Building a Computer to Emulate Unity on iPad

YakZSmelk

This my be a ridiculous question but has anyone built a computer that is comparable in power to an iPad, as a means to test performance without having to create a build?

-If you have; can you share your system specs/hardware?

-And if you haven't or have a better means of doing something similar to this could you share with me how you do it?


I know Unity can emulate graphics settings but I am unaware of any way to emulate CPU/graphics power.

Also if it helps the target platform is an iPad Air.

MikeF

Is there a reason you dont want to use something like unity remote to test things?

Not only is it going to be a huge pain to get a system together that behaves like a mobile device, you'l probably end up spending more than the tablet itself and not have any of the platform specific inputs (gyro, touch, accel, magneto etc..)

If you're just getting into mobile development its a bit of a pain at first but once you've got remote setup then its an extra second or two between pressing play and using the actual device to test.

YakZSmelk

From my understanding the remote is exactly what it sounds like a controller, no? It's been awhile since I've looked at that so I'll check it out again though.

The real issue is the target platform is iPad but the Art Team uses PCs, so it's difficult for the art team to test art performance issues since we can't easily/quickly test a build on the platform.

I'm most likely approaching this the wrong way, but what would be the easiest solution for a PC team to test iOS performance? And switching to Mac is not an option.

MikeF

Ah sorry i misunderstood the need for performance emulation. Honestly though i'd still recommend getting the device itself if you're serious about development on mobile.

I've been working with samsung's gearVR for the last few months and its a bit of a slowdown when deploying to the device but i think it's a matter of adapting your workflow so only key testing is done on the device itself, and the rest within the editor. I've been able to get things down so that i'm only making a build maybe 3-5 times a day while minor changes are all tested in editor.

There might be emulation options within the iOS sdk though i've never worked with it personally so i'm not sure. It sucks if you're on a budget but actual hardware is king for these reasons