Cross platform development questions

Unity Engine
,
1

I have a few questions about unity development between Windows, OSX, and iPhone.

Question 1:
I am currently using the windows trail. Can I simply copy the project files to OSX and use Unity on OSX, or are they not compatible?

Question 2:
Once the project is working in Unity on OSX can build iPhone binaries even if the project was created without the iPhone development kit?

Question 3:
If question 2 is yes, then is there anything i should know about that doesnt work on the iphone, besides the obvious material, geometry, and lighting limitations.

Thanks.

2

  1. No problems pushing them around

  2. You need to specify that better. You can’t create iphone projects without Unity iPhone and you can’t build them without owning an iphone dev license.
    Also the major optimization, occlusion culling, and input handling are only possible in unity iphone as the related functionality does not exist in the desktop license.
    Unity iPhone and the regular Unity are distinct applications.

  3. There is no terrain, unity iphone enforces #pragma strict in java script, no dynamic typing. Boo can not be used at all right now (likely due to that limitation)
    Also unity iphone is .net 1.1 only, not .net 2.0+

3

Ah thanks. On question 2 I guess what I was asking is If I make a project without Unity iPhone, whats the process of converting it to work with Unity iPhone. Or would you absolutely have to start the project with Unity iPhone?

4

No you can convert it over (at least this was possible with 2.1, have not tested with 2.5 yet but I guess its still possible)

But you have to realize that different things are not possible and that you might have to rework them.

Also if you tested your games performance before, then you will have to forget everything on that as a regular pc is by magnitudes faster than the iphone.
especially if you never worked with unity iphone I would highly recommend against doing it outside or your world setup and assets might be totally worthless afterwards as you might not have the needed experience in what you can do and whats a clear no go.
But even for an experienced unity iphone dev, or especially for them, it might not be simple to use the desktop versions for more than basic work.

The live testing feature and the iphone emulation must not be underestimated.

Also there are the not featured things like terrain, dynamic typing in JS, .NET 2.0+ features, unity networking which you must not forget about
Also oclussion culling, one of the elemental features for 1st and 3rd person style games on the iphone, is not present on the deskop.