Unity is Coming to the iPhone!

Thanks Joachim! Informative. I have my $ ready.

 

I've literally spent days adjusting projects and provisions and stuff throughout the beta and onward, and this last bit of info about how Unity manages things just sounds Dreamy

 

Will Unity-iPhone support Movie Textures in the Ogg Theora format?

 

Sweet, sweet awesomeness!!

 

EDIT: Yikes, I was not nearly fast enough!

-Jeremy

 

@aaronsullivan
Okay, hmm i wonder if Flash will work the same or if they'll get their player integrated in the system.

 

I would like to warn everyone ahead of time that the process of provisioning a device and getting certificates from Apple is a bit of an undertaking, at first. It's much better than it was, but there's a good chance you'll be delayed by it. If you are 100% sure on going for iPhone development, I'd set up everything you can right up to the point where you have to set up your XCode project so you are ready the day you buy Unity for iPhone.

Warning, the rest of this is pretty seriously off topic, but a reply to taumel:
Not sure about Flash. I think if Adobe has created an amazing implementation that isn't too slow or battery draining, Apple would be interested in support directly within safari. Otherwise, I really don't know what Adobe could do.

It could be an app that downloads flash content from a link, I guess. I don't know. It's pretty much up to Apple, and as much as restrictions like this can be annoying, I can see Apple's point of view on the matter, as well. If Safari supports flash in the browser (or any of various other plug-ins) and it runs the battery down 5x faster and it runs it poorly, it's going to be APPLE and the iPhone that is blamed by customers and not Adobe.

 

I guess they either do it the plugin or the air way.

 

I don't know how future Safari version on the iPhone will turn out to be but beside of pure standalones it theoretically leaves them the air way. It would have been very nice if the unity components would be part of the iPhone system so that you don't need to build those large files just for delivering the same components over and over again.

 

Thanks for the new details. Can't wait!

 

Apple is not going to allow flash on the iPhone. People seem to think it is about speed, etc because that is all they have heard, but that isn't the case at all. It is simply about economics and control and there is no reason for Apple to give those up on their own platform.

 

How many draw calls (not polys, we know that's under 7k) can the iPhone reasonable handle? I'm building a strategy game for the iPhone (there is a distinct lack) and I need to know specs. What are my ceilings here?

 

I can't wait to get some insight into how we will catch finger down gestures and such. I want to be able to flick something around with my finger. I'm sure that the collision signatures are the same, but would welcome ANY insight on the subject.

 

Flash on the iPhone violates Apple's requirements by executing foreign code. Safari on the iPhone doesn't have plugins.

As daringfireball.net puts it, Apple will allow Flash on the iPhone when some competitor that Apple cares about has it. Since this is not likely to happen any time soon, Adobe should stop embarrassing themselves by whining about it in public, and start working on Flash for Android that doesn't suck the battery dry (and since that won't happen any time soon...)

 

@joew
Correct me but aren't Apple computers also Apple's own platform, i wonder why Flash is running there then. Anyway the way Apple is dealing with this sounds very familiar with what people always were fearing from Microsoft, beeing expensive, monopolist, restrictive NDAs, allowing only revised content and rejecting content more on a daily mood basis or by pressure from big buddy companies and so on.

Actually at some point it really could be interesting taking a closer look at linux again. I sometimes really wonder why people are so excited about the iPhone/iPodTouch. I like it from the technical side and had to code some sort of prototype but sometimes it seems that it's only just about money and control which is kind of sad.

In the end I think there is more speaking for Flash on these devices than against it and the rumours also seem to point into this direction. Do you want to bet? :O)

 

As soon as flash runs on this device they will see dramatic decrease in appstore sales since there are thousands of free to play flash games which might not use accelerometer of 3D, but they are 100% free and very fun to play.

Its all a money matter.

 

Aaron is dead on here, btw.

As someone who now has a third game submitted and two game in the store already, with another two in development, I also can not stress this enough to anyone who isn't yet a certified developer with Apple. The hoops and hurdles that have to be navigated, the incorrect documentation on getting a distribution build ready that Apple still hasn't updated, the tax forms and contracts that have to be mailed in to Apple, getting all of your certifications and provisioning profiles in place, can be tricky. Think 2-3 weeks for the process to get all done and in order.

