Java developers interested in porting Wesnoth to Android?

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Dave
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Java developers interested in porting Wesnoth to Android?

Post by Dave »

Recently, Google announced Android, an open platform for cell phones. The first Android phones are expected to begin shipping late next year.

Google is even offering cash prizes for people making quality software for Android. Gaming is an area listed as of interest.

I think this is a great opportunity for Java developers to contribute to Wesnoth. A port of Wesnoth could be made for Android, and thus could make a port of Wesnoth run on a wide range of cell phones. If we had something like this available when the Android phones begin to become available, it could be a big win for Wesnoth, since many people could potentially become exposed to it.

So, I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in doing this? It could be done as a completely new, seperate project, which happens to reuse as many Wesnoth resources as possible.

If anyone is seriously interested, I'd be happy to do what I can to help them get this project underway.

Also do note that I am an employee of Google, but this is all entirely just my idea.

David
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DDR
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Post by DDR »

So, how will you split the $300000? :D Hm.... that cell phone has better 3D graphics than my desktop computer does.
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Herduk
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Post by Herduk »

Italy is out.
Google will not accept any project from Italy (some legal issues for the prize).
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ngavarta
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Re: Java developers interested in porting Wesnoth to Android?

Post by ngavarta »

Hi Dave, it's been some time since your post.
I would like to create an open source game on Android (RPG) most favorable.

After I tried your game at linux, I'm thinking of directly port it to Android.

I wonder if were to port this into Android, which approach may I use? how many % of codes were reusable, or rewritten total in Java??

I've little experience on Game development, some programming experience on Android platform(Java, non on C).

Would like to hear from you soon ...


Regards,
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Crab
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Re: Java developers interested in porting Wesnoth to Android?

Post by Crab »

using something like http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news ... ev-kit.ars, you'll be able to reuse a portion of game source, esp. non-user-visible things like ai and pathfinding. network code is small and can be rewritten. but, it'll be hard to convert gui.
and, overall, the amount of work required would be huge, and certanly out of scope for 1 developer.
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Re: Java developers interested in porting Wesnoth to Android?

Post by GNUtoo »

Maybe you should look at the way scumvm was ported to android

Also wesnoth works on GNU/Linux phones if they have enough memory
for instance I have run it on:
*htcdream
*freerunner
Both under GNU/Linux(SHR,compiled wesnoth myself with the help of openembedded)

Also look at the iphone port of wesnoth: there are videos on youtube on it,
you'll see the difference between the iphone port, and the normal port which looks like this:
http://scap.linuxtogo.org/files/a21f123 ... 1e7764.png
(like a pastebin that image will be removed in a certain amount of time)

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Re: Java developers interested in porting Wesnoth to Android?

Post by smaraux »

I am interested in porting BfW on android.

I know a few coders (experimented in Java or C++ coding essentially, some in CG) which would be interested too.
But if someone could give us a row estimation of the time we may spend before having a first useable version, it would be great.

I noticed 3 external dependencies :
- afaik, libintl is for internationalization (getText, etc), it seems to have a direct droid API counterpart.
- boost is for C/C++ optimisation ? And therefore it may be taken out without too much pain, other than performance ?
- SDL replacement seems to be the trickiest part. I have spotted a java port, built back in 2005. I would expect a droid native replacement quicker for this part of work, but also less updateable regarding main BfW stream.

Is there also issues to expect regarding multi-threading ?
In such case, how did IPhone port handle that ?

At least, what could be the coding time shares (roughly, in %) of the different main "features" of the game :
- core engine port
- graphic port
- IA port
- whatsoever...

In Addition, what are the resolution already managed by other ports of BfW ?

On Android, I have noticed screens from 240x320 (Tatoo) to 480x800 (nexus one), with a main stream at 320x480 (Hero - seems to be IPhone one too).
Any advice about managing such low res would be appreciated too (UI , display).

If any work has been done for android until now, let us know.

Regards
smaraux
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Re: Java developers interested in porting Wesnoth to Android?

Post by smaraux »

A little up for this thread, I woudn't like to miss advices or existing content !
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Re: Java developers interested in porting Wesnoth to Android?

Post by em3 »

smaraux wrote:- boost is for C/C++ optimisation ? And therefore it may be taken out without too much pain, other than performance ?
boost is not so much about application performance improvement, as about programming performance improvement. It's a library of stuff programmers would commonly have to write themselves anyway. I'm not sure how it is used in Wensoth, but it might by quite tightly intertwined with BfW code.
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Re: Java developers interested in porting Wesnoth to Android?

Post by Yogibear »

em3 wrote:
smaraux wrote:- boost is for C/C++ optimisation ? And therefore it may be taken out without too much pain, other than performance ?
boost is not so much about application performance improvement, as about programming performance improvement. It's a library of stuff programmers would commonly have to write themselves anyway. I'm not sure how it is used in Wensoth, but it might by quite tightly intertwined with BfW code.
From what i know it is mostly used for these things:
- foreach loops
- IO
- regular expressions
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psychic
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Re: Java developers interested in porting Wesnoth to Android?

Post by psychic »

I am a java programmer, if a lead is interested in using my services, please message me.
smaraux
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Re: Java developers interested in porting Wesnoth to Android?

Post by smaraux »

I will see, by now I am looking forward to organize the whole thing, after putting it on rails, I would be interested in task force.
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Re: Java developers interested in porting Wesnoth to Android?

Post by Entrimo »

I am very interested in this. Unfortunately I can't help with any coding of any sort. I would love to do some beta testing on my Nexus if this ever gets started. I love the idea.
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Re: Java developers interested in porting Wesnoth to Android?

Post by gabba »

Would a port (or partial port) of Wesnoth be a realistic project for google summer of code 2010?

I for one would be interested to take up the challenge to port Wesnoth to Java or Scala this summer so it can run on the Android. I suppose there could be some collaboration with the ongoing iPhone port project, especially for redesigning the interface for small screens and thumb interfaces.

If a full port isn't realistic, maybe setting a solid foundation for other people to complete the port would also be a valid GSoC project goal.
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Re: Java developers interested in porting Wesnoth to Android?

Post by Yogibear »

gabba wrote:Would a port (or partial port) of Wesnoth be a realistic project for google summer of code 2010?

I for one would be interested to take up the challenge to port Wesnoth to Java or Scala this summer so it can run on the Android. I suppose there could be some collaboration with the ongoing iPhone port project, especially for redesigning the interface for small screens and thumb interfaces.

If a full port isn't realistic, maybe setting a solid foundation for other people to complete the port would also be a valid GSoC project goal.
While i appreciate your engagement, i fear that this is way above what is possible within GSoC. I talked to our lead developer a while ago, and he said that the biggest problem for that port will be having to rewrite basically everything, since the differences between C++ and Java are just too big.

That was like back in January and by that time i had the feeling, that a team of 3 or 4 experienced developers, combined with someone knowing the wesnoth codebase very well would maybe have a chance to be able to do it until september - working fulltime more or less.

On the other hand, Kyle Poole, who did the iPhone port, proved that it is possible to port wesnoth in a reasonable amount of time (although i think he is an exceptional good and experienced programmer). So talking to him might give you a more positive answer.
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