UnrealEngine 4 provides huge amount of tools for game developers which continues to evolve all the time thanks to Epic team and comunity around it.
However here is hided one of the problem. Nobody can write documentation or make video tutorials that will cover all aspects of the developement process and highlight possibilities of the engine. That where comunity appears.
During development of the game my team faced a lot of challenges and part of them is to configure tools in the most effective way. Here are some of our findings.
To work with your device UnrealEngine provide UI tool called iPhonePackager which allows to sign your game package with required provision, install on device or grab local files from device including log files. Underneath of the iPhonePackager works application named DeploymentServer. Actually the same application used to launch game within the UE4 editor on device.
But one of the problems iPhonePackager have is UI. Sometimes in order to make the simple operation devloper has to get through couple of screens and dialogs. So I had a look under the cover of iPhonePackager and found that using DeploymentServer directly can save you a lot of time or help to integrate UE4 native tools more deeply with tools that already might be present in the company.
Deployment server is a simple commandline application that can be called separatelly with specific parameters. Here is some of the operations.
DeploymentServer.exe listdevices
DeploymentServer.exe install -device IOS@All_iOS_On_MyComputer -ipa C:\MyGame.ipa
-device: name of the device to install at. By default IOS@All_iOS_On_MyComputer and can be skipped. If couple of devices connected to a computer game package will be installed on all of them, one by one. Single device name or ID can be provided to install game on one device only.
-ipa: defines path to the ipa game package that should be installed. Obviously it can't be skipped.
DeploymentServer.exe backupdocs -bundle com.my-company.my-game -device MyIPhone8
-bundle: application id of your game registered on developers.apple.com and used to generate provisioning for the game.
-device: name of the device from which to grab files.
By default all files will be stored under the working directory of the calling application.
I beleive that this three commands that could be quite handy during devlopment not for coders only but for artist or gamedesigners. Especially if you've got already some set of internal tools to run the development environment.
Additional links: iPhonePackager documentation
However here is hided one of the problem. Nobody can write documentation or make video tutorials that will cover all aspects of the developement process and highlight possibilities of the engine. That where comunity appears.
During development of the game my team faced a lot of challenges and part of them is to configure tools in the most effective way. Here are some of our findings.
To work with your device UnrealEngine provide UI tool called iPhonePackager which allows to sign your game package with required provision, install on device or grab local files from device including log files. Underneath of the iPhonePackager works application named DeploymentServer. Actually the same application used to launch game within the UE4 editor on device.
But one of the problems iPhonePackager have is UI. Sometimes in order to make the simple operation devloper has to get through couple of screens and dialogs. So I had a look under the cover of iPhonePackager and found that using DeploymentServer directly can save you a lot of time or help to integrate UE4 native tools more deeply with tools that already might be present in the company.
Deployment server is a simple commandline application that can be called separatelly with specific parameters. Here is some of the operations.
Find list of devices connected to a computer
Command listdevices allows to print list of all available devices.DeploymentServer.exe listdevices
Install ipa game package on a device or devices.
Commmand install is created to deploy ipa game package to the required devices. It could one device, all devices connected to the computer or specific set of connected devices. It works for all iOS devices: phones, pads and tvs.DeploymentServer.exe install -device IOS@All_iOS_On_MyComputer -ipa C:\MyGame.ipa
-device: name of the device to install at. By default IOS@All_iOS_On_MyComputer and can be skipped. If couple of devices connected to a computer game package will be installed on all of them, one by one. Single device name or ID can be provided to install game on one device only.
-ipa: defines path to the ipa game package that should be installed. Obviously it can't be skipped.
Copy local files generated by a game from device to PC.
There are couple of command implemented by Epic team to copy files from a device. You can copy one specific file or grab all files from the device. Just remember you can pull files stored in container created for your application by iOS, usually it Documents and Library folders.DeploymentServer.exe backupdocs -bundle com.my-company.my-game -device MyIPhone8
-bundle: application id of your game registered on developers.apple.com and used to generate provisioning for the game.
-device: name of the device from which to grab files.
By default all files will be stored under the working directory of the calling application.
I beleive that this three commands that could be quite handy during devlopment not for coders only but for artist or gamedesigners. Especially if you've got already some set of internal tools to run the development environment.
Additional links: iPhonePackager documentation
