Topic: AGS engine Android port

[monkey0506]

I didn't change the way the keyboard is toggled. Unless your device doesn't have a menu button then it should be working. If you don't have physical hardware buttons, well that's something else we need to address, though off the top of my head, I'm not sure what the best approach would be here.

[ChamberOfFear]

I didn't change the way the keyboard is toggled. Unless your device doesn't have a menu button then it should be working. If you don't have physical hardware buttons, well that's something else we need to address, though off the top of my head, I'm not sure what the best approach would be here.

As stated by the Android developer they're phasing out physical hardware buttons since Android v3.0, and the conventional replacement would be the action bar http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/menus.html

[monkey0506]

Yes, I'm aware of that, but do you really want that floating over the top of your games? I was referring more to how best to bring up the action bar without interfering with gameplay.

[ET3D]

I didn't change the way the keyboard is toggled. Unless your device doesn't have a menu button then it should be working. If you don't have physical hardware buttons, well that's something else we need to address, though off the top of my head, I'm not sure what the best approach would be here.

I'm using a Nexus 7 2012. In the JJS version there's a menu button in the action bar at the bottom, and it's available throughout the game. In your version there's a menu button at the top right on the game selection screen, but that doesn't show during the game. The normal action bar (back, home...) shows. (And the bar always shows. There's an option to hide it which other games have, where you swipe from the top to show it, but in AGS it always shows at the bottom. Not that it's a problem for me.)

By the way, any way for me to help debug the crashes?

I see, that's right. Just tried out 3.3.2 on Windows, but it looks translucent. Might be OpenGL and/or Android issue.

Looks like something which changed in hardware rendering. It works on monkey's version with software rendering but not hardware rendering, and is fine on JJS's version either way. Was there a rendering change over the last year?


Oh, and happy 2015!

[Crimson Wizard]

* The develop-3.4.0 branch (AGS 3.4.0.2) (sans AGSLua) builds but hangs with a loading screen before silently crashing...

I made a number of fixes related to graphics init to 3.4.0 version. Please try again now.

[ET3D]

I upgraded to a Galaxy Tab S 8.4, and AGS (monkey's version) no longer crashes, at least far as I played. The only thing I can think of it that it may be a memory allocation problem (the Tab S has 3GB RAM compared to 1GB for the Nexus 7).

Menu is still screwed up on the monkey version. The Tab S has physical buttons, unlike the Nexus 7, but following the current Android style there's no menu button. In JJS's version a long press of the 'recents' button brings up the menu when in-game. In monkey's version it doesn't, so like on the Nexus 7 I have no clue how it's possible to get the menu in this version.

[DarkestCrow]

So, there is no other way to put into operation arrow keys (for game The Cat Lady), than to buy a keyboard for Android?

[monkey0506]

I will look into adding a drop-down with a menu button if the user swipes down from near the top of the screen.

As for The Cat Lady, it would be easier to add a D-pad overlay or just replace the control schema, because most Android soft keyboards don't have arrow keys.

[DarkestCrow]

Please, can you help me with this?

[ET3D]

Looks like AGS does crash on the Galaxy Tab S, so it's not a memory issue. Wish I knew how to overcome it. Looks like both JJS' and monkey's versions crash at the same places, more or less. Would be nice if there was a way to help debug this. (I tried writing the log, but all it shows is room changes, nothing to indicate why the crash happened.)

DarkestCrow, I'd suggest trying the latest version from the first post on the thread. JJS' version has a menu button in games which can bring up the keyboard. Choose an Android keyboard with arrow keys and it should work.

monkey, why can't you use the same menu button code as the JJS version? That worked fine for me on both the Nexus 7 2012 and Galaxy Tab S, and they have completely different menu button management (the Nexus 7 doesn't have physical buttons, and the menu button shows on its action bar, while the Tab S has physical buttons and a long press on the recents button can bring up the menu), so I imagine that it's a generic solution that should work well on a wide range of devices.

[monkey0506]

monkey, why can't you use the same menu button code as the JJS version?

Because I don't recall ever changing it? I'll try and look back through the changes I made (which are all available as "my" version is the current master branch), but I don't recall changing this and I certainly wouldn't have intentionally broken it.

[ET3D]

By the way, I recently finished The Blackwell Epiphany, finally, managing to bypass all the crashes. One of them I managed to bypass by changing from software to hardware rendering.

[nims]

Hi,

Could you also port the spritefont plugin? I like it because it improves the text-rendering a lot and it's open source:

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=44359.80;topicseen

https://github.com/CalinLeafshade/ags-spritefont

Would be great!

[Iceberg]

Hi everyone, I have a question.  I hope this is the right place to ask it.

I'm using AGS-3.3.2.apk on my Android phone.  It worked perfectly on my Samsung Galaxy Ace, but I just traded up to a Samsung Galaxy S4 and now it no longer works.  When I try to run AGS I get the error "unable to write to the current directory.  Do not run this game off a network or CD-ROM drive.  Also check drive free space (you need 1 Mb free)".  It can't be a space problem so I'm thinking it's a permissions thing.  Has anyone else encountered this?  (and if so, how did you resolve it?)

Thanks! 

[Adeel]

Either your Samsung Galaxy Ace was rooted or it had an older version of Android installed on it. Your new phone is not rooted and contains a newer version of Android. Starting from Kit Kat, permissions became more strict. Hence your guess is right.

AFAIK, there's no fix other than rooting your device (as of now).

[Iceberg]

I fixed it by copying the games into phone memory and running them from there.  Obviously, I'd rather have them on the external SD card because they take up so much space, but it seems like an OK (if not ideal) workaround for now.  I don't know about trying to root it - I'm not all that techno-savvy and wouldn't want to brick my phone.

[Adeel]

Hey, that's a nice workaround. Thanks for that tip! Just got my first smartphone a few months ago (and still getting used to it). The first thing I tried to do was to try to get the AGS games to run but failed due to same problem. I wouldn't root my phone too due to the same reason: I'm afraid to brick my phone.

I agree with everything you say.

[MrWood]

Where Can I get the latest Build? Is there a solution for the devices with no menu button in development?

[Cassiebsg]

Wow! Cool! I managed to get my game running on Android!
Now to get some more AGS games to play on my tablet!
Thanks bunch monkey0506!!!

[Crimson Wizard]

Where Can I get the latest Build? Is there a solution for the devices with no menu button in development?

Since JJS is not updating this thread anymore, we need a new thread with links to most recent APKs, whoever makes them; as well as most up to date information on possibilities and problems of this port.
There were a lot of discussion in this thread above regarding many aspects of running game on Android, but all the answers are spread around 30 pages.

Would anyone be able to summarize this information?