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pelya
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« Reply #25 on: February 06, 2013, 01:36:58 PM »

I've added gyroscope aiming, and it's surprisingly good. Not all devices have gyroscope, and it eats battery. Also, minor fixes here and there:

New touchscreen control mode - tap to fire, the fire button will appear under your finger when you lift it up from the screen.
I asked my friend to play-test it, he mostly used gyroscope, and was puzzled about abscense of fire button. After I've told him that you should tap the screen, he kept tapping it frantically all over, instead of holding a finger on the screen - OA reacted by shooting once each three taps. There was some swearing, so I did not set the new mode as the default one.
If you have any good ideas about touchscreen controls - say them, I'm willing to add every idea.

Fixed white textures on old Android 2.3 devices with broken OpenGL drivers. Sony devices are especially bad about this, because they have tough casing, so users won't dump them for newer, better, and less buggy devices, and complain instead that apps are bad.

Railgun auto-zooms. No way to disable that yet.

Swipe screen to instantly rotate 180 degrees. Now OA feels more like a game designed for mobile, than a straight port from desktop.
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Peter Silie
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« Reply #26 on: February 06, 2013, 03:15:05 PM »

Unfortunately it didnt work very well on my sony device Sad
But i had great fun to look around!

EXCELENT
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pelya
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« Reply #27 on: February 06, 2013, 03:39:57 PM »

The guy behind US-located dedicated server proposed to have some weekly game event, because there are lot of players, but they join at random, see empty server, and leave.
The easiest way is to create an online calendar, in iCal format, and I'll update OpenArena so it will ask users to subscribe to it.
I would like to ask, is it possible to create such calendar on openarena.ws server, so it will be official, moderated by fromhell, and admins of dedicated servers will have some centralized place to post their events?
I don't mind creating it on some random free hosting service - there are only two Android dedicated servers anyway, but there might be some problems later, when you want to post your event but don't know whom to ask, etc.
What do you think?

Unfortunately it didnt work very well on my sony device Sad
Do you have some imprecise or noisy gyroscope? It should have asked to calibrate it at the beginning, did it calibrate okay? Is it a physical device, or virtual device, calculating phone angle from accelerometer and compass? You can check that with one of these apps - if your gyroscope manufacturer is "Google inc", then it's a combined accelerometer/compass, and it's shaky and generally bad.
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pelya
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« Reply #28 on: February 21, 2013, 11:12:50 AM »

Android release reached 10 000 downloads, yay. Now there are actually some people playing on dedicated servers, one time I even saw 4 players, including myself.
Next release will probably be just a bugfix - I've got a bunch of requests to add more configuration options, most popular is to disable swipe gesture.
I'm currently a bit busy, so it may get postponed to the March.
Also, I've uploaded OpenArena to the beta version of Ouya store - it does not have any statistics, so I cannot even tell you the number of downloads.
Someone already tried my build on Ouya, and told me that it works okay with it's gamepad. I would also like to support the touchpad part of Ouya gamepad, but it's currently impossible (as far as my little test app reports), hopefully they will add touchpad support in the future.

DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Main_Page#cite_note-2]Quote from Wiki:
Quote
Even if these third party people may visit the official OA forums by now and then, we have no direct control over their works, that may be considered "forks" of the original project. We are not responsible if they ask for payment.

If you wish, I can transfer the Android project ownership to some trusted member of community - you only need to create an Android developer account on Google Play (it costs $25 one-time). Also, it would be nice if you'd have an actual Android device that can run OA.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2013, 11:24:21 AM by pelya » Logged
Gig
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« Reply #29 on: February 21, 2013, 12:07:02 PM »

I added DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=13570&oldid=13506]this statement not only for your port, but also for other ports (well, I mentioned Android also to give hint to players that an Android version of the game exists).
Considering anyone can re-package and sell the game without the need to inform here, there may be some ports of the game we don't even know the existence. I wanted to specify that the official game is the one pleople finds on the official site, also because I was thinking that the other versions may have differences (e.g. I know your port changes the game from first person to third person, and I suppose you had to drop out MOD support -I suppose you had to change the gamecode to allow the touch interface, isn't so?-, so the whole part about MODs does not apply to your port).
Also, there is the Zeus Arena Android app: I don't know/remember if its author ever posted on this forum, but anyway he actually asks for some money to download the app.

I have noting against making your port an official part of the OpenArena project... but this would require Fromhell's OK, I suppose. I suppose Fromhell or Sago should have access to the accounts that hold the project (I don't know if they are Android users or not).

I think we can already create a Wiki page about your port... let's think about the best name before creating it. But until Fromhell states it's an official port, we just have to mention it as third-party stuff.
PS: also a "list" page with links to all known OA portings may be nice.

PPS: Your port is a nice idea (it can give some advertising to the game, a thing we really lack!), and I wish to try it when I will have resolved some problems with my Android phone. I don't know anyway how well will it run on a single-core phone...
« Last Edit: February 21, 2013, 12:11:31 PM by Gig » Logged

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pelya
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« Reply #30 on: February 21, 2013, 01:05:54 PM »

Yes, there are differences, however it's still compatible to mods (more by chance than intentionally, you also need to select "fire button" touchscreen controls). You can also disable third-person view from options. Also, I made gamespeed configurable - it's marked as "cheat" in vanilla OA. There are other changes, most of them are just options in UI.
Anyway, I suppose the official status for this port won't happen until Fromhell gets some kind of Android tablet. I'm open to suggestions though, how to make it more official, as long as that won't break controls or gameplay.
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« Reply #31 on: February 21, 2013, 06:36:54 PM »

Is strafejumping actually enabled?

