Anyone into Android programming?

[emjay]

Hiya pool   This thread started being about Android but it has kind of morphed into being about Unity3d. Unity can create apps for Android but it can make them for many different platforms - so Android is just one of many for it. But as far as specifically Android programming - in Java and with Eclipse - is concerned I personally am not particularly interested in that any more and Unity is my new thing. But if you still want to talk about Android programming, there are other people who've replied to this thread that are still interested in it I think 

Unity can create apps for android,as in,games,right?

Also,any specific reason for loosing interest in Java and Eclipse?

Yeah, it's a "game engine" for creating 3D and 2D games for pretty much any platform you can think of. You just create the program once, in C# (or Javascript), and then can build it for any platform out a massive list. It's very visual and requires a lot less code. I think it's amazing but I'm still new to it. I've got one game on my phone that was made with it - because it says "made with Unity" at the beginning so it is used for professional game development.

Don't get me started on Java and Eclipse. I like the Java language - which Android programming introduced me to - but Android development as a whole I find really unintuitve, laborious, and boring. It's hard to put it into words but it just doesn't seem very interrelated - you spend forever learning about one feature and it doesn't help you with anything else so you just don't feel like you're getting anywhere towards mastering it no matter how much you learn. So for that reason I could never become confident in it but Unity is different and I think I will be able to master it because it is so integrated.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

Cool,i think i'll give Unity a try too,once a get an Android phone.

[emjay]

Cool,i think i'll give Unity a try too,once a get an Android phone.

Cool   Here's a link to a post by Bennyboy (in this thread) with a video of the development process in Unity just so you can have an idea of what it's all about:

http://atheistforums.org/thread-34057-po...#pid976435

I was sold on it after seeing that, so enjoy

[bennyboy]

@Benny. Just to let you know I finally got a new laptop (well not new; refurbished) a few days ago and have now got Unity and Blender installed. So if you want to carry on where we left off we can? I backed up my projects before and they work fine in this new installation so it's just a matter of getting re-aquainted with it all as it has been out of my mind for a few weeks. I was up to the point where I had created a new scene in the Roll a Ball project to house the pool table blender model you recommended. I haven't done anything new to it but I did press play and the ball just falls through the surface of the table so that's where I'm up to now. Anyway, how's it going with you? I recall you were starting to learn blender as well and suggested we could learn together?

You have to give the table a collision detector.

[bennyboy]

Hiya pool   This thread started being about Android but it has kind of morphed into being about Unity3d. Unity can create apps for Android but it can make them for many different platforms - so Android is just one of many for it. But as far as specifically Android programming - in Java and with Eclipse - is concerned I personally am not particularly interested in that any more and Unity is my new thing. But if you still want to talk about Android programming, there are other people who've replied to this thread that are still interested in it I think 

Unity can create apps for android,as in,games,right?

Also,any specific reason for loosing interest in Java and Eclipse?

If you want to make an Android-specific application, it will 1) be a LOT harder; 2) be usable only on Android; 3) feel more like an Android app.

So if you want to use the Android phone buttons (back button etc.), and have a menu system, then Java is still best (though Eclipse may be dead now).  But if you want to make your first phone game, Unity provides a much higher-level environment-- that is, it does a lot more of the things you need: setting up the window, controlling collisions, handling physics, etc.  If you write your own native Android application, YOU have (get?) to handle all the graphics directly.  You have to program your own physics.  And if you want to use 3D models, YOU will figure out how to read the files, etc.

This is the question: do you want more total control (i.e. by doing everything yourself in Java), or do you want to get straight into making a workable game, but possibly with a few limitations?

I've written Android programs, for example to record audio or video, compress them, and upload them to a homepage.  Unity couldn't do ANY of those things.  However, to learn enough about Android to make a 3D game, even a simple one like the Roll-A-Ball demo at the Unity3D homepage, would take me months.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

I like to have total control.I prefer writing things from scratch so that i can know every nook and corner of my code and mend it to my will. :evil:
Anyhow,it wouldn't hurt to try and use something like Unity!

[bennyboy]

I like to have total control.I prefer writing things from scratch so that i can know every nook and corner of my code and mend it to my will. :evil:
Anyhow,it wouldn't hurt to try and use something like Unity!

A whole game engine will probably take a single person longer than you have-- because by the time you get all your technologies (asset readers, physics systems, etc.) ready, then you will be a couple of versions of Android behind the curve.  Even professional games these days use 3rd-party assets.  The main difference to me is that some of them are paid (possibly very expensive) and some, like Unity, are free.

Imagine writing a game.  Now, imagine you want to make an iPhone version, and Android version and a Windows version.  Now weep.

That being said, I think we should split this thread and make a Unity thread. I could also make a Java for Android thread if anyone's interested in things like making calls to Android functions from within a webpage, or in how to use FTP to upload files to your homepage or anything like that.

[emjay]

@Benny. Just to let you know I finally got a new laptop (well not new; refurbished) a few days ago and have now got Unity and Blender installed. So if you want to carry on where we left off we can? I backed up my projects before and they work fine in this new installation so it's just a matter of getting re-aquainted with it all as it has been out of my mind for a few weeks. I was up to the point where I had created a new scene in the Roll a Ball project to house the pool table blender model you recommended. I haven't done anything new to it but I did press play and the ball just falls through the surface of the table so that's where I'm up to now. Anyway, how's it going with you? I recall you were starting to learn blender as well and suggested we could learn together?

You have to give the table a collision detector.

I figured it might be that - because the Roll a Ball project just uses inbuilt assets like spheres, planes, and cubes so they probably have all of that stuff set as default. And I'd be perfectly happy for us to create a separate Unity thread as you suggested to pool   Anyway, nice to hear from you again and hopefully we can really get back into all of this again. I got a refurbished Windows 7 i7 laptop with 8gb ram, and a 220 ssd. It's amazing and an absolute joy to use 

[bennyboy]

ir jealous

[emjay]

ir jealous

Jealous of what?