iPhone 8 / 8Plus / X support

I would like to share quick update on our support for iPhone 8 / 8Plus / X.

There is known problem with A11 GPU and Unity content, which causes shadow flickering. Fixes have been pushed to supported Unity branches, so to avoid rendering glitches on new Phones it's recommended to upgrade Unity to following versions and re-build / update your games in App Store:
- 5.5.5 Patch 1 (not yet released, scheduled for second week of October)
- 5.6.3 Patch 4 (or later) wait for 5.6.4 Patch 1
- 2017.1.1 Patch 3 (or later) wait for 2017.1.2 Patch 1
- 2017.2.0 RC 2 (or later)

Update!!!:
Unfortunately we discovered that our fix for A11 GPU (iPhone 8 / 8Plus / X) regressed in shader compilation correctness on macOS 10.11.6 and iOS 8.x and earlier.
Proper fix is coming in these versions:
5.5.5 Patch 1
5.6.4 Patch 1
2017.1.2 Patch 1


iOS Device generation enum fields for detecting these devices are being added and will appear into corresponding branches from 5.6 to 2017.x. Estimated to come in 1-2 weeks depending on branch.

iPhone X safe area detection API is being designed and implemented. Estimated time of delivery 2-3 weeks. Currently you can try our sample plugin for accessing safe area information: https://bitbucket.org/p12tic/iossafeareasplugin/src

Otherwise your application should work just fine on new devices. If you don't rebuild your apps with Xcode 9 they will be letterboxed on iPhone X.

There are no plans for fixes / support for older unsupported (5.4.x and older) Unity versions.

 

Thank you for supporting these new devices. Did I miss anything about support for the recent iPads? As I have not heard anything from Unity about ProMotion support.

 

2017.3 beta is mostly ready for it. But you have to manually add CADisableMinimumFrameDuration Info.plist key.

 

We are happy to share sample plugin for accessing iPhone X safe area information: https://bitbucket.org/p12tic/iossafeareasplugin/src

 

Unfortunately we discovered that our fix for A11 GPU (iPhone 8 / 8Plus / X) regressed in shader compilation correctness on macOS 10.11.6 and iOS 8.x and earlier.
Proper fix is coming in these versions:
5.5.5 Patch 1
5.6.4 Patch 1
2017.1.2p1

 

Hello!

Do you think the flickering your referring to here is the same as we're experiencing (see post: http://answers.unity3d.com/question...th-depth-buffer-only-pass-on-iphone-88.html)?

Are there any workarounds we can do in our project without waiting for the patch release?

Thanks!

 

Most likely yes. Unfortunately I'm not aware about workarounds. Though you could try one of current patch releases on iPhone 8 to verify that your issue is exactly the same.

 

Thanks Mantas. We tried 2017.1.1p4 and 2017.1.2f1 and both seem to resolve the issue. In the above post you mention a regression for iOS 8 and earlier. Our app requires iOS 9 or later, so should we theoretically be able to use the current versions to resolve the issue, or would you recommend waiting for the proper fix? Any updates on when those will be available?

 

You should be fine with current fix.

 

I'm not sure what shader compilation correctness is exactly, but I hope that's what happened to me. Im on Unity 5.6.3 patch 4 and on IOS 11 iPhone 6 all is good, but on iPad Air 2 IOS 8 there are all these "compilation failed / shader unsupported" messages and everything is pink!

I'm using MacOS 10.10 so it sounds like what you are talking about.

I'm looking forward to the patch with patience because i have been stuck on Unity 5.2 for a few years due to regressions, and 5.6.3 is the first version where my game works again (thank you) so i am really excited about the opportunity to finally upgrade my version of Unity Good luck with the patch.

 

Yes, you are experiencing regression, which was mentioned in this thread. Release of corresponding 5.6 patch release is scheduled for Oct 18-20.

 

Would you mind providing some more detail on exactly how/when Unity decides to show the letterboxing you mention for iPhone X?

I have an existing project which has been upgraded to 5.6.3p3 and it is showing the letterboxing when built with xCode 9. And then I made a new clean Unity project in 5.6.3p3 and this does not letterbox the app when built with xCode 9. Would like to understand how exactly this is enabled/disabled. (Would be great if this was just a check box in player settings but I can't seem to find one that would be it).

Thanks

 

Building with Xcode 9 should be enough, what are your splashscreen settings in the project that shows letterboxing?

 

If we use macOS 10.12+ we shouldn't have issues with iOS 8.x for builds of 5.6.3 Patch 4. Correct?

 

That's not correct.
The regression affects:
- Mac standalone and Metal editor on macOS 10.11.6
- iOS games running on iOS 8.x or earlier device (doesn't matter which macOS was used for building app)

 

The project that shows letterboxing has: 'show splash screen' turned off and launch screen type set to 'none'.

Can confirm that setting the new project to match these settings it now also letterboxes.

