macOS IDE for C# scripting in Unity?

[Lone Deranger]

Now that Microsoft is axing Visual Studio support for macOS, what are some alternative IDE's worth considering for C# scripting?

Out of the box Unity still offers support for Visual Studio, but for how much longer on macOS?

Are there any game developers out there using Xcode with Unity?

Sorry if my questions are not making sense. I'm very new to Unity and coding in general.

 

[Slartibart]

Jetbrain Rider is an option - it free for open source projects, students and teachers.

 

[casperes1996]

I would just use VSCode honestly. Don't see the need for a full blown IDE if it's for use with Unity anyway. And VSCode can be extended to IDE-like functionality as well. As Slartibart says, Rider is also an excellent choice for C#.

Xcode would be a bad choice for C#.

 

[Lone Deranger]

Jetbrain Rider is an option - it free for open source projects, students and teachers.

Oh interesting. That's a new one for me. I'll investigate. Thanks for the suggestion.
Have you used it? I'm curious how well it stacks up to Visual Studio.

I would just use VSCode honestly. Don't see the need for a full blown IDE if it's for use with Unity anyway. And VSCode can be extended to IDE-like functionality as well. As Slartibart says, Rider is also an excellent choice for C#.

Xcode would be a bad choice for C#.

Hm, yeah that's probably my next step. It sounds like it's probably better suited for my humble needs.

I'm curious, what makes Xcode a poor choice? I guess because it is more aimed towards Swift?

 

[casperes1996]

I'm curious, what makes Xcode a poor choice? I guess because it is more aimed towards Swift?

Xcode does not have arbitrary language server support. It has no language server for C# so doesn't 'understand' the language or the tools for it. It is built for Metal, C, C++, Objective-C and Swift and Apple's frameworks primarily

 

[alanvitek]

I use VSCode to do Unity dev and it works great. There's a few extensions you can install as well to make things a little easier.

I primarily stay and test within the Unity editor until I'm ready to do a test build (on my iPhone for example). Then I'll do a build, and Unity will auto open Xcode, compile it, and send it to my phone over USB (or wifi, but I prefer USB).

I've found that unless I need to test apple-specific tech (like GameCenter or haptics or something) then I just stay inside the Unity editor. Builds are done only when I need to test on the device itself.

Hope this helps!