Do I still need a Mac to build to IOS XCode, if project was done on PC?

Unity Engine
,
1

Hi Guys

Just following up on this to see if anything changed in the last 2 years. If I mainly use PC, do I still need a Mac to be able to build the XCode to IOS?

No way around it? Would be great to be able to just directly build to IOS from PC.

2

Hi @newguy123 ,

As a Windows developer, I’m just going through the iOS pain now.

You can work around the requirements for MacOS, but it does complicate things.

These are the areas you need Apple hardware for…

  1. Building (services like Unity Cloud Build or any Mac Cloud Solution, Azure Dev Ops etc will help massively here)

  2. Provisioning (this can mainly be done from the website, but generating the required certificates will require MacOS)

  3. Uploading (can only be done from MacOS or a Cloud Solution)

Services such as https://www.macincloud.com/ or https://www.wenz.io/ are options, but I’ve never used them and am not endorsing them. Borrowing or using another Mac will also help.

So it’s possible without buying a Mac, but harder.

That said, I ended up buying the cheapest iPad I could find to run internal test flights and make sure the builds were running as expected on actual hardware. It’s an optional step, but one that is worth it in my opinion.

Maybe in a year or so I’ll snap up a cheap Mac Mini to work around the steps above.

Good luck!

3

can also try

or unity cloud build
https://unity3d.com/unity/features/cloud-build

1 Like
4

That’s a great find! I wasn’t aware of that product.

Given I use UCB it’s likely less relevant, but still worth investigating.

Thanks :slight_smile:

5

So then even if I use the Unity Cloud Build, I would still need a mac for the initial certificate and to upload to testflight right?

Also, that new story intro thing for the splash screen, you need a mac sounds like for that…

6

You can use alternatives (for example, the services listed above) to generate the certificates. Even if you need to end up using an actual Mac, you don’t necessarily need to own one.

I’ve not seen that yet. But Unity has splash screen support, so I suspect that’s something that may be added\supported by them in the future.

7

https://discussions.unity.com/t/781291

1 Like