Has anyone made experiences with both Rhodes and PhoneGap?
I tried building the same "Hello World"-App with both Frameworks for Android, and tested them on a Samsung Galaxy S device running Android 2.3.3.
In both cases, i used HTML5 & jQuery Mobile (in the same version) to design the UI.
The app does nothing but offering a link on the "Home"-Page which uses a slide transition to a second page. The Rhodes app needs longer to startup, but has a very smooth animation when transitioning to the second page. The PhoneGap app flickers and jerks.
Did anyone of you experience a similar behavior? And could you resolve the issues in the PhoneGap version? Could the difference lie in different browser engines / WebViews used by Rhodes / PhoneGap?
I can't give you a good answer, as I'm fairly new to Rhodes and Phonegap myself. What I do know is that RhoMobile uses Motorola's own build of WebKit if you have RhoElements enabled or have added motorola_browser as a capability.
If your Rhodes app was using Motorola's Webkit, I suppose it's possible that the custom Webkit build has been optimized for rendering the content generated by Rhodes, with its EMML and all. This is just speculation, of course.
Phonegap, however, relies on the system's browser and what it offers in terms of performance. AFAIK, it's basically a UIWebView object on iOS.
A really neat bonus of using Motorola's Webkit is you'll have only one browser to work against, across all platforms. (At least in theory, I haven't yet tested how consistent the render engine actually is across platforms.)
To sum up, Rhodes/RhoMobile sounds awesome on paper. I'm just hoping it will live up to my expectetions. Your "Hello world" test could be just a fluke with Phonegap, or it could mean that Motorola's Webkit is indeed performing better. Guess I'll find out sooner or later.
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I will go straight to my problem. So, I 've got :
an Oculus Rift DK2
Win8 + AMD Radeon HD 7500
A webGL/threeJS web application
and I want to use my rift with the application (not only watching, but also tracking).
My question which path should I follow to do this?
After my research, I have seen some suggestions on this issue :
1. Downloading a specific branch of Chromium and enabling the new experimetnal webVR API.
2. Use a plug-in so I don't have to download and install chromium (a plugin like this : https://github.com/borismus/webvr-boilerplate , https://github.com/borismus/webvr-polyfill)
3. Wait for the webVR to be a standard (don't want that!)
In simple words, there are 2 options : either I go with chromium or I do it on chrome with a plugin that acts like the webVR API (I am not sure if I am describing that right).
For those that had the same problem, what was your approach? Should I go with chromium or with the other strategy? Why?
Thanks!
The after the recent release of the 1.0 WebVR APIs, the various helper scripts, libraries and polyfills are still in a state of flux. Nevertheless, I'll try to answer your questions:
Yes, you should to download the latest Chromium WebVR build. It implements the new 1.0 WebVR spec. You should also download Firefox Nightly. Nightly's WebVR implementation has not been updated to the 1.0 spec but it is still usable. Those are the only two options you have for accessing the WebVR APIs on PCs.
You should also consider using webvr-boilerplate, webvr-polyfill.
webvr-boilerplate and webvr-polyfill are not plugins (that is a specific term used to refer to third-party components which are installed in browsers. E.g. Firefox has a Flash plugin).
webvr-polyfill is a JavaScript helper library that you simply need to include in your app (as opposed to a plugins which need to be installed in the browser itself). It will fill-in the WebVR API if a particular browser doesn't support it. E.g. if you're using a browser on an Android or iOS device, it will fill in the APIs so that the browser will function as a Google Cardboard device using the phone's accelerometer/gyroscope sensors and applying the appropriate lens distortion.
