Unity & Apple's rumoured switch to ARM CPU's?

While Apple ditching Intel's x86 processors for their own ARM based CPU's in Macs is just a rumour (as far as I know), it does seem not only likely but also that it could happen quite soon..

Any insight on what this would mean for Unity? Not only for Macs as build targets, but more importantly the editor.

For me as a developer, Macs are far superior to anything Windows world has to offer and Linux, while an excellent choice elsewhere, is not really up to the task what comes to game development imho. Although I haven't tried the new beta Linux editor Unity put out.

So I dread to see the day where I'd have to make the choice of either getting a Windows PC or ditching Unity. Then again, Unity isn't the only software I would miss if it was not available anymore going forward, so I would likely get the latest possible x86 based Mac, pimp its specs as high as possible and continue to use it as long as there's OS support while hoping that the vendors of my favourite pieces of software announce support for the new ARM Macs before I'm forced to get a new computer.

Speculate away!

 

I predict that if that happened, Unity would be on top of the ball. I don't see Unity macOS support going anywhere.

 

I've been thinking the same thing. I'm a big fan of Macs just because of their OS and design and stuff. I'm not going to claim they're superior or anything but I just find them really pleasant to use, and since I work at my computer all day, having my work more pleasant and enjoyable is priceless, even if I have to have a Windows laptop at hand for deploying to console dev kits. (You can argue with me all day about what they cost and what they can and can't do but I think of it like somebody who drives for a living, they might get a car which is more expensive than it needs to be, purely so their work is more comfortable and enjoyable, same situation here for me!)

But yeah when I heard about this ARM thing I was a tad nervous. I don't know much about ARM but last I heard they're more like mobile chips, right? Which would surely make this harder. I could see them adding ARM build support easily (just like iOS etc.) but I get nervous about whether the editor will support it or not. I don't like the idea of having to go back to Windows (as much as 10 has improved I still don't enjoy it as much). But hopefully I am wrong and supporting the type of ARM CPU they use won't be too tough.

Or maybe they're only planning to use ARM for MacBooks, maybe even just the MacBook Air? I'm sure they are aware there are a lot of developers who use Macs and need x86 support.

 

Well it’s looking more and more likely to happen and quite soon.

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/06/21/apple-arm-13-inch-macbook-pro-imac/

Also the first to transition might be the 13.3” MBP which is the model I’ve been rocking for the past ten years.

This has me worried.. the switch from a hardware point of view makes sense I think but I’m afraid my favorite platform will fall behind in software support.

oh well, time to keep an eye out as things unfold and see if I should refresh my 2017 13” with the 2020 one as it might well be the last x86 one. Interesting times.

 

Along a similar line, since apple is not supporting OpenGL or vulkan, will Unity continue to develop for OSX, ISO on Metal?

 

And there we have it, the switch away from Intel x86 was just officially announced.

I’m not as worried anymore after seeing the quick demonstration of the lengths they’ve gone to to ensure compatibility, I suppose it now comes down to a) how well will the existing x86 Unity editor for macOS run under Rosetta 2 and/or b) how soon will Unity release a native version for the new architecture.

Of course, we didn’t get specifics on performance or battery life, which models will be the first to adapt the new chips or any other details really but now I’m actually looking forward to hanging on to my 2017 Intel 13” MBP for long enough to jump ship to either the first 13” using one of the new chips or the second one after observing how well the first one performed and what the software support situation is looking like.

Will be interesting to see any possible official word from Unity on all this, too, whenever that might be.

 

CPU architecture fragmentation, Rosetta, and Fat (Universal) Binaries... all over again. This is my excited face

The only thing that makes this move back to custom silicon possibly worthwhile for us developers to chase, is how big a market share iOS still holds. What Apple will need to show is commitment to GPU performance. Otherwise Apple Gaming just becomes iOS gaming with a mouse.

 

What does it mean in practice:

 

I'm a Unity user building a game and using assets from the asset store inside my game. Does this mean that assets on the asset store that contains .dll will be deprecated if are not recompile?