iOS Unity -> Xcode -> iOS build times?

[ArtOfWarfare]

I think the most painful thing with my 2007 iMac right now is when I want to run a build of my Unity game on my iPhone.

It takes 5-10 minutes for Unity to build an Xcode project. Then Xcode takes 15-20 minutes to build it and transfer it to my iPhone. So it takes 20-30 minutes total.

The project is very bare bones right now. There's a single cube with a bit of GUI and a C# script that moves the camera when you touch the screen (the cube is just there to validate that the camera is moving).

I'm curious - what is everyone else using for machines, and how long does a similar build process take for it?

 

[chown33]

Is it CPU-bound or I/O-bound? If you don't know, then use some of the profiling tools to find out.

If you have the original hard drive, I wouldn't be surprised to learn it's I/O-bound. And if any of that I/O is due to swapping, then that's the first thing to fix.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I'm planning on replacing this computer within the next 3 months or so, so I'm not planning on actually upgrading it or anything. It had a nice long life - now it's time to replace it.

I'm asking more so I know what specs are must have for my next computer. Right now I'm thinking I'll just get a maxed out rMBP in every way except storage space. 512 GB is probably plenty for built in storage space. I can get an external drive if I need to store more than that.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Maybe this is just a silly thing to worry about.

Unity offers a cloud build system. It'll let me do 1 build/target/hour for free if my project is under 1 GB. It looks like they'll automatically take your Unity source files, generate an Xcode project, then build and upload it to TestFlight... all you need to provide them with is:

- Source code address and credentials
- Your Mobile Provisioning Profile
- Your p12 file
- The password to your p12 file.

I'm only building to my iPhone once every few days right now (mostly because the process takes too long on my iMac), so their 1 build/target/hour is fine for me.

The only real problem for me is that my project isn't using source control right now. Ugh.

 

[AxoNeuron]

Maybe this is just a silly thing to worry about.

Unity offers a cloud build system. It'll let me do 1 build/target/hour for free if my project is under 1 GB. It looks like they'll automatically take your Unity source files, generate an Xcode project, then build and upload it to TestFlight... all you need to provide them with is:

- Source code address and credentials
- Your Mobile Provisioning Profile
- Your p12 file
- The password to your p12 file.

I'm only building to my iPhone once every few days right now (mostly because the process takes too long on my iMac), so their 1 build/target/hour is fine for me.

The only real problem for me is that my project isn't using source control right now. Ugh.

My computer is a hackintosh. 16GB RAM, GTX 970 GPU, 4K monitor + 2 1080P monitors. It screams. I've got some absolutely massive Xcode projects but I've never seen one take longer than 45 seconds to build.

You should get a hackintosh

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

My computer is a hackintosh. 16GB RAM, GTX 970 GPU, 4K monitor + 2 1080P monitors. It screams. I've got some absolutely massive Xcode projects but I've never seen one take longer than 45 seconds to build.

You should get a hackintosh

I'd like the replacement to be more portable. Your Hackintosh isn't a laptop, is it?

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Got my project uploaded to BitBucket, but was saddened to realize that there's another show stopper - I don't have an active personal iOS account right now. Given that I'm so early in the development stages right now, it seems silly to pay $100 right now.

So I guess I'll just continue manually building and installing via my iMac.