Compiling for iOS

Requirements

  • SCons 3.0+ (you can install it via Homebrew or Macports, you should be able to run scons in a terminal when installed).
  • Xcode 10.0 (or later) with the iOS (10.0) SDK and the command line tools.

See also

For a general overview of SCons usage for Godot, see Introduction to the buildsystem.

Compiling

Open a Terminal, go to the root dir of the engine source code and type:

$ scons p=iphone target=debug

for a debug build, or:

$ scons p=iphone target=release

for a release build (check platform/iphone/detect.py for the compiler flags used for each configuration).

Alternatively, you can run

$ scons p=iphone arch=x86_64 target=debug

for a Simulator executable.

For recent devices, Apple requires 64-bit versions of application binaries when you are uploading to the Apple Store. The best way to provide these is to create a bundle in which there are both 32-bit and 64-bit binaries, so every device will be able to run the game.

It can be done in three steps: first compile the 32-bit version, then compile the 64-bit version and then use lipo to bundle them into one “universal” binary. All those steps can be performed with following commands:

$ scons p=iphone tools=no target=release arch=arm
$ scons p=iphone tools=no target=release arch=arm64
$ lipo -create bin/libgodot.iphone.opt.arm.a bin/libgodot.iphone.opt.arm64.a -output bin/libgodot.iphone.release.fat.a
$ lipo -create bin/libgodot_camera_module.iphone.opt.arm.a bin/libgodot_camera_module.iphone.opt.arm64.a -output bin/libgodot_camera_module.iphone.release.fat.a
$ lipo -create bin/libgodot_arkit_module.iphone.opt.arm.a bin/libgodot_arkit_module.iphone.opt.arm64.a -output bin/libgodot_arkit_module.iphone.release.fat.a

If you also want to provide a simulator build (reduces the chance of any linker errors with dependencies), you’ll need to build and lipo the x86_64 architecture as well.

$ scons p=iphone tools=no target=release arch=arm
$ scons p=iphone tools=no target=release arch=arm64
$ scons p=iphone tools=no target=release arch=x86_64
$ lipo -create bin/libgodot.iphone.opt.arm.a bin/libgodot.iphone.opt.arm64.a bin/libgodot.iphone.opt.x86_64.a -output bin/libgodot.iphone.release.fat.a
$ lipo -create bin/libgodot_camera_module.iphone.opt.arm.a bin/libgodot_camera_module.iphone.opt.arm64.a bin/libgodot_camera_module.iphone.opt.x86_64.a -output bin/libgodot_camera_module.iphone.release.fat.a
$ lipo -create bin/libgodot_arkit_module.iphone.opt.arm.a bin/libgodot_arkit_module.iphone.opt.arm64.a bin/libgodot_arkit_module.iphone.opt.x86_64.a -output bin/libgodot_arkit_module.iphone.release.fat.a

Run

To run on a device or simulator, follow these instructions: Exporting for iOS.

Replace or add your executable to the Xcode project, and change the “executable name” property on Info.plist accordingly if you use an alternative build.