Android 1.8/1.10 support thread

General feedback and discussion of the game.

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alep
Android Port Maintainer
Posts: 160
Joined: June 24th, 2013, 6:22 am

Re: Android support thread

Post by alep »

Hello.

The only official available Wesnoth version for Android is an obsolete version (1.8).
Besides, I honestly don't like the approach of that version, which includes major modifications of the UI to adapt it to touchscreens.
I mean, with this approach every upgrade will need a great effort (and this is probably one of the reason why we are still at 1.8). Furthermore, many functionalities are unavailable.

That's why I built a 1.10.6 for Android, and I now am happily playing Wensoth on my phone and my tablet.

This version uses touchscreen to emulate the mouse and software or hardware keyboards for keystrokes.
Compared to the official version, IMHO, the controls are a little slower but you have everything which is available in the PC version, like for example:

- map zooming
- planning mode
- shroud updates delaying
- keyboard shortcuts [Tip: use an extended software keyboard; i.e. Hacker's Keyboard is available on Google Play and includes CTRL key and numeric keypad]
- language localization
- addons download

Also, if you have a screen larger than 800x480 (which is the minimum needed to play) the game will run on full resolution on your screen.

Since the result looked pretty good, I made it available on Google Play as unofficial port.
You can find it here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ra.wesnoth

The price is 1 EUR (a little more than 1 USD), and it's just for covering the porting effort which took several days for debugging, since running the code as-is made the game crash at startup; to avoid this some little fixes have been applied to the sources [*].

There is a trial version available to check if you like how the game feels on your device; it's available here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... esnothfree

The only difference between the free version and the paid one is: the free version will shut itself down after 10 minutes.

I will try to keep it up to date as new maintenance versions come out.

[*] You can found modified sources here: http://www.alessandropira.org/wesnoth_a ... 0.6.tar.gz

Hope you'll like it.

Alessandro Pira
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AI
Inactive Developer
Posts: 2396
Joined: January 31st, 2008, 8:38 pm

Re: Android support thread

Post by AI »

I've pushed the changes to src to github: commit, branch and comparison.

I'm having some trouble actually building app though: http://pastebin.com/SQfZRJ4x
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Max
Posts: 1449
Joined: April 13th, 2008, 12:41 am

Re: Android support thread

Post by Max »

alep wrote:The only official available Wesnoth version for Android is an obsolete version (1.8).
Besides, I honestly don't like the approach of that version, which includes major modifications of the UI to adapt it to touchscreens.
I mean, with this approach every upgrade will need a great effort (and this is probably one of the reason why we are still at 1.8).
that's mainly because no-one ever made the effort of providing a patch. most of the tweaks are sdl related and would apply to all touchscreen devices. i really doubt there would be much resistance from the developer side.
alep wrote:This version uses touchscreen to emulate the mouse and software or hardware keyboards for keystrokes.
Compared to the official version, IMHO, the controls are a little slower but you have everything which is available in the PC version...
i gave it a try - the experience was quite painful.
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alep
Android Port Maintainer
Posts: 160
Joined: June 24th, 2013, 6:22 am

Re: Android support thread

Post by alep »

AI wrote:I've pushed the changes to src to github: commit, branch and comparison.

I'm having some trouble actually building app though: http://pastebin.com/SQfZRJ4x
Can you detail a little more your build environment and the steps you made to build?

I'm asking this because I could not reproduce your error. To be sure, I also installed a fresh new ubuntu on a virtual machine, downloaded the package, sun's jdk and Google's android SDK & NDK, set up PATH & co., ran build.sh and the build completed fine.
I can only presume there is something broken in you building environment or you modified the content of the package before building.
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alep
Android Port Maintainer
Posts: 160
Joined: June 24th, 2013, 6:22 am

Re: Android support thread

Post by alep »

Max wrote:
alep wrote:(and this is probably one of the reason why we are still at 1.8).
that's mainly because no-one ever made the effort of providing a patch.
Exactly. But why should somebody bother to provide a patch for a paid game?
This way the official android port is sadly going to be abandoned. And, believe me, this is a pity.
I made this port because I love this game and I can't believe that android platform cannot be supported in the same way other operating systems are.

PLEASE provide a free up-to-date version for Android. I'm speaking with developers. I can help, if you want, but for a FREE game.
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AI
Inactive Developer
Posts: 2396
Joined: January 31st, 2008, 8:38 pm

Re: Android support thread

Post by AI »

alep wrote:
AI wrote:I've pushed the changes to src to github: commit, branch and comparison.

I'm having some trouble actually building app though: http://pastebin.com/SQfZRJ4x
Can you detail a little more your build environment and the steps you made to build?

