Testing Unity on IOS/ANDROID

I have a couple basic questions about how to deploy my projects from Unity3D to IOS and Android devices. I do know that I have to download the Android SDK and IOS SDK (along with XCODE utility). And also know that I have to set my preferences to point at Android or IOS platform when building my project. I have an IOS developer account and know how to setup provisions.

My main question is:

Can a Unity project be deployed to an IOS device from the Unity Editor using a PC?

 

You CANT put your Unity game on an iOS device without OS X, and Xcode. To put it on the App Store, you need to have a payed Developer Account

 

Which is stupid of Apples part, they missing out on money.

I traded in my Iphone just because I didn't have a mac to make games. So I took my business elsewere to Android.

 

Except you're losing a massive chunk of potential market, so its not really apples loss (although one could debate that releasing on iOS is a waste of money since the odds of you getting a ROI is slim to none 99% of the time)

 

That's definitely true, can't argue against that one lol.

 

Microsoft does the same thing for Windows Phone.

The same is true, if not more so, on Android. I've started working on my first Desktop game, but that seems like even more of a crapshoot. I think ROI on games for indies is hard no matter where you publish too.

 

You're not wrong Hemi!

Releasing on android costs a lot less for the typical pc user though ($25 + device if you need one)

 

I'll just add that you can actually build everything that Xcode needs from a PC. Which makes PC development for iOS much nicer than it used to be. But you will need a Mac to test build and deploy / publish. A 2nd hand macbook is often the way to go for doing this, which I've done previously. Even if your macbook is so old that you can't run a recent version of Xcode required for publishing - you can still test build, and hop on a cloud service account to publish using brand new Xcode.
This service is great ..
http://xcloud.me/

 

Not anymore...

 

I don't need Windows 8 to build for WP8 anymore? As far as I know, I can't do it with my Mac. When did that change?

 

Ah I thought you mean that yearly subscription fee. Because that's gone.

 

Oh. I got excited for a second. Yeah, I was talking about platform lock in. I remember the yearly fee being gotten rid of a while back. My Mac is too old to run Windows 8 in Parallels so I'm stuck needing a new computer either way. Maybe one day.

 

/shudder

I had to install windows 8 to be able to do the wp8 version of my game. I dont love it.

 

I would especially hate it, I'm sure. I went from Windows 3.1 to Linux. From Linux to Mac when it became UNIX based, and I've only touched Windows in a virtual machine since then. Then, only to run Shiva3D before switching over to Unity and occasionally play whatever version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms I had for it. So if people like Windows 8 less than the others, I'm sure to be displeased by it.

 

I had it installed on my mac pro under parallels, but I find working on my laptop inefficient. mostly use my mac as an xcode compiler, doing next to no development on it, except maybe when i go away and take it with me (although often I dont bother). most expensive compiler ever