Unity3d iphone Development on Mac Mini

Unity Engine
,
1

Hello everybody, I am planning to buy a MAC Mini and indie licenses for Unity3d + Iphone publishing.

Reading Unity requirements I noted that unity works only with Radeon or GeForce graphics cards with at least 32 MB of RAM. The Mac Mini I am interested on (Mac mini - Apple) has the following graphic adapter specs:

Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory.

I know that the fact that the videocard memory is shared with main memory could be a bottleneck, but the question is: Will unity IDE with the iphone publishing run in that computer with that Video Adapter?

Thanks In Advance!
Diego

2

Yes, Unity works good on a Mac Mini, I have here one running and test sometimes on it, esp. low-end testing for web games and alike (using a Core Duo Mini, 1,6 GHz). For iPhone development it should be fairly ok to use. Make sure you put enough memory in it (2 or better 3 Gigs of RAM).

But you should wait with buying a Mini. In a few days a new version of the Mini will be available if the rumours are right that uses a new graphics chip from NVidia and if that rumor is right, you really want to wait for the new version of the Mini! Will be presented next week at Macworld if macrumors.com is right.

Best
Martin

3

Martin,
first of all, thanks for your reply. Just another questions:

  • What are the specs of your Mac Mini System?
  • Do you have the same Video Adapter I mentioned in my post?

Thank you so much for the Mac Rumor! I will wait for that announcement!

Regards,
D.

4

All Intel Mac Minis made so far use the Intel GMA 950. (Everyone’s hoping next week will bring something better, though.) And yes, that Mac Mini will run Unity iPhone.

5

I am using a first gen MacBook (GMA950) with 1.25 Gigs of RAM (one of my memory modules crapped out) and I am fine running both Photoshop and Unity at the same time. I also hook up an external 20" monitor when things get too crowded.

I used this setup to work on Downhill Bowling (web game) as well as our current iPhone development stuff.

But as Martin mentioned, new macs are around the corner, I would hold my breath :wink:

6

from this posts:

http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=102075

looks like Mac Mini has trouble when generating occlusion data (GMA950).

is this still an issue after the latest release ??

7

Ya, if I were you, I’d hold off on purchasing one cause rumor is is that they’ll be releasing a new one at MacWorld

8

Yepp, my Mini uses the Intel GMA 950 too as written above, Diego. The Mini’s hopefully shown next week will have way more graphics power than the current ones.

9

Looks like the Mini still has Intel GMA 950 .
I am glad actually because last month I bought an iMac with ATI Radeon HD 2400. I almost bought a Mini but I am glad I didn’t ; I love my new iMac :wink:

10

I just started with development with unity + iPhone and I’m using a first gen 2ghz macbook with 2 gigs of ram plus two additional monitors (3rd 7" monitor over usb) - and I am able to work with unity + maya + photoshop +illustrator running at the same time without problem.

You should take note of the the “generating occlusion data” issue above, I have not tried it out as of yet.

As said above the current mini is old, you should wait

11

If you intend to develop iphone applications apparently using a mac mini is not the right way to go you need intel based chip sets for correct occlusion culling correct me if I am wrong community as not a hundred percent on that one…???

12

If you intend to develop iphone applications apparently using a mac mini is not the right way to go you need intel based chip sets for correct occlusion culling correct me if I am wrong community as not a hundred percent on that one…???

13

Apple doesn’t sell Macs without Intel CPUs anymore.

14

A MacMini will serve you very well for iPhone development with the one exception that it cannot compute occlusion culling information. AFAIK that fact will not change in any coming updates/releases on our end.

15

Forgive my ignorance, but I just bought a MacBook with a GMA X3100 graphics adapter for iPhone Development using Unity iPhone. I have the following questions.

  1. I thought occlusion culling is something which is done by Unity on the iPhone rather than on the Dev Hardware (just like rendering)
  2. Does the above graphics adapter support OC?

Thanks in advance

RBK

16

The information used in occlusion culling is generated during the authoring process and requires you to have a video card capable of creating that data.

I don’t know myself but I’ve put up the Bat-signal in the hopes of getting an engineer reply to answer that question.

17

Nope, the iPhone cannot do occlusion culling properly - therefore, you prebake it in the editor tool.

Basically, we depend on the graphics’ card support for the occlusion query extension - which all cards EXCEPT the GMA950 supports.

This card is currently only present in Mac Mini (it was in some MacBooks earlier on, but got replaced about 18 months ago). So all current MacBooks are just fine.

18

Thanks Nick and HiggyB for the prompt replies.

Yaay for my decision to buy a MacBook over a Mac Mini :smile:

Regards

RBK

19

Thanks to everybody for your replies! I think that I’ll buy an iMac with a “real” graphics accelerator instead of a mac mini. :smile:

Saludos / Regards,
Diego.

20

So I’m in the same boat.
I was so pumped to get an mac-mini seeing as I do most of my work on a PC I was really looking forward to a cost effective compiler.

So would the BASE model Macbook work? It’s $999 and has a Intel GMA X3100 graphics?

I do intend to make a 3D title for the iphone.
Thanks!
B

p.s. When the PC version of Unity comes out if I own a Indie License will that version have a free update to work on PC?