I bought an iPad to test my game but?

I’m a win-8 user and so I wondered with the .dmg dev files do I need an Apple laptop to use the dev tools? please advise

Yea, you need a mac os to compile the xcode that Unity builds.

Are you returning the iPad or getting a Mac now?

Well I was just going to reply and say wasn’t I silly getting an ipad in the hope of making a game on it… I thought it would be much easier than this, sadly not… so I need to also get an expensive Apple laptop also… either I get one cheap if at all possible or I’ll sell this iPad, shame really I was really looking forward to it… bought an iCade also to show my game off… I registered for an Apply developer account and that is another £80 I cannot afford right now… seems anything ‘Apple’ is a complete cash drain isn’t it… I should of researched more, I thought Unity… export… done… nope, need cash, masses and masses of cash… I may just sell it, sod the Apple

You can buy a cheap second hand Mac mini, that’s how I started and it worked great. Used the mini for 2 years then sold it for the same price I paid for it! So in the end cost me nothing. Mac stuff has a huge resale value so they are not as expensive as you think. Add to that the small electricity cost of a Mac and they practically pay for themselves.

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OK good advice thanks

It’s definitely good advice. I don’t know if I’d be as lucky to resell my Macbook for the same price I got it for though. With setting up a business, paying registration fees, etc, the most expensive part of my operation so far was that damn Macbook. I don’t regret it though. I have a Severus Snape/Harry Potter relationship with it. I love it but I hate it. I can understand the solid construction and the look and feel. OSX doesn’t seem as functional or feature rich as Win10, but one advantage I found over it was iMovie. It makes great videos for your game trailers. I just simply couldn’t find anything equivalent for Windows at the same price (free).

Here’s the thing I don’t understand with Mac’s and peoples perceptions of it, I also had this same misconception before getting one, and that is that OS X is more for people who don’t know what they are doing. OS X is less feature rich than Windows, it can’t do as much etc. etc.

BUT then having now had one for a few years now, it’s a complete fallacy. OS X basically has Unix under the hood which you can easily access with the terminal program. Some 25+ years ago I used to use Mainframes (Vax) with Unix on them and I can assure everyone that OS X is way more advanced, powerful and stable than any Windows derivative. I really don’t know how and why OS X has this very wrong image.

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I agree, that I’m speaking from having used PCs all my life, so it is only my opinion. Of course I’m still in the phase of “PC is better” because I’m having difficult adapting to the UI. Like having to drag an app from a dmg to the Applications folder to “install” it. I don’t even know how to get these on the Launchpad thingy. See… Totally ignorant, I admit. One nitpick I have about iMovie is that their titling system was changed to be more restrictive requiring workarounds that shouldn’t be necessary. But overall iMovie is great. From a Unity dev perspective, it was pretty painless to get from Unity to Xcode to device. The provisions and certificates thing was a little strange at first, but understand able.

Then pitting iOS against Android, that’s a different story, and I’m still an Android fanatic.

I see what you are saying but don’t you really think that this is a better way, really. You know exactly where the installed app has gone, you can delete it from the system just as easily, highlight the .app in the applications folder and just hit delete! No humungous growing and littered with junk registry, no bits of libs stored all over the place and files here and there. No need for Microsofts terrible side by side system just to make sure your installed app uses the right system libs. Just a nice clean install/uninstall. Oh and it will automatically appear in the finder and launchpad the first time you use it. I urge anyone hesitant to just bite the bullet and try it in anger as your main machine for a while. There’s an old saying ‘Once you use a Mac you won’t go back’, it’s so true. Wish I’d seen the light 20 years ago!

So true point about the installation junk in the registry, libs, etc. It’s one thing that most Windows users just accept and over time forget how frustrating it was/is. One other annoying thing I’m getting used to is the Cmd+ shortcut. I’m so used to Ctrl+ with the left pinky + key, because Ctrl+Shift+key is a natural extension. With Cmd+key, I have to adapt to using the left thumb +key, which is annoying. And there are still some shortcuts that I feel are better on PC than Mac, but I’m sure it’s another matter of adapting.

Just go into preferences->keyboard->Modifier Keys and swap them around to be the same as the PC, I did! I couldn’t get used to the Mac either so spent a while making it behave more like a PC.

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Have to disagree on the mac being better at hard drive space management. For me, it is a constant battle to remove cache files and delete massive temp files (mostly xcode stuff) just to stop my mac from getting full. Never have these kinds of problems on any of my windows 10 machines. I like the mac from a hardware perspective but I prefer windows 10 over OSX. Been using the mac as my main machine for over a yeat now.