I seriously never see people playing except,those bots.
The number of downloads are very unaccurate as I download OA-Android 3 times now.
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pelya
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« Reply #32 on: February 22, 2013, 12:14:45 AM »

I did not modify game physics at all, so strafejumping should be enabled. On the other hand, my screen joystick code cuts speed vectors values at the corners, so it's not 127 when moving diagonally, but 127/sqrt(2), which is 89. On yet another hand, game code normalizes these vectors, so that final target speed is still 127. And performing it with touchscreen is almost impossible, so I cannot test it.
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Gig
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« Reply #33 on: March 02, 2013, 05:39:10 AM »

Pelya, I've downloaded the app and it's downloading the pk3s.

In the meanwhile, I can suggest you to write in the app description that it is actually possible to also use firstperson (maybe you may also include a screenshot taken with firstperson), because I've seen comments on the store complaining the lack of first person mode.

Another thing may be some kind of "pause" or "abort" button when you are downloading the initial PK3 files. It takes a long time also if you are using Wifi+ADSL, so people may have to abort downloading (due to real life) and to do resume it later.
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« Reply #34 on: March 02, 2013, 12:39:30 PM »

I did not modify game physics at all, so strafejumping should be enabled. On the other hand, my screen joystick code cuts speed vectors values at the corners, so it's not 127 when moving diagonally, but 127/sqrt(2), which is 89. On yet another hand, game code normalizes these vectors, so that final target speed is still 127. And performing it with touchscreen is almost impossible, so I cannot test it.

Well, as it's nearly impossible, I suggest to put it off by default.
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Gig
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« Reply #35 on: March 03, 2013, 04:41:47 AM »

I did not modify game physics at all, so strafejumping should be enabled. On the other hand, my screen joystick code cuts speed vectors values at the corners, so it's not 127 when moving diagonally, but 127/sqrt(2), which is 89. On yet another hand, game code normalizes these vectors, so that final target speed is still 127. And performing it with touchscreen is almost impossible, so I cannot test it.

Well, as it's nearly impossible, I suggest to put it off by default.
Do you mean something like setting "dmflags 128" by default?
(DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Special_game_options#Non-accelerated_jumping
I don't know, I still have to figure out how to enable cg_drawspeed.

@Pelya. If someone forces program closure during the initial pk3 downloading, does it resume downloading that file the next time, or it does keep an incomplete file, downloading the next one because feeling the previous one as already existing?
In any case, I know you warned about using wifi for first run in the app descritpion, anyway you may repeat that at program launch, to allow people to attach wifi if they forgot, or to quit the program and launch it again later.
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« Reply #36 on: March 03, 2013, 06:06:20 AM »

It will resume downloading from the place where it stopped, so you can just kill the app, then launch it later.
I think I can show a dialog if you press Back, which will tell you that, and another dialog, when the app lainched first time.
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Gig
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« Reply #37 on: March 04, 2013, 04:23:18 AM »

Yes, I think a way to exit the program from there may be useful. Maybe not all android users know how to force the closure of an application. I think almost all "apps" should have an "exit" feature. Fortunately, after OA is completely installed, one can use the game's own "exit".

For the moment I haven't yet seen the "manual" video... anyway, after some use of the app, I can start asking/telling you some things/suggestions:

1) I like the fact it's free and that it does not contain ads. It's in the mood of OA. Anyway, if you will decide to add ads in the future, please place them in the initializing screen only.

2) In "Device configuration" (and sub-menus) you may add more infos (using a second line with smaller fonts?) to many of the options, to explain better what they do.... sometimes also mentiong the suggested value.

2.1) "Data installation location" may write down the path used in the two different cases. Also a question: if I change it, does it move the already downloaded files to the new location and deletes the old location?

2.1.1) Another thing: Android (apps management) tells me the app is just 8 MB, it does not count the 400+ MB downloaded to the SD. Will they be automatically deleted if I would uninstall the game?

3) In "Additional controls": I thought you said Accelerometer was not supported, instead I find this option here. And why is the "enable accelerometer" option there (in initial "Device configuration"), while the "gyroscope on" option is in the OA main menu and Controls menu? Maybe the two should be one next to the other?

4) In "On screen keyboard", you may place "preview" screenshots of the various keyboard themes/size/size of images/transparency.

5) In "on screen keyboard", "Cusomize on-screen keyboard layout" should show you your current layout before starting modifying it, then you should be allowed to choose "modify layout/back/restore default". Also after having modified the layout, I think it should ask "accept changes/discard changes".

6) I suppose "Calibrate gyroscope" may tell "It seems your device doesn't have a gyroscope." or similar, if you don't have one. It may also warn there that gyroscope is much more accurate than accelerometer, but uses more battery (as you said in the app description... I don't have it, so I can't test).

6.1) Isn't there a "calibrate accelerometer" option? Playing with accelerometer is quite difficult to me, because if I hold the device in normal position the character goes back... I suppose some kind of accelerometer calibration may be needed.

6.2) Maybe you may give the option to choose if to use the accelerometer/gyroscope to move the character (go forward/back/strafe left and right) or to aim (turn left and right, look up and down).

7) Some settings, such as "Remap physical keys", should have a "reset do default" button. You may also tell that the game itself has got "setup"->"controls" menu to associate keys to controls.

8 ) In "What kind of navigation keys does your device have?", what's the difference between "Arrows" and "touchscreen only"? I tried both and noticed nothing different. My device has got a physical Qwerty keyboard, with arrows keys.

