iPhone Engines - Cocos2D
polycounter lvl 18
I don't know if anyone else around polycount is working on an iPhone app, or is interested in working on one. I started working on a very simple iPhone app a week ago. At first it was a pretty rough start, as I had little to no experience with Objective-C.
And then, when searching around for information on iPhone development, I ran across this little gem...
Cocos2D - iPhone version
http://code.google.com/p/cocos2d-iphone/
It is not a 3D engine, it is pretty much strictly 2D at the moment. I have heard tell that it is possible to integrate 3D graphics into it, but that's really not the point. There are most likely better options if you really need 3D.
But for basic 2D work, this has been immensely useful so far. I'm already loading up images, producing custom animated sequences, transitioning between scenes, you name it. After a little serialization and XML work, my first app should be structurally complete. (after that its just a matter of populating with final content)
If any polycounters are considering developing an iPhone app or game, and don't mind dappling in 2D graphics for their freshman effort, I would definitely recommend this engine.
And then, when searching around for information on iPhone development, I ran across this little gem...
Cocos2D - iPhone version
http://code.google.com/p/cocos2d-iphone/
It is not a 3D engine, it is pretty much strictly 2D at the moment. I have heard tell that it is possible to integrate 3D graphics into it, but that's really not the point. There are most likely better options if you really need 3D.
But for basic 2D work, this has been immensely useful so far. I'm already loading up images, producing custom animated sequences, transitioning between scenes, you name it. After a little serialization and XML work, my first app should be structurally complete. (after that its just a matter of populating with final content)
If any polycounters are considering developing an iPhone app or game, and don't mind dappling in 2D graphics for their freshman effort, I would definitely recommend this engine.
Replies
[ame]
as for Cocos2D:
some things that would scare me to really use it:
- propably not complete, if you want to add a filter or special effect you'd most likely would have to code it yourself.
- No visual WYIWYG editor like Flash, Director or Dreamweaver that lets you create either create Shapes, Sprites or layouts.
but to be fair a hybrid workflow incorporating either Flash, Mappy or other tool is what's realistic anyway.
I'd be interested in what Unity3D has to offer in the 2D sector as I know that it comes with a 2D camera system as well and supports already layers on the fly. There is also a kind of XML markup language to design interfaces and I heard that you can even do that visually in Unity.
nice pickup though, if you have something to share or show I'd be probably interested in seeing what you did with it.
It's true that there is zero WYSIWYG for Cocos2D. It's a strictly coding affair. Of course, Flash can't be used to develop iPhone apps, so there are precious few IDE's for iPhone development at the moment anyway. On the plus side, Cocos2D works just fine with XCode. It's not a visual editor, but it is at least gives you nice programming interface. (this is a bit obvious, pretty much every iPhone library has to work with XCode)
And yes, XCode isn't complete. There are some features you have to add yourself, either with the Apple or third-party libraries. I don't believe they have properly incorporated sound into the iPhone version of the engine, and I don't think they have a solid XML implementation either. Both these features can be incorporated into the engine using other code, but they haven't been tied directly into the library itself yet.
On the plus side, Cocos2D is free to use for commercial iPhone apps. Free is hard to argue with.