Messages

Awesome job Crim! And everyone else! Thanks for all your hard work. Its well appreciated. Just a little note, if you are looking for an updated version of AGS (V 3.30) for Android, check out this thread: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=44768.msg636449832#msg636449832

Maybe later tonight I may do a build to include the changes from today. Either way, these are daily/semi-daily builds. Last one was compiled on 4/3/13. Again, I take no credit for the port. I am simply downloading from the Git and Compiling the engine for everyone.

Thanks Again CW, CJ, JJS, Tzachs and everyone else I am forgetting!

4/2/13 Build of Android Port:
LINK
Again, I take no credit other than the fact that I built a build with the latest changes to the engine. Latest Change includes:
Common, Engine: fixed few pointer conversion warnings.
The credit for the Android Port fully goes to JJS.
----------------
If anyone is interested, I compiled AGS for Android with the latest code changes from the Git Repository. You can find it here:
LINK

This should contain the following changes that are noticeable (I assume) within the app itself:

Corrected Theora Playback
3.30 Version code change
Fixes to AGSNative
Fixed Exception message in exception handler

Nothing big, but I will try and provide Daily Builds whenever something is applied. Please remember, I take no credit for the improvements and enhancements to AGS. JJS is responsible for the Android Port. I am simply compiling it for who ever wants an updated version. As fixes keep coming, I will post them here. Learning to compile this takes me one step closer to getting you all to build your own AGS APK's. Thanks!

Nevermind. I was able to compile the latest build.

Hey JJS. I finally got the engine to compile with the NDK. However, the actually Java part is giving me the following errors in Eclipse:

Description   Resource   Path   Location   Type
PEHelper cannot be resolved to a type   GamesList.java   /AGS Game Launcher/src/com/bigbluecup/android/launcher   line 50   Java Problem
Attribute minSdkVersion (7) is higher than the project target API level (4)   AndroidManifest.xml   /AGS Game Launcher   line 1   Android ADT Problem
PEHelper cannot be resolved to a type   GamesList.java   /AGS Game Launcher/src/com/bigbluecup/android/launcher   line 31   Java Problem
CreditsActivity cannot be resolved to a type   GamesList.java   /AGS Game Launcher/src/com/bigbluecup/android/launcher   line 175   Java Problem
PEHelper cannot be resolved to a type   GamesList.java   /AGS Game Launcher/src/com/bigbluecup/android/launcher   line 50   Java Problem
AgsEngine cannot be resolved to a type   GamesList.java   /AGS Game Launcher/src/com/bigbluecup/android/launcher   line 192   Java Problem
PreferencesActivity cannot be resolved to a type   GamesList.java   /AGS Game Launcher/src/com/bigbluecup/android/launcher   line 181   Java Problem
PEHelper cannot be resolved to a type   GamesList.java   /AGS Game Launcher/src/com/bigbluecup/android/launcher   line 274   Java Problem
PEHelper cannot be resolved to a type   GamesList.java   /AGS Game Launcher/src/com/bigbluecup/android/launcher   line 255   Java Problem


Any thoughts?

On the sd card, create a folder called AGS. Put the directory of the game (Make sure the directory which contains the game has all the AGS Files and game content in its root) into the AGS Directory. Start up AGS and play!

Well, I am doing a preliminary convert to Allegro 5 now. I think I forgot to mention this on forums... I told this to Janet Gilbert and JJS & BigMC via emails.

You rock!

I personally feel now, after months of thinking about it, that AGS should move on from Allegro 4. However, that doesn't mean move away from Allegro all together. But I am open to other libraries as well. The big thing for me is portability. Pretty much all these libraries support Mac, Windows and Linux. Great. But I also own/have owned portable devices such as the PSP and Android (No longer have the psp though as I sold it) and my brother has an IPhone and IPad. We do most of our gaming on these devices rather than on our pc's. So to me, its a big deal to have those ports. It seems as if, even though its possible to port, SDL and SFML do not have official ports to those systems. No biggie I Suppose. With extra hard work, it can be done. But it makes things challenging. Here are my observations:

Latest updates:
SDL was last updated in January 2012
SFML was last updated in April 2012
Allegro was last updated in January 2013.

