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+-- Forum: Android Development (http://www.scratchpadgames.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=9)
+--- Forum: Getting Android working (http://www.scratchpadgames.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=10)
+--- Thread: Where to start? (/showthread.php?tid=2)
Where to start? - Brian Beuken - 01-20-2018
Most SBC's (except Raspberry) come in multiple OS flavours and Android is very clearly a popular option.
I don't personally like to code in Java, Androids preferred coding language, its slow, its rather clunky in my view and it does not give me the kind of hardware control that C/C++ on Linux does.
But, if we are using VisualGDB (You need the Ultimate edition), its not incredibly hard to alter some of our projects to work on Android.
And there is the added advantage that pretty much any machine running android is going to have access to GPU drivers. Almost all the chip makers are contributors to the Android standard so they have to release their drivers to the android project. There is a commercial benefit to them for that, but not for linux so many chip makers just don't make their drivers available to Linux, that's a pretty big deal.
I don't plan to write another book on the topic, but I will over time make some efforts to port the projects and describe how to do it. It needs a bit more setting up and a tiny dabble into Java to kick things off, but once we're working inside the NDK its usually going to be pretty much the same basic ideas, with a few differences on file and key/mouse/touch access.
There may be issues with variations in hardware though so its not a given that an android ndk project will work on all platforms (with the same android).
RE: Where to start? - Brian Beuken - 08-04-2018
So after a bit of cussing and fussing, when I failed to get Android Studio to install the SDK/NDK
I tried again with Visual GDB, and asked it to install all...which it did.. then informed me I had to go into the director and manually run the SDK Manager to install all the tools needed.
Not knowing which I needed though I opted to download them all.. And then went to bed, as the process is long winded and slow.
You will probably need to install a few versions of Android, we're currently at API 28 Android 9, but only a few systems have that, and very few SBC's so best to install from 5 upward, and as I say, be prepared to wait.
I'll update on progress when the installs are done
RE: Where to start? - Brian Beuken - 08-04-2018
Well my efforts to download have not been 100% successful, the manager still reports lots of not installed files (I tried to just go for everything and left it running as I slept), kinda confused why there is no, install what I need to get working options.
I have to just keep trying to install all, and let it do its thing in the background while I try to fix issues with Linux systems
RE: Where to start? - jomoengineer - 04-26-2019
Brian,
Have you tried this with the Tinker Board. It seems to have an Android image that can be loaded but I am not sure if it would be work messing with.
Cheers,
Jon
RE: Where to start? - Brian Beuken - 04-26-2019
I just can't seem to get the Android Studio/SDK installed anywhere, and my will to live keeps reducing each time I try...so Im just avoiding Android for now. when it takes me days just to get an enviornment set up, I doubt I would have the will power left to actually try coding.
I will leave it to others.