Unity Remote for Android

I’ve recently started playing around with the Unity3D development tool, and I really like it so far! One of the cool features it has is that it’s able to build for multiple platforms, so you can cross-develop a little easier.

I have a Galaxy TAB 8.9, so I was looking into how difficult it would be to create a game for a tablet, and since Unity can build for it, I thought “Why not!”

I happened upon an indispensable application for my tablet: Unity Remote. This lets you connect your Android tablet to the Unity engine, and test your controls as you’re developing without having to deploy builds constantly!  ::drool::

I had huge issues trying to get it to work though :\  I found a fantastic walk through, and wanted to mirror it here, with just one extra step at the beginning which I (in my total stupidity) did, in fact, need spelled out to me ::blush::

  1. Make sure your device’s syncing software is installed (for my TAB8.9, that was Kies)
  2. Install the Android SDK
  3. Connect your tablet with USB cable
  4. Make sure your tablet is in USB Debug Mode: Settings -> Developer options
  5. Open a command window, and go to the platform-tools directory of the SDK
  6. type: adb kill-server
  7. type: adb devices
    You  should see something like:
    * daemon not running. starting it now on port <port number> *
    * daemon started successfully *
    list of devices attached
    <serial number> device
  8. Open Unity, and set the path to the Android SDK: Edit -> Preferences
  9. Exit Unity
  10. Install the Unity Remote application on your tablet
  11. Launch Unity
  12. Hit Play
  13. most important -> BE AMAZED!!

You may have to stick lines 6 & 7 in a batch file and have it run every time you start your computer, or right before loading Unity … not 100% sure on that part yet :\

==[ UPDATE ]====

It turns out, yes, you do need to restart the service every time you plug in your tablet and fire up Unity. Inconvenient, but not too much of a thorn. Just make a batchfile, then make sure to:

  1. Plug in Tablet
  2. Run Batchfile
  3. Fire up Unity

This is what my batchfile looks like:

@echo off
echo ==[ Killing Server ]====
adb kill-server
echo ==[ Restarting server and checking for connected devices ]====
adb devices
pause