Ports:
SDL will function officially with Windows/Win CE, MacOS, BSD, Linux, Solaris, Irix and QNX along with unofficial ports to OS that people generally do not use anymore.
Allegro officially supports Windows, Mac, Linux, IOS, Android. Older Versions support PSP, QNX, BeOS, etc... To me, you can probably easily port version 5 to those OS as well.
SFML officially supports Windows, Linux and Mac with a promise to support more in the future.

Ease of use:
SFML - Have not messed around with it, so I couldn't tell you.
Allegro - To me, as a sort of novice C++, Allegro is complicated to me.
SDL - Even to me, this is fairly easy to implement.

Convenience:
AGS already uses Allegro. So I would think that moving from 4 to 5 would be a somewhat smooth transition. On the other hand, since SDL is easier to understand, you would have also have more of the developers understanding how to use it and improve the engine. But again, I don't think it would be that much harder with Allegro being as the developers seem to be doing very well with it.

Mixing with other libraries:
Pretty much all of them support mixing with OpenGL or DX. However, my understanding is that Allegro is far more modular than SDL or SFML, allowing you to really integrate seemlessly with other libraries. So for instance, if you wanted to use OpenGL ES for portable versions of AGS, or if you wanted to include 3D capabilities with Ogre3D, Allegro can do that easily and without any mixed interference.

Community:
SDL seems to have diminished as a community and from what I hear, support from the development team is non-existent. I haven't really checked what its like with Allegro, but it might be the same, it might night. SFML Seems to be somewhat still active on the forums though.

Speed of updates:
In order for AGS to continue to have timely updates, it should stay with what is familiar. If AGS was to move on to SDL or SFML, it would probably require a whole new rewrite of much of the engine, thus probably taking a year or longer to achieve.

Here is a good overview of these libraries that can really tell us which is better for AGS: http://elysianshadows.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6=6933#p80119

For me personally, I would move to Allegro 5. However, I am not a team member and I do not understand the source code all that much to begin with anyway. But from all the things I understand, Allegro 5 is the way to go. The other option would be to go the same direction of the AGS Scripting language and just have the team just create their own multimedia layer for AGS.

I like the x.x.x personally. The Last x can be a minor revision or minor bugfixes. The middle x can be a major revision. If there are enough changes that make it a super revision, then the first x can move up to the next version of AGS, eg: X.0.0. Thats my personal preference anyway. But its really up to the developers so...

For the lighting and tinting, I was going to use AGS and its tint functions to work on that. Helps with animating area's of the room. The realistic and cartoonish Mix was a style I wanted to include for the game. I didn't look too much cartoon and I didn't look too much realism. So I tried something different for that. I will try to make the improvements you suggested. Thanks.

Perhaps in one of the other rooms

So, I figured I would give it a go and try to do the graphics myself. I am using Blender and Poser for my graphics. I have to admit, this piece is composed of various 3D objects and files from a few artists. Poser makes it really easy to put this all together. Keep in mind, I Am not a graphic artist (Not professionally anyway). Let me know what you think of this style:

Hehe. That part is not up to me. Those are features hardcoded into the AGS Engine and Editor themselves. All my app/tool does is convenient package the compiled game into an Android APK. For that stuff, you would need to ask JJS, CW, CJ, etc...

The play store allows the main APK file to be 50mb or less. However, if your app is larger than that, you can use the expansion pack (Which can be any file extension you want, but typically it would be either .zip or .obb) option which basically means that you can upload a) The main file b)The expansion pack which you will need to decompress from your app. You are allowed to upload up to 4gb, however, the Google play store only allows you to do that in increments of 2gb. So lets say you have a 4 gb game, you would have to upload 1)maingame-50mb.apk 2)Expansion1-2gb.obb 3) Expansion2-2gb.obb.

What the play store then does when you goto download and install an app is Download the main app and then the rest of the expansion files automatically. Yes, seems kind of dumb. Why not just allow for one big file in the first place??? My guess... to avoid bloated software or because its typically harder to upload more than 2gb at a time, killing bandwidth. It would also save on bandwidth for when patches need to be updated, rather than just uploading everything all over again. Who knows... Anyway, After that, it is the developers job to locate where they have been downloaded (Android has a set destination, so thats not too much of an issue), if it was successful and then unpack it. There is a process to getting this done right, so its taking me a bit of time.


