I'm looking to develop an application for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and for Desktop no matter if it's web or standalone. Does anyone have experience with Haxe + NME or Kivy that they can share in detail?
I've been looking for something that can deploy to all platforms and these are the 2 best options I seem to have found. I'm not looking to make a game though. It's more like an app with a lot of touch listeners on images. Touch image then hide this, create that, and do a lot of math behind the scenes. I do however need a pathfinding library but pretty much all engines I've worked in had the A-star pathfinding library. I also need a slideView library so users can swap pages like they do on their smartphone desktop. Any information you can share on the following topic is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for reading and for any help provided. Sorry for the trouble
no experience with Haxe here, but I can answer for Kivy:
First, windows phone is currently unsupported, to my knowledge, no one attempted any port, it's probably doable, but it doesn't exist yet, and no core contributor have a windows phone device, so until that changes, or someone with that motivation comes in, there is low probability that it will happen.
For your interactive needs, Kivy would fit the bill pretty easily, being really focused on making touch handling per-widget easy to define. We don't have much information about your math needs, if they are heavy, you'll probably want something like numpy to be usable behind the scene, and/or use threads to do the heavy lifting without blocking the application, this can totally be done with Kivy, so i see no particular issue there. For A*, there isn't any implementation directly inside kivy, but you should be able to use a python implementation (there are dozens out there), if your needs on this side require more performance, you can cythonize it to increase performances, or use a C implementation compiled for each target.
Hope this helps.
long time Haxe user here, though personally I mostly use Haxe for web-app projects, not NME as much. Until recently NME's main focus has been (far and away) gaming. There has been a few recent efforts to create nice UI toolkits building on NME's cross platform strengths:
https://github.com/RealyUniqueName/StablexUI - Demo (works on HTML5, flash, native desktop&mobile)
https://github.com/ianharrigan/haxeui
but they are very recent additions, so if you're looking for a tried and tested solution Kivy (never heard of it before, but looks cool!) looks like it has a bit more maturity and a bit more polish going for it.
In terms of performance and overall reliability, Haxe/NME is great, but it's getting those native-feeling UI widgets that will be your pain point. Other than that though, it's an amazing language to work with :) Python's pretty good as well though... each to their own!
At the time of writing, people are experimenting with using Native UI (there is a talk at the upcoming conference about an Objective C target, and the Java and C# targets are becoming more mature, so there are your 3 main mobile platforms covered) so that could be an option if you want native ui components, though it's not ready yet, this is me just hoping that it might become reality over the next year or so :)
Good luck with your project either way! If you do choose to go with Haxe/NME, be sure to ask questions (either here, the NME forums, or the Haxe mailing list) so that people can help you on your way.
Related
I am thinking of developing a program within ASP.NET. But that I could port easily to Apple, Android and Windows phones and tablets. I also want the program to be able to run on PCs (MAC´s?).
This seems to be fine. However, the normal GUI of Windows does not look at all like the GUI from e.g. iOS or Android. And this would be a big show stopper. It should be at least optimized for touch mode. So all on screen widgets should be a bit bigger.
Are there libraries, providing controls, which looks like normal ones on the operating system? It would be best if this works kind of automatically. So the program should find out where it runs and load the standard GUI best fitting to the device, where it is being started.
I could of course develop own controls, but this may be a bit too much of effort.
It would also be very nice if the library would handle different screens or modes like portrait and landscape. So that it may switch depending on the orientation of the tablet, or phone for instance.
I am searching for something like that, which provides a good result, without the programmer needing too much to do by himself.
I also like if one can recommend a library he is using already by a bigger program. From my own experience, you get to know the strengh and weakness of such libraries with the time passing by.
Best Regards.
I already discovered some tools like PhoneGap, Sencha, Mono. I do not know, if these are well suited for me.
I like to create an app most likely for all plattforms at the same time. Is this the case with e.g. PhoneGap?
I am not familar with JavaScript, or CSS or HTML development.
I am an experienced C# programmer and I am quite familar with Java. So VisualStudio is my daily working environment, and I am using Eclipse also a lot.
Mono:
I only read about it and found out this aspects:
cost 999$ to use it in Visual Studio. Hope that this price includes development for all plattforms and not just one. Did not yet check this.
The coding looks very good.
There are APIs for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone to setup controls. So these parts needs to be rewritten for any supported application. One may create a core library, which can be used for all components. This aspect is not so nice.