9) Once loaded the game, there is always an icon in the upper left corner. If clicked, it allows to type text, but I don't know what it does. While in-game, it allows to "say" (chat), but when not playing? Console commands maybe?  Huh

9.1) By the way, while pressing it in-game and so entering the text for to "say", maybe the screen may show "Chat:" or "Say:" to let users understand what are they supposed to type in the text field.

10) Is there a way to show the console, at least its output?

11) How to select the gauntlet? The first time I played, I had the impression the weapon bar was touchable, and in that way I suppose one may have selected it. But in later tests, I've seen the weapon bar is not touchable, so how to select the gauntlet, unless binding it to some physical key?

12) I'm not good playing with the touchscreen. So I binded the up/down arrows of my qwerty keyboard to look up/look down (and fire to a button different than ctrl, that I don't have), and I play with the keyboard quite happily.  Smiley This way, I noticed that if I press the "t" button to start writing a chat text, the "say:" appears for an instant and immediately disappears, so I can't use it. This makes me suppose I would not be able to bind "say_team" to a key....  Embarrassed

13) Entering the "demos" menu, the "back" and "play" buttons seem to do not work.

14) Is it possible to enable "cg_drawspeed" and "cg_drawfps"?

15) You may consider using a DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Manual/Graphic_options#Weapon_bar]weapon bar of those that give an indication of how many ammos you have got. Just an idea, considering switching weapon is not so comfortable as when you have a mouse wheel.

16) In the battery usage statistics screen of Android (I have Android 2.3.4), the line of OpenArena takes three or four times the height of any other program, with a lot of empty space. I have no idea about the reason, but it does not look good.

17) I can't use my "shift" physical button to "walk" with the touchscreen (while it works together with the physical WASD keys)... it's a little strange considering that the "c" physical button actually allows me to move crouched, also moving with the touchscreen. Maybe it's due the fact "c" is a standard button and "shift" is a special one? I don't know.

17.1) Any way to crouch using the virtual keys? It is also used to go deep in water. I suppose one has to manually remap a virtual button, like the sixth, to the "c" key, right?

18) In the various "themes" for the virtual keys, there is no one that uses images or letters that refer to the actual effects of the virtual keys (e.g. a "J" or "up arrow" to jump, a "W" or "a stylized weapon or bullet" to change weapon, a "S" or a "table" for the score table...). Is this due to the fact one may remap those buttons and they may do different things?

Is this enough feedback for the first impressions?  Smiley

Pelya, anyway you deserve contratulations. It looks a very good porting.  Smiley
Nice job!  Grin

P.S.: Just a few of things more:

19): If I enable virtual button 6, it is displayed on all game screens. Is this voluntary?

20) The "four ways" virtual stick is used for movement (like the WASD keys), but its sections do "light" if you press the physical keys that correspond to aiming (turn left/right and look up/down). This sounds a little strange. Is there a purpose for that?

21) I suppose some players may like a layout where you see two virtual joysticks. One for movement and the other one for aiming.
Just like the double tap on the movement one makes you jump, I suppose a double tap on the aiming one could make you fire. But I don't know how to deal with the fact some weapons need continue firing and some weapons need single shots...
« Last Edit: March 04, 2013, 08:08:26 AM by Gig » Logged

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« Reply #38 on: March 06, 2013, 06:33:56 AM »

Pelya, are you still there?

Another thing:
At least at first times, one may have to come back to change those "device settings" quite often. This means you have to close the game and launch it again from your app drawer each time. If possible, it may be nice to recall that "device settings" menu from within the game, without closing it (from the SETTINGS menu of OA, maybe); if this is not possible (e.g. because one would need to restart the game anyway to appy some changes), you may however consider to place a button in OA main menu, that would automatically close OA and re-launch it, passing through the initial loading screen (and thus, giving the ability to access the "device settings" menu quickly enough).


And I'm quite interested into knowing how does this OA Android port manage "homepath" and "basepath", and their relationship with Android's "move to SD" and the option in device settings that allows to select the folder where to download the 400 MB of the game.

By the way, I think you really could write a page in the wiki (with sub-pages if needed) providing help and useful infos for your Android users. I can help if you need some help with wikia.
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pelya
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« Reply #39 on: March 06, 2013, 08:21:52 AM »

I'm still there, sorry for not replying.

At least at first times, one may have to come back to change those "device settings" quite often. This means you have to close the game and launch it again from your app drawer each time. If possible, it may be nice to recall that "device settings" menu from within the game, without closing it (from the SETTINGS menu of OA, maybe); if this is not possible (e.g. because one would need to restart the game anyway to appy some changes), you may however consider to place a button in OA main menu, that would automatically close OA and re-launch it, passing through the initial loading screen (and thus, giving the ability to access the "device settings" menu quickly enough).

That's part of SDL Java code (and I hate Java), it needs rewriting for a long time, so it won't happen anytime soon. I'm not a fan of closing-and-restarting idea.

And I'm quite interested into knowing how does this OA Android port manage "homepath" and "basepath", and their relationship with Android's "move to SD" and the option in device settings that allows to select the folder where to download the 400 MB of the game.
On Android port both "basepath" and "homepath" equal to current directory, SDL will change current directory to SD card before launching OA code. Android "move to SD" will move shared libraries (SDL + OA executable) from internal storage to SD card, this will save you around 3Mb space on internal storage, it has nothing to do with OA 400Mb data location.

