is it posible to create software/ applications using unity?

I would really like to create a app and software that basically uses mobile hardware as a peripheral over the network say like a screen sharing app like astropad or something.. is something like that posible or if I ever wanted to create other softwares like Adobe software. I know it's kind of far-fetched or maybe hard to do but I'm just curious if it is posible.

 

Yes, it's possible. The issue with mobile devices is you may need plugins to do some stuff, which is why there tends to be tons of stuff on the asset store for different things. You may run into other hurdles or walls, but it doesn't mean you can't overcome them. I guess the big thing is, is it worth the time to try and get things working through Unity vs other options.

 

Thank you so much for the response. I would love to put the time into developing what I have in mind. I'm hoping to establish a Unity dev group in my area and to develop some stuff with this wonderful platform and physics engine that this company has work so hard on developing for us. Thank you Unity team!!! And thank you Brathnann!

Do you happen to know if it's posible to co-create w/ Xamarin because I've notice it can do stuff that Unity can't yet. Like maybe be able to create plugins for Unity and stuff with it or would I be better off learning how to create plugins a different way? Thanks for all the help!

 

While it is definitly possible to create more normal applications with Unity, the first question that comes to mind for me is "Why would you?".

Unity is in it's root a game engine, made to create games. Other then that it can be used for specific AR and/or VR apps, animated shorts (though there is better software for that) and other interactive media. For native apps and other software like that it's usually better to use native development environments or options like Xamarin.

Especially for the case of "if I ever wanted to create other softwares like Adobe software" the answer is :NO. Mostly because software like that is so specialized you don't want to build that in top of a game engine, you'd most likely even want to use C++ for that due to the fact you want more control over hardware.

 

Thank you.. I'm not sure. I just thought it would be kind of cool and I want to create and develop games and stuff too but yeah I'm not sure.. and I totally thought that C# had control over the hardware but Idk. I've kind of wanted to create cross platform apps along w/ my games and such but idk. I mostly wanted to get away with just studying mainly C# and wanted to know if it were posible at all. Lol. Thank you!

 

So yeah.. I hadn't realized you could use C++ and compile to IOS, Android etc. very cool! Is there any advantages of using C++ over C#? My dream is to create my own tech and art production studio like a cross between Disney, Marvel, DC, etc., Google, IBM, Microsoft and Apple etc. etc. etc. etc. Facebook etc. etc. etc. etc. and Adobe, etc. etc. etc. etc. I wish to create a master suite of softwares and applications over the next 30-50 years or so as I progress that are quasi/ sudo mobile first and create them to be free & open source to the extent that I can allow wells not losing my a**. Lol. So thank you all for the help and the info.. I'm open to anymore that may come so please if you have any suggestions let me know!

Ohhh... And does anybody know anything about AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) && / || where it is I can learn about these things and if Unity can do such things? I'm assuming that if you can create software you can create AI etc. I just don't know. Anyways... thanks for all the help again. It means a lot!

 

There are multiple advantages but the biggest two in my opinion are the following:

• Performance (speed and size): Applications built in C# may not perform as well when compared with native C++. C# has an intrusive garbage collector, reference tracking and other overheads with some of the framework services. The .NET framework alone has a big runtime footprint (~30 Mb of memory), and requires that several versions of the framework be installed.
• Flexibility: Due to the dependency on the .NET framework, operating system level functionality (system level APIs) is buffered by a generic set of functions that will reduce some freedoms
  (from: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/C++_Programming/Programming_Languages/Comparisons/C_Sharp )

Then again this is mostly based on the whole framework. In the end C# as a language is just a syntax and can be compiled to C++ code (what for example Unity's IL2CPP does).

You can learn about it on the internet, I mean really just search around a bit as there are tons of resources. And yes, Unity can do AI for small things, but if you get to bigger application you really want to switch to native C++ or even C or assembly depending on your needs. For example, Cities: Skylines is made in Unity but also uses C++ for parts of the simulations where needed (mostly for path finding (the main AI part) I think). For ML the same info goes, for small projects you can use Unity, but when the demands get higher the platform will become worse.