Request information on: APK Expansion Files

[spacefractal]

But for now, im cant do anything right now. You need to ask Gernot for that, not me. For now checkout Samsung Apps as well Amazon Appstore.

[Kyo]

I have to ask Gernot ... I understand!

but I believe that Gernot,'re thinking of something else!
a single programmer can not follow the requirements of all!

That's why I believe that at this time the addition of HTML 5 was wrong!

First it was better to give all the services on major platforms (iOS and Android) and then add more!

[fuzzy70]

The problem with adding all the services for a platform (i.e. Android or iOS) is that it risks breaking the multi platform nature of GLBasic.

Things like stores/inapp purchases, GPS, camera roll etc are all pretty much specific to a platform & adding such would make updating and/or bug fixing GLB more work.

Hence why the Android Extras was created, to fill the gap of missing features some people wanted or needed without affecting the core of GLB & the platforms it supports.

GLBasic is not the only multiple platform language that exists that has issues with some Android features, I'm sure a read an article about unity having issues with the 50mb playstore limit & someone wrote a tool to split the apk. Even then it wasn't a "one click fix all problems tool" & required some editing in eclipse.

Add to that some companies modify parts of Android to their own needs (Samsung springs to mind), the countless variations on hardware & screen resolutions along with many different versions of Android probably makes it the hardest platform to create for outside of the official sdk.

Lee

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[Kyo]

I understand perfectly, but it does not change my situation!

[spacefractal]

Now I'm have not a clue what kind if assets that take the size? And your current project size. This is why research is good to been start, before surpricing, when discovered too late (im did scrapped a game too for around 10 years ago for similar reasons, when doing thing in wrong order).

On this area, Android sucks big balls. Google Play should have been better, when Amazon AppStore and Samsung Apps not have those 50mb limits.

PS. Unity did have the extract same issues.

[Kyo]

And so I should trashing an almost finished project? 
I'll have to wait until the problem is solved! (I do not know when or how) 

Amazon AppStore and Samsung Apps not have the same visibility of Google Play!


P.S.: Unity solved with a split APK!
http://labs.exoa.fr/tutorial-unity-4-apk-splitting-google-play-obb/

[spacefractal]

Yes, but glbasic is far from alone to have those issues. Google Play Expansion files is just crap designed and wierd way. Its should been more or less automatic, but instead do require a lots of manual work (etc im Wonder why they diddent do a central downloader for this kind of files?). Full support might take from weeks too month.

While you cant uses Google Play, you should still checkout those shops as well of course Apple Appstore.

PS. Im found some downloader service code (which require API-9+), but that do require own download server throught. Im look on that.

[fuzzy70]

P.S.: Unity solved with a split APK!
http://labs.exoa.fr/tutorial-unity-4-apk-splitting-google-play-obb/

Have you read all the stuff you have to do to get it to work. Again it is not a one click tool & requires editing xml, adding a bulk of code to Unity plus other things. Like I said above its a 3rd party tool not made by the creators of Unity itself & if your lucky & only need the basic Android features that comes with the $1500 price tag you have to spend another $1500 for the Android Pro license.

That's a hell of a lot more money than the cost of GLBasic & it doesn't handle the 50mb limit WITHOUT an external tool.

Lee

[spacefractal]

howover more important is really to get full zip support (not just shoenox), which would prevent a another issue this limit:
Glbasic will copy assests files from the apk/obb to internal memory, which is not very smart for large projects, which will consume double of the devices memory.

If glbasic could support zip files directly, then its would been awesome (obb is more or less just renamed zip files).

Howover its seen all its does when uploading is renaming the expansion file to obb, renamed from whatever uploaded files (which can been anything). So really the expansion file using for Google Play should been inside a shoebox file, etc android.sbx. Then its would been easier to integrate to a project (and prevent glbasic to copy to the internal memory).

So start shoebox your larger files and then get access from that files to Work in your project.

[Ian Price]

@diego - I'm presuming it's pretty much all media that's taking up the 50MB+ of your project. Have you looked at methods of file reduction, like reducing the music/sfx quality a bit or using imaging software to reduce the size of your images? Or reducing texture sizes. Most people wouldn't even notice a difference. I use https://tinypng.com/ quite a lot and it's amazing how much this can reduce the size of an already small .PNG without losing any quality.

[spacefractal]

tingpng does loss some information, which was noticable, but howover is a excellent software. For sound its good to uses 22khz mono, rather than using 44khz stereo. For music, often you can go after 128kbit stereo without problem.

im remember im did a very much sport to reduce so much of possible to the Java Space Taxi im created in the past (which could been fun to port that game to glbasic) by using example jpg (Picture) + gif (Alpha) on the main menu.