If you're on a desktop PC without an HMD, it will fill in the APIs so that you can use your mouse and keyboard to move the camera and display your app in a monocular view without distortion. The latest (unreleased) version of webvr-polyfill will even take care of filling the gap between the old and new versions of the WebVR API, so if you're using Firefox Nightly, you only have to worry about the 1.0 version of the WebVR APIs in your app.
webvr-boilerplate is a library that takes care of the typical logic and UI that you'd have to build into a WebVR app. It uses webvr-polyfill and it adds UI for entering and exiting VR or fullscreen mode and takes care of some of quirks of mobile browsers. This way, all you have to worry about is Three.js and your app code.
webvr-boilerplate and webvr-polyfill work together so that you don't have to wait for the WebVR 1.0 APIs. On mobile devices, you can use stable versions of browsers (although the dev versions of mobile browsers will give you a better VR experience). On desktop, you have to use either the Chromium WebVR builds or Firefox Nightly to use WebVR.
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I've worked for some time with Corona SDK and love how fast and easy I can create powerful apps using Lua. But it can only compile for iOS and Android, which feels like too little now.
My main interest is for it to be able to compile to Desktop AND Mobile. At least for the following:
Windows + Mac for desktop, as standalone applications.
iOS + Android for mobile.
I'd prefer it to lean more towards Lua type scripting instead of ActionScript, but please feel free to post anything that you have worked with and love.
I've found the following engines so far:
Marmalade Quick - After further looking into it, Marmalade Quick can only build for Mobile!
IwGame - Works on top of marmalade and says it can deploy to
desktop and mobile with Lua. Any info is greatly appreciated on this
sio2 - Says "SIO2 is an OpenGLES based cross-platform 2D and 3D
game engine for iOS, Android, MacOS and Windows" and "The engine also
allows you to port your game on the Mac Store and on Windows.", but
their forum and web title is "Game Engine for Mobile Devices". Can't
find any info on if it can deploy to desktop platforms, any info is
greatly appreciated again.
Loom Engine - Loom is similar to Haxe + OpenFL (attempts to attract Flash developers) in that it uses AS3-like of ECMAScript, but it doesn't build native code from it. However it uses Cocos2D for rendering so it should in theory be as fast as Cocos2D. -- Thanks to Bojan.
SDL - I've read in multiple places that SDL can deploy to nearly any platform or device and has a Lua binding. But i can't find how this works as it's not an engine. Any one who can explain how it works and if it's possible is once again, very much appreciated.
SFML - "Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and soon Android & iOS. " doesn't use Lua but can use other languages like Java and Python etc. Anyone have any information on this?
Torgue2D - "Torque 2D was developed with OS X, Windows, and iOS devices in mind and works equally well on all the platforms." uses TorgueScript and no Android =(
Sencha - Seems to compile to all platforms, uses Javascript too which I know. But even with V8 JS would this work well performance wise compared to other options?
GameMaker - own scripting language GML and I actually remember this one as a tool for non-programmers. Has it actually grown into a real engine, I mean for serious development?
Construct2 - Same question as gamemaker
Corona - Lua but mobile only (Android and iOS only as well)
Cocos2D - Seems like it has lots of options but not sure with the same language? Seems like you'd have to re-write your entire code. Any info if cocos2D can deploy to desktop + mobile with almost the same code would be greatly appreciated.
Angel2D - Says it can deploy to everything except Android and uses Lua, anyone ever used this one before?
libgdx --- I've only seen good things about this. Here is a benchmark test for libgdx and is where I saw it reaching 40k sprites at 60fps. http://www.sparkrift.com/2012/1/love2d-vs-allegro-vs-clanlib-vs-libgdx-vs-cocos2d-x-vs-monogame-vs-xna-vs-sfml . It seems libgdx barely goes over 30k actually. But still seems amazing. This is on the same level as Qt for me, almost perfect, except I'm not really worried about performance on it. libgdx can build for everything pretty much.
XNA + MonoGame --- MonoGame's performance seems only slightly lower than libgdx, can build to most platforms. However I don't know much about XNA and I heard it won't be receiving future updates, but is quite stable? More information is welcome.
Citrus --- Don't have much information on Citrus either. AS3 game engine that can build for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac and more.
Haxe + OpenFL --- OpenFL (Haxe) builds to native on many platforms, not just to Flash. Windows, Mac, Linux and Android all get optional native deployment or OpenFL runtime called Neko which is in theory faster than Flash, and SDL 2.0 will enable iOS deployment soon(ish). -- Thanks to Bojan.
