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I'm basically new and starting iPhone game development and I want to create 3D games for the platform, I had a look around and it doesn't seems to have much choice if you want a pure 3D oriented game engine that provide you physic etc...

While Googling I come up with 2 solutions:

Unity (unity3d.com), which seems to be somewhat restricted to scripting and while testing I saw the even a simple build is like 28meg... Look to me that the basic version doesn't get you nowhere as most of the features to optimize your Apps. comes with the full version... and you still need a flash screen.

SIO2 (sio2interactive.com), they seems to just release a new version that seems pretty good, they seems to use C++ for coding which is great and have a blender integration. Executable size is like 2meg which seems to me unbelievable for the features they provide, and you can also get the source, and from my tests it run pretty fast too.

Anyway, my question is what does people are using out there?

Unity seems to be the popular choice for "easy" game creation, but SIO2 seems to be more expandable to me (am I right to think that?).

And finally, what would you guys recommend (basically iPhone 3D newbie) to use based on your experience?

PS: I have experience in C++ and basic knowledge in OpenGL (desktop).

tshepang
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Bob McLaury
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  • Regarding this very old question, the only realistic solution today is Unity3D. Almost all popular 3D games on iOS are Unity. Even if (incredibly) you made a native title, say that would take 10 or 20 man-years. (So, a team of 10-30 engineers for 6 or 12 months.) You'd first make a mockup in a game engine (ie, you'd do that in 20 or 25 minutes). – Fattie Mar 24 '16 at 15:00

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Unity is very cool, IMO, but I just started using it for game dev.

squeezemylime
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  • Fair enough, just a question is it just me or a simple App. with nothing in it compile at 28megs? For iPhone that looks pretty big to me, I mean the size must definitely affect the execution speed no? – Bob McLaury Nov 29 '10 at 04:04
  • Many large games can only be downloaded over 3G if they are < 20 MB, but that doesn't stop large games like Need for Speed from being created. – squeezemylime Nov 29 '10 at 04:11
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    Since more than 50% of app sales are directly through the device, app size is indeed important. If someone follows a link or whatever to your app in the store, taps to buy but the device informs them that they can't over 3G, what are the odds they'll come back and try again when they have a better connection? Sales are made on instant decisions and lost when the moment has passed. Not saying you shouldn't proceed with your >20MB game, but know that it absolutely has an affect on sales. – Matthew Frederick Nov 29 '10 at 06:15
  • .. important point to consider for games like "need for speed" is they are already successful in Console or Desktop market. Either that or have a monstrous marketing budget to make people curious enough and make sure they hear enough about the game from reviews and other sources and try them. But if you are trying to sell something as an indie developer or someone who is just starting out, you want to make the process of getting the game as easy and a fast as possible. Just my two cents :) – Dev Apr 22 '11 at 12:14
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I suggest you take a look at http://isgl3d.com/. it has written in Objective-C and has many good features, it has OpenGl ES 2 and bullet physics support and can import 3D objects from blender or maya with POD format.

also if you have C++ knowledge you can consider using openframeworks or cinder, both are C++ and created for creative programming but can be used for some type of games.

http://libcinder.org

http://openframeworks.cc

Abbas Mousavi
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Unity would probably be the best option to use in regards to game programming. However, are you a one man or do you have modelers getting animation for your game? If you do not then I recommend Blender, which is an open source tool used to model characters for games and such.

Back to Unity, it seems like the best options just because of the many different types of coding you can do on it. This includes C# and a version of JavaScript for video games. Also, if you're interested in a career for game development then Unity can help you learn scripting so you already know how to do it if you apply for a job.

Lastly, Unity seems to be the like the best engine that is free that can do the most 'stuff' quickly. Prototyping is incredibly quick on Unity and this will help you in the long run when you need to test your game.

Domecraft
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There are far more iPhone 3D game engines to choose from than unity and SIO2. I can suggest at least 19 for iOS + 3D development: http://mobilegameengines.com/iphone/3d_game_engines

jasonb
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