iOS & Android port advance info

[josebita]

Galaxy S should work, yeah. It's more of an OS version thing than anything else.
As for the resolution question: you can do that in BennuGD right now using scale_resolution:
http://www.bennugd.org/?q=node/27

Today I've added mod_key to the builds:
http://bennugd-mobile.blogspot.com.es/2012/08/modkey-working.html

mod_regex is still missing, will have to look at it at some point.

[handsource-dyko]

Mod_key eh? Does that mean that external bleutooth keyboards can be used? Some tablets like the ASUS transformer and the Galaxy tab support a special keyboard add-on. I wonder if it behaves like a normal pc keyboard. I don't know much about android's device handling. But I suppose such a keyboard would work? Some android phones have a physical (miniature) keyboard too. Keyboard support would be advantages so that I don't have to create a virtual d-pad because I don't want to (they are kind of crap with the emulators I play on the galaxy S2 and feel I don't want to use that for Malvado). With a lot of android devices you can simply plug in a usb device or use some bluetooth periphial and it'll work more or less. A lot of emulators support external devices and I want to use those too because I think it's better for most games. Sony got this right with the playstation phone by including hardware buttons and a d-pad.

Just a side note: does mod_key activate the virtual keyboard? That seems sort of standard in a lot android apps and I wonder if it's an api function that can be activated.

[josebita]

I haven't tested bluetooth/USB keyboards and, really, have no idea on how they work. If anyone can test those in the future, that'd be great as it's a very interesting feature :)
The buttons in the Android phones (Volume Up/Down, call, return...) are treated like keys and that's what this is mainly useful for.
You can, of course, also implement standard keyboard input through mod_key for devices with attached keyboards.

And no, mod_key doesn't -currently- implement a way for displayng the on-screen keyboard. Will have to look at that.

[josebita]

mod_regex built in. I've compiled an apk that implements the wiki's Split example. If you want to try it, it's here:
https://t.co/S549QIfg

Just be warned that it only dumps info to the adb logcat, nothing should happen on the phone more than seeing the app open and close instantly.

[handsource-dyko]

I've seen the video on your blog with the Android emulator with the key demo, and I'll think key inputs may work out of the box with the virtual keyboard. The keyboard in the emulator looks very similair to the on-screen keyboard. I'd reckon since Android is linux based, keyboard inputs could be universal regardless of the physical or virtual nature. So you may be in luck here.

I've seen demos of people testing playstation controllers with android devices and they seem to work out of the box because Android 4 has usb host support built-in. So that may possibly make the job a little easier. :D Android looks to me like a very flexible and open system with a lot of pc-like features.

[josebita]

I really cannot test keyboard input myself in anything other than the emulator. It'd be great if someone got one of those bluetooth keyboards and tested it.

Also, today I've added the ability to open links in the Android OS from within BennuGD code:
http://bennugd-mobile.blogspot.com/2012/08/opening-links-from-code.html

And I've published a couple of images of what the packager looks like:
http://bennugd-mobile.blogspot.com/2012/08/packager-update.html

[handsource-dyko]

Wow. Looking nice, is there also a packager for windows? Or more specifiacally, can I modify an existing package? Apk files are zip files with a directory structure. Only some xml files seem to have binary content when I view them with notepad++.

[josebita]

Wow. Looking nice, is there also a packager for windows? Or more specifiacally, can I modify an existing package? Apk files are zip files with a directory structure. Only some xml files seem to have binary content when I view them with notepad++.

The packager currently runs in Windows, Linux and MacOS X. It can be made to run in other desktop systems too, if needed.

[josebita]

Volume keys are now working normally in Android games created with BennuGD:
http://bennugd-mobile.blogspot.com/2012/08/volume-keys-file-saving-on-android.html

[josebita]

This is how the Android packager is looking right now:



Things that are working:

   
• Selective game packaging (will package your game but ignore *.exe, *.dll and so on)
• Game name changing
• Game icon changing
• Debug/release packaging
• Game installation after packaging
• Automatic detection of installed android virtual machines. They can be launched from the app menu.

I'll probably release a preview version this weekend.


PS: Javis is the author of the icon; thanks a lot!

[gecko]

this looks REALLLLLLY GOOD!

[josebita]

this looks REALLLLLLY GOOD!

Thanks :) I hope it's useful. When all the android packaging code is working as it should, I'll try to add some more platform options: Mac, Linux DEB, Linux TAR...

[SplinterGU]

wow! karma!

[handsource-dyko]

Wow! Pretty sweet. I see it supports different cpu architectures.

[MisterN]

Hey Dyko, did you get my last email? I need help with my engine, once I can finish all these minor things up and give the enemy AI, then its done (or so I hope). And then I will port it to the Android (the platform I am going to release it to most likely first).