By the way, I think you really could write a page in the wiki (with sub-pages if needed) providing help and useful infos for your Android users. I can help if you need some help with wikia.
Uh, okay, I'll write it eventually. I still have lot of bugs to fix.

1) I like the fact it's free and that it does not contain ads. It's in the mood of OA. Anyway, if you will decide to add ads in the future, please place them in the initializing screen only.
It will not contain ads, because adding them later after releasing ad-free version is kinda lame. I also thought of allowing individual servers to show ads, to encourage more servers (by copying server admin AdMob ID to the g_motd or something like that, then parsing that in OA and showing ad), but I don't think it will ever be necessary, because both Android dedicated servers are under-populated (and I think people will run more servers in the future).

2) In "Device configuration" (and sub-menus) you may add more infos (using a second line with smaller fonts?) to many of the options, to explain better what they do.... sometimes also mentiong the suggested value.
Standard Android controls do not support a second line with smaller fonts, and I won't write my own UI controls for that. I can add header/footer text for option lists, but they will make the lists smaller and more cluttered. You may suggest better descriptions for that options.

2.1) "Data installation location" may write down the path used in the two different cases. Also a question: if I change it, does it move the already downloaded files to the new location and deletes the old location?
No, it does not move anything, it will try to download data again. And you generally should not change it - by default it will install data to the /sdcard/Android/data/<app-name>/files, which will be cleared when you're uninstalling app, and the size of this dir will show up in system settings.

2.1.1) Another thing: Android (apps management) tells me the app is just 8 MB, it does not count the 400+ MB downloaded to the SD. Will they be automatically deleted if I would uninstall the game?
It should show 400Mb, when you go to the individual app settings (the screen with Uninstall button) - that feature is available in Android since Froyo.

3) In "Additional controls": I thought you said Accelerometer was not supported, instead I find this option here. And why is the "enable accelerometer" option there (in initial "Device configuration"), while the "gyroscope on" option is in the OA main menu and Controls menu? Maybe the two should be one next to the other?
Yes it's not supported, I've forgot to hide that option. If you enable it from that menu, accelerometer will send up/down/left/right keyboard events, if you ever need such thing. It's a left-over from the times when SDL did not have on-screen keys.

4) In "On screen keyboard", you may place "preview" screenshots of the various keyboard themes/size/size of images/transparency.
Won't likely to happen, that dialog is written in Java, and I hate Java.

5) In "on screen keyboard", "Cusomize on-screen keyboard layout" should show you your current layout before starting modifying it, then you should be allowed to choose "modify layout/back/restore default". Also after having modified the layout, I think it should ask "accept changes/discard changes".
I'll add that feature. The initial layout will not be shown, because it is configured inside OA code when running the game, not in SDL.

6) I suppose "Calibrate gyroscope" may tell "It seems your device doesn't have a gyroscope." or similar, if you don't have one. It may also warn there that gyroscope is much more accurate than accelerometer, but uses more battery (as you said in the app description... I don't have it, so I can't test).
I'll just hide that dialog if gyroscope is not available.

6.1) Isn't there a "calibrate accelerometer" option? Playing with accelerometer is quite difficult to me, because if I hold the device in normal position the character goes back... I suppose some kind of accelerometer calibration may be needed.
I'll remove all accelerometer-related options, so you'll never know it's supported, because playing with it is frustrating.

6.2) Maybe you may give the option to choose if to use the accelerometer/gyroscope to move the character (go forward/back/strafe left and right) or to aim (turn left and right, look up and down).
It will suck anyway.

7) Some settings, such as "Remap physical keys", should have a "reset do default" button. You may also tell that the game itself has got "setup"->"controls" menu to associate keys to controls.
I can add option to reset whole SDL config to defaults.

8 ) In "What kind of navigation keys does your device have?", what's the difference between "Arrows" and "touchscreen only"? I tried both and noticed nothing different. My device has got a physical Qwerty keyboard, with arrows keys.
I'll remove that option, it's only useful to configure trackball, and there are no devices with trackball since HTC Widfire, and it's 3 years old.

9) Once loaded the game, there is always an icon in the upper left corner. If clicked, it allows to type text, but I don't know what it does. While in-game, it allows to "say" (chat), but when not playing? Console commands maybe?  Huh
If you enter "~" symbol, it will toggle console, then you can enter commands there as usual. I'll make it to toggle console without entering "~" key, to make users less confused. Or I can remove it altogether.

9.1) By the way, while pressing it in-game and so entering the text for to "say", maybe the screen may show "Chat:" or "Say:" to let users understand what are they supposed to type in the text field.
I'll try to make that screen to show the last chat/console messages, instead of "Enter your text here" message, I think it will be more useful (but also more confusing).

10) Is there a way to show the console, at least its output?
The "~" symbol in the text input box. I'll fix that.

11) How to select the gauntlet? The first time I played, I had the impression the weapon bar was touchable, and in that way I suppose one may have selected it. But in later tests, I've seen the weapon bar is not touchable, so how to select the gauntlet, unless binding it to some physical key?
You should be able to select it by touching the gauntlet icon in the weapon bar at the top of the screen (and any other weapon too), you need to press the weapon selection button to show it, or enable "always show weapons" in settings. How did you manage to break it?

12) I'm not good playing with the touchscreen. So I binded the up/down arrows of my qwerty keyboard to look up/look down (and fire to a button different than ctrl, that I don't have), and I play with the keyboard quite happily.  Smiley This way, I noticed that if I press the "t" button to start writing a chat text, the "say:" appears for an instant and immediately disappears, so I can't use it. This makes me suppose I would not be able to bind "say_team" to a key....  Embarrassed
It's a bug, I'll fix it.

