Hi all,
Could I start my game development on Unity for Windows, and then move it to the iPhone when I have a game? I am hesitant to invest in the iPhone version of Unity before I am sure I can even get my game off the ground. I am hoping if I keep my target resolution and features in mind I can at least make a start on the game using the Windows version. Does this make sense?
You can… There are a few things through
first add #pragma strict to the top of your scripts. This will disable dynamic typing and pop up with errors. If you don’t do this. You will probably notice that when you finally get unity iPhone there will be tons of errors.
Second, take into consideration that your computer is A LOT more powerful than an iPhone, and is quite different. Things may run smooth on your computer, but they will not run smooth on an iPhone. Even if you take into consideration things like textures and poly counts…
You can’t predict exactly how things will run on the iPhone, so give your self LOTS of time for porting. Don’t expect that it will be a simple task.
We developed our first game on windows and mac before we owned unity iPhone. We didn’t give our self enough tiime to port and our game was delayed by about 2 weeks.
So, yes… It is possible… But there are a few headaches involved, but it is possible.
Watch out for your GUI. OnGUI() and GUI.x are hogs. Watch your drawcalls. Watch your vert count. Watch your shader use. Look around this forum for target numbers and use vertex shaders until you know what you are doing. Drawcalls and Vertcounts are a little higher now that iPhone v1 is pretty much out of the pool, and v2 (3g pre-s) is sitting on the edge, but these are still vitally important to keep under control.
Take this thread for example:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/70523-How-many-draw-calls-if-targetting-iPhone-3G