New Macbook to learn programming

[thepf]

I'm currently looking to upgrade from a 2011 Macbook Pro 13inch, although for the past few years I've mainly used by Ipad Air primarily in addition to my work laptop. This has suited my needs well but the main reason I am now looking to upgrade is that I am about start a course in programming and game development. I will be learning C++ and Python and the objective of the course is to eventually publish a game running in Unreal Engine- the test project will be a first person shooter.

I have been looking at various options, including both Windows machine and Macs, although after ten years of using Mac's, they will always be my preference. My question is which Apple machine do you think would best suit my needs? I don't feel like I'll be doing intensive graphic rendering from the off set, but in a year from now it could could be an option, but my primary goal is to get good at programming. Has anyone else been in a similar situation or could advice in the best way? All feedback is much appreciated guys!

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I'm currently looking to upgrade from a 2011 Macbook Pro 13inch, although for the past few years I've mainly used by Ipad Air primarily in addition to my work laptop. This has suited my needs well but the main reason I am now looking to upgrade is that I am about start a course in programming and game development. I will be learning C++ and Python and the objective of the course is to eventually publish a game running in Unreal Engine- the test project will be a first person shooter.

I have been looking at various options, including both Windows machine and Macs, although after ten years of using Mac's, they will always be my preference. My question is which Apple machine do you think would best suit my needs? I don't feel like I'll be doing intensive graphic rendering from the off set, but in a year from now it could could be an option, but my primary goal is to get good at programming. Has anyone else been in a similar situation or could advice in the best way? All feedback is much appreciated guys!

Well you will eventually need to run the first person shooter you develop, in some sort of decent fashion s presumably you will need some serious graphics so the 15 inch with a 460 or a 27 inch iMac would be my suggestion.

 

[New_Mac_Smell]

Start with the audience you want to target, then build for that market. If you plan on making Mac games or anything then it's a good idea, however the majority of work will likely be within Windows I'm guessing? So you'll be paying a lot for a system to use in Bootcamp most of the time.

Graphics cards could be an issue with Macs and as @Samuelsan2001 mentioned an iMac would be better, however if you take it seriously and grow with it you could always add an eGPU to a MBP.

 

[maerz001]

from a personal experience: for programming bigger screen is better. so either iMac or MBP with external monitor. to have enough space to put the different windows like simulation, debugging, text input side by side...

 

[Hanson Eigilson]

I would start by looking at what the recommended hardware is for the course.
UE4 is not without issues on the mac and the actual hardware is perhaps not ideally suited for development of games outside the apple ecosystem.
even with the best macbook you can get you are likely to be at the absolute bottom of the class in terms of raw gpu performance in every single task that you do.

In my experience to get good at programming you need the right tool for the job, using well supported platforms. I have spent too much of my time trying to do things "my way" or simply looking at a feature spec and thinking oh yeah, xyz is supported i'll use that then! only to find out later that nobody is using xyz and only 90% of things are supported on xyz and i need something from the last 10% and the documentation for some of that 10% is so utterly obscure and convoluted and/or nonexistant that i could have bough a boat for the time i spent "learning it" when in fact that learning is useless because nobody should ever dip into that unholy last 10% lol

 

[jerryk]

A Windows desktop would likely give you the best bang for the buck. When you code you want to see a lot of code, and external monitors are best for that. I don't know anything about developing for Unreal, but it developers seem to like Visual Studio's support, which leads back to Windows.