13) Entering the "demos" menu, the "back" and "play" buttons seem to do not work.
Play button works for me, but it cannot play that one demo I have. Back button does not work (does it work on PC?), but you can press Back hardware key on your device.

14) Is it possible to enable "cg_drawspeed" and "cg_drawfps"?
You can enable drawing FPS from the Video settings menu. To enable drawspeed, you'll have to use console.

15) You may consider using a DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Manual/Graphic_options#Weapon_bar]weapon bar of those that give an indication of how many ammos you have got. Just an idea, considering switching weapon is not so comfortable as when you have a mouse wheel.
I can change to style 1, with small bars at the bottom of weapon icons, if you think it will look better. Or maybe at the top? What do you think?

16) In the battery usage statistics screen of Android (I have Android 2.3.4), the line of OpenArena takes three or four times the height of any other program, with a lot of empty space. I have no idea about the reason, but it does not look good.
No idea either.

17) I can't use my "shift" physical button to "walk" with the touchscreen (while it works together with the physical WASD keys)... it's a little strange considering that the "c" physical button actually allows me to move crouched, also moving with the touchscreen. Maybe it's due the fact "c" is a standard button and "shift" is a special one? I don't know.
Most probably that. try to remap it to some other button.

17.1) Any way to crouch using the virtual keys? It is also used to go deep in water. I suppose one has to manually remap a virtual button, like the sixth, to the "c" key, right?
Nope, I did not implement crouch, because there are already way too many buttons on the screen. You can enable the sixth on-screen button, and bind Crouch to it.
Crouching is for cowards, campers and bots Cheesy but I can add it, if you think it's essential for the game. Or maybe I should remove crouching at all from the game physics (but I don't want to touch that).

18) In the various "themes" for the virtual keys, there is no one that uses images or letters that refer to the actual effects of the virtual keys (e.g. a "J" or "up arrow" to jump, a "W" or "a stylized weapon or bullet" to change weapon, a "S" or a "table" for the score table...). Is this due to the fact one may remap those buttons and they may do different things?
Draw me some button images, and I'll include them into the next release. Images of current button themes, included in SDL

Is this enough feedback for the first impressions?  Smiley
Yes, even a bit too much Smiley I've spent 40 minutes writing replies.

Pelya, anyway you deserve contratulations. It looks a very good porting.  Smiley
Nice job!  Grin
Thank you.

P.S.: Just a few of things more:
Oh no Cheesy

19): If I enable virtual button 6, it is displayed on all game screens. Is this voluntary?
I've fixed that.

20) The "four ways" virtual stick is used for movement (like the WASD keys), but its sections do "light" if you press the physical keys that correspond to aiming (turn left/right and look up/down). This sounds a little strange. Is there a purpose for that?
I've fixed that. This should have happened only with legacy keyboard themes, and not happen when using Sun keyboard theme, am I correct?

21) I suppose some players may like a layout where you see two virtual joysticks. One for movement and the other one for aiming.
Just like the double tap on the movement one makes you jump, I suppose a double tap on the aiming one could make you fire. But I don't know how to deal with the fact some weapons need continue firing and some weapons need single shots...
Second on-screen joystick is not yet supported by SDL, I'll add support in the future, but that won't be soon.
You can enable firing by double-tap in OpenArena main menu, the option is called "tap to shoot". And I don't see a problem with continuous-firing weapons - you double-tap the screen and do not release your finger afterwards, so you can shoot while aiming.
« Last Edit: March 06, 2013, 08:24:02 AM by pelya » Logged
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« Reply #40 on: March 06, 2013, 08:36:33 AM »

2.1.1) Another thing: Android (apps management) tells me the app is just 8 MB, it does not count the 400+ MB downloaded to the SD. Will they be automatically deleted if I would uninstall the game?
It should show 400Mb, when you go to the individual app settings (the screen with Uninstall button) - that feature is available in Android since Froyo.
In my case (Android 2.3.4) it does show "Total 8,20 MB - Application 8,20 MB - Data 4,00 KB).

For other things, I cannot reply now, I really have to go. But I would suggest to do not completely remove crouching from the game: I suppose there could be some maps that may require it to reach secret places... and anyway can be useful while swimming, to go deeper.
« Last Edit: March 06, 2013, 10:08:07 AM by Gig » Logged

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« Reply #41 on: March 06, 2013, 10:07:21 AM »

Quote from: Pelya
At least at first times, one may have to come back to change those "device settings" quite often. This means you have to close the game and launch it again from your app drawer each time. If possible, it may be nice to recall that "device settings" menu from within the game, without closing it (from the SETTINGS menu of OA, maybe); if this is not possible (e.g. because one would need to restart the game anyway to appy some changes), you may however consider to place a button in OA main menu, that would automatically close OA and re-launch it, passing through the initial loading screen (and thus, giving the ability to access the "device settings" menu quickly enough).

That's part of SDL Java code (and I hate Java), it needs rewriting for a long time, so it won't happen anytime soon. I'm not a fan of closing-and-restarting idea.
D'oh! Well... it may have been useful, but patience.

Quote
2) In "Device configuration" (and sub-menus) you may add more infos (using a second line with smaller fonts?) to many of the options, to explain better what they do.... sometimes also mentiong the suggested value.
Standard Android controls do not support a second line with smaller fonts, and I won't write my own UI controls for that. I can add header/footer text for option lists, but they will make the lists smaller and more cluttered. You may suggest better descriptions for that options.
Those standard controls do not seem extremely comfortable for various resons, but I understand the second line itself isn't enough to create a whole GUI. Maybe one may made some tests with a footer text when having some spare time in the future... or thinking to better descriptions, in the future.

