want it to be maybe a dozen or so. CAD models typically end up with zillions of polygons to get nicely smooth shapes, which looks good as images but which would perform badly on the iPhone.

    And the bits and bobs on the walls. :) Each wall section is 2 polygons. The lighting would have been better with 4 polygons, but mostly it's not really noticeable the way it is, and the fewer polygons the better. Each level of the maze (wall/floor/ceiling) is a single fairly complex object, constructed on the fly, generally a few hundred polygons depending on the size.

    They do have a demo of Unity iPhone...as the web site says, write to them and request one. ;) The reason it's not freely downloadable like Unity is because you need to be a registered iPhone developer first.

    The physics isn't about the motion sensor, it's about rolling the ball. Have a few lines of code to tilt a surface based on the accelerometer, and the physics engine would take care of rolling the ball around.

    --Eric
     
  5. MikeSz_spokko

    MikeSz_spokko Well-Known Member

    May 27, 2009
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    o, gonna post my question here, hope the thread's author doesn't mind ;)

    what's the deal with the SVN and Unity incompatibility ? I've read on wiki that the way the Unity stores its files (in a binary format) is tough on SVN. for example - branches don't work properly. is this a real problem worth spending nearly 3000$ on ? or you can easily work without it ?
     
  6. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5 Well-Known Member

    There's a Unity asset server as a separate product. I don't use that; I work alone and none of my projects have been complex enough to need anything along those lines. In any case, I believe there's been mention of having increased compatibility with other source control packages in the future.

    --Eric
     
  7. WellSpentYouth

    WellSpentYouth Well-Known Member

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    My pleasure ;)

    Sweet!

    So the frame rate would be really low and other things of that nature?

    I sent them an email.

    Yes, I have already run into the physics engine, it gave me a BIG (is giving) helping hand :)
     
  8. WellSpentYouth

    WellSpentYouth Well-Known Member

    Jan 11, 2009
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    I just found out that you have to have Unity Pro and Unity iPhone Pro in order to have a reasonably sized game. Otherwise, you have to hand pick out the assets that you aren't using!!
     
  9. MikeSz_spokko

    MikeSz_spokko Well-Known Member

    May 27, 2009
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    could you please elaborate ? we will be building a project using Unity soon and would really love to know more about it
     
  10. WellSpentYouth

    WellSpentYouth Well-Known Member

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    Basically, in Unity Indie, all of the assets that come with Unity that aren't being used aren't taken off, thus, the size of a blank project is 20mb.

    In Unity Pro, it deletes all of the assets that aren't being used, then the size of a blank project would be closer to 0mb like it should be. You can manually delete the Standard Assets (or assets), but that would take awhile plus you might delete the wrong thing...

    I hope this helps explain it better!
     
  11. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5 Well-Known Member

    Unfortunately that's completely wrong. ;) Unity never includes any unused assets from your projects, regardless of using Indie or Pro.

    What Pro has, that Indie doesn't have, is build stripping. If enabled, this strips out parts of the engine that you aren't using. Note that if you're using lots of stuff, this feature won't reduce the size much. In any case it has nothing to do with Standard Assets or any other assets.

    --Eric
     
  12. WellSpentYouth

    WellSpentYouth Well-Known Member

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    I am just quoting what the Unity people said. In an email, they said Pro has build stripping (like you said) which strips it of all of un-needed "assets". You may be right, all I know is what the sales women said in the email.
     
  13. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5 Well-Known Member

    I'm definitely right (at least in this case). :) Sounds like the salesperson was being overly general in the use of language; look in the docs under "optimizing iPhone player size".

    --Eric
     
  14. MikeSz_spokko

    MikeSz_spokko Well-Known Member

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    #14 MikeSz_spokko, Sep 27, 2009
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2009
    ok, another question:

    there is that 30 day free Unity trial, can download anytime, and it gives you "System Requirements for Unity iPhone Authoring"

    so I would understand that iPhone authoring is part of that trial

    however, just on the other side of the webpage it says:
    "If you would like to evaluate Unity Pro or Unity iPhone Publishing, or if you have any licensing questions, then please feel free to contact us at [email protected]."

    what's the thing here ?
    can I develop a game using Authoring ? is it included in the trial ? I do understand that to actually publish a game I need to buy a license, but are the iPhone development tools part of the free trial or not ???

    ---

    EDIT - to the posts above:
    "Improved Build Size Stripping
    Selectively include or exclude certain components of the Unity engine to optimize both your content build size and memory footprint at run-time. Not using physics? Then exclude that part of our engine at build-time to reduce your content's file size as well as avoid unnecessary overhead while your content is being played."
    so not assets/content but packages
     
  15. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5 Well-Known Member

    #15 Eric5h5, Sep 27, 2009
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2009
    "Authoring" isn't the name of a product, "authoring" is a word that describes what you do. ;)

    Unity: 30-day trial freely downloadable by anyone
    Unity iPhone: 30-day trial available upon request; must be a registered iPhone developer

    Edit: I should say that the only difference whatsoever between the trial and the "real thing" is your license code, or lack thereof. The apps themselves are, in fact, the real thing, and buying Unity doesn't involve downloading anything extra, because you already have the program. Without a valid license code, it stops working after 30 days, that's all; everything else is the same.

    --Eric
     
  16. MikeSz_spokko

    MikeSz_spokko Well-Known Member

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    cool, thanks for the clarification. I have already sent an email to Unity asking about Unity iPhone evaluation, hoping to get an answer soon
     
  17. WellSpentYouth

    WellSpentYouth Well-Known Member

    Jan 11, 2009
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    I believe you, I am sure the Unity people are very busy :)
     
  18. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5 Well-Known Member

    #18 Eric5h5, Oct 29, 2009
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2009
    Just a head's-up that Unity Indie is now free. That makes Unity iPhone Basic $400 instead of $600.

    --Eric
     
  19. WellSpentYouth

    WellSpentYouth Well-Known Member

    Jan 11, 2009
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    Yes, I just got the email a few hours ago. I paid the $600, so they are going to give me the $200 back.

    Thanks Eric!
     
  20. yarri

    yarri Well-Known Member

    Hi, I don't mean to hijack this thread but I assume you're mostly indie developers so what's the appeal of Unity over open source / shareware like SIO2 or Oolong and Blender? The Unity screenshots look awesome & portability is cool but if you're only targetting iPhone, what's the advantage?

    --yarri
     

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