iOS UDK PC Emulation

[looprix]

While testing an iOS UDK game on PC can I emulate how it would run on an actual iPhone 4?

...or do I have to build it to the iPhone directly to test?

[darthviper107]

There is a previewer so you can see what it would look like--but the performance wouldn't be the same as running it of an iOS device (you're computer is more powerful and you can't make it run the same speed as an iOS device). So to know if you get the proper performance you need to test it on the device

[Rasmus Slot]

There is a previewer so you can see what it would look like--but the performance wouldn't be the same as running it of an iOS device (you're computer is more powerful and you can't make it run the same speed as an iOS device). So to know if you get the proper performance you need to test it on the device

What i thought. Well, just a better reason to pony up those 99$ to Apple.

[darthviper107]

You don't need a Mac to test on the device--at least from what I gather--you just need a Mac to be able to publish your app

[Rasmus Slot]

You don't need a Mac to test on the device--at least from what I gather--you just need a Mac to be able to publish your app

No, you need some files from Apple website that can only be accessed by purchasing an iOS developers license.

[joat]

You can run in the mobile previewer without an account, but packaging and running on a iOS hardware device (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) requires registering and paying for an iOS developer account with Apple.

The Mac is only needed when you are ready to submit to the App store.

Cheers,
Michael Noland

[elitemantis]

You can run in the mobile previewer without an account

That doesn't actually answer the question. Is the mobile previewer emulating speed of iOS hardware when playing the game? If so - which one? Can you configure it to test how the app would run on iPhone 3G and iPhone 4?

[Curious]

That doesn't actually answer the question. Is the mobile previewer emulating speed of iOS hardware when playing the game? If so - which one? Can you configure it to test how the app would run on iPhone 3G and iPhone 4?

It is practically a 1:1 preview of what you get within the ES2.0 API on the iPhone. What this means it emulates how ES2.0 works on the iPhone in high precision, but if you clumped the scene with a lot of stuff, your PC would probably handle it much better than your iPhone 3GS (weaker phone).

So, in a nutshell... It's a featurelist ratio of 1:1, not a performance ratio of 1:1.

[Sir. Polaris]

I thought the whole point of emulation was to emulate the device - thus it's performance as well. There is a drop down box to select what device you want to emulate.

[Curious]

I thought the whole point of emulation was to emulate the device - thus it's performance as well. There is a drop down box to select what device you want to emulate.

From my experience, I've had better results running the project on the PC than on my 3GS (freshly restored). My uncertain opinion would be that it's only some parameters in addition to the feature set of the device which control whether it's portrait/landscape and resolution of the window for a more accurate presentation.

But the best preview is on the device itself.

[andrei313]

99$ is not a lot to pay Apple if you already have a device. Seeing what you just made on the actual iPod/iPhone is priceless in my opinion at least.
They also have great documentation about what you need to do to become a developer.

[ffejnosliw]

I thought the whole point of emulation was to emulate the device - thus it's performance as well. There is a drop down box to select what device you want to emulate.

The Mobile Previewer can emulate the rendering and feature set of the device, but it does not simulate the performance. If you want to test performance on a particular device, you will want to install to that device and run it natively.

[Adam]

Does the emulator take memory footprint into account? If not, what is the best way to tell if you are over your memory budget for your targeted device(s)?

[Tom Havlik]

The Mobile Previewer can emulate the rendering and feature set of the device, but it does not simulate the performance. If you want to test performance on a particular device, you will want to install to that device and run it natively.

By this, I assume that the "Mobile Previewer" is actually just Play in Editor except the renderer is through OpenGL ES 2.0, instead of there being some kind of VM setup for emulating an Apple device. What is the probability of getting such a thing? Surely much testing time can be saved if performance is emulated on a PC. The Android SDK emulator had this option, it was really great.

I don't know how easy it would be to limit the execution speed of a thread (I've never tried it.) I'd assume it isn't super easy or you guys would have already done it