If anyone has questions about the process, I can volunteer some answers via email.

PS. I'll be looking to hook up with other Unity folks to create more of the games you see on the CTG website.

 

Exactly. How many indie developers have the ability to compete with already established Flash game developers like Nitrome and almost anything seen in jayisgames? Apple doesn't want free Flash games and bundled Flash apps (via mProjector) taking away 90% of the store's income.

 

All: I'm not up on the last two pages or so of questions so for now I'm trusting questions have been answered and so I'm skipping to today's news!


We have now formally announced a release date for our iPhone support and outlined the differences between the two licenses. Check out the updates on our website:

Home page: unity3d.com
News item: Unity iPhone Publishing
Feature page: iPhone Publishing
License info: License Comparison


I'm sure there are gonna be tons more questions so I'll be here all day...

 

Looks great! Thank you for the additional info, even before the product has been released. I can't wait until Unite.

Ricko

 

Uhm. That means there is no way in the Basic version to do any highscore saving to a webserver?

 

Oh, and to address one outstanding question: as of today it appears that movie textures will not be supported in our first release of Unity iPhone Publishing. We're obviously quite keen to add that support and are looking at both our own Ogg capabilities as well as H.264 support via the phone, but that may have to wait until after our first release.

 

Use of the WWW class is an Advanced-only feature.

 

Excellent. New Widget Monkeys site soon ... to coincide with Oct 22. Let's just say "the monkeys and other animals are about to escape from the dashboard."

 

Looks pretty good to me!

The only problem I see is that you are using the copy "iPod Touch". It's actually "iPod touch". Go figure. :?

 

Small potatoes, but we'll get that corrected.

 

Thanks for the info. h.264 support would be really cool.

 

Should we assume that there will be the same "price difference" upgrade option between Basic and Advanced as there is between Indie and Pro? I was planning on just going with Advanced originally, but that was before I realized I had to add a new Mac....

Also, the occlusion culling looks interesting; is that something that would be feasible to have with the "regular" version of Unity as well?

--Eric

 

Oh - my credit card screams out loud: "Networking Support" being an advanced only feature means I'll have to squeeze out another $1,499 ... but ... oh well, I really loved reading "Use Unity's real-time networking features" ... so, WiFi iTraces of Illumination is in the pipeline ;-)

Besides ... since we can't buy UT stocks, there must be some other way to make sure you guys keep up that excellent work ;-) ... but a two-step approach as Eric suggested would be very much appreciated (for me, that would mean: first get basic to implement and test the core game, then upgrade to advanced to add multiplayer)!

Just to be sure: Does that really mean we'll have the RPCs, network view synchronization etc. available on the iPhone? That's gonna be awesome!!! I don't care that much about playing over UMTS and these kinds, but WiFi is pretty much everywhere, so I guess that's gonna be awesome

 

Yes.

Naturally, but only time will tell (that's me punting on specifics for now and leaving it to Joachim/Aras/Nich/etc. to handle from here).

 

All righty,

Pitty for the www class. This means I'll have to get a advanced license just for that

Anyway, nice to see the (semi) final data about the release

Thanks for sharing. Now we can allready put our visa card at the right place besides the mac.

 

(from this thread)

Does that apply to the iPhone? I can't imagine that being the case, with a 7,000 poly recommended maximum, but I am clueless on this one.

 

I'm not sure I buy the notion that objects with less than 1500 polys take longer to render than those with more. Perhaps the sentiment was "lower than 1500 and you still hit the basic overhead of rendering anyway" or ???

Either way, you should work with the idea of 7000 tris visible or so on the iPhone, your scene can have more but that's the guideline (not a hard limit mind you) for visible tris.

 

I just want to buy it.

 

The Unity iPhone feature looks amazing - you guys have done great work. I find the pricing difference a little ironic, though. It seems to me that "Improved Build Size Stripping" and "Asset Bundle Support" will both make apps really run better that without. Putting the Unity splash screen on apps without this performance improvement seems risky for people's perception of how good a tool Unity is on the iPhone - get an app that doesn't run well because of lack of these features and people could say "Unity app - slow" whereas they may never know the faster apps were even made with Unity because there is no splash screen. Or maybe I'm not understanding things right...
At any rate, if I can ever afford this I'll be excited to buy it!

