iOS Bridge

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Description

iOS Bridge library helps to embed Unity 3D view into UIKit applications and vise versa. Create GUI with UIKit view elements.

It works with Unity 3D Free and Pro.

Tested on versions 3.5 - 4.1

It's possible to open UIKit view controllers from Unity. Application can open any view controller no matter it custom or one of standard:

GameCenter
In-app purchases shop
WebView
MapKit
Image Picker

Another way to use iOSBridge is to open 3D view. You can use iOS Bridge to create such things:

Animated 3D Model view with full Unity3d engine power.
360-degeree panorama view
Augmented reality applications

Also it's easy to add UIKit view above Unity3D container to create GUI elements. Create GUI with interface builder and use it without complex GUI systems for Unity. There are some nice things:

Automatic HD/SD graphics selection
Easy localization options
Dynamic fonts
Clear layout and sizing setup
Simple animation

Examples

Some examples available here: http://blind-soft.info/iosbridge/examples/

Features

Unity Free and Pro

iOS Bridge works in either version of Unity without any limitations.
ARC support

ARC support is available for UIKit part. Full instruction is available in Documentation http://blind-soft.info/iosbridge/documentation#ARC
Load Unity scenes by name

3D view can have multiple scenes in Unity, every of them can be loaded by name.
Storyboard, Nib or programmatically created UI

UIKit view controllers can be created in any way. It's possible to load it from storyboard, create separate nib-files for each view controller or create them programmatically.
UIKit view above unity's 3D view

Set transparent UIView with controls to create GUI for Unity 3D view. Touch interactions will be available
AppDelegate-like interface

Application structure will be close to ordinary iOS application with AppDelegate and View Controllers. Create UIKit root view controller and switch between UIKit and Unity with single call.

Limitations

Unity stays in memory

Unity stays in memory all time. Unity engine can be paused to prevent CPU and GPU consumption, but can't be unloaded.
Messages can be send to unity only in active state

Unity can't respond to messages in paused state. It should be active to perform operations.

Not all UIAppDelegate methods supported

There's no support of the methods:

  application:shouldSaveApplicationState:
  application:shouldRestoreApplicationState:
  application:viewControllerWithRestorationIdentifierPath:coder:
  application:willEncodeRestorableStateWithCoder:
  application:didDecodeRestorableStateWithCoder:

Documentation

Quick start

Unity

Install and import iOS Bridge into your Unity 3D project.
Open iOSBridge scene
Open Build settings and switch to iOS
Setup bundle id, application name
Add iOSBridge scene to be first in list.
This step depends on how much scenes will be
Only one scene content can be placed to iOS Bridge scene
One or more scenes create separate scenes and add them to build list
Build project

XCode

Open created project.
Unity 3.5 - 4.1:

Open main.mm file and replace

    UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, @"AppController");

with

    UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, @"iOSBridgeAppDelegate");

Unity 4.2:

Open main.mm file and replace

    const char* AppControllerClassName = "UnityAppController";

with

    const char* AppControllerClassName = "iOSBridgeAppDelegate";

Open UIKitAppDelegate.m

Place creation of root UIView controller into

 - (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions;

Set initialized UIView controller to

 self.rootViewController = nil;/* replace with your controller*/

Set cover UIView for 3D View

 self.unityOverlayView = nil;/* replace with your view*/

Switch from Unity to iOS and back

Switch to Unity from iOS by calling
```
  [[iOSBridge shared] openUnity];
```

Switch to Unity scene from iOS

  [[iOSBridge shared] openUnityWithScene: @"sceneName"];

Switch to ViewController from iOS by calling
```
  [[iOSBridge shared] openUIKit];
```

Send message to Unity(works only when Unity is running)

  [[iOSBridge shared] sendMessageToUnity: @"message"];

Switch to ViewController from Unity by calling

  iOSBridge.shared.OpenUIKit( "message" );

Send message to UIKit

  iOSBridge.shared.SendMessageToUIKit( "message" );

Receive message from UIKit in iOSBridge.cs file

  iOSBridge::MessageFromiOS( string message );

Receive message from Unity in UIKitAppDelegate.m

  - (void)didGotMessageFromUnity: (NSString*)message;

Receive level load event in UIKitAppDelegate.m

  - (void)didLoadLevel: (NSString*)loadLevel;

ARC Support

You can add ARC support to project with these steps:

Open *main.mm and replace

 NSAutoreleasePool* pool = [NSAutoreleasePool new];
 ...
 [pool release];

with

    @autoreleasepool {
    ...
    }

Open Build Settings and set

Objective-C Automatic Reference Counting to YES
Open Build Phases->Compile Sources

Select all .m/.mm files except UIKitAppDelegate.m, hit Enter and type
```
 -fno-objc-arc
```

Overlay UIView for Unity

You can create GUI with UIView overlay

Create your view with nib as usual

Open UIKitAppDelegate.m file and init your overlay view

 - (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application
 didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
 	...
 	MyOverlayView *overlayView = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed: @"MyOverlayView"
                                                         owner: self.rootViewController 
                                                       options: nil] 
                             objectAtIndex: 0]
                           retain];
     self.unityOverlayView = overlayView;
 	...
 	}

Overlay view should be inherited from UIUnityOverlayView for transparent background and Unity touch support

UIKit interface from storyboard

UIKit interface can be loaded from Storyboard.

