Export to iOS from windows

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1

Godot Version

4.2+

Question

I have an iPhone and Windows10 PC.

I want to export a Godot app to iOS without

  • buying a Mac
  • getting apple developer account
  • jailbreaking my phone
  • paying random fees

For some simple personal projects like a timer for card games or sth like that.
Maybe a gamejam scope game.

I heard apple finally was forced to accept 3td party app stores alternatives, at least in europe.

Is there a way to export form windows Godot 4 to iOS phone that

  • works
  • is not too shady (jailbreaking is too shady for me, i want to push my app not some weird untrusty software on kernel level)
  • doesn’t require a mac (I’m not buying one to do some small apps for giggles.
    I used one in a workspace, but didn’t like it. So I’m not interested in having it as my personal equipment either… especially with apple pricing.)
  • doesn’t require some random fees
    (it’s just for personal use for fun, I don’t see why would i want to pay extra to get my own code pushed to my own device… there should be a law to allow this… small one time fee I guess I could live with, especially if its not payed to Apple for their anti-consumer anti-dev practices. )

PS I do like my iPhone,
but because of this scenario Im seriously considering buying an old android device just to run my code without some weird jumping through hoops…
I’m a dev, why can’t i push my app to my phone?

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2

That is Apple for you. It requires a Mac.

You will need a virtual machine like VMWare to run a MacOS instance and XCode.

A Hackintosh is a thing but probably the hardest approach.

3

I don’t really expect Apple to change their ways

I just heard they were forced to allow some level of unofficial apps without jailbreaks

So I’m asking are there some legit or not that shady ways to get your godot app to your iPhone

That someone actually tested and can recommend

I guess web build is one way to get your stuff running on iPhone without too much weird jumps through hoops

but can you somehow create a native app from godot on Windows
and run it on your phone
now that app store can be bypassed

VM sounds like a good direction, if i could run some build step in docker
(and i can get the working docker image on some not too shady site)
it would be nice,
and then host the app on local http server on my local wifi,

and write the url on my phone browser to install the app
(e.g. generate qr code on my windows, show it on screen, scan with phone)

or something similar that is reasonably doable with some effort but does not require me hacking my things in concerning ways or stuff that breaks all the time

4

I haven’t done Godot stuff on a mac but I have developed iOS apps on a windows machine.

You don’t need to pay money to build a test app for iPhone. But the easiest way to get the sdk and tool chain is through XCode.

There are some hints out there to maybe do it other ways, but this forum isn’t the best place to ask as it’s not really Godot specific and the formal way currently is the iOS app store MacOS and XCode.

Once you can get it to build on iOS you can look into how the 3rd party app stores work.

Maybe it is a simply uploading an unsigned app.

5

ok so there is a way to build iOS app
using Godot on Windows
then upload it to my phone
without paying for developer accounts etc.

I just want to run super simple apps on my own phone
like board game helpers - a life tracker, points calculator, timer etc
(i don’t like the ones available, so i could tailor my own app to my needs)
And Godot would be perfect for that

I’m asking here as I want to put a Godot app on the phone
So i need to look for general solutions for developing iOS apps
And Godot will just work with that, correct?

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