As far as how this will be released, there will be two versions. One is the Basic4Android Source. All you would have to do is change your game's screenshot, edit a text file (For game name and description), change the package name of the app then compile.

The second version is the Java version. Basically B4A generates that automatically. So, if you do not want to use B4A, you can compile the app using the Android SDK. This will require a few additional steps (Which B4A would take care of for you automatically, while the Android SDK does not), which would include editing the the manifest file and creating a signature key.

I do plan in the future, after I have this all settled down, to add it, either via plugin or hardcoded, to the editor so that all you would have to do is click "Compile for Android" and it would take care of everything for you as easy as one, two, three.

Hope this made some sense. Its past midnight and my brain is fried today.

I am still trying to figure out how to get this done appropriately. First thing is that I am having trouble with downloading files for Samsung Galaxy 3, Asus tf201 and Galaxy Nexus 7. So I needed to take a different approach which is to use the google APK Expansion file option. The only thing about this is that it limits your game to 4gb(Divided into two files of 2gb each). The next thing I am trying to do is include AGS as part of the build so that a user wouldn't need to install AGS necessarily just to be able to run the game. Essentially, this will allow you to make the game look as if its a standalone and professionally made game. Lastly, I need to get the game Preferences working appropriately.

Once I get this all sorted out, I will release the project. The last thing I want to do is have someone use this, make a commercial game and then lose money because the app didn't work on all the necessary devices.

I have been conjuring up a Doctor Who Story that I would like to turn into a game. I know there have been a few attempts and I would like to take a stab at this. Unfortunately, I have no graphical talent. I have part of a story written out and I am going to take Vince12's [I think it was him who did it this way] and start programming the game without the graphics. However, since I have no lick of artistic talent, or musical talent for that matter, I need anyone willing to help out to offer their services. If you are interested, please post below. Their will be a few stages to the game development, however, to tell you the truth, I don't want to continue the coding and story writing if I do not have help with this.

[STAGE 1]
Writing The Story/Plot
Puzzle Development
Coding

[STAGE 2]
Art

[STAGE 3]
Music

[STAGE 4]
Voice Acting
Translations

[STAGE 5]
Testing

Please note that development of the game will go at a relaxed pace. I am still developing AGS Stream and a way to compile games to Android Directly and my time will be devoted to that, once I can figure out why my apps dont perform downloads on Samsung and ASUS devices. Either way, if you are interested, I am not looking for any specific graphic types, just simply someone who is pretty good at art whether 2D or 3D. Thanks for looking

Hehe thanks JJS. Yeah, the issue I keep having involves the PATH Environment variables. I have no idea why my system doesn't register or find them properly. Thats part of the reason why I have so much trouble with the compiling. Oh well. Thanks JJS, you are awesome as always. We can never stop telling you that ;P

Yeah the SO files I believe

JJS, do you know if the code (At this state) of the engine would compile with the r8 NDK? Also, any instructions on compiling the NDK part in Windows? The NDK is awefully foreign to me.

Does Anyone here use a Galaxy S3? It seems that S3 owners are having some major issues with the app and I just want to solve this as quickly as possible.

A simple compile for android button and a compile for iOS Button in the editor will do for now...

Oh, that's nice. I think no money is needed for that.
The task should be quite simple.

Di Perla said he is going to do something like this: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=47622.0 (don't know what his progress is).
You can also ask any other C#-proficient AGSer, who already worked with the Editor, like: tzachs, Alan v. Drake, Calin Leafshade (I think).

It should be done in a couple days. Its basically a packaging system that includes or downloads the game data onto your system. Its basically AGS Stream, but only for one game, this way you can sell it or put it on the play store standalone. The whole thing can be compiled with Basic4Android or the Android SDK no problem. All you have to do is edit a couple of files manually and you are all set. The tricky part for me is setting it up in the AGS editor to package it and compile into an APK. Its really only a matter of editing two or three text files and using a shell command to run the command that signs an APK Key and compiles the package using the Android SDK and Java SDK. It literally may take 1 hour for someone with experience in C# to implement such a feature. For me though, since I am a beginning beginner (Yes, I know what I said) in c#, that part may take like a whole month for me to implement, lol .