Database Users

Maybe someone can shed some light on this?

After reading and watching multiple demonstrations of the Ubuntu phone os. I just can't seem to find features that I can't already do on my android. The notifications drawer is pretty neat in that you can pull it down at different places, but other than that, it just seems like a lightly modded android.
Sent from a galaxy far far away.

luc.highwalker said:
After reading and watching multiple demonstrations of the Ubuntu phone os. I just can't seem to find features that I can't already do on my android. The notifications drawer is pretty neat in that you can pull it down at different places, but other than that, it just seems like a lightly modded android.
Sent from a galaxy far far away.
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I think for most users, they may not find value in this yet (until more apps are available and/or cheaper phones come out), but for those familiar with linux it will make a lot of sense.
I have been a linux developer for 3 years now (as a full time job) and I am just imagining all the cool stuff I can do with this device (at home and at work).
For one thing, you will likely be able to develop (native) apps on the phone itself instead of having to have a separate computer to do it. It might even be possible to develop Android apps!
It's basically a PC in your pocket so the apps will not be as limited as Android and iOS apps. There is still software out there that is not available on Android and iOS because those systems are designed for phones and tablets and don't fully support a desktop style interface. The appeal to an Ubuntu phone is that it can function as both, and you can develop software that will be interchangeable as both.

Thanks for your reply.
I'm not a developer (yet) so I can't say much on the subject. But I do know that you can develop apps directly on an Android device. There's even a Linux terminal Window.
I guess I'll just have to wait and see what people can make out of the phone. till then, I'll just stick to my beloved android
Sent from a galaxy far far away.

If you love linux, this *could* be a game changer if it's done right. As BukaKing mentioned, the ability to run native apps on the OS is a huge plus, as you would then be able to make the most of the hardware presented rather than utilising a java engine.
Customisation I am assuming will also be a huge factor - Ubuntu Desktop can be so heavily customised, to function exactly how you want it to, so I am *assuming* that Ubuntu for Phones will be similar. So, just because the OS behaves a particular way on those video's circulating, does not necessarily mean that is how it is destined to remain. Once it's out there in the wild, I would even assume people unhappy with the lack of soft buttons may find them re-appear, as gnome/unity has the ability to create custom panels.
The oportunities I think this OS presents to smartphones is amazing, but in the end it comes down to 2 things for me. Will it be completely open source? If yes, then there could be a bunch of forks/derivitives explode around the webs where teams have customised the OS the way they want it. Developing for it would be far easier, so i'd expect if popularity gets high enough, apps will appear from everywhere. And, implimentation - will it be as easy for a non-linux user to pick up and use, as it will be for a linux user? Hopefully, that answer is yes too.

According to Shuttleworth, it will be 100% opensource! I can't wait till the code is released and we can all play with this. Since it will be using an android kernel and drivers I'm hoping it won't be to hard to compile from source for my phone.

onlychevys said:
According to Shuttleworth, it will be 100% opensource! I can't wait till the code is released and we can all play with this. Since it will be using an android kernel and drivers I'm hoping it won't be to hard to compile from source for my phone.
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Helllooo! This what i was waiting for....Open source! so that ports can be made for devices that cant be officially supported by ubuntu. For those who keep saying ubuntu cant on GT-$5660 just STFU! No offense but Samsung said ICS or JB cant fully run properly on gio! and look it runs almost perfectly! So a bit of tweaking ubuntu for my device and we can run this!
Sent from my GT-S5660 using xda premium

batman38102 said:
Helllooo! This what i was waiting for....Open source! so that ports can be made for devices that cant be officially supported by ubuntu. For those who keep saying ubuntu cant on GT-$5660 just STFU! No offense but Samsung said ICS or JB cant fully run properly on gio! and look it runs almost perfectly! So a bit of tweaking ubuntu for my device and we can run this!
Sent from my GT-S5660 using xda premium
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:banghead: :banghead: No.. It won't work on the S5660... Ubuntu phone is not android... Have you ever wrote a program? Compiled software? The binary is compiled using the arm hard float v7 instructions, you will need to recompile the kernel, the OS and every damn app.. the native apps are made with C++ not java ... You may be able to get a running build on a arm v6 like the S5660 but you can't install 3rd party apps from the store or proprietary apps unless the developer thought about that and supports it .. Likely not, they will be natively for arm v7 hf only...
If canonical would have chosen soft float instead of hard float then it would have worked, but it will be freaking slow and laggy..
Getting JB on that device is something else, it and android apps are running of a virtual machine .. That is the good thing about managed code and virtual machines and the reason sun Microsystems invented java in the first place ...
QML and c++ is not running off a virtual machine.. Its 100% native ...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