Qt-Project --- Just linking Qt project here, can build for everything and has a pretty big community with lots of third party libraries to help you even further.
Moai ---The only Lua engine that I know that can build for Desktop and Mobile. Only downside is the community isn't that big and documentation isn't the best. But if you can get passed those this is a great solution and the one I'm currently using.
Adobe --- Can't forget to add adobe here since it can build to everything that supports flash.
Unity3D --- Recently announced 2D integration looks very promising, should be released Q3-Q4 of 2013.
Cocos2d-x --- An open source engine. Supports JS, Lua, C++ and multiple platforms.
Html5 --- There seem to be a lot of emphasise on html5 mobile apps, here are just a few tools I found that can help port your html5 project to a platform:
Chromium embedded
Sencha
Phonegap
Appcelerator/Titanium
Icenium
So, I'd be happy if you could comment from your experiences with any engines and suggest which one you would recommend.
Thank you for your help!
EDIT: Since this topic is getting popular I'll be adding other options I've found over time. I suggest you choose what is most familiar to you and best for your project needs.
I would recommend V-Play (v-play.net) - it's a cross-platform game engine based on Qt for iOS, Android, Symbian, MeeGo, Blackberry10 and also can export for native desktop applications for Windows, Mac and Linux.
It's based on C++ but has a neat scripting support for QML & JavaScript. QML is a no-brainer to learn and can boost your productivity as less code is needed - just see the comparison with cocos2d-x(60% less Loc) or Corona(15% less LoC) for a comparison of the same games.
(Disclaimer: I'm one of the guys behind V-Play)
If you are into using Python, Kivy is a great solution these days. It compiles to all the platforms you ask for:
Kivy is running on Linux, Windows, MacOSX, Android and IOS. You can
run the same code on all supported platforms. It can use natively most
inputs protocols and devices like WM_Touch, WM_Pen, Mac OS X Trackpad
and Magic Mouse, Mtdev, Linux Kernel HID, TUIO. A multi-touch mouse
simulator is included.
Kivy uses lots of optimized code for graphics rendering (via Cython) so it is fast too.
Here is a speakerdeck that gives you some background and an overview (android specific).
How about HaxeFlixel? We have a great selection of demos, and of course support cross platform development via Haxe + OpenFL. This is an open source project hosted on GitHub. We support all major platforms (including iOS).
Here is my game framework Oxygine.
It is open source modern hardware accelerated 2D C++ framework for mobile and PC platforms.
Features: OpenGL(ES) 2, compressed textures, atlases, complex animations/tweens/sprites, scene graph, fonts, event handling, build tools, and others.
Can be built on top of SDL2 or Marmalade SDK.
In the basis of the engine there is a scene graph, that is similar to Flash one. To be short, You can call this as Flash for C++, but more comfortable and way faster. Initially it was developed for mobile platforms (iOS, Android), but can be also used for PC games.
No mention of App Game Kit (AGK) here so let me fill in the gap. It's a mainly 2D cross platform SDK allowing you to code once in either C++ or it's own "Basic" language. Version 2 just got over 400% funding on Kickstarter and will have full 3D support, Spine support (for 2D animated characters), bullet physics and whole bunch of other new features.
It already has Facebook, Twitter, a bunch of Ultrabook sensor commands, Box2D and more. I've been using it from the start and love it (can you tell?). No, I don't work for The Game Creators (the company that created it) although I admit I did do for a while making some apps.
One of the best features from my point of view is you can develop on Windows and broadcast from the IDE over Wi-Fi to any supported device, so while I'm coding I can (within seconds) test my code on iPad, Android, Windows, Mac or Blackberry Playbook.
If you have C# background. Have a look at Duality.
Duality is a flexible 2D game framework written entirely in C# –
and it’s here to make things a little easier for you. It provides both
an extensible game engine and a visual editor to match. There will be
no need for a level editor, testing environment or content manager
because Duality is all that by itself. And best of all: It’s free.