Create your interface in storyboard as usual.

Open UIKitAppDelegate.m file and init your view controller.

 - (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application
 didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
 	...
 	UIStoryboard *storyboard = [[UIStoryboard storyboardWithName: @"Your_storyboard" 
                                                    bundle: nil] autorelease];
 	self.rootViewController = [storyboard instantiateInitialViewController] retain];
 	...
 }

Navigation and Tab view controllers, as well as segues can be used as usual.

UIKit interface from nib

UIKit interface can be loaded from nib

Create your root view controller nib as usual

Open UIKitAppDelegate.m file and init your view controller

 - (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application
 didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
 	...
 	ExampleViewController *exampleController = 
 	[[[ExampleViewController alloc] initWithNibName: @"ExampleViewController"
                                         bundle: nil] retain];
 	self.rootViewController = exampleController;
 	...
 	}

Autoload UIKit

UIKit can be launched after application start.

Set autostartUIKit flag in application launch handler

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application
    didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
        ...
            self.autostartUIKit = YES; // Autostart UIKit
        ...
        }

Load level by name

Level can be loaded by name with command

[[iOSBridge shared] openUnityWithScene: @"sceneName"];

Unity Free will start synchronous load scene and then switch to unity.

Unity Pro will start asynchronous scene load. Unity will be shown after load finished.

Method

	private IEnumerator LoadLevelAsync( string levelName )

can be used to send message with load progress.

iOSBridge object documentation

iOSBridge class in Unity

##iOSBridge##

Main class, used to handle communication between Unity and UIKit

Methods

static extern void  iOSBridgeFinishUnity (  string  data  )

Open UIKit frontend and pause Unity

data - parameter to be sent to UIKit

iOSBridge classes in UIKit

##iOSBridge##

Singleton, that used to switch between UIKit and Unity.

Methods

+  ( iOSBridge*) )  shared

Returns shared instance of iOSBridge singleton

-  (	 void )  openUIKit

Opens UIKit view and pauses Unity

-  (	 void )  openUnity

Opens Unity view and resumes last scene

-  (	 void )  openUnityWithScene :  ( NSString*  scene )

Opens Unity view with loading scene by name.

- (void)sendMessageToUnity: (NSString*)message;

Sends message to Unity

##UIKitAppDelegate##

This class should be used to handle UIApplicationDelegate events.

It hides iOSBridge and Unity code for better coding experience.

This class supports most of methods from UIApplicationDelegate protocol.

See limitations section for unsupported methods.

Methods

-  (  BOOL )  application :  ( UIApplication* )  application  didFinishLaunchingWithOptions  :  ( NSDictionary* )  launchOptions

Standard application initialization method. Best place to init some analytics, debug stuff. Also UIKit interface initialization should be places here.

- (void)didGotMessageFromUnity: (NSString*)message;

Method is called on message from Unity

- (void)didLoadLevel: (NSString*)loadLevel;

Method is called after level was loaded

Properties

@property  ( nonatomic )  BOOL  autostartUIKit

UIKit will be launched after app start if this flag is set YES

@property  ( nonatomic ,  strong )  UIViewController*  rootViewController

Root UIKit view controller.

@property  ( nonatomic ,  strong )  UIUnityOverlayView*  unityOverlayView

Unity overlay view controller.

##UIUnityOverlayView##

UIView subclass with transparent background and Unity touch support.

This is ordinary UIView with overloaded methods didMoveToSuperview and pointInside:withEvent: #####Overloaded methods#####

- (void)didMoveToSuperview {

Set background color to transparent

-  (  BOOL  )  pointInside :  ( CGPoint )  point  withEvent :  ( UIEvent* )  event

This method walks through all subviews and call same method for each. If there's no control at touch point, it will return NO and UIKit will pass touch event to underlying Unity view.

BlindSoft/iOSBridge

iOS Bridge

Description

Examples

Features

Limitations

Documentation

Quick start

Unity

XCode

Switch from Unity to iOS and back

ARC Support

Overlay UIView for Unity

UIKit interface from storyboard

UIKit interface from nib

Autoload UIKit

Load level by name

iOSBridge object documentation

iOSBridge class in Unity

Methods

iOSBridge classes in UIKit

Methods

Methods

Properties