Windows phone Windows Store?

Unity Engine
,
1

Hi guys,

I’m quite new to this new window’s platforms, and I have some doubts. As far as I know, there are two windows 8 versions. Windows 8, and Windows Phone 8 (which is more or less the same than Windows 8 but for movile devices).

Right now you can compile for two different targets from Unity; Windows Phone and WIndows Store, but to be honest, I don’t see the differente between them.

Lets put an example. I have a project in Unity and I want to deploy it in 3 different Windows Devices:

-Surface (OS: Windows RT)
-Surface 2 (OS: Windows RT 8.1)
-Surface pro 2 (OS: Windows 8.1 pro)

I want my application to be downloaded from the store in all devices. Do I have to build a Windows Phone version for surface and surface 2, and a Windows Store version for Surface pro 2? or use Windows Store for all three?

The problem here is that “windows store” is a bit ambiguous. If I build something for Windows Phone, will I be able to submit it to the store? if yes, Windows Phone and Windows Store would be the same… so I guess the answer is no.

Another question is, do I need a different build when targeting Windows RT and Windows RT 8.1?

Can someone please help me to clarify all this? I’d really apreciate it.

2

Hi,

currently Windows Phone and Windows Store Apps are like two different platforms. So if you want to make a game for Window Phone 8 Store, you have to target Windows Phone 8 in Unity.

If you want to build for Surface RT or Surface Pro you have two target Windows Store Apps, also it’s worth mentioning that Surface RT has ARM CPU inside, Surface Pro has X86 CPU inside, so in generated VS solution you pick appropriate one when deploying to one or another. When deploying to Windows Store, VS will ask you if you want to deploy X86 and ARM, usually you select both, that way you’ll target both CPU architectures.

Starting Unity 4.3 there’s a new option in Unity build settings - SDK, it’s SDK 8.0 and SDK 8.1, you can find more information in Unity docs, just search the manual for windows store.

In both cases you should choose Windows Store Apps platform in Unity, but do note:

  • If you choose SDK 8.0, you have to have VS 2012 (but this is no longer provided by MS), from generated solution you can create an app which will both run on Surface RT and Surface RT 8.1
  • If you choose SDK 8.1, you have to have Win 8.1 VS 2013, but the application built will only run on Windows 8.1 devices.

Hope that clarifies some things

3

I’ve been reading more about this, and I’ve discovered that there are 3 versions of Windows 8!

I thought that windows RT and windows Phone was the same, a reduced version of Windows 8… but I was wrong

So…

PC’s use Windows 8 pro
Tablets use Windows RT
Phones use Windows Phone 8

for PC’s and tablets you have to build your projects using “Windows Store” (which covers Windows RT and Windows 8 pro) and for phones you have to build your project using “Windows Phone 8”.

I think I have cleared my mind now. Thanks a lot for your help Tomas!

Anyways… I still think that the namig is confusing.

shouldn’t it be something like:

“Windows Phone 8” - “Windows 8 RT”

or…

“Windows Phone Store” - “Windows Store”

or

“Windows Phone” - “Windows 8 pro” - “Windows RT” (although windows 8 pro and windows RT would be exactly the same, but you separate them for a better understanding)

I don’t know, but “Windows Store” and “Windows Phone 8” seems like both have different naming “units”. One is the name of the OS itself, and the other one is the name of a… store? Windows Phone also have a store!. It’s like traying to compare apples and potatos. Apples with apples, and potatos with potatos is much more simple :slight_smile: