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
Related
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.
My work consists of porting an iPad application to Android (so from Objective-C to Java). I've developed in the Android environment, but never in iOS. Currently I am looking for advice -- I'd like to know if is there a way, method, or process which can help me to do this more easily.
At this stage generally the answer is no, but I've got some suggestions that might help.
Use UIWebView/Webkit extensively - baring any HTML5 media (and SVG), there's little porting required when you render HTML. What you render in one, generally, renders well on the other.
If your iOS app is a basic show-this-edit-that style of app, you may find PhoneGap, jQuery Mobile, Titanium or the new Adobe suite a better time investment.
Because Android lacks a consistent device base, which makes developing animation-rich UIs difficult, you might find that there is no 1-1 UI comparison. Instead think about the features you offer, and their underlying data and view models.
You should be able to create a similar UIViewController/Activities structure although the tying logic behind the scenes will be platform specific. Map this out on some paper - it makes a really good what-the-hell-do-i-do-next plan for your UI skeleton.
Prefer an intermediate abstraction between your 'in data' and 'out data' so you can exchange parsers/kits/apis/frameworks without hacking everything to bits.
Where you have custom draw routines and graphics, ensure that you've got filler gradients or colours. Android uses a box model to support the many many screen sizes - iOS only has 4 resolutions to worry about. Recreating the same look might take too much time - contrasting pastel colours are a good placeholder until you can justify making the artwork.
There's not a lot more that can say that hasn't already been said before.
Hope this helps!
Few advices:
You will in most cases need to do redesign of UI as iPad, being tablet PC and having a larger screen as compared with most Android devices. Advice: Check if there is a version of the application dedicated for iPhone as it could be very helpful during redesign stage.
Check if iPad code contains beside Objective-C code also C/C++ code. If there is significant amount of code you might consider using Android NDK which allows C/C++ code to be used together with Java.
If the iPad application was using one of the popular cross platform frameworks (e.g. PhoneGap) that are based on HTML5/CSS/JavaScript combination you might be able to reuse most of the code. Both iPad and Android browser/ui elements responsible for rendering HTML5 are based on same engine (WebKit) and generally generate similar experience. Note: Some frameworks allow custom access to native functionalities which will require rewrite in almost all cases.
Do not try to create exact same UI on Android if it conflicts with user interface guidelines. As you probably know the guidelines are available at: http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/index.html
Android users are used to certain interface and they should be getting similar experience as other apps available for Android. Also it might be more than painful to create similar controls for Android that exist on iPad. If there is pressure to make same "look and feel" here is a post that explains how to defend from such pressures: Porting iPhone applications to Android? How to convince them NOT to
Numerous features existing on iPad will not be available on Android (e.g. Android application splash screen using just an image). So analyse the iPad application and decompose it to set of functionalities. Once you have them then you can map them to Android API and start coding.
There are no Objective-C to Java converters at the moment (this might change in the future) but for general feeling what are differences between Objective-C and Java you might want to read "Porting Objective-C to Java" by Theresa Ray of Tensor Information Systems Inc
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
I have a very basic query related to phonegap and android tablet. I donot have the setup currently with me to verify.
I need to know if the development of Android phone and tablet using Phonegap differs, in term of build or any other thing which i should know before starting development
This question is not very descriptive, but I'll throw you a few tips for phonegap development on android:
Develop your layout using chrome/safari.
Make sure your layout is touch friendly and looks good at 320px, 480px, and 768px wide
Don't overdue it on mobile touch frameworks such as "sencha touch". Your app is guaranteed to not feel 100% like a native app and trying to make it feel more native by using one of these can actually have the opposite effect when users start noticing animations being sluggish or buttons and new screens not behaving as normal.
Find an android device to test on that's very mid-grade. Don't make the mistake of using a high end device to test on and seeing smooth javascript/css3 animations only to find out that on the majority of the devices, the android 'WebView' has pretty mediocre performance.
Honestly, it's really not that hard to make an application that has all of the functionality that phonegap offers as a native android app. There are plenty of codesamples and books to help you along the way, great resources (such as SO) to post questions or find answers on. I understand you may want to use phonegap for cross-platform compatibility but if you're looking for 'native feel' and cross-platform compatibility, you may want to look at appcelerator titanium instead. Yes, you'll have to learn their API - but you'll have to learn some of that with phonegap already (and you are still using javascript).
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