Android programming .... its so broken!

[sdetoni]

<Rant>
It must be me, because I'm unable to render even the most basic of bitmaps on an android screen. Why some code works, and then
my implementation doesn't is beyond me to even care now. It seems to require designing either a screen layout with obscure xml syntax and then implement a custom view or building a SurfaceView to implement some basic rendering, but then I also need to add a rendering thread, locking code, and some state changing code, and god knows what else. Then when the thing finally builds, it just dies in the emulator with no explanation why... that's helpful.. NOT! Hell, coding Nintendo DS using homebrew libraries is easier than this!

I've winged about Microsoft's API designs in the past, but come guys, Android dev env is truly awful. Writing screeds of code to do
even the most basic of things is just bollocks in my view ... I have better things to waste my time on.

andengine looks more easier, but is only really useful if you want to design games.
</Rant>

[The Caffeine Kid]

I was so excited about working with Android - until I released a game and got error reports of it not working on certain handsets when it worked absolutely perfect on the couple of machines I could test with.

It's worse than PCs for having a million different specs and configurations that might or might not work with given code.

Still I'm Remake of the Month in GamesTM with the game, so it can't be all that bad. lol

[gilesgoat]

Lightly out of topic someone ( well informed and into that ) told me that fundamentally it's "impossible" NOT to find any cracked version of any SW on Android "all you need is to google for it".

[Darkflame]

Funny, I got (multi-res)sprites and then 3d stuff working with my Android phone within a day. (with no previous mobile development whatsoever)

Have you tried following online tutorials?
Are you using Eclipse etc?

The XML layout stuff is pretty easy - no harder then html design (and shares many things in common). Frankly when it comes to writing software compatible with both multiple screen res's, ratios and orientations you need UI design system done in some sort of markup imho. You are free to do it all in code, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Or are you trying to code in C or something rather then Java? Because I've never tried that and I understand the tools for it are nowhere near as developed.

It's worse than PCs for having a million different specs and configurations that might or might not work with given code.

Not really. Your guarantied a minimum spec with every phone - that's more then you get with PCs.

You wont ever get everything working everywhere, but pick a version, target your code to that, and Id be very supprised if you get more bugs then the pc equilivent.

The only ones Ive come accross myself is orentation issues with picking up the camera's stream. (some phones have it 90 degree's off). I believe this is fixed in 2.3 and above, but if your targeting 2.1 then you need to sniff for the phone and rotate the surface yourself, which is pretty messy. (but I assume its what Layar and Wikitude do).

Hell, coding Nintendo DS using homebrew libraries is easier than this!

To be fair, some of the DS homebrew libs were surprisingly good. (admitably I only ever coded a little matrix screensaver so my experience isn't great, but Ive seen windowing systems, font and abstracted hardware read/write libs for the DS)
Shame its unlikely any of that work will be portable to the 3DS.

[KlaxonCow]

Not really. Your guarantied a minimum spec with every phone - that's more then you get with PCs.

Actually, you do get an implicit minimum spec on PCs.

Target XP and the PC has to be at least the minimum spec of XP itself. Target Vista and the PC has to be at least the minimum spec of Vista. Target 7 and...

Well, you get the gist, I'm sure.

[RamaBot]

Android is really just as much of a pain in the arse as any other platform.

Coming from C/C++ I hated Java so much that I used to dread the days when I had to work on the Java side of things on my first android project.

Then I found Marmalade SDK. Now I don't touch java at all and my code compiles for multiple platforms with ease.
Also it allows me to program in pure OpenGL which is also something I'm used to doing. Allowing the vast bulk of my code to be compatible with most systems that are Not supported by Marmalade.
This is handy as now I have a separate non marmalade Windows version of my game code which allows me to some debugging and profiling that Marmalade ( or any other cross platform SDK ) cannot do. It also allows multiple people to compile the code without each of them requiring a licence for the SDK.

As far as multiple resolution support. This has been the case for years on most platforms so I am used to coding games for it by now.

[sdetoni]

Funny, I got (multi-res)sprites and then 3d stuff working with my Android phone within a day. (with no previous mobile development whatsoever)

Have you tried following online tutorials?
Are you using Eclipse etc?

