Well, according to my Nintendo Contacts, a CAT-R is not a requirement. I'll ask them later on again, just to be sure. And also, not even CAT-R's can be taken to Trade Shows, unless you've got permission for that. And yes, I'm using Unity3D. It has some limitations at the moment. The Wii U crashes on every Scene, where it loads both C# and JavaScript, for example, so every Scene must be either pure C#, or pure JavaScript. I also had trouble with Objects with Scripts attached to destroy themselves on trigger hit, I don't know why, because other Objects having the same kind of Scripts did work fine for me. Try to not use more than 2 Camera neither, because it slows down the game by a lot. Loading existing Projects aren't a problem, but you should change the Input, at the least. Pressing Play will not start the game on the Wii U, but in the Editor. In order to run it on the Wii U, you must Build it, which is very unconfty, as it sometimes takes 2 minutes, just to see if your game still runs after a small change.
I have seen devs in the past with RVT-R's at trade shows, but they switched the green faceplates out to white so you couldn't notice. Maybe that's a requirement. I didn't mean the CAT-R being a requirement just that it would be nice for testing so there are no surprises that the CAT-DEV didn't catch before sending it off to LotCheck. Hopefully Unity gets better over time for Wii U and doesn't crash every scene like you said. Nintendo seems to be doing this big indie push which is great. Also, does the CAT-DEV include a Wii U GamePad or is that a separate purchase?
The CAT-DEV includes a Wii U GamePad, but if you want to have a TV out Version, you should have to buy a separate one for $ 820 USD. Otherwise, you can get a CAT-R with a TV out Version included, for more than a CAT-R without a TV out Version. TV out Versions are in no way wireless, and must have the Coax Cable mounted, in order to be used. The ones without that can be used wirelessly as well, but to be honest, I prefer it to be wired. While being wireless seems nice, it's one big hell to make it keep connected to the CAT-DEV (my record of having the farthest distance was 5 CM, lol). The cable is really long (I didn't count myself, but it's probably 1,60 M, which is even longer than I am), so I don't mind it to be wired all the time.
Yes those cables are long. When I had my wired RVTR I was amazed by how long they are. For those looking into indie developement with Nintendo, how has your experience been? Did you find it difficult to get approved? What type of reservations do they have regarding indies developing out if their home? Do you also work with Sony for indie development?
My experience was good. We have Phoned Nintendo of Europe daily, because on the very first time, they have pointed us on a DS Hacking Community we ran, and told us to leave the site. That wasn't said directly, so we were dwarrling around the first 2 weeks by removing as many links between us and them as possible, but in the end, they said we had to leave the site completely. After that was done, they simply Approved us, and the person we contacted with all the time was very willing to help us, and really wanted us to be Approved. So no, there was no unpredictable difficulty. In order to get Approved, you must show them your experience with making games and/or Apps. It doesn't really need to be proven by visually showing off your stuff, but if you can list a couple of games and/or Apps you've actually created, and in what year, it'll be alright. Another requirement is, that you have a secure business location. If you have a home office, having a lockable door is enough. Be aware, that they can sometimes check, it didn't happen in our case. Sony is something I want to save for later, as they're a bit harder to get through. But we're fine with Nintendo platforms, for now.
It's really sad to hear we may never be able to use the dev units outside being an actual dev. I know the same applies for PS4 and XB1. I guess they want to really keep us out.
Using the DevKits without having a green idea on how to Program is useless, even if you have access to all of the required stuff. Really, you should Apply for a License, if you know how to do that, or your happiness of having access to them will be gone really soon.
I got a rvt-h but it seems its missing the menu disc,so if i boot it i just can access the dev menu..how can i install the menu to the wii?i got the sdk on my pc,but dunno what to do with it