I'm just answering to give you some insights on how the SDL is used. As you said before it's not a game engine (it's just a library actually). Furthermore, it is not object oriented at all and you don't have some easy animation facilities (you have to code them by yourself).
How it works (I used the C version but I guess the Lua binding should be similar):
Include the headers needed to build the project on the platform you want.
Design your own game loop in which you will set up (at least) a whole event processing system, frame rate manager and a "screen cleaner (or updater)" (I'm insisting on the fact that you have to manually refresh your screen using the SDL_flip_screen routine which is something that is not one of your concerns at all with Corona).
Then, code your game using all the "mechanics" you made before.
The SDL is a low level library (don't expect to have an easy to use GUI framework or the storyboard framework of Corona for instance).
Finally, this library was used to port Civilization III to Linux, so yes it works but it will ask you a lot of energy to have something like you had with Corona ;)
PS: I am not a native English speaker, so please let me know if I wasn't clear :)
Gideros is a great Lua based 2d cross platforms engine, currently supporting both Android and IOS platforms, but more to come.
And it also has some great features as instant on device testing, auto scaling and auto image resolution to easily target various of screen sizes, as well as the option to extend each platform through native plugins.
You also have ShiVa3D, a serious competitor of Unity3D.
It uses Lua and supports many platforms from mobile to game consoles and web browsers.
Very intuitive to use and very nice UI to work with.
I am interested in developing an app for my new iPad purely for my own use. (well to start with at least)
Is there a way to develop an app without a mac?
Can I install the app only on my own iPad without having to sign up to the right to publish it when I might not even want to do that?
EDIT:
Could i use an old G3 powerbook for development? They can be picked up really cheap on ebay. Would something of that spec be up to running the xcode development environment?
I think the best option is to develop the application using HTML5 / Javascript and CSS, and use a service like appMobi or PhoneGap to compile it for IOS. They both have an online service that can make the build for you without needing you to own a Mac.
You have also the added advantage that you can compile your app not only for IOS, but for Windows Mobile, Android, Blackberry and even the good old web.
You have some Javascript libraries like JQTouch that allows you to easily implement the IPhone look and feel in your web app. Normally you can't access the native API from Javascript, but these solutions (appMobi and PhoneGap) offers a Javascript API that you can use to access Camera, GPS, Gyro, etc...
I think normally serious apps are coded for many platforms, and if you don't have the structure to pay to 4 different skill sets, it makes sense to code in HTML5, and from there you have a more future and device proof solution. Even if you "can" pay different developers to code in diffrent mobile platforms I would prefer to do it in HTML5.
Oh, and also take a look at applicationcraft.com, pretty cool online IDE (wysiwyg) connected to PhoneGap, really easy to develop prototypes. The generated HTML/Javascript is not very usefull to continue editing it outside their IDE (a bit complicated), but, again, for something very simple or a prototype it's something you must check out.
Good Luck
Is there a way to develop an app without a mac?
Officially, no. Realistically, unless you like wasting countless hours, no.
Can I install the app only on my own iPad without having to sign up to the right to publish it when I might not even want to do that?
No, you must be a paid developer in order to push to anything but the simulator.
xcode for windows.
http://ipodtoucher55.blogspot.com/2010/12/installing-ios-sdk-and-xcode-on-windows.html
Yes, you can develop without apple computer (using hackintosh).
And yes, you can install the developed app on your iPad without having to pay for developer program. There are a tons of guides over the internet about running (thus installing) apps on ios devices without developer program.
check this:
How can I deploy an iPhone application from Xcode to a real iPhone device?
You can develop for iOS without a Mac by using Adobe Flex. The Flex SDK is free and Open Source, and includes a compiler + packager. If you want an IDE, you can get Adobe FlashBuilder (not free, but with a free 90-day trial), which makes your development time much more productive.
You would not develop in C, C++, or Objective C, but in a combination of ActionScript (a dialect of Javascript) and MXML (markup language, mainly for rich GUI layout).
On the minus side: you have less control over what you can do (you can still do a lot) and you cannot use the iOS SDK directly.