I'm wondering if native C++ Apps will not only be more efficient than Java on Android but if Ubuntu can take more advantage of multi-core systems than Android does. At least I have heared that Android isn't that optimized for multi-core phones.

jscurtu said:
:banghead: :banghead: No.. It won't work on the S5660... Ubuntu phone is not android... Have you ever wrote a program? Compiled software? The binary is compiled using the arm hard float v7 instructions, you will need to recompile the kernel, the OS and every damn app..
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Why does it have to be him that has to do that, some one else could do it and provide an image.
the native apps are made with C++ not java ...
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Yeah, who ever heard of making native apps in java!
The Ubuntu Phone OS equivalent to java will be HTML5.
You may be able to get a running build on a arm v6 like the S5660 but you can't install 3rd party apps from the store or proprietary apps unless the developer thought about that and supports it .. Likely not, they will be natively for arm v7 hf only...
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You go from saying "No.. it won't work" to saying "You may be able to get a running build", nice!
And what proprietary apps are there right now? The only apps that I have seen are either HTML5 or the one native app (the gallery app) that Canonical made which will be open source and can be rebuilt for any device.
Also this same problem exists for Android native app (android has a lot of them), the developers have to build binaries for the different Android devices. So you can port Android to an x86 device but you will not be able to run a lot of games unless they include binaries that support it. Games built with Unity 3D are native apps, games built on Adobe Flash/Air are native apps. Native apps *can be* more efficient in performance, memory and battery than Java apps. Also C++ in the case of mobile devices is more cross platform than Java, since it can be used on both iOS and Android, and the libraries in Android Java are not available on other platforms with Java.
QML itself is not technically native, it depends on how it is used. QML is a mix of objects/widgets and javascript (similar to HTML5), but native C++ code can access QML objects/widgets through Qt.
But that said, if Canonical doesn't officially support a device I would steer clear of updates. I just spent the weekend trying to update my HP Envy from Ubuntu 10.10 to 12.10 and I had a ton of problems, and while it works now, my USB is disabled for some reason (even though internal USB devices work). This isn't the first time this has happened to me with Ubuntu updates.
I wouldn't worry about it for the Galaxy Nexus since it is an officially supported device, but for devices that are ported too by some one else, I would avoid updates coming from Canonical.

Valve is testing Steam games for Ubuntu so we could be playing some real games on our phones soon.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

getrdy said:
Valve is testing Steam games for Ubuntu so we could be playing some real games on our phones soon.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
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ARM != x86 .....

blackout23 said:
ARM != x86 .....
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What about those x86 based phones?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Lesicnik1 said:
What about those x86 based phones?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
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The smartphone GPU drivers and chips probably don't support OpenGL 3.0 like Steam games require.
Smartphones never had full blown OpenGL only OpenGLES (Embedded System).
Desktop PCs are still waaay more powerful than any smartphone. Any cheap Celeron CPU for 40 bucks will obliterate your Intel Atom powered smartphone.

When is anyone going to make a real shmup?

Seriously. No offense to the developers who are making attempts so far, but look at what's available on both ios and android. Phoenix hd (ios only), ikaruga (android only), dodonpachi, espgaluda 2, danmaku 2, raiden, shogun, darius etc. The graphics on original shmup like danmaku 2 and phoenix hd are ubelievable. I'd love to play these games on my 1520. I t can't be that hard to port to wp8 if you're using opengl and or, C/C#.