However, I would prefer a solution, where the GUI is even described on another level. And then it should be brought to the current plattform automatically, if not specific libraries are used. So HTML5 may be more flexible.
Best Regards,
Patrick
I created an Android app. While creating one specific app was an interesting challenge, I'm now looking into creating a group of similar apps.
I'd like to create a group of similar Android apps and then move on to creating the same on tablets and iOS... (anything mobile).
I've considered doing so with a product called PhoneGap or doing a web based mobile app. Both of these options seem less than ideal. Doing the Android app I've been frustrated by Java's lack of control and low level constructs. Moving to something like a web based app seems like the exact wrong direction.
C++ is my language of choice. It has the ability to work at a low level, is highly portable across platforms, and has significant support for generic coding which would be useful for generating a group of similar apps. However, the Android documentation suggests to not use C++ unless your goal is porting existing code or dealing with computationally heavy tasks.
I'm leaning towards using C++ anyway, but are there other options I've not considered?
Thanks
You could in theory write your logic in C++ and then have UI layers on top that make use of it. If you are really comfortable with C++ that might be the way to go.
Almost any other parts (networking, UI, animation, etc) are better off being done in the native language of the platform. Use of cross platform solutions always limits you in some way, and usually leads to an application that is not as good as it could be for any platform.
Well, Google's recommendation to not use C++ is based on the following, I believe. C++ is low level, so you can get extra performance out of it if you know what you are doing. Google makes the reasonable assumption that many programmers do not. It is easier for an inexperienced programmer to do harm in C++ then to get a performance boost.
But, if you know what you are doing, it can help you. UI elements on both iOS and Android are implemented in their main language (obj-c, and Java respectively) so there is not a great way around that, but you can write core logic and other functions in C++ and it will be portable between them (iOS can use C++ directly and Android can use it via the Native Development Kit).
There are a few other options available. The one I ended up using is Appcelerator Titanium but please stay away from it. If your project gets complicated or large at all you will hate yourself for choosing it, as I did. Another interesting one that uses C++ instead of Javascript is Marmalade. I haven't used it though, so I can't comment on it.
A non-free solution that I hear good things about is Xamarin, who have ported both environments to C# and a .NET using Mono. However, you still have to write two versions of your code for the UI as far as I can tell.
I have been looking at the different packages for python on android and IOS as i am going to be upgrading my phone soon.
However, i dont know which OS to go with. For android they have the SL4A package, but for IOS they have their equivilent. However, im stuck on which to go for. Does anyone have any suggestions for this?
I know its kind of a stupid question, however im just getting into mobile development since they allowed scripting languages on the mobile platform.
The python support for Android is pretty good, but still under development. You can do things that a scripting language can but not the stuff that Python as a OO language can.
Example:- When you go through the api reference here, you can see that one can write scripts to do basic to complex tasks, but, in a restrictive way. You can never build full blown apps, and even if you do, it will always be slow because the SLA4 is just another layer on top of few other layers in the Android hierarchy. There have been a lot of fun stuff that has been done using Python scripting, example: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/07/nexus-one-phone-rides-a-rocket-up-28000-feet/#ixzz0v7LFT7ay (A bit over-board and crazy, but awesome nonetheless.)
I don't have much experience on an IPhone to pass on such comments. But, an IPhone is expensive. You can always get a used Nexus phone and do all kinds of Python hacking/scripting. All depends on your budget and your need.
That is all.
I had been on the lookut for Python on iOS for sometime. About 2-months ago, one one released to the iTunes app store -- http://pythonforios.com/ and it is fantastic! It includes the complete set of Python 2.7.2 documentation -- which alone is worth the $3 price.
It's a bit of a challenge to code any serious apps (which I suspect is the result of the developer having to comply w/ Apple's app guidelines), but it is a perfect place to test ideas from a train or airport (when you are without a laptop).
1 caveat -- I've only tried it on an iPad. It could be a bit cramped screen real-estate on an iphone.
Pythonista is an excellent alternative for the iOS platform - here's a nice article on it. And this one details how you can achieve workflow automation on the iPAD.
As the topic states - is there any technology that would let me write code for a simple commercial 2D game which could be then compiled to work well on Android, iOS and Web browsers or at least two of them (e.g. Android and iOS)? There is so much buzz about cross-platform nowadays that I was wondering if I'm missing something.