On the plus side: it is very easy to develop great looking apps, and with very little changes, you can recompile them for Android, Blackberry Playbook, Windows, and Mac OS X.
You do not technically need a Mac to develop an app, unless you are serious about it. There are couple of solutions available to you for developing mac-less.
First, there are some services that port your HTML5 web apps into an iOS app, so you only need to write your code HTML5.
Second, if you dont want to buy a Mac, you can instead buy Snow Leopard or Lion, and build your own "hackintosh" (a windows computer hacked to run off the mac operating system).
Finally, you cannot make your app available for purchase in the App Store unless you are a paid developer. However, you could publish online as an HTML5 web application, or you could publish your app in a third-party app developer market (however you could only intall that app if you jailbreak your iPad).
Not sure how new this is, but Dragon Fire SDK is 100% Windows based (you do submit your code to them for compilation), but at no time are you required to own a Mac.
I'd like to develop a stand-alone desktop application targeting Windows (XP through 7) and Mac (Tiger through Snow Leopard), and if possible iPhone and Android. In order to make it all work with as much common code as possible (and because it's the only thing I'm good at), I'd like to handle the main logic with HTML and JS. Using Adobe AIR is a possibility. And I think I can do this with various application wrappers, using .NET for Windows XP, Objective C for iPhone, Java for Android and native "widget" platform support for Mac and Windows Vista & 7 (though I'd like to keep the widget in the foreground, so the Mac dashboard isn't ideal). Does anyone have any suggestions on where to start? The two sticking points are:
I'll certainly need some form of persistent storage (cookies perhaps) to keep state between sessions
I'll also probably need access to remote data files, so if I use AJAX and the hosting HTML file resides on the device, it will need to be able to do cross-domain requests. I've done this on the iPhone without any problems, but I'd be surprised if this were possible on other platforms.
For me, Android and iPhone will be the easiest to handle, and it looks like I can use Adobe AIR to handle the rest. But I wanted to know if there are any other alternatives. Does anyone have any suggesions?
You might be interested in Appcelerator's Titanium. It's an alternative to Adobe AIR that lets you build native mobile and desktop apps using HTML and JS (with the WebKit rendering engine, so you can take full advantage of HTML5 and CSS3). It also satisfies your two sticking points:
SQLite is available for persistence storage.
There are no restrictions on cross-domain requests.
I used Titanium Desktop for a recent project and it was a relatively smooth development process. It's also open source so you have access to the full application at all times.
Check it out and let me know if it works for you.
You can create a desktop application with HTML, CSS & Javascript using either of the following two frameworks
TideSDK
AppJS
For mobile you can use the similar HTML and Javascript using PhoneGap
How mature is AJAX support for mobile phones?
Are there mobile versions of some famous AJAX frameworks?
I would live even with a limited support for some ajax lib.
iPhones won't cache anything larger than 25 KB uncompressed, which means libraries like jQuery and Prototype won't be cached like they would be on a normal computer. I suspect this sort of thing is the case with lots of other mobile browsers, too.
XUI is a slimmed down jQuery-like library that's fairly popular.
Mobile phone market is very fragmented and you need to restrict yourself to a specific technology to get a useful answer. As far as I know there is no cross platform mobile framework available. However some mobile browsers are quite advanced and they will be able to handle jQuery or other libraries. I have seen jQuery run on S60 built in browser as well as Opera (not mini) at the same platform. I have also successfully run jQuery in mobile IE (Windows Mobile Professional Edition). However I wouldn't say it is safe to use jQuery on these platforms. You also want to ask the question regarding the size of the downloaded library as well as the execution speed.
I think mobile ajax is not mature yet, but you should read this wmlprogramming thread, and check this preliminar version of dojo mobile too.
You can also look at iWebkit or iUI to build iPhone friendly web apps
Peter-Paul Koch (ppk) started working on mobile device compatibility tests and has made compatibility charts for mobile devices.
Once these are documented, libraries authors can begin to abstract the differences. I don't know of many libraries that are cross-platform yet, but Peter's work should speed development.