Another issue could been eventuelly videos?

[Ian Price]

Yeah, I did wonder about videos and animations when I posted. GLBasic does/did support .AVI, but not on mobile platforms (IIRC).

Perhaps diego needs to evaluate how much of this media is just fluff and how much is really required. Can detail and quality be reduced without affecting the overall enjoyment of the game? Will cutting a few corners actually be noticed?

[spacefractal]

to been fair, Jungool (none glbasic game, im created music for) used around 130mb, even when used the compressed PVR format and contain 60min music. The size is due the 4096kb textures that did it. Howover its was designed with iOS in mind and used MACS and xCode directly for it. The game will never come to Android and will remain Ios exclusive.

When glbasic ever support Expansion Files, its will only do that with shoebox file to prevent copy to the internal memory (im do not now glbasic can uses obb as its was a sbx file). Im hope so.

[Kyo]

Yes, but glbasic is far from alone to have those issues. Google Play Expansion files is just crap designed and wierd way. Its should been more or less automatic, but instead do require a lots of manual work (etc im Wonder why they diddent do a central downloader for this kind of files?). Full support might take from weeks too month.

While you cant uses Google Play, you should still checkout those shops as well of course Apple Appstore.

PS. Im found some downloader service code (which require API-9+), but that do require own download server throught. Im look on that.

You're absolutely right! Android only complicates our life!

P.S.: Unity solved with a split APK!
http://labs.exoa.fr/tutorial-unity-4-apk-splitting-google-play-obb/

Have you read all the stuff you have to do to get it to work. Again it is not a one click tool & requires editing xml, adding a bulk of code to Unity plus other things. Like I said above its a 3rd party tool not made by the creators of Unity itself & if your lucky & only need the basic Android features that comes with the $1500 price tag you have to spend another $1500 for the Android Pro license.

That's a hell of a lot more money than the cost of GLBasic & it doesn't handle the 50mb limit WITHOUT an external tool.

Lee

it is true,  the Unity Pro version is more expensive.
But they worth the money spent for big problem!
The solution for external file in Android (in the free version) is complicated but it has been found!

The Indi market has grown by Unity!
But I prefer a system programming like GLB! 
And I would pay more to have additional features! 

howover more important is really to get full zip support (not just shoenox), which would prevent a another issue this limit:
Glbasic will copy assests files from the apk/obb to internal memory, which is not very smart for large projects, which will consume double of the devices memory.

If glbasic could support zip files directly, then its would been awesome (obb is more or less just renamed zip files).

Howover its seen all its does when uploading is renaming the expansion file to obb, renamed from whatever uploaded files (which can been anything). So really the expansion file using for Google Play should been inside a shoebox file, etc android.sbx. Then its would been easier to integrate to a project (and prevent glbasic to copy to the internal memory).

So start shoebox your larger files and then get access from that files to Work in your project.

It would be a great support to zip (also to protect files)!
The FTP download is the only solution!
Unfortunately I do not know the commands NET!

@diego - I'm presuming it's pretty much all media that's taking up the 50MB+ of your project. Have you looked at methods of file reduction, like reducing the music/sfx quality a bit or using imaging software to reduce the size of your images? Or reducing texture sizes. Most people wouldn't even notice a difference. I use https://tinypng.com/ quite a lot and it's amazing how much this can reduce the size of an already small .PNG without losing any quality.

I use: PNG 8 Bit - 256 Color
SFX: Wav 8 Bit Mono
Music: Mp3

tingpng does loss some information, which was noticable, but howover is a excellent software. For sound its good to uses 22khz mono, rather than using 44khz stereo. For music, often you can go after 128kbit stereo without problem.

im remember im did a very much sport to reduce so much of possible to the Java Space Taxi im created in the past (which could been fun to port that game to glbasic) by using example jpg (Picture) + gif (Alpha) on the main menu.

Another issue could been eventuelly videos?

I do not have video in the game!
If I'm not mistaken on Android playMovie the command does not work! Right? 

[fuzzy70]

If I'm not mistaken on Android playMovie the command does not work! Right? 

I'm not to sure as I haven't tried it yet but when I was looking for a new phone a couple of months back I narrowed it down to a HTC One, S4 & Xperia Z & looking up details on them there was some differences on what media they could play back (audio as well as video). So even if PLAYMOVIE does work on Android there's no guarantee that the device would be able to play it back.

Got to love Android 

Lee