Hi there RCCranium666,
I wonder how many WP users would play such a game. I have some ideas on my Todo list for a very responsive and fluid Shmup. Maybe if I will find there is demand I will make one
PS: what shmups you've tried on WP and what haven't you liked about them?

timotei21 said:
Hi there RCCranium666,
I wonder how many WP users would play such a game. I have some ideas on my Todo list for a very responsive and fluid Shmup. Maybe if I will find there is demand I will make one
PS: what shmups you've tried on WP and what haven't you liked about them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
original shmups like phienix HD on ios and danmaku2 on ios and android. They have amazing graphics and fun gameplay. There are vids on YouTube. Which you can easily find.

RCranium666 said:
Seriously. No offense to the developers who are making attempts so far, but look at what's available on both ios and android. Phoenix hd (ios only), ikaruga (android only), dodonpachin, espgaluda 2, danmaku 2, raiden, shogun, darius etc. The graphics on original shmup like danmaku and phoenix hd are ubelievable. I'd love to play these games on my 1520. I t can't be that hard to port to wp8 if you're using opengl and or, C/C#.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
openGL is not supported on windows phone 8, and C# has no way of accessing it.
The only graphical APIs supported are:
monoGame for C#
Directx for C++, which can be accessed through gimikish p/invoke from C# as well.
And this community is mostly composed of individual developers. Porting the big titles you mentioned is going to be difficult, Making a good game is no easy task, but I am sure the developers of those games have already taken note of WP8

One guy has successfully (but partially) ported OpenGL Quake to WP8 platform (by changing OGL engine calls to DirectX, as far as I understood) so theoretically it's possible. But definitely it's not an easy job.

sensboston said:
One guy has successfully (but partially) ported OpenGL Quake to WP8 platform (by changing OGL engine calls to DirectX, as far as I understood) so theoretically it's possible. But definitely it's not an easy job.
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Not to mention creating the models all over again...

mcosmin222 said:
Not to mention creating the models all over again...
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Why would you need to recreate the models? Can't they just be converted? All the art, bullets and ships are completely designed. I can understand the need to recode the physics of the game.

RCranium666 said:
Why would you need to recreate the models? Can't they just be converted? All the art, bullets and ships are completely designed. I can understand the need to recode the physics of the game.
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There is no legal way to get the models. If the original developers find out (they will if we use the same names), they can and will sue us and win.

mcosmin222 said:
There is no legal way to get the models. If the original developers find out (they will if we use the same names), they can and will sue us and win.
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I'm not talking about copying the games. I'm talking about the original developers doing it. I'm surprised no one has ported mame yet. That would fill my appetite until modern games come out.

RCranium666 said:
I'm not talking about copying the games. I'm talking about the original developers doing it. I'm surprised no one has ported mame yet. That would fill my appetite until modern games come out.
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It's all because of low profit on WP market. Porting GLES game (even written on C++) to DirectX isn't easy; it requires additional human resources (and you need an experienced game developers) - it's pricey...

Nuts. At least it let's me conserve battery life, unlike my iPhone and Android phones.
Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

Native Android SDK vs PhoneGap/Cordova

Hi, just wanted to get your opinions of developing apps with the native Android SDK versus PhoneGap/Cordova.
I have coded an app using the Android SDK before, but I found the SDK to be a bit difficult to work with even though it is very powerful. I haven't tried making an app in PhoneGap/Cordova yet, but I'm a very experienced web developer so developing an app with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript sounds very enticing to me. Still I don't know the actual details to making an app with PhoneGap/Cordova though since I've yet to try it.
Besides the benefit of PhoneGap/Cordova being cross-platform, what are your thoughts on each one and which one do you prefer and why?

