Developing for the iPhone? Anyone? Anyone?

How to??

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Original post by loorr How to??

As implied in the original post, by using Apple's SDK.

Just me? I do have to say I'm surprised more people aren't as excited as I am about writing custom software for the iPhone. Especially seeing it's powerful, popular and currently a has a bare market for 3rd party apps...games included. Plus Apple's plan for distribution is very appealing and their cut of the profit (if you want to charge) is quite reasonable.

I just figured there would be a bit more buzz on this site about it. Perhaps since it requires a pretty modern Mac for development and most people have Windows PCs.

I'm all for it, in fact I nearly downloaded the SDK immediately after the announcement...However, my problem with this is that Apple has forced developers to use a Mac as the SDK does not support anything other than OSX. I'd love to develop games, in fact if I were to do it seriously I'd even consider the fee for the program, but I don't want to have to spend 2k on a Mac to do it.

[Edited by - trojanman on March 15, 2008 10:10:27 PM]

Sadly there are several issues with the SDK as it stands,

1) it runs on a Mac...ok well you can buy a mini for a few hundred so that's a reasonable investment.

2) The Emulator is currently unable to run any graphical programs (no OpenGL ES support) so you are limited to the onboard graphic types...buttons, lists, png's, etc...not very useful for games. It can't even rotate on screen!!! Despite the options being listed in the menu, it won't rotate.

3) The certificates needed to run your apps on hardware are being rationed.. Currently only "SOME" US, applications are being supplied, most are getting a standard, we're sending them out shortly email. Outside of the US nothing at all.


So basically, you can fire up the IDE, play with the hello world progs and thats about it for now....

I'm more than a little upset about it, but at the moment, its not a viable games dev platform.

I'm sure it'll improve, but if anyone from Apple is reading this...seriously guys what were you thinking? A dev system that can't actually run graphics...poor show...get it fixed ...soon!

[Edited by - Homers Pal on March 16, 2008 9:48:02 AM]

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Original post by Homers Pal 3) The certificates needed to run your apps on hardware are being rationed.. Currently only "SOME" US, applications are being supplied, most are getting a standard, we're sending them out shortly email. Outside of the US nothing at all.

This is exactly what I've run into. I've bought a mac book pro recently, so I figured I'd pick up an iPhone and give it a go. After downloading the 2.1GB (!!) SDK I find all I can actually do is run non-opengl apps in an emulator. If they do actually get it together I think iPhone will be a great platform to develop for, but typical US company, are there developers in other countries? Are there other countries?

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Original post by PsychoPumpkin Just me? I do have to say I'm surprised more people aren't as excited as I am about writing custom software for the iPhone.

Not that many people on this site have iPhones. Not that many people on this site have Macs. The potential iPhone development audience is the intersection of those two groups.

I'm interested in iPhone development, but I wouldn't classify myself as "excited." I have far too many other things to do first.

I'm very excited about developing games for the iPhone. Unfortunately I don't currently have one, and the OpenGL issue with the simulator is a real shame, else I'd be tapping away at getting something up and running on it. I'm very interested in the idea of making games with multitouch functionality, seems like there's so much potential with that interface.

The SDK does have some shortcomings but it is a beta release. I figure the device simulator will never be able to completely simulate the real device. I don't see a good way to do multi-touch actions or simulate using the 3-axis accelerometers with a mouse and keyboard, especially simultaneously. Perhaps some level could be done by some pre-defined macros but at some point, you'll need the real thing.

So far I am pretty happy with the tools in the SDK. I spent most of my weekend learning how to use my MacBook (the last Apple computer I used was an Apple IIe), learning the XCode IDE and getting up to speed on Objective-C. I really wish they chose to use C++. I don't really have anything bad to say about Objective-C as a language (not yet anyway) other than it's another C-derived language to keep rattling around in my head since I use C++ and C# daily at work.

Well, I was hoping for at least a few iPhone developers on this forum so I didn't have to rely on some of those Anti-AnythingButMacintosh sites to bounce issues/ideas off. [smile]

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Original post by PsychoPumpkin Well, I was hoping for at least a few iPhone developers on this forum so I didn't have to rely on some of those Anti-AnythingButMacintosh sites to bounce issues/ideas off. [smile]

Well I'm with you, but really aside from playing with the samples I'm going to find t very limited until they get the OpenGL sorted. For the moment it's a decent way to get my head around Objective C, but its a few months off being any use as a genuine games dev platform...shame as I have a really cool idea to design an FPS around the tilt controls..
Of all the docs supplied what do you think I should start with to learn Obj C?

