hey everybody i would like to no the best and easiest software to create an app for the iphone/ipod touch. I am an developer for computer games that i make in my free time and i want to start on ipods now. Thanks
Learn ObjC or C++ if you really mean to develop games. It's not about learning a software, it's about learning a language. On the other hand, I hear Unity has some high level tools that allow you to throw content into an engine and press a button to get it running on the device.
Objective C is the language most iPhone games are programmed in, while Xcode is the environment you develop with. Objective C is the cereal, while Xcode is the bowl and the spoon.
If games are your interest, definitely look into Unity (unity3d.com). I'm getting back to Unity soon myself (I first tried it several versions ago and it was great) and I can't wait to get back into it. There's a free trial, although not (I don't think) of the iPhone support. But you can try the tools and the engine without paying.
I love Unity and what it does for the Mac/PC. But it's a huge resource hog on the iPhone. So you'll have to design around it if you want anything that runs at a reasonable rate.
Good to know. It performs fast with high detail on desktop platforms. (Also, Unity on iPhone is new--and will only get better I expect.)
really i didn't know that ok well thanks a lot for that i think i'm just gonna have to go with your advice and design my app around it...
unity seems fine to me.. the 7k poly limit is kind of the iphone norm it seems. but obviously if you make your own engine specifically for what you are doing itll run better.. but only if you really know what you are doing.
I think it's more about designing for the iPhone, keeping in mind that it's not a desktop computer, and being familiar with the tool so you can get the best out of it. The strength of Unity is that you don't have to endlessly fiddle around with low-level stuff in order to write games, but on the other hand that means you're working in the dark to some extent as far as knowing how to optimize, until you've had some experience in knowing what's going on behind the scenes. Personally I'd recommend working with Unity for a while before attempting to make an iPhone game with it. And optimization is more important on the iPhone since the hardware is a lot more limited compared to the desktop, where you can write lousy code and it will still run OK in many cases. Also with the Advanced version you can strip out the stuff you don't need (not using physics?--then get rid of those libraries). So overall I think the iPhone version of Unity demands more skill and knowledge -- as opposed to the desktop, where you can drop from 120 to 60 fps and most people won't notice, going from 20 to 10 fps on the iPhone will kill your game. Anyway version 1.0.1 just came out and they have 20% off until the end of the month, so now's the time.... --Eric
20%--works for me So I'm wondering what Hippieman was saying about Unity as a resource hog. Did you mean: a) It hogs significantly more resources than other iPhone 3D engines do. (Like Torque?) Or, b) It hogs more resources on iPhone than it does on Mac/Windows/Wii? Problem b seems obvious--but problem a would be good information to be aware of, if true (though I'm still sold on the Unity engine for its productivity, regardless).
I've never really worked with unity yet so I'm gonna try the demo version and fiddle around with it a little bit and see what i can do. Im sure i'll love it, i've heard a lot of good things about it.
ya i just went to their website a couple minutes ago and i watched the video demo for the iphone unity and it looked surprisingly easy, but then again things aren't always as easy as they look lol.
Unity is by no means a resource hog. I haven't pushed the engine to its limits yet but I imagine that it can run with the best of them. Obviously, you need to code smart to get it to perform well. The iPhone isn't a desktop and simple things like eliminating loops when you can really makes a difference. One thing I appreciated was that UT documented many of the iPhone's short comings. It's not typical of the technology provider to give you a bit heads up on the hardware shortcomings and suggest code optimizations. There's a whole section of Unity documentation on optimizing physics for the iPhone, it's great.
c) What I mean is it has a lot of overhead. It's doing stuff you don't need, because it does a lot. That overhead can become very expensive. If you were to invest the time to write your own engine, it would most likely come out faster than Unity in performance. But it would take much longer to make. So it's all about what your game is and what it needs to do. Unity is a great prototyping platform, and on the desktop it's top notch. But iPhone games need to be very specific instead of generalized. So if you game isn't complex, you can probably burn lots of cycles without a performance hit and use Unity. But if you are planning on maxing the hardware out, the extra layer Unity brings could be the difference between 20 and 30 frames a second. Don't get me wrong, I a total supporter of Unity and OTEE. But the Hardware of the iPhone isn't quite up to task. iPhone 2 will be better suited for Unity most likely.