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Apple TV Unity 5 support?

Discussion in 'iOS and tvOS' started by Kunani, Sep 9, 2015.

  1. Kunani

    Kunani

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    Any information on Apple TV controller support and siri access for voice game input yet?
     
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  2. Area1

    Area1

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    That would interest me too. As Galaxy on Fire and Crossy Road are at least two Unity titles they showed, that are coming out on that the new Apple TV. The controller support should possible. Siri access would be nice.
    I also would be interested to know how to access the accelerometer on the new Apple TV controller in Unity.
    Guess we have to go native at the moment and dig into the beta documentation for now...
     
  3. zenasprime

    zenasprime

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    Is AppleTV supported with standard iOS development with Unity? I suppose there will need to be additional tvOS support but will that just be lumped under iOS?

    I'm guessing controller support will work like it does currently with iOS.
     
  4. Mantas-Puida

    Mantas-Puida

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    At the moment we are still experimenting what is the best way to integrate Apple TV support, but it looks like it will be separate build target. Though of course it will share a lot of implementation details with iOS.
    Remote control will be supported in the same way as current iOS Game Controllers are supported: http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/iphone-joystick.html. Accelerometer will be available as simple as Input.acceleration.
    We don't have plans for Siri at the moment, but should be possible via native plugin.
     
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  5. Moonjump

    Moonjump

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    I thought I read that universal apps were possible, so the user could buy the app once for both tvOS and iOS? I don't know if that is separate binaries, but invisible to the user, or a single binary. Target device options in the Player settings sounds like a better option, especially if it is a single binary.

    But whatever works well, as long as it isn't a separate licence.
     
  6. Mantas-Puida

    Mantas-Puida

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    These will be separate binaries. It's more an App Store thing, I think Apple is calling it Universal Purchase rather than Universal Application.
     
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  7. hippocoder

    hippocoder

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    Not so far off the Windows 10 idea or console cross purchase. Seems pretty much the new thing (it is a little ridiculous buying the same game/app for different hardware really).
     
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  8. mbowen89

    mbowen89

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    Is it possible at all to build for iOS target and then tweak XCODE to build the TV binary?

    Also, what about Unity 4.6? I, and I think a lot of mobile devs, are sticking with 4.6 at this moment in time for mobile, and so it would be unfortunate if an entire new "platform" which is just a slight build off of iOS is not on 4.6 at all.
     
  9. Mantas-Puida

    Mantas-Puida

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    UI experience and interaction on big TV screen is significantly different from touch based navigation on phone screen, some of gameplay elements most likely will differ too. Crossy Road local multiplayer with two users playing on the same TV is good example how games could evolve for better experience on TV. Thus having single Xcode project build for iOS and TV makes little use. At the moment we see them as two separate Xcode projects built from single Unity project, with different scene and Asset Bundle content included into them.

    Apple TV will be supported only on latest Unity 5.x.
     
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  10. mbowen89

    mbowen89

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    I completely understand being two different Xcode projects.

    Can you give me any reason at all why this wouldn't be made Unity 4.6* compatible?
     
  11. MrEsquire

    MrEsquire

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    Cannot speak for Unity but 4.6 did also not have Windows 10 support, so they trying kill it off, makes sense not to go backwards! Killing of BlackBerry on 5.2 even.. So best thing is just have multiple versions of Unity installed!
     
  12. mbowen89

    mbowen89

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    I didn't realize 4.6 was pretty much done with... anything.

    There's enough performance issues/glitches for mobile, in many different aspects, that it's still too early to completely switch over to Unity 5 in my opinion, though I'd pay $10k for a Unity 5 that worked great with all mobile devices at this stage!
     
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  13. MrEsquire

    MrEsquire

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    Totally agree, for mobile Unity 5 has taken number steps back, I think iOS Team are pretty good and only platform that not had any issues with so far except still some deep under the hood performance that can be done. But for small games no one really notices.
     
  14. Mantas-Puida

    Mantas-Puida

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    If you encounter iOS performance regression issues with Unity 5 please post bugs and send me case numbers via PM.
    Thanks!
     
  15. bluescrn

    bluescrn

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    It's not just about performance. There's potentially showstopping functionality changes/losses and breakages.

    If you're working on a mobile project with a lot of baked lighting, moving to Unity 5.x just doesn't seem viable right now. Too many issues with lightmapping and lightprobes, some which are showstoppers. Problems that don't exist in 4.6.

    I was particularly disappointed to discover that the 'bake probes' button is gone in 5 - you can't bake lightprobes independently of lightmaps (to have more control over lighting of dynamic objects, and to work around this rather old but serious bug)

    I'd hoped that lightprobe functionality would have improved with 5.x, rather than regressed. We're still missing the ability to additively load lightprobes, and have any ability to manipulate the baked probes at runtime (e.g. moving/rotating the probe cloud - something essential for procedural levels build from pre-baked tiles)

    It feels like in the push for high-end features, critical-for-mobile (but fairly low-tech) graphics/lighting features have been left broken and poorly supported, leaving 4.6 as a significantly better option.

