Is it possible to build Games on Windows for mac?

Development Platform & Builds
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1

Hi,

Is it possible to Build my UE4 projekt (which is on Windows 7) for a Mac?

I know how easy it is for windows, but i cant get it to work for OSx.

for windows im going to package projekt-> windows → Win 7 ,

but there is nothing for OSx just for iOS.

thanks for your help

-Siebencorgie

2

You can only build a game for Mac on an actual Mac using the Mac version of the editor.

1 Like
3

ok, thanks

is it possible to make a game at the Windows Version of the editor, open the same projekt at mac and build it there for mac? Or do i have to make the entire projekt on mac?

4

Yes, you can just copy the project from the Windows PC you normally develop on to a Mac to build the Mac version. Source control servers make this much easier!

1 Like
5

ok,

thanks for your time :slight_smile:

6

Is this not planned to ever work? I’d expect to be able to build for windows & mac on either platform. Is this not even in your plans? I can’t see it in the roadmap either.

7

The official Mac SDK requires a Mac while the official Windows SDK requires Windows, hence the current setup. This isn’t something we plan to change so it isn’t on the roadmap.
There’s a couple of important reasons:

  1. The EULA for the Mac OS X SDK forbids use on non-Apple branded hardware so we can’t build for Mac from Windows as there’s no alternative to the official SDK.
  2. There are alternative SDKs for Windows that allow building some applications from POSIX OSes (like OS X & Linux) but UE4 won’t compile through them.
8

Eventually Android & Linux should be added to that list as SDKs & toolchains are available to build for them on Mac. That will happen in the long-term rather than imminently as there are lots of things to be done to the underlying Mac code first.

I’m not presently aware of any Mac-hosted SDKs & toolchains for the other platforms we support, so we can’t add anymore.

9

In my case I’m interested in using Macs to build for other platforms. ATM in UE4 Mac we can only build for Mac and iOS, which is very limiting. Is that the plan, to just support those 2 platforms for UE4 Mac?

10

I dont really understand how you expect this to work Epic, how many indie devs are actually going to have both a powerful mac and windows computer that they can install unreal engine on and use regularly? Its a pretty stupid decision… If you have to use an un official sdk to solve this engine braking problem then PLEASE DO!!! Unity manages to allow people to export to all platforms fine so why can you not do the same?

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I totally agree, I’t’s crazy because our studio has devs using both windows and mac so to share the one project being built on a pc, the macs have to miss out on testing? How is this viable in our market? unity allows builds on both…quickly and easily might i add!

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You can´t do that. Its because the targeted platform´s API(Cocoa) which is needed to build an application for this particular platform is not available on the other OS. Even for iOS you need a Mac + Xcode(IDE) with an Developer Certificate to submit a app.

EDIT: ■■■■ didnt checked the date of the question, only saw the latest discussion.

13

Please see my earlier response - we cannot provide support for compiling from Windows to Mac as Apple do not provide an SDK & toolchain to do so. I do not expect this to change, so building projects for Mac will always require a Mac for compilation. You’ll also always need a Mac for testing.

14

So indie devs like me can’t even LET an entire demographic of people who use macs play our games? Why can’t the next UE4 update just let us package the games for whatever platforms we want? It seems a little bit unfair, to be honest.

15

Not to be harsh, but if it’s important to you as a dev to develop for a specific platform, you will have to invest in that platform. You want to develop for Android? You’ll probably need an android device to test and deploy to, iOS? The same. I picked up an old iMac at a yard sale for $20, and I can compile for mac now. Incredibly slow, but it works. Btw, Mac users can’t compile for Windows either.

16

So I thought I would chime in here and somewhat defend the situation that Epic faces …

For those talking about how Unity is able to …Unity does not compile its engine on the platform you are targeting when you package your game up, it in fact is packaging your game up to run on preexisting “player”. The game logic runs on top of that player through a public facing API (thats how their engine is C++, but scripting is in C# for example) for that specific platform which is already compiled.

Unreal compiles by platform at package time, maybe thats something that could change for UE5 … but there are performance impacts with that approach which I’m sure Epic staff is well aware of :slight_smile: Let’s face it, right now UE has a competitive performance advantage because of it.

Food for thought at the very least :slight_smile:

17

Recuerdo que UDK podía hacer build de mac en windows. Pero en UE4 no se puede, según recuerdo fue algo con la nueva licencia de desarrollo de apple.

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It’s basically the same with UE4, but instead of C# you have Blueprints. If you have a blueprints only project you can build your game on Mac from Windows.

19

You can however install a hackintosh. Then install XCode & SDK. Download Unreal Engine…import your game code from PC & then generate the osx copy for the game

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i have bootcamp and i think i just take the project and then take it to the mac easy peacy