I'm asking this because I could not reproduce your error. To be sure, I also installed a fresh new ubuntu on a virtual machine, downloaded the package, sun's jdk and Google's android SDK & NDK, set up PATH & co., ran build.sh and the build completed fine.
I can only presume there is something broken in you building environment or you modified the content of the package before building.
I'm afraid I can't access my computer before the 18th, but I believe this is what I did:
-extract your package
-update my android SDK
-download the latest NDK
-run build.sh

Maybe my java SDK is outdated. I did all this on debian wheezy.
That linking error occurred after each of the individual objects had been successfully compiled.
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alep
Android Port Maintainer
Posts: 160
Joined: June 24th, 2013, 6:22 am

Re: Android support thread

Post by alep »

AI wrote: I'm afraid I can't access my computer before the 18th, but I believe this is what I did:
-extract your package
-update my android SDK
-download the latest NDK
-run build.sh

Maybe my java SDK is outdated. I did all this on debian wheezy.
That linking error occurred after each of the individual objects had been successfully compiled.
Ok... java SDK should not be a problem, or at least not at that point.
When you will be able to access your computer, can you please do:

cd ......./WesnothAndroid-1.10.6/ [go into the unpacked folder]
ndk-build -n

and provide the output (which should be fairly long)?
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AI
Inactive Developer
Posts: 2396
Joined: January 31st, 2008, 8:38 pm

Re: Android support thread

Post by AI »

Spoiler:
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alep
Android Port Maintainer
Posts: 160
Joined: June 24th, 2013, 6:22 am

Re: Android support thread

Post by alep »

The linker command you posted seems correct.
If you run it on command line, do you get the same errors?

I'd say there's something broken in your building environment because the undefined references you get should be provided by the libgnustl_shared.so library, which is not part of my package, but is instead copied during the build from android ndk to obj/ folder.
Are you using Google's official android ndk, right?

I suggest to clean and try to build again, and maybe also to download and reinstall the ndk.

Hope this helps.
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AI
Inactive Developer
Posts: 2396
Joined: January 31st, 2008, 8:38 pm

Re: Android support thread

Post by AI »

This is what I get:
Spoiler:
I am using the official NDK, but it may not be installed the way it should be.
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gnomius
Posts: 37
Joined: February 14th, 2013, 11:34 am

Re: Android support thread

Post by gnomius »

alep wrote:The only official available Wesnoth version for Android is an obsolete version (1.8.).
Besides, I honestly don't like the approach of that version, which includes major modifications of the UI to adapt it to touchscreens.
It's good news that you built 1.10 version for Android, but I disagree with your opinion about the UI. The "virtual mouse" is not very handy for a touch screen, especially in the case of a phone's small screen. :?

Wouldn't it be possible to take advantage of cjhopman's interface, and integrate it in your port? Then, I would gladly pay another time for the same game, because it seems that cjhopman is not very active on updating his port.

Thank you, and regards
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GalaxyS4
Posts: 2
Joined: July 25th, 2013, 2:25 pm

Re: Android support thread

Post by GalaxyS4 »

What model is your device?
Samsung Galaxy S4
What version of Android is it running?
Android 4.2.2
Complete description of problem you’re having.
Incompatible with my device
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alep
Android Port Maintainer
Posts: 160
Joined: June 24th, 2013, 6:22 am

Re: Android support thread

Post by alep »

gnomius wrote:It's good news that you built 1.10 version for Android, but I disagree with your opinion about the UI. The "virtual mouse" is not very handy for a touch screen, especially in the case of a phone's small screen. :?

Hello, and thanks for the feedback.
Actually, specially on a small screen, I think that the "virtual mouse" method -as you called it- is more precise than the traditional one (tapping directly on hex field or small buttons).
But, as you too said, it's just an opinion and I understand that if you don't like it, well, you have your reasons.
gnomius wrote:Wouldn't it be possible to take advantage of cjhopman's interface, and integrate it in your port? Then, I would gladly pay another time for the same game, because it seems that cjhopman is not very active on updating his port.
I am sorry, but I won't integrate cjhopman's UI changes into my port. I'd rather make things work better as they are right now.
For example, I believe that map scrolling is quite essential, and on device without trackpad scrolling is not easy right now. For this reason, I am going to use two-fingers swipes to send arrow keys to the application thus scrolling the map. I am currently testing this feature and it's gonna be released soon.

⁂
[/color][/b]
GalaxyS4 wrote:What model is your device?
Samsung Galaxy S4
What version of Android is it running?
Android 4.2.2
Complete description of problem you’re having.
Incompatible with my device
...you don't say if you are using the official port or not... but if it's a Samsung Galaxy S4 mini then it doesn't meet the screen size requirements.
Last edited by 8680 on July 26th, 2013, 3:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Merged double post [Posting Guidelines §1f].
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GalaxyS4
Posts: 2
Joined: July 25th, 2013, 2:25 pm

Re: Android support thread

Post by GalaxyS4 »

I have the regular galaxy s4. I have tried both the official and unofficial links below and they both tell me it is incompatible.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ttle&hl=en

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... noth&hl=en
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AI
Inactive Developer
Posts: 2396
Joined: January 31st, 2008, 8:38 pm

Re: Android support thread

Post by AI »

The first of those is cjhopman's port, based on 1.8. The second is alep's new port, based on 1.10.

Both of them are compatible with both my old HTC Desire HD and my new Nexus 4. I don't really see what they have that the Galaxy S4 doesn't. Do you have more specific information to give us?
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