Android

Hi JCL

Is there any chance to get the Android port in the year 2014?
I have some experience with 3dgs and I'd like to know if it worth for me wait Android port or much worse option is to start to learn some new multiplatform engine.
I not understand why we waiting so long when the port for Android can make a ton of money for your company?

Yes, I believe a 2014 release is likely for the Android converter. But keep in mind that this is no guarantee - the only guaranteed release date is 'when it's ready'.

Thank you, it looks quite ok for me. Then I'll definitely stay with 3dgs.

Translation "we have started to think about doing it, possibly even making a note on a whiteboard"

Hi JCL

Year 2014 have passed. What's happening with Android converter? Whether it has entered into a beta stage or project is abandoned?
I still counting converter will be finished and I continue to develop my project planned for this platform.

Hi LawnmowerMan
What's happened with your frontal cortex?

The Android project is on hold currently while we're busy with several tasks unrelated to Gamestudio. It will be continued as soon as development capacity is free. About 4-5 months development time are still required for that project.

Jcl thank you for response but I don't understand. Have you mean you'll need 4-5 months to finish this project (which is not related to the Game Studio) and then your team can finally focus on the GameStudio development, or 4-5 months you still need to finish the Android project?

the first one

That would be super awesome Jcl, its a good step in the right direction and maybe set a mindful view to porting to IOS and Windows too?

I hereby promise, if you create an Android port, I will upgrade to A8.

I can only imagine how excited JCL must be to know that he will be at least break even in terms of development cost from the 100€ upgrade. *SCNR*

Will it really cost 100Euros?

Any updates on development for this?

You didn't read between the lines...

Oh okay. I think I understand..
"It will be continued as soon as Zorro becomes less popular.."

Or perhaps it means
"We've got nothing yet, so giving you an update would be the same as re-explaining the idea.."

I think it clearly says 3dgs is no longer a priority and will be continued when we at THE COMPANY becomes bored or feels like working on it.

...or the android port will be ready when android is becoming outdated

That seems to be the way things go around here ._.

Hi JCL

I just would like to know how things are going with this project. Did is finished? If yes, did your team now will focus on Gamestudio developement. I read that an update is planned for this month. Whether it will be ready? You've got only 3 days

The project is not yet finished. A Gamestudio update is indeed planned for the next time, but I have not heard about a deadline of this month... and I should normally know. The update will take care of the reported bugs and some small but annoying issues that Gamestudio had all the time, f.i. the increasing memory footprint when the compiler is started many times.

it is good to hear that there IS a android project somewhere in the pipeline , and that bug fixes / updates are also in the pipeline .

I an almost finished with ,my first Android game ,I have learned a new scripting language , and two android game frameworks , one uses a scripting language much like litec except class support is a nice bonus there , the other uses java .

it would be a big deal if gamestudio gets in this

Happy to hear about bug fixes! I'd be even more happy if a joystick (re-)connect function would make the cut!

@Superku at this point we surely could have found and patched in a joystick dll. Maybe the xbox dll. If my memory servers correctly this was added to "the list" over 2 years ago.

@^: the list is some mysterious place... things that are sent there might never be seen again.

But yeah, nice to hear that an update is planned.

The joystick support should be reworked to use xinput anyway, otherwise the xbox controller shoulder buttons are not treated in a proper way. Direct Input treats them as a single axis, resulting in both pressed and both relased delivering a value 0 with no good possibility to distinguish. Fail

xinput looked easy when I researched, a xinput plugin should be possible.

Hm I don't have my XBox 360 controller here currently but I think this used to be possible, you may need to check all available axes (I may be wrong though, of course):

You can detect the axes with no problem, it's just the way how it is detected.
the left button is -255...0 and the right button is 0..255 (or ..128... can't remember) - since it's an axis the values are simply added, resulting in both buttons pressed = 0. that's... stupid But not a problem of Acknex, it's DirectInput.

Oh I see... that sucks.

Also interesting for the future could be Emscripten.
But in order to utilize Emscripten it would be required to replace DirectX with OpenGL ES, OpenAl, SDL, ... and get rid of any other Windows specific code... which will be the main problem for any port to a different platform.

Emscripten provides common APIs like mentioned above and can compile to asm.js - which means - yes, exactly - you can run everything in a browser.

Unity5 is using this approach as well, and it's working pretty cool.
Also more and more emulators are going that way, including Dosbox. No more Java applets, no more plugins!