Quote
4) In "On screen keyboard", you may place "preview" screenshots of the various keyboard themes/size/size of images/transparency.
Won't likely to happen, that dialog is written in Java, and I hate Java.
D'oh!

Quote
5) In "on screen keyboard", "Cusomize on-screen keyboard layout" should show you your current layout before starting modifying it, then you should be allowed to choose "modify layout/back/restore default". Also after having modified the layout, I think it should ask "accept changes/discard changes".
I'll add that feature. The initial layout will not be shown, because it is configured inside OA code when running the game, not in SDL.
Good.

Quote
6.1) Isn't there a "calibrate accelerometer" option? Playing with accelerometer is quite difficult to me, because if I hold the device in normal position the character goes back... I suppose some kind of accelerometer calibration may be needed.
I'll remove all accelerometer-related options, so you'll never know it's supported, because playing with it is frustrating.
Without the ability to calibrate it, I can't give opinions about accelerometer responses... so I will believe to your words. Smiley

Quote
7) Some settings, such as "Remap physical keys", should have a "reset do default" button. You may also tell that the game itself has got "setup"->"controls" menu to associate keys to controls.
I can add option to reset whole SDL config to defaults.
This may be good. Of course, asking for a clear confirm.

Quote

9) Once loaded the game, there is always an icon in the upper left corner. If clicked, it allows to type text, but I don't know what it does. While in-game, it allows to "say" (chat), but when not playing? Console commands maybe?  Huh
If you enter "~" symbol, it will toggle console, then you can enter commands there as usual. I'll make it to toggle console without entering "~" key, to make users less confused.
It may be good. Or the text may show "Type ~ to show/hide command console".

Quote
9.1) By the way, while pressing it in-game and so entering the text for to "say", maybe the screen may show "Chat:" or "Say:" to let users understand what are they supposed to type in the text field.
I'll try to make that screen to show the last chat/console messages, instead of "Enter your text here" message, I think it will be more useful (but also more confusing).
If possible, yes... if not, you may write something like "Type ~ to show command console, or type text to chat".

Quote
11) How to select the gauntlet? The first time I played, I had the impression the weapon bar was touchable, and in that way I suppose one may have selected it. But in later tests, I've seen the weapon bar is not touchable, so how to select the gauntlet, unless binding it to some physical key?
You should be able to select it by touching the gauntlet icon in the weapon bar at the top of the screen (and any other weapon too), you need to press the weapon selection button to show it, or enable "always show weapons" in settings. How did you manage to break it?
I don't know how, but it seems I somehow broke it. Maybe when modifying on-screen buttons positions? I don't know, maybe some button went too next to the weaponbar area?

Quote
13) Entering the "demos" menu, the "back" and "play" buttons seem to do not work.
Play button works for me, but it cannot play that one demo I have. Back button does not work (does it work on PC?), but you can press Back hardware key on your device.
On PC (tried on Windows), the BACK button works (don't you have a PC OpenArena installation? Smiley I think you should). Yes, the play button works also on Android, but that demo does not run: maybe it's too complicated, or has been recorded with a too different game logic. So I recorded a very short demo directly on Android, but it didn't play it either. I don't know if it is due to some error or because the touchscreen continuosly provides some input to the game (when playing a demo, pressing almost any key of the keyboard -e.g. any arrow- stops playback and brings you back to main menu)... and I haven't figured out how to scroll the console back and forth (usually it's PageUp/PageDown) to check if it shows any error.

Quote
15) You may consider using a DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Manual/Graphic_options#Weapon_bar]weapon bar of those that give an indication of how many ammos you have got. Just an idea, considering switching weapon is not so comfortable as when you have a mouse wheel.
I can change to style 1, with small bars at the bottom of weapon icons, if you think it will look better. Or maybe at the top? What do you think?
Not sure, usually (not with default weaponbarstyle, obviously), the indicators are below the weapons icons, but usually the weaponbar is in the lower part of the screen, while in your port it's on the upper part. So, I don't know.

Quote
16) In the battery usage statistics screen of Android (I have Android 2.3.4), the line of OpenArena takes three or four times the height of any other program, with a lot of empty space. I have no idea about the reason, but it does not look good.
No idea either.
D'oh!

Quote
17) I can't use my "shift" physical button to "walk" with the touchscreen (while it works together with the physical WASD keys)... it's a little strange considering that the "c" physical button actually allows me to move crouched, also moving with the touchscreen. Maybe it's due the fact "c" is a standard button and "shift" is a special one? I don't know.
Most probably that. try to remap it to some other button.
No, I remapped "run/walk" to the "v" key, but it does not work together with touchscreen movement... it works only with physical keys movement... so it looks like we can't silently walk with touchscreen.

Quote
18) In the various "themes" for the virtual keys, there is no one that uses images or letters that refer to the actual effects of the virtual keys (e.g. a "J" or "up arrow" to jump, a "W" or "a stylized weapon or bullet" to change weapon, a "S" or a "table" for the score table...). Is this due to the fact one may remap those buttons and they may do different things?
Draw me some button images, and I'll include them into the next release. Images of current button themes, included in SDL
Not it the immediate future, sorry.