    None of the shiny new high-end rendering features are of use to those developing real-world mobile games which need to run on todays mid-range devices.
     
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  16. Pelican_7

    Pelican_7

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    @Mantas Puida Thanks for your helpful info on this. Are you able to give any rough estimate of when we might see Apple TV support in Unity? The Unity Roadmap currently has Apple TV under "Long or Uncertain", which gives the impression it's a way off?
     
  17. orb

    orb

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    Right now they have to wait for devices to actually run stuff on, just like the rest of us, and Apple haven't given any exact dates for when they'll be in people's hands. There's also a very limited selection of countries that even can get devkits before October. If UT got some kits this week, they might manage at least a beta by the time the rest of us can order ATVs, but nobody even knows IF they're getting them yet.
     
  18. Xander-Davis

    Xander-Davis

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    @Mantas Puida yes I'd also be very interested in tvOS support for Unity 5 and an estimate on when to expect that, since I'm seeing online the device is coming out late October. Would be great to get an ability to publish to it sooner (preferably in advance of release) rather than later-- hoping that's doable since tvOS is likely super similar to iOS and the new Apple TV uses the A8 chip same as iPhone 6.
     
  19. Mantas-Puida

    Mantas-Puida

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    Unity roadmap structure doesn't always work precisely for Apple platform support, as everything is moving super fast. "In development" means that we actually doing work on it, and most often we ship as soon as it is ready on Unity version, which is most fresh at given time.
     
  20. Mantas-Puida

    Mantas-Puida

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    While technically iOS and Apple TV are similar, it needs a lot of extra polish from content side to get shippable TV experience. iPhone6+ attached to TV via HDMI + MFi game controller is good start for those who didn't get devkits. Though I wouldn't be brave enough to ship without testing it on real device with new remote.
     
  21. Pelican_7

    Pelican_7

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  22. Xander-Davis

    Xander-Davis

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  23. benvu3d

    benvu3d

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    @Mantas Puida our Apple TV Dev Kit is on its way! Can we get access to the Apple TV beta build to get a head start before our dev kit arrives? Happy to share our experiences as we venture into this exciting new platform. We were still registered as Pro Beta on your Google Groups which I think is still active but haven't checked lately.
     
  24. Mantas-Puida

    Mantas-Puida

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    Please PM me list of e-mails, your company name and titles under development.
     
  25. Kuba

    Kuba

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    There are good reasons for that currently: the biggest one is the technical limitation that Enlighten still needs to do most of it's work (processing the geometry and precomputing visibility) to be able to calculate the light probes.

    The fix for this bug was a bit involved, but it's almost done now. It will be in your hands ASAP.

    We're well aware that this functionality is needed and we'll be tackling it as soon as we stabilize the bug situation.
     
  26. Mark-Sweeney

    Mark-Sweeney

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    @Mantas Puida Is it only those with Unity Pro that get access to the Apple TV beta build? UPS just delivered my AppleTV dev kit.
     
  27. Ostwind

    Ostwind

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    Yes it's said in the blog comments few times.
     
  28. TokyoDan

    TokyoDan

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    efge likes this.
  29. TokyoDan

    TokyoDan

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    Darn. The latest Unity version still doesn't support tvOS.
     
  30. mbowen89

    mbowen89

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    Why would it? It's not even released yet, and the beta version is still being worked on.
     
  31. TokyoDan

    TokyoDan

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    Because unreleased versions of Unity already has support for tvOS and people who have the new appleTV (like me) AND Unity Pro version (not me) already got it and are developing apps for it. But since I don't have the Pro version of Unity I have to wait till "later this fall". I've had the new AppleTV for two weeks already and it is just sitting there. I was hoping this 5.2.2 release would 'push' the version of Unity that has tvOS support a little further along to "later this fall" so people like me who have the new AppleTV but not Unity Pro can get a bit of a head start in developing apps.
     
  32. mbowen89

    mbowen89

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    OK, well they are still creating beta versions of the Unity builds to even support tvOS so it's not even viable to put into a release version.

    If you already have an AppleTV and you are part of the beta group, even if you can't build yet because you don't have a Pro license, there's info already stated (privately) about a timeline... so just go check that out.
     
  33. TokyoDan

    TokyoDan

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    Well they told me latter this fall. I'm thinking fall is pretty much over. Thing is, I had Unity Pro since 3.5.7 with iOS Pro plugin. But when 5 came out with most of the pro stuff in the free version I decided to not pay the cost to upgrade to the 5.x Pro version because my game made almost no money at all so I couldn't really justify the cost to upgrade.
     
  34. mbowen89

    mbowen89

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    Go back into the Google Groups and search for the roadmap thread, you'll see.
     
  35. Dreamwriter

    Dreamwriter

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    Yeah, with Unity 5 instead of making coding features cost money, they made services cost money - deluxe things like cloud building, source control, analytics, and access to beta versions of Unity. So if all someone wants is to make games with a solid engine, it's a great free product, but if you want to use beta features like support for a new platform before that product is even released to the public, you gotta fork over some extra cash.