Unity Dev and Mac Query

Unity Engine
1

So, I’m a guy that along with an entire company, is looking at using Unity for a very large project (can’t say more yet…), so I have some questions to help me/us figure out what it’s gonna take, what to expect, etc.

First, full disclosure: I make PC/Console games. I am very used to Visual Studio, ProDG, etc… I’ve touched every common ‘games’ environment in use over the last 10 years. I am excited about Unity, but I am not used to Macs.

So, what’s a good Mac to get as a developer? Maybe, along with ‘good’, what’s a great Mac to get? iMac good enough? Big monster 8 core Mac the only bearable way to go? :slight_smile:

I’m used to Dual Monitors… how’s Unity do with them? Does wanting Dual M. already force me to get a certain type of Mac?

I know Unity has an Asset server… but what about non-Unity dev assets… can I setup a Mac server that will play well with Admins/Management using PCs for their own tasks? Is a PC centric server going to work with Mac assets (that whole dual-fork mac file format thing?)…

Any and all insights, examples, insults, etc… welcomed. Thank you.

Dave

2

We use Unity/Macs alongside primarily Windows-based development (although the trend is definitely heading towards more Mac, less Windows).

Most of our machines are iMacs or MacBook Pros, which are essentially the same hardware. They’re plenty fast for development. No issues with Macs accessing Samba shares on our Linux/FreeBSD servers or shared folders on Windows machines. Everything can basically talk to everything else: Windows accessing a Mac share, Mac accessing a Windows share, etc.

Unity Asset Server is definitely the way to go for teams. For non-asset files we generally just do big network shares or Google Docs.

About half of use Windows machines alongside Macs. We use Synergy for this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjfqQCxtfa0

3

WOOHOO!! :smile:

another mac convert.

4

Then I would recommend using Visual Studio for scripting for Unity in either VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop. I’m doing that (and so are others), and it works just fine…

Also, be sure to talk to UT about their Nintendo Wii support (not sure if that’s available, yet, but it was announced a while back).

Then be prepared for some “interesting” things. Maybe have a look at http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=8373 for a few examples… I do love Mac OS, though - it just took me some moments to get used to it :wink:

However, I should also note that I started working productively with my Mac about two hours after I got it (thanks to VMWare Fusion and already having the relevant development VMs ready).

From what I’ve read in the forums, most Macs are just fine. If you do the “virtualization” thing, however, I’d recommend a lot of RAM (and do NOT buy RAM from Apple, that’s wasting money). I’m using a “low-end Mac Pro”, i.e. a Mac Pro with 4-core and 2.66 GHz (but 5GB of RAM) and that’s just perfect for me (sometimes I have 3 virtual machines open). I don’t really like to have a display with a computer, but many people also recommend iMacs, so I think they can’t be that bad…

Currenty, Unity does not really support dual monitors, however, the way I use my two monitors is having one of them for Unity, the other for Visual Studio running in VMWare Fusion. That’s smooth. Sometimes, I also have one monitor for documentation, the other for “work”. So, I’m happy with the “non-existing dual monitor support”.

Another thing I do a lot: Have Unity on one monitor, and a few instances of standalone games and the “server” on the other (for multiplayer stuff).

Dual monitor works smoothly with the Mac Pro. I don’t know about the other Macs, sorry…

Welcome to the wonderful world of Unity :wink:

You’ll probably have a great time!!! :slight_smile:

Sunny regards,
Jashan