Isaac Lean said:
Hi, just wanted to get your opinions of developing apps with the native Android SDK versus PhoneGap/Cordova.
I have coded an app using the Android SDK before, but I found the SDK to be a bit difficult to work with even though it is very powerful. I haven't tried making an app in PhoneGap/Cordova yet, but I'm a very experienced web developer so developing an app with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript sounds very enticing to me. Still I don't know the actual details to making an app with PhoneGap/Cordova though since I've yet to try it.
Besides the benefit of PhoneGap/Cordova being cross-platform, what are your thoughts on each one and which one do you prefer and why?
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My personal opinion is that any web app thats on play/app stores should have to have some logo or something to say thats what they are. From a user point there is no comparison really, like comparing a chrome/web app on PC to a native win/linux app, they don't really compare and I personally as a user have yet to see web apps impress. However having said that there is always variance to any argument, I think here it depends on context. So for my app Smart Messenger, there is zero chance as a web app, or if it were possible the experience would be way too bad for the user. However consider a simple listings app that just has a few screens, maybe not as bad. Dont get me wrong, still think web apps should come with a sticker so the user knows not to download, but the experience would fall a shorter distance to native based on complexity/context.
Just my thoughts

It depends on the requirements of the app: if you need to build functionally simple app quickly and spread it across the platforms, then it's better to use hybrid/web app. If you need sophisticated functionality (e.g. games), which has to heavily utilize mobile device's facilities (hardware/software) then the best bet would be to use Android SDK.

surlac said:
It depends on the requirements of the app: if you need to build functionally simple app quickly and spread it across the platforms, then it's better to use hybrid/web app. If you need sophisticated functionality (e.g. games), which has to heavily utilize mobile device's facilities (hardware/software) then the best bet would be to use Android SDK.
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erm not just games, any app that you want fluid and responsive that can't be just a html/php site through a browser .... btw I speak from a user point here, not just a dev. I have yet to find a web app that I would even consider keeping on the phone/tablet... I prefer to use a browser to access the info, not some fakey thing.

Performance is a big factor. If it's a simple app you may sure as well go with Phonegap etc. but for an advanced, more complex app native is always the best options as it will provide much better performance than a Phonegap app.

rootRootRoute said:
Performance is a big factor. If it's a simple app you may sure as well go with Phonegap etc. but for an advanced, more complex app native is always the best options as it will provide much better performance than a Phonegap app.
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I strongly agree here... Ive used both and Phonegap lacks alot in Performance on Android (not on iOS).
If you want a a cross platform frameworks consider Xamarin (C#)
Code:
http://xamarin.com

NobleDroid said:
I strongly agree here... Ive used both and Phonegap lacks alot in Performance on Android (not on iOS).
If you want a a cross platform frameworks consider Xamarin (C#)
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I'm using phonegap for my app it works great on android too.
Try using the ionic framework, it is a game changer.

khashayarp said:
I'm using phonegap for my app it works great on android too.
Try using the ionic framework, it is a game changer.
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As both a developer and user I have yet to see a web app that I would even consider leaving on my phone once I obviously see it's just a local website I have often asked for examples of really good web apps and never seen a single one...
Would it be possible to check out yours ?
Just interested... cheers

deanwray said:
As both a developer and user I have yet to see a web app that I would even consider leaving on my phone once I obviously see it's just a local website I have often asked for examples of really good web apps and never seen a single one...
Would it be possible to check out yours ?
Just interested... cheers
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I have posted it on xda (http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/app-introducing-palm-note-awesome-note-t2861937)

khashayarp said:
Try using the ionic framework, it is a game changer.
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If we're talking about performance, how Ionic can make a difference if it has been built on top of Cordova (like Phonegap)?

Any Vulkan api games out there?

All,
Just got the gold Galaxy S7 Edge and loving it. I want to test out the potential of this baby by playing some games using the vulkan api. Are there any out there yet? Or if not, any you can recommend?
Thanks!

Nothing?

Sorry for the thread necro, but I would like to know this as well. Does the current NFS support this as shown in the demo videos?

Now that you mention it, I have yet to try this 'vulcan api' thing. I guess it was just vaporware from samsung.

Sounds alot like vaporware to me too..
There's alot of hype from Samsung yet no palpable proof.

I'm sure there will be games out soon based on the Vulkan API. It'll just take a while since it's a tougher API to work with.
Sent from my SM-G935V using XDA-Developers mobile app

It's not vaporware... the Vulkan API is going to be huge. It's going to be supported fully in Android N so maybe once that is released we'll see some apps get updated.
I saw the demo of NFS and Unity