iPhone development on a PC?
by Laurence Grant · in iTorque 2D · 01/08/2010 (5:33 pm) · 7 replies
I just want a little clarification. I've not done any iPhone development because I thought I needed to buy a MAC? It sounds like I can develop on a PC? Can I also deploy from a PC to an iPhone too? I already have TGB from when it first came out, so I should have a free upgrade to the latest version. Therefore, if I just add T2D for iPhone, I should be good to go on the PC? Are there any gotchas? Would I still be better off having a MAC, or can I stick with what I know? Lastly, if I develop on TGB and use some of the starter kits that are available, will they port easily to T2D for iPhone?
I also have TGE and TGEA. If I understand correctly I can use the legacy TGE to build 3D games and port them to the iphone, right? Is this a simple process? Is the 3D iphone engine reliable? Any guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks
I also have TGE and TGEA. If I understand correctly I can use the legacy TGE to build 3D games and port them to the iphone, right? Is this a simple process? Is the 3D iphone engine reliable? Any guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks
#2
You can only do the base design and scripting, but deployment and testing on device / simulator is OSX only, XCode is OSX only
To deploy you also need to be a licensed iphone dev which is at least $99 per year to apple
And yes you could buy the T2D for iPhone. Its price is $750 - x where x is $250 if you own TGB Pro or x = $100 if you own TGB
StarterKits: Depends on the kits. The PSK was ported to previous versions I think. The Adventure Kit is largely useless as it was built around 1.1.3 ideas (pre-behavior) and with non-optimal art but you might use it as base. The Kart Kit is also said to work
Can't say anything about the 3D engine, only own T2D for iPhone, didn't buy T3D for iPhone.
Easy independent of the tech is a definition thing. If your game was ultra optimized, then potentially.
Otherwise you will have to put work into the art and optimization of script and code to make it run at all as even a 600mhz P3 with a geForce is fast against a 1st gen itouch and most can not even remember those days at all ;)
01/08/2010 (6:48 pm)
You can not do any iphone development on the pc.You can only do the base design and scripting, but deployment and testing on device / simulator is OSX only, XCode is OSX only
To deploy you also need to be a licensed iphone dev which is at least $99 per year to apple
And yes you could buy the T2D for iPhone. Its price is $750 - x where x is $250 if you own TGB Pro or x = $100 if you own TGB
StarterKits: Depends on the kits. The PSK was ported to previous versions I think. The Adventure Kit is largely useless as it was built around 1.1.3 ideas (pre-behavior) and with non-optimal art but you might use it as base. The Kart Kit is also said to work
Can't say anything about the 3D engine, only own T2D for iPhone, didn't buy T3D for iPhone.
Easy independent of the tech is a definition thing. If your game was ultra optimized, then potentially.
Otherwise you will have to put work into the art and optimization of script and code to make it run at all as even a 600mhz P3 with a geForce is fast against a 1st gen itouch and most can not even remember those days at all ;)
#3
01/08/2010 (7:19 pm)
100% of the developers who have contacted me seeking assistance trying to get their game to work on the iPhone did most of their development on the PC. The problem is when people develop on the PC, they often don't pay attention to the large amount of optimizations needed for the game to run well on the iPhone. So, in reality, many developers making iPhone games on the PC end up producing a PC game - not an iPhone game. So please, do yourself a favor, and if you want to make iPhone games, don't put Windows or your PC anywhere near the development process. Seriously. Think of the children. 
#4
And to Laurence: wait until I get TGB Kart Kit 1.2 released.... you're going to get a published iPhone game packed in as the example to work with. :)
01/08/2010 (8:05 pm)
I prototype about 95% of every game in Windows with TGB 1.7.4, actually. Then I port over to iT2D as the last step. And to Laurence: wait until I get TGB Kart Kit 1.2 released.... you're going to get a published iPhone game packed in as the example to work with. :)
#5
01/08/2010 (8:08 pm)
@Chris: Well, if you know what you're doing and want to do it on Windows, that's fine, LOL. Obviously, you know what you're doing. :) But a lot of the people starting out with this really don't know, and it ends up catching them up pretty badly, making it harder for them to learn.
#6
01/08/2010 (8:08 pm)
thanks all I appreciate the feedback
#7
Because 95% of the content would be something about 60% of the time unless the game does not require optimizations
Also with T2Di 1.3 the whole thing has a bit changed, its now much stronger focused on the iPhone instead of beeing focused on the desktop and just run on the iphone as before.
For example the mouse callbacks no longer work on the iphone and the iphone callbacks don't work on the desktop so you need to think a bit further ahead than in the "cheap drop over" porting.
There are a few other things you will also have to look into, especially with the finally happened remove of tsshapes among other things to optimize it better for its targets (2D iPhone Game development), as targetting on the desktop was never anything required, thats what people have TGBPro already for :)
Looking forward to the kart kit news :)
01/08/2010 (8:32 pm)
Chris: 95% of the content or 95% of the time.Because 95% of the content would be something about 60% of the time unless the game does not require optimizations
Also with T2Di 1.3 the whole thing has a bit changed, its now much stronger focused on the iPhone instead of beeing focused on the desktop and just run on the iphone as before.
For example the mouse callbacks no longer work on the iphone and the iphone callbacks don't work on the desktop so you need to think a bit further ahead than in the "cheap drop over" porting.
There are a few other things you will also have to look into, especially with the finally happened remove of tsshapes among other things to optimize it better for its targets (2D iPhone Game development), as targetting on the desktop was never anything required, thats what people have TGBPro already for :)
Looking forward to the kart kit news :)
Associate David Montgomery-Blake
David MontgomeryBlake