 

I was thinking that would be a great move for you to make. Can't wait to see it up!

 

I can understand why Unity Networking may not be available in the basic version, but I think that blocking out WWW is a mistake... Things like being able to post records online, may provide more sales, which can provide more money, which means that developers have to upgrade to the pro version, so I can't understand this choice.

Regards,
Afonso

 

fantastic job guys, seriously.

i can't wait to fork over the money over for this - though i suppose getting an iPhone apple dev setup will have to come first ; )

a few questions:

this sounds great, and along with the occlusion cullling, is something else i hope makes into the main engine before too long (smaller webplayers?). i'm curious what other components can be stripped?

will the manual and/or scripting reference be online for anyone to see (and plan ahead with while they're saving their pennies?)

: )

 

All the decisions about Basic/Advanced features were made with the idea of allowing true commercial viability via Basic (so we could ensure an Indie option that meant something), but have upgrade incentives to encourage folks to step-up to Advanced. We've prepared what we feel are a great pair of licenses with very competitive pricing, all on top of our fantastic engine.

 

You absolutely have! Great job guys.

Regarding the pricing and ability for Indie it is stellar!

I have a question regarding an Advanced feature. Can you describe the implementation of PVS-based occlusion culling in Unity iPhone Advance?

 

When you build an iPhone app you're creating a stand-alone executable. In this case we're stripping certain libraries from the player so they (a) don't add to file size, and (b) don't load and add to the memory footprint. Given that in web player content you don't actually have any player files present this will never trickle down to the standard player so as to reduce your web player file sizes. It may trickle down so you can prevent the loading of some libraries to reduce your content's memory footprint, but it won't result in smaller web player file sizes.

Not likely, we don't typically post that sort of thing until we ship ('cause we're tweaking it until the last minute! )

Me? No. Punting to someone else on the engineering team to give you implementation details (Joe? Aras? Renaldas?).

 

Beside of the prices which in my opinion are too expensive for an publishing option (why btw does an indie publishing option costs twice the amount of what the whole unity indie costs?) i wonder if it's wise restricting the selective includes/excludes to pro. This way unity, especially through the splashed content, will be known as the bulky stuff.

 

Love the new homepage

 

Hello

In my opinion, the WWW class is extremely important to leave it out of the Basic license.

Is it possible for a savvy developer to create an external library with just this functionality? If so, I am willing to pay for it.

Or maybe Unity itself could charge per extra feature, instead of a pricey $1,100 difference for all together.

 

How else are they gonna make money though? If there's no big reason for you to spend the $1000 why would you?

That being said, from my point of view it is kindof a bummer, cause I was working on a beautifully networked strategy game for the iPhone, and now that's gotta wait. But everyone's gotta do what they gotta do. No point griping now as the release has been made.

 

My guess: They upfront want to participate from your expected sales, this would explain the prices, and primary they want you to buy Pro (plus Unity Pro if you don't own it already) but for the sake of getting you hooked there also is an Indie licence. Otherwise it doesn't make sense excluding such a basic and common functionality like supporting an online highscore list.

 

You guys have done a great job in finally releasing iPhone version, I can imagine, most of you might have missed this summer, before you know its already autumn!

I am very new to Unity world, I will be attending "Unite 2008, October 22-24", so that I can meet most of you and grab hold of your latest creation and transport this precious cargo to my home .

Thanks again to all of you and see you in Copenhagen.

 

I was wondering if there's a way to exclude assets from iPhone builds somehow, for ports of games that also have Web players and/or standalone builds. Generally, I really don't like splitting up projects with more or less the same functionality just because of a "few" differences.

So, one thing I'd love to see would be something like a "build mask" for each game object. With that build mask, you could say "put this into everything but the iPhone builds, put that only into the iPhone builds, and put this other thing into all builds". That way, I could simply use my existing prefabs, add a "iPhone lo-poly model" for rendering to the existing hi- and lo-poly models, and wouldn't have to worry much about anything when building: When I build a Mac/PC version, the prefab would come without the iPhone lo-poly model (which is really useless there), but when I build an iPhone version, the normal hi-/lo-poly models wouldn't be included; and also not any materials/shaders etc. attached to them.

Is something like that already implemented, or at least planned - or if not yet, planned, something to be considered for the next version?

Sunny regards,
Jashan