Quote
20) The "four ways" virtual stick is used for movement (like the WASD keys), but its sections do "light" if you press the physical keys that correspond to aiming (turn left/right and look up/down). This sounds a little strange. Is there a purpose for that?
I've fixed that. This should have happened only with legacy keyboard themes, and not happen when using Sun keyboard theme, am I correct?
Yes, it seems "Sun" theme is not affected.

Quote
21) I suppose some players may like a layout where you see two virtual joysticks. One for movement and the other one for aiming.
Just like the double tap on the movement one makes you jump, I suppose a double tap on the aiming one could make you fire. But I don't know how to deal with the fact some weapons need continue firing and some weapons need single shots...
Second on-screen joystick is not yet supported by SDL, I'll add support in the future, but that won't be soon.
You can enable firing by double-tap in OpenArena main menu, the option is called "tap to shoot". And I don't see a problem with continuous-firing weapons - you double-tap the screen and do not release your finger afterwards, so you can shoot while aiming.
Okay, if it's SDL, it's SDL... We'll wait. Smiley
« Last Edit: March 07, 2013, 01:59:27 AM by Gig » Logged

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« Reply #42 on: March 15, 2013, 08:22:48 AM »

@Gig: I've fixed some bugs you've mentioned in the release 0.8.8.21, published last Sunday.

Currently I'm trying to enable VoIP voice chat (it crashes somewhere inside Android code, I'm fixing that). And I would like to hear your opinion.
Is voice chat needed at all? Should it be activated with some button, or using voice auto-detection?
I don't have another on-screen button to use (SDL has limit of 6 buttons, because I never needed more), also I don't know where to add it, the screen is already cluttered enough.
Voice auto-detection will just record everything, as long as the sound/noise level of microphone is higher than some margin, but you don't need to press any buttons, which is good. But you'll get high probability of recording random noises around you, and sending them to other players (and by random noises, I actually mean something like flushing Tongue ).
Maybe it should get activated with some cheesy gesture, like, shake your phone and talk? Shaking won't impact your aim, because gyroscope filters linear movements really well, at least on my device.
As you possibly know, every Android device has a microphone, so it's way easier to add than on PC, and it does not need any configuration.
When I'll implement it, I want to enable it by default for all users (because it seems to be an awesome feature), but that may result in users complaining, because suddenly, you've got your voice heard by everyone. So, should I do that?

The OA rating on Google Play slowly slipped from awesome 4.25 to 4.02 Sad no 4.5 stars for me anymore.

Also, I've tried to publish it on recently opened Ouya store, but no luck.
Quote
Hello Sergii Pylypenko,

Unfortunately we can't yet distribute OpenArena (0.8.8.21) on OUYA.

Here is our team's feedback. Please consider it. We'd be thrilled if you resubmitted.
1. "U" button is used to select.  Per OUYA interface guidelines, "O" is the preferred button to select.
 https://devs.ouya.tv/developers/docs/interface-guidelines
2. In "Settings" under "Controls" PC controls are listed.
3. Initial load time exceeds 25 min
4. System button does not pause game or return ot Open Arena Menu

Our goal is to be the most developer-friendly gaming platform. If you have questions about our process or our feedback onn what you submitted, please feel free to reach out to us at app-reviews@OUYA.tv
So, my lazy coding effort was not enough Cry and it seems like I'll need an actual Ouya hardware to fix all those things, which won't happen anytime soon, so I'll postpone Ouya release until better times (there seem to be a lot of 3D shooters on Ouya anyway, published by big fat companies with heaps of money, so Ouya gamers will definitely not suffer if they won't find OA at their store).
Remapping buttons and adding Ouya-specific button names is easy, but it will require creating a separate package, because those changes will break compatibility to the previous Android release on Google Play, and I'll have to reset config files, and users hate that, and I hate creating separate platform-specific packages.
Initial load time is most probably the time needed to download .pk3 files. This can be solved by putting all .pk3 files inside the .apk file, so that the data will get downloaded by Ouya store, not by OpenArena. There are two possibilities - just extract those files to SD card (so we'll get 400Mb .apk + 400 Mb data files), or make OpenArena read .pk3 files from inside .apk file without extracting them - .apk file is just a zip archive (similar to .pk3), and OpenArena already can read data from inside zip archives, that will just add another layer of archiving. But anyway, it still requires some development effort.
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« Reply #43 on: March 16, 2013, 03:16:41 AM »

Hi! I'm sorry my Android phone is out-of-order again, so I cannot test if you did more changes than those I can read in .21 changelog (what happened to .20? IIRC, my version was .19).

By the way, it seems you have a new competitor, now. While searching for OpenArena in the app store, I found this: QIII4A. Like Zeus Arena, it can be used to play Q3A if you own it, or else it automatically downloads OpenArena; but unlike Zeus Arena, it requires no payment.

About voice chat, you may want to make more easy to configure it than in standard OA, it may be good.

Istructions for using it in OA: (DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Manual/Voice_chat
Note: that was one of the first pages I created in OA wiki, and maybe it may have some small defects (e.g. I'm very unsure about the required "rates" part -if that 25000 is a real requirement or not, and if it is clientside, serverside, or both-). I wrote it mostly by reading ioquake3 documentation (that may have been updated in these years) about their VoIP feature. I did some tests locally, years ago, and achieved to show the sound meter while I was talking... but I really never used it in-game. I have no idea if servers actually have it enabled, or how many players really use it. I suppose it is a feature that may be especially useful for clans... but "pro" players organized into clans would probably use the PC version (with the mouse) instead of the Android one (just a guessing!).