 

You need to specify either some Launch Screen, which adapts to whole screen or Legacy Launch Image that specifies image of resolution that matches iPhone X resolution. The first one is available to be set from Unity, though later one is not, but you can do it manually in Xcode.

 

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

Good to see Unity's looking at iPhone X...

We are using NGUI in our game, the safe area plugin seems not very useful for us, at the meantime we may just manually add padding on left, right and bottom for iPhoneX...

Hope the iOS Device generation enum will be available soon so we can start working on it. (It will be there on 5.6.4 right?)

We use:
Unity 5.6.3p4

 

New enum entries will ship in 5.6.4 Patch 1 (somewhere next week).

 

We have some games built with Unity 4.x on the iOS App Store, which would be quite laborious to import into Unity 5 and republish....are those going to have this flickering issue on iPhone 8?

 

We haven't received reports about that. I think switching to GLES 2.0 might be good workaround in such case.

 

What about Unity 2017.2 that was released today?

 

It should have final fix.

 

Can you confirm that this only affects apps built with Metal running on A11 devices? We have a lot of older apps built with OpenGLES2 we'd rather not have to republish.

 

Unity uses different shader compiler for GLES 2.0, so that's why it's most likely not affected. Unfortunately we don't yet have 100% confirmation that it's not being affected. I would recommend you testing your app on actual iPhone 8.

 

Any news on the device detection enums for the new iPhones?

 

They are on the way to patch releases, which Unity version are you interested in?

 

We are using Unity 2017.2.0f3. Will we see a patch for it before the 24th of this month? Thanks!

 

If everything goes as expected fix should land in 2017.2.0p1, which is scheduled for Oct 25-27 window. It should include iPhone 8 / 8+ / X enums. If you are in the hurry you might use raw string representation of device model via this API: https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/SystemInfo-deviceModel.html

 

Thanks. That's a life saver!

 

I second this I dont even use the enums and can successfully detect all devices using this even though im still on Unity 5.2.2 for my main production pipeline. This way you never have to wait for device enums to be patched in.

 

I've got a quick question. I've got a couple of games on the Appstore that were built with Unity 5.6 and 2017.1. They're simple 2D games with no shadows (so I'm not worried about that). But I'm worried about this stupid notch on the X.
Do I understand it correctly, that if I just let them be and not rebuild them in Unity and xCode, they will be letterboxed on the iPhone X? So no further action is required?

<3

 

Yes, your assumption is correct.

 

Oh my that is wonderful! Thanks!

 

- Is the shadow flickering issue still present in the latest 2017.2 build?
- What is the string we can expect for iPhone X? Perhaps it’s (iPhone10,1) ?
Thanks!

 

I have created a post and feature request on adding option to hide iPhone X home indicator and bring it back (Edge Protection). Vote it up if that matter to you as well please.

 

Latest flickering fix will be in 2017.2 patch 1, which is not yet out (expected Oct 25-27).
iPhone X model strings are: "iPhone10,3" and "iPhone10,6".

 

That is a total bummer as we have a deadline with Apple. Thanks anyway

 

which iOS versions are you targeting? if you are aiming for iOS 9 and higher then current 2017.2.0f3 release should be good for you.

 

Ok good to know. We have iOS 8 and up as a target but we didn't have any of the compilation issues. Not sure if that means the shadow problem is fixed or we have to submit an update with iOS 9 as a minimum target?

 

Actually, I mismatched Unity versions. So 2017.2.0f3 should be good for you (including earlier iOS versions). Sorry for confusion.

 

Thanks for the update! Is there a schedule for when these releases will be available? If we're using Unity 5.6 should we try to use the safe area plugin referenced by Mantas above to work with the iPhone X safe areas, or would you recommend something else?

 

For safe area API on older Unity versions you should keep using plugin.

 

Is an older version of XCode (8.3.3) required to get the wanted letterboxing behavior or can I build with XCode 9? Using Unity 5.6.3.

 

What exactly you mean by letterboxed? Will it be letterboxed within safe area by default and app resolution will be capped at 9:16 ?

 

Sorry for asking here, but it is iPhone 8 / iPhone X related and some of you might have an Unity App out there, which is installed by many users:

Does nobody else have problems with crashes on iPhone 8 (and I think on iPhone X too) with "GPU Hang" error messages?
(See the detailed thread here)
I can't believe we are the only ones especially as this seems to be a driver issue or a bug in Unity (as said in the thread).

 

Hi @Mantas-Puida
It seems we have a problem with iPhone X simulator.
When we try to open the virtual keyboard with this code :

Code (CSharp):

1. TouchScreenKeyboard.Open("", TouchScreenKeyboardType.Default, false, false, false, false);

it does nothing. If we try the same code with other iPhones simulator, it works correctly. Do you have a similar problem? (Just create an empty scene, that calls this code and you will see that it does not work) We are using 2017.1.2p1

(Case 963179 )