What Works Where: Desktop, Mobile and Web

Blitz3D+ programs use the same language and the same commands on every platform, so most programs run unchanged on a desktop computer, on a phone or tablet, and in a web browser. A few features depend on what a platform allows: a phone has no windows to open, and a web page cannot reach the computer's folders or start other programs. The tables below show what works where, so you can choose features that suit the platforms you want your program to reach.

• Desktop means Windows, with the Extended edition (64-bit); a Mac with Apple silicon; and Linux on an x86-64 or ARM64 computer, tested on Ubuntu 24.04 with X11 or Wayland.
• Mobile means an iPhone or iPad, and an Android phone or tablet with an ARM64 processor, Android 8.0 or newer and Vulkan 1.1.
• Web means a browser with WebGPU: Chrome or Edge 137 or later, Firefox 153 or later on Windows or an Apple-silicon Mac, or Safari 27. A web page made from your program runs in it; see Publishing to the Web.

In the tables, Yes means the feature works there, Partly means it works with the limits given, and No means it is missing. When a feature is missing explains what your program sees then.

The Original edition, for Windows 32-bit, runs programs in Original mode only. It makes Windows programs, and has none of the newer features in these tables.

Linux is the newest platform. It has been tested on Ubuntu 24.04, with software graphics and test devices; other distributions, graphics cards' own drivers, sound hardware and physical controllers have not been tried yet. A Linux program needs the libraries Ubuntu 24.04 has, such as GTK 4, WebKitGTK and libcurl, on the computer that runs it.

Where you can make each kind of program

Each IDE runs programs on its own computer, and the Mac IDE also runs them on the iOS Simulator, an iPhone or iPad, and an Android device or emulator, choosing the one in its Run On menu.

Blitz3D+ on Mac and iOS and Android APK export explain how to set up each one.

Language and tools

A memory report counts what the program has allocated, such as Type objects, strings, arrays, collections, banks and JSON, with their totals and peaks. Take one at the menu as a baseline, play and leave a level, and compare a second with it to see what is left behind. Reports can be saved as JSON, for bug reports and automated checks.

Graphics

Every platform draws the same 2D and 3D graphics, models, animation, materials, lights, shadows, terrain, particles and physics. Windows has a few extra rendering features; elsewhere a program that uses them runs without those effects, or on Linux does not build (see When a feature is missing).

Sound

Input

Mobile Input and Virtual Controls and Controller Input explain these commands.

Windows, menus and dialogs

Files and networking

Where there is an app data folder, save there; on an iPhone or iPad it is the only folder where saved files are sure to be kept. Where SystemProperty("datadir") returns an empty string, save beside the program as before. Removing an app from a phone or tablet removes its folder too.

Mobile services

On an iPhone, iPad or Android device, a game can use the store's own services: Game Center on Apple's devices, and Google Play Games and Google Play Billing on Android. They need an app set up with each store, which App Setup in the Mac IDE's Create Executable dialog records for your program; Game Services explains how. They have not yet been tried against the real stores, so try them with your own store test accounts and devices before you release a game. On other platforms the same commands build, and report that the service is not available.

Advanced features

When a feature is missing

Some commands do not exist on a platform at all, and building for that platform stops with an error that names the command. These are:

• on an iPhone or iPad, the GUI commands other than the message boxes and the file requesters;
• on Android, the GUI commands other than the message boxes;
• on Linux, the commands for touch, the accelerometer and on-screen controls, movies, VR, planar reflections, EntityHighlight, GPU particle emitters, and the audio effects other than InitAudioEffects, which returns False;
• the Native UI commands, the classic network game commands and userlib functions everywhere but Windows;
• DebugWorld on phones, tablets and in the browser.

Every other command builds on every platform, and where its feature is missing it says so when the program runs, so one program can run everywhere and work around what is missing. For example, PlayMusic returns 0 for a MIDI file where MIDI does not play, InitAudioEffects returns False where there are no audio effects, TouchAvailable returns False on Windows and the Mac, and GameServiceSupported returns False everywhere but on an iPhone, iPad or Android device. A program can try a MIDI tune and fall back to an Ogg recording of it:

music = PlayMusic("theme.mid")
If music = 0 Then music = PlayMusic("theme.ogg")

SystemProperty("os") names the platform the program runs on: "Windows", "macOS", "Linux", "iOS", "Android" or "Web". Use it to choose what suits each one, such as on-screen controls on a touch screen:

os$ = SystemProperty("os")
If os$ = "iOS" Or os$ = "Android"
	Print "Running on a phone or tablet"
ElseIf os$ = "Web"
	Print "Running in a browser"
Else
	Print "Running on " + os$
EndIf

More about each platform

• Blitz3D+ on Mac and iOS: running, debugging and building on a Mac, an iPhone and an iPad.
• Android APK export: building and running on Android devices and emulators.
• Game Services: achievements, leaderboards, cloud saves and purchases on iPhone, iPad and Android.
• Publishing to the Web: running a program in the browser, and the other differences there.
• Mobile Input and Virtual Controls: touch, acceleration and on-screen controls.

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