Of course, since you run the Android-OA servers, you can set "sv_voip 1" on them... but I would not enable VoIP by default on clients, for two reasons:
1) Privacy reasons (also consider your speaking may be even recorded)
2) Higher bandwidth usage

I don't know if you may use the sixth button for it. Maybe you may even add support for optional 7th and 8th buttons, that players may bind to what they prefer (especially if they have a tablet with a lot of space to touch).


« Last Edit: March 16, 2013, 03:41:41 AM by Gig » Logged

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« Reply #44 on: March 16, 2013, 04:57:08 AM »

I know about QIII4A port, it was started at the same time with my port, ± a month, by a Russian developer, mainly for a Russian community, but published to Google Play only recently  (well I also speak Russian, but I don't care about my local community, because, let's say it straight, they are the greatest noobs I've ever seen, they tend to buy cheapest devices, and then complain that nothing works).
It shares almost nothing with my port, probably because we developers are arrogant Tongue well it's also open-source, but my port is better  Grin well let's watch the ratings.
http://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=417358 - here's forum of that port, there is some drama inside, if you understand Russian Wink
The main difference of that port (aside from that they prefer Quake3 and shun OA), is that it supports mouse on rooted devices (and I don't care about rooted devices, I'm doing port usable by everyone, but the mouse is definitely a big advantage, so it's unfair). Also it has a crouch button, and in total 7 buttons+joystick on the screen (my port has 6+joystick). And the button config dialog seems to be better than mine.

There was no .20, because I've messed up it a bit, and quickly published .21, before anyone noticed.

I think I will make shake-to-talk the default option for VoIP, but make sensitivity high, so you will need a considerable long shake, and won't trigger it by accident. If I will disable it, I think most users will just miss it out, and will never find out about that feature (and of course I want everyone to know, because I am not just arrogant, as other developers, but also an attention whore  Cheesy )
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« Reply #45 on: March 22, 2013, 07:20:09 AM »

Decide yourself. I would not set VoIP enabled by default, but it's your decision. however, you may consider to add the option to enable or disable it also in the "first connection" screen.
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« Reply #46 on: March 22, 2013, 02:55:02 PM »

Today my new server arrived, so I've set up another OA Android server, now Android players have three servers in total.
The new hardware is quite powerful, so I've also migrated the old "Hackberry DM" server there, so now it's running both server processes. CPU utilisation is around 70% max, and it can only drop when users connect, because there are 6 bots, and they eat CPU more than normal players. I've retired my old server, it easily got 100% CPU usage with one server process and two bots, and froze for 1/3 second when reading or writing to SD card. I'll probably use it for it's original purpose - as a cheap Android TV-box.

The new server is running Elimination, and is accordingly named "CounterStrike", because I wanted to run a team server, but CTF seems too complicated for me (you still can vote for it, but it sohuld switch back to Elimination after a while). It has 4 bots, isn't that too much?
Players usually hate bots, but with our under-populated servers, it's better to play with bots than run on empty server, waiting for someone else to join. On the other hand, some players might want to team up against bots, then maybe 6 bots are better?

Decide yourself. I would not set VoIP enabled by default, but it's your decision. however, you may consider to add the option to enable or disable it also in the "first connection" screen.
I'm going to add that option to that screen, to settings, and to the main menu, so you cannot miss it.
« Last Edit: March 22, 2013, 02:57:22 PM by pelya » Logged
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« Reply #47 on: March 28, 2013, 09:45:34 AM »

Hi

older ports of Quake have the Stereoscopic 3d code included.  Does yours?

I have tried to get the consul to work but alas to no avail.  Comes out as saying to other players.

Help much appriciated.

UB
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« Reply #48 on: March 28, 2013, 10:17:21 AM »

No, my Android port does not include stereoscopic 3D, and I'm not planning to support that, because phones that support it (HTC Evo 3D and LG Optimus 3D) are not very popular, they've got a proprietary API to output 3D, also they are a bit outdated to run OpenArena.
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« Reply #49 on: March 29, 2013, 04:14:00 AM »

OpenArena inherited "old-school" Anaglyph Stereoscopic 3D support from ioquake3, and it looks like the Android port still has it.
r_anaglyphmode <number> (different number uses different colors... 1 is for red-cyan glasses).
More infos: (DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Manual/Graphic_options#Stereoscopic_view

The problem is that, due to a bug somewhere in OA, you don't see the crosshair.... (see also http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=4446.msg45110#msg45110 for a possible -but yet untested- solution)

--------------------
@Pelya: I've re-installed the game on Android. Nice to see now you can easily interrupt initial download.  Smiley

Just a few of things I noticed:
1) Multiplayer mode: the "local" browser shows internet servers, too.
2) The multiplayer browser uses "space" to stop browsing... but touchscreen devices don't have the spacebar. You may add a "stop" button (or maybe showing the "jump" yellow button there?)? At the moment, there are only two servers, but maybe in the future they could be more, and thus the wait could be longer.
3) If I try to pull down the console from the menu (instead of from a match), it immeditalely closes.
4) Using the physical keyboard, "ALT-ed" and "SHIFT-ed" keys work only when I use the "input window" (I don't know its exact name... the one activated from the upper left corner icon). If I type directly (e.g. after pulling down the console), ALT and SHIFT are ignored.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2013, 09:37:09 AM by Gig » Logged

I never want to be aggressive, offensive or ironic with my posts. If you find something offending in my posts, read them again searching for a different mood there. If you still see something bad with them, please ask me infos. I can be wrong at times, but I never want to upset anyone.
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