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Unity iOS licenses?
Hi guys, im alittle confused about unity licenses, would be nice if somebody could clarify. And also development & testing on iOS devices.
What do the iOS licenses mean, exactly? Is the $400 license just to allow for an iOS build? and the $1500 license allows a build from unity pro (which also costs $1500)?
If so, does that mean all development can be done with either unity or unity pro, on either a mac or windows, and then once completed, simply buy the license and make a iOS build? (Using a mac)
Also, without a iOS license is it still possible to test the game/app, Either virtually or physically?
Im a poor single indie developer, who wants to see if he can create a game/app that would work on an iphone/ipad.
Thanks
Yes, I guess a new answer or a comment at least now that iOS basic and Android are rolled into the free product.
Answer by Nabagielis · Feb 05, 2013 at 06:30 PM
You can make an iOS app with no license, but if you want to build it, you have to get a license. The 400$ license lets you build and sell your apps, but if you make more than 100,000$ in a year with it, then you have to buy the pro license. Without a license you cannot test your app, unless you do something like make your game playable with your mouse, and when you think you are ready you can get your license and then tweek the controls to be able to play using the iOS.
Often touch or UI frameworks will have mouse + touch compatible modes, so it is possible to develop without an iOS license and then take the plunge once you are 'ready'.
The problem is that ready is a hard thing to judge if you haven't had a chance to feel what the game will run like on a device. It's easy to be complacent when running in the editor as you have a good deal more grunt than on an iPhone, so while you may think you're 'ready' you may find you've been coding in such a way that the Garbage Collector runs every frame, or that you're using too much RA$$anonymous$$ or that your rendering way too much or, yada yada. It could then be an expensive refactoring of the code to make things run smoothly. I am always hyper aware of the best practices when deploying to mobile and naturally you can code lean for Desktop as well and reap rewards there too, albeit the realization of those rewards isn't so great.
It's worth noting that to buy Pro iOS you need the Pro Unity license, so that is $1875 for Unity Pro and another $1875 for iOS Pro, both are plus any liable sales TAX. You don't need Pro to write games for iOS - clearly it helps. The pro benefits we are seeing are: occlusion culling, static batching, profile and probably real-time shadows and light probes if those are a pro feature. We ran on iOS basic plugin, which does not require pro, for the longest time, so you can do it - we just wanted the static batching and OC.
Note that to build for iOS you also need a mac.
Thanks for that, just foundout i can buy a Unity Pro + Pro iOS commerical from studencia, too, for $1500 in total.
If I am reading the prices right, it's even cheaper than that. However I would check that the license is for commercial use and also, note that the licenses appear to be 1 year licenses. Also note you can only install on one machine, whereas with a full commercial license you can install on two (but not for concurrent use), so you can use Unity on a laptop while on the road and then again on a desktop.
Actually yes, the student commercial is £1090, so it looks like a full license is probably around $1500, but you get Unity 4 Pro, Team License, Android Pro, iOS Pro & Flash Player Pro, so it's rather a lot cheaper, like <25% of the full price.
And now iOS and Android basic are rolled into the free product.
Answer by Landern · Feb 05, 2013 at 06:24 PM
You can buy a license for iOS that is compatible with Unity Free, that is $400 for iOS, if you want android, it's another 400. You can build the game with unity free, but please understand you can not test the iOS version until you have the license, it will not build to that platform without it, there are things you will probably not plan for until you can test on the mobile platforms. On the store page it does explain what you get with the pro versions of unity(which is required for pro versions of android and iOS) if you click [+]Read More next to the product.
Answer by TASNO · Feb 05, 2013 at 06:55 PM
Could you please reply to muzzle flash!
You can't get a licence until you buy pro or a licence, what are you intending to make?
TASNO :D
No. You don't need a Pro license to publish to iOS. You do need a iOS license.
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