I was using Netbeans, I think their android plug is slightly broken as well. I've retried with Eclipse, and things seem a little better compatibility wise, and it comes with a layout editor which is big help. Unfortunately Eclipse is not as good an IDE as Netbeans, but at least it works. The thing I do like about the SDK is the resource management, that has been implemented nice and easy.

Hell, coding Nintendo DS using homebrew libraries is easier than this!

To be fair, some of the DS homebrew libs were surprisingly good. (admitably I only ever coded a little matrix screensaver so my experience isn't great, but Ive seen windowing systems, font and abstracted hardware read/write libs for the DS)
Shame its unlikely any of that work will be portable to the 3DS.[/quote]

Agreed, some of the libs are very well designed. I'm giving the android andengine another go, problem is their tutorials are out of date with their latest library and things don't compile .

[sdetoni]

Android is really just as much of a pain in the arse as any other platform.

Coming from C/C++ I hated Java so much that I used to dread the days when I had to work on the Java side of things on my first android project.

Then I found Marmalade SDK. Now I don't touch java at all and my code compiles for multiple platforms with ease.
Also it allows me to program in pure OpenGL which is also something I'm used to doing. Allowing the vast bulk of my code to be compatible with most systems that are Not supported by Marmalade.
This is handy as now I have a separate non marmalade Windows version of my game code which allows me to some debugging and profiling that Marmalade ( or any other cross platform SDK ) cannot do. It also allows multiple people to compile the code without each of them requiring a licence for the SDK.

As far as multiple resolution support. This has been the case for years on most platforms so I am used to coding games for it by now.

Is there a free version of Marmalade, I can only see them wanting money for it.... which is fine except I'm not doing this thing for profit.

[RamaBot]

Android is really just as much of a pain in the arse as any other platform.

Coming from C/C++ I hated Java so much that I used to dread the days when I had to work on the Java side of things on my first android project.

Then I found Marmalade SDK. Now I don't touch java at all and my code compiles for multiple platforms with ease.
Also it allows me to program in pure OpenGL which is also something I'm used to doing. Allowing the vast bulk of my code to be compatible with most systems that are Not supported by Marmalade.
This is handy as now I have a separate non marmalade Windows version of my game code which allows me to some debugging and profiling that Marmalade ( or any other cross platform SDK ) cannot do. It also allows multiple people to compile the code without each of them requiring a licence for the SDK.

As far as multiple resolution support. This has been the case for years on most platforms so I am used to coding games for it by now.

Is there a free version of Marmalade, I can only see them wanting money for it.... which is fine except I'm not doing this thing for profit.

Unfortunately not. It's a shame cos they could really expand the user base by allowing people to use it for free and only pay when they publish.

[Darkflame]

Not really. Your guarantied a minimum spec with every phone - that's more then you get with PCs.

Actually, you do get an implicit minimum spec on PCs.

Target XP and the PC has to be at least the minimum spec of XP itself. Target Vista and the PC has to be at least the minimum spec of Vista. Target 7 and...

Well, you get the gist, I'm sure.

Fair point - I retract my previous comment.

I was using Netbeans, I think their android plug is slightly broken as well. I've retried with Eclipse, and things seem a little better compatibility wise, and it comes with a layout editor which is big help. Unfortunately Eclipse is not as good an IDE as Netbeans, but at least it works. The thing I do like about the SDK is the resource management, that has been implemented nice and easy.

That exaplains it...I knew I wasnt especialy good at this stuff

Incidently I've been using this for Android openGL stuff;
http://www.jpct.net/jpct-ae/
Pretty nice imho.

[BillyT]

Lightly out of topic someone ( well informed and into that ) told me that fundamentally it's "impossible" NOT to find any cracked version of any SW on Android "all you need is to google for it".

That's pretty much true... The best model for selling for Android is to release free, then have an IAP to unlock the full game. It seems Android users don't mind downloading free stuff and using IAP but ask them to pay for it upfront and they run a mile looking for a pirated version.

My experience of Android has been pretty easy... I use Eclipse, with various plugins to make using the NDK and debugging straight forward. The only gripe I have is multitasking with Opengl is pretty horrid - you lose textures, shaders, and VBOs that need to be reloaded.