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Original post by Homers Pal Of all the docs supplied what do you think I should start with to learn Obj C?

The Objective-C 2.0 Programming Language

The doc above is what I used to get up to speed on the language. It assumes you know C so it jumps right into what you need to know.

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Original post by PsychoPumpkin... Especially seeing it's powerful, popular and currently a has a bare market for 3rd party apps...games included.

Iphone is not a popular cellphone in the concept of number of units availables.

Anyways, i wonder if it's needing to sign a application before install.

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Original post by eng3d Iphone is not a popular cellphone in the concept of number of units availables. Anyways, i wonder if it's needing to sign a application before install.

I didn't mean popularity as units sold compared to all other cell phone models, but as it's an item that people tend to really like and want if they don't already have.

To download the SDK, you do have to sign up as a developer online and agree to their license agreements (like everything else in the world). That's it just to get it and install.

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Original post by PsychoPumpkin To download the SDK, you do have to sign up as a developer online and agree to their license agreements (like everything else in the world). That's it just to get it and install.

Or use emule/torrent.

By the way, did you know you can install macosx leopard on your common PC??? and also install iphone sdk and do something??
The project is called osx86
http://www.osx86project.org/

Read about it on "InsanelyMAc forum"

Other question, all iphone programs must be done using objective-c???

Now I am testing a game called OpenTTY (like transport tycoon) and I think it is just a port from linux and c++ was used. What do you think about that? I remember in SDK presentation it was said that SPORE and some other games were ported in just 1 or 2 weeks. Do they ported their games to objective c?

Thanks for youe suggestions.

No, you can use C or C++ but the main bootstrap progs are all done in Objective C, once you fire it up you're free to call routines written in "normal" C just as long as you follow the inital Objective C patterns and handle the message systems.

In otherwords write a shell/wrapper to start it up, which is already supplied in the SDK, and then branch off to your own programs written any way you want.

[Edited by - Homers Pal on April 6, 2008 4:45:33 PM]

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Original post by Homers Pal No, you can use C or C++ but the main bootstrap progs are all done in Objective C, once you fire it up you're free to call routines written in "normal" C just as long as you follow the inital Objective C patterns and handle the message systems. In otherwords write a shell/wrapper to start it up, which is already supplied in the SDK, and then branch off to your own programs written any way you want.

One question.

I´m only using tool chain, not official SDK. My question is if you can use C++ and OpenGL in the official Apple SDK. I wouldn't like to learn ObjC in order to create games.

Thanks a lot.

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I'm only using tool chain, not official SDK. My question is if you can use C++ and OpenGL in the official Apple SDK. I wouldn't like to learn ObjC in order to create games.

Homers Pal has the answer for you. Once you have the code that creates a window and handles events you are good to go. That's about as much ObjC as you need. If you want to do more things with the interface (using all the cool iPhone controls) you need to dive into ObjC and Cocoa.

Well, I'm working on getting a nice little game framework up and running on OS X Leopard as we speak. I just got my first Mac and unfortunately had to send it back to the store for a replacement (minor setback). So... I'll be back on track in about a week or so.

I've done some OpenGL in the past, but never worked with OpenGL ES. Anybody have any experience with it? Should I be able to port my existing OpenGL code without much work and make it compatible with the iPhone?

Depending on version of OpenGL ES. OpenGL ES 1.1 is somehow limited, but if you are using common staff porting don't take much effort. As I understand iPhone have FPU, so you don't have to mess with fixed point.

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Original post by cquinones Quote: I'm only using tool chain, not official SDK. My question is if you can use C++ and OpenGL in the official Apple SDK. I wouldn't like to learn ObjC in order to create games. Homers Pal has the answer for you. Once you have the code that creates a window and handles events you are good to go. That's about as much ObjC as you need. If you want to do more things with the interface (using all the cool iPhone controls) you need to dive into ObjC and Cocoa. Well, I'm working on getting a nice little game framework up and running on OS X Leopard as we speak. I just got my first Mac and unfortunately had to send it back to the store for a replacement (minor setback). So... I'll be back on track in about a week or so. I've done some OpenGL in the past, but never worked with OpenGL ES. Anybody have any experience with it? Should I be able to port my existing OpenGL code without much work and make it compatible with the iPhone?

iPhone uses OpenGL ES 1.1 which is more or less like opengl 1.5 (multitexturing, no shaders) but some minor changes like no glbegin/glend.

By the way, does anybody get anything using official sdk and opengl es???

Thanks.