My goal (set by my producer) is to make this game for all of these three platforms, and so far I planned to use:
- Web browsers: Adobe Flex,
- Android phones: Java (since my favourite C++ is recommended only for short snippets),
- iPad/iPhone/iPod: Objective-C (are there any alternatives?).
It pretty much means re-writing the same source code three times. Is there any way to speed it up by using a technology that would work on at least both of them?
However, I don't want to use Adobe Flex for all three (though it's possible), because it requires Adobe AIR (works only with Android 2.2 and higher) and not a lot of phones have it (it's totally different with browsers where 98% of people have Flash).
I don't mind adding some platform-specific code for each version, of course.
Also, if you have any suggestions about choosing a fancier technology for any of the platforms (maybe some nice frameworks?), I'd really appreciate that, too.
Take a look at Corona and Moai both are Lua-based frameworks for game development targeting multiple platforms.
I would like to say that Multimedia Fusion was capable of doing this, but it isn't quite ready yet. There are currently a number of runtime exporters for the product which allow you to export your game to multiple target platforms which include flash, java and iOS at the moment. XNA and Android exporters are currently in the works. I should probably mention that I am only affiliated with these guys as a happy consumer of their products. It is probably worth checking it out even if they can't do everything you want yet. If it's not suitable for your needs it is still a very good choice if you wish to rapidly prototype your application.
See:
http://www.clickteam.com
On a side note, personally I would recommend against going down the js+html5 route, particularly if you are targeting mobiles. I should probably stress that it's simply an opinion I have and that there are plenty of people here who will disagree with me. In all javascript games I have played, I have felt the garbage collector. The issue is that without control over garbage collection it is free to run when it feels like, causing infrequent but very obvious pauses in the middle of your game. You can work around this but I don't see why it should be that difficult. I can definitely align with the ideals of being able to write the thing once and run it on all platforms, but I can't see it working just yet.
To offer some advice assuming you find no suitable tools for the job, your aim is to maximise reusability. This means all of your games resources and levels should be well defined as independent resources. For non-critical logic you can make use of embeddable scripting languages such as Lua, which will maximise your code reuse. C (or C++) code will also be reusable on a lot of platforms, and might be a good choice if you are familiar and confident with the language.
I'm personally using Phonegap and Zepto.js. But you may have more luck with jQuery mobile. Phonegap is nice because its website will compile the apps for you.
1) If you write your game in C++ you can use it for iPhone & Android (NDK) as well. Preferably, you write your game engine in C++, than you can use a OS specific layer for UI stuff..
2) Implement your game in HTML & Javascript. iPhone/Android users will have to use a webbrowser to play your game. For iPhone, you can even create a launcher, that looks like an app, but actually is a webview with HTML & Javascript
Unity3D should be able to do this for you, if you purchase some extra sprite addins to handle 2D (like Ex2D or SM2 or Toolkit 2D). Also right now until Apr 8, the iOS and Android license is free.
Game Maker Studio. It has a package that let's you deploy on all of the platforms you outlined.
http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/studio
Does anybody have experiences from cross platform mobile app development framework MoSync?
It sounds very good and promises much. But does it deliver?
We have used MoSync for 8 months now and I have a good feeling about it. It is still magic to me that you code in C++ and out comes a jar-file or whatever platform you choose.
It is great for application development but I wouldn't recommend it for gaming with advanced graphics. It seems too slow for that on Symbian.
The APIs are very easy and I learned it very fast. And I have the freedom to do whatever components I want thanks to the MAUI framework and using widgets with skins. You can really make an application look very nice.
It is great for me as a developer that I can support so many phones and platforms. I can also do specific behavior and include/exclude functionality based on the phones capabilities.
When it comes to deployment I end up with hundreds of binaries for every device and I have to take care of them my self. To put them on a web server somewhere and make sure that every user get the correct binary when they try to download the app. I wished that they had some kind of app-store so they could host the apps.
MoSync still have a bit to go until it is working properly. There is no guaranty that an application that is build for a specific device actually works on that device. But I'm sure that they will reach there very soon. And when they do... I simply just need to rebuild my app with the SDK (I think).
Have you seen Mosync 2.6, I think this solves most of the problems you mentioned,
the feature list is at:
http://www.mosync.com/documentation/manualpages/whats-new-mosync-26-pyramid
I personally I'm quite excited about the whole HTML 5 integration, it sort of blurs the line between native and web app.
Hope this Helps
Tony