Pandora Unity for Pandora game development?

[reSPAWNed]

Hi all,


Just passing the time until I get my hands on one of them Pandys, so if my question is totally bonkers please excuse me.


I have been programming in C# for some years now, and now I want to play with some game development.


So I researched the field of game development frameworks and found that a lot of people are digging the Unity game engine.


The interesting thing that I found, is that they are adding Linux deployment: http://unity3d.com/?linux


Does this mean that I can make a game using Unity, that can be run on the Pandora?

 

[crow_riot]

Does this mean that I can make a game using Unity, that can be run on the Pandora?

no, i dont think so. they would need to create a deployment target specially for the pandora to make that work, which i doubt they'll do with the current amount of pandoras in the wild.

 

[reSPAWNed]

Is this because the Unity game engine would require libraries that are not build for the Pandora?

 

[crow_riot]

Is this because the Unity game engine would require libraries that are not build for the Pandora?

no it's because unity needs to support the pandora internally - they need to have a player that runs on the pandora natively.

 

[TangentDelta]

I think unity uses the normal OpenGL, not OPenGL ES (PE? LS? I don't know what it's called), so it wouldn't work on the Pandora.

 

[ibisum]

Unity has a GL ES target, no problems there (iOS/Android), so its just a matter of having a build option for our particular brand of Linux, which is commonly used but probably not so much compatible with the 'easier' route for the Unity team, which is to make a Unity player targeting Ubuntu ARM.


(We are Angstrom-arm.) If we can get a compatability layer between Ubuntu ARM and PandoraOS, then .. yeah .. a player might be possible.


On the other hand, wherever MONO lives, Unity can play, I suppose. So maybe its easier than we think, and we just need some Unity boffins with the ultra-expensive All-Platforms seat to figure out how to produce Linux-ARM targets ..


On the other, other hand, maybe maratis3d is more interesting .. http://www.maratis3d.org/ .. at least, if we get some games made with it and built on the Pandora, the ability to script Unity->Maratis3D convertors might open a few other doors .. same with Blender Game Engine, which is soon to have Ubuntu-ARM targets with GLES 2.0 support, I think, as well ..

 

[crow_riot]

Unity has a GL ES target, no problems there (iOS/Android), so its just a matter of having a build option for our particular brand of Linux, which is commonly used but probably not so much compatible with the 'easier' route for the Unity team, which is to make a Unity player targeting Ubuntu ARM.

mentioning android - which i forgot; you probably could develop unity games - just use android as your target and run it inside pandora's android port.


To export for iOS or Android Unity Pro is required, which costs 1500$ and for every platform again 1500$ - so you'd be at 3000$ to build for android. There are cheaper solutions out there to program something for the pandora

 

[reSPAWNed]

Unity has a GL ES target, no problems there (iOS/Android), so its just a matter of having a build option for our particular brand of Linux, which is commonly used but probably not so much compatible with the 'easier' route for the Unity team, which is to make a Unity player targeting Ubuntu ARM.


(We are Angstrom-arm.) If we can get a compatability layer between Ubuntu ARM and PandoraOS, then .. yeah .. a player might be possible.


On the other hand, wherever MONO lives, Unity can play, I suppose. So maybe its easier than we think, and we just need some Unity boffins with the ultra-expensive All-Platforms seat to figure out how to produce Linux-ARM targets ..


On the other, other hand, maybe maratis3d is more interesting .. http://www.maratis3d.org/ .. at least, if we get some games made with it and built on the Pandora, the ability to script Unity->Maratis3D convertors might open a few other doors .. same with Blender Game Engine, which is soon to have Ubuntu-ARM targets with GLES 2.0 support, I think, as well ..

This sounds plausible and might be something that could be done.

Unity has a GL ES target, no problems there (iOS/Android), so its just a matter of having a build option for our particular brand of Linux, which is commonly used but probably not so much compatible with the 'easier' route for the Unity team, which is to make a Unity player targeting Ubuntu ARM.

mentioning android - which i forgot; you probably could develop unity games - just use android as your target and run it inside pandora's android port.


To export for iOS or Android Unity Pro is required, which costs 1500$ and for every platform again 1500$ - so you'd be at 3000$ to build for android. There are cheaper solutions out there to program something for the pandora

But the most exciting thing about getting Unity (or some kind of converter) is not that my game would run on the Pandora (although I find that exciting), but that more and more games are being developed in this game engine, so it might widen the game library on the Pandora.

 

[ibisum]

I think, until someone in the Pandora scene has a copy of Unity Pro with all the build options, we won't really know if its possible .. so better would be to work on Blender gamekit engine conversions and so on ..

 

[LineOf7s]

They were giving away Pro licenses a few months ago.  One day when my Pandora comes it'll be interesting to see what if anything we can do with it.


Cool.

 

[crow_riot]

I think, until someone in the Pandora scene has a copy of Unity Pro with all the build options, we won't really know if its possible .. so better would be to work on Blender gamekit engine conversions and so on ..

would have access to that, but really the time to dig deeper

 

[SiegfriedCroes]

I got the free standard version of Unity + the standard Android and iOS licences they gave away for free a while ago, I did make some test apps for my android tablet so maybe I could try out android on pandora and see if it runs


EDIT: Good news guys, it's working Still doing some more tests on how fast the games run but this sure is awesome already

 

[reSPAWNed]

Awesome news Dragons_Slayer!!! ;D


Thanks a bunch for testing it, let us all know how it performs.


Can't wait for the 1GHz Panda I ordered, which seems to be just around the corner...

 

[fusion_power]

I got the free standard version of Unity + the standard Android and iOS licences they gave away for free a while ago, I did make some test apps for my android tablet so maybe I could try out android on pandora and see if it runs


EDIT: Good news guys, it's working Still doing some more tests on how fast the games run but this sure is awesome already

Sounds good, Unity is used alot these days it seems.


But could Unity also run straight on the Pandora in a PND, so without Android underneeth?

 

[McLovin]

Unity has a GL ES target, no problems there (iOS/Android), so its just a matter of having a build option for our particular brand of Linux, which is commonly used but probably not so much compatible with the 'easier' route for the Unity team, which is to make a Unity player targeting Ubuntu ARM.

mentioning android - which i forgot; you probably could develop unity games - just use android as your target and run it inside pandora's android port.


To export for iOS or Android Unity Pro is required, which costs 1500$ and for every platform again 1500$ - so you'd be at 3000$ to build for android. There are cheaper solutions out there to program something for the pandora

no, android/ios/pro are three different things. I have android and iOS, but not pro. I have ported one of my games to android with it, but since installing bigger apk's from sdcard or adb push is impossible, I gave up. Tell me if there is another way of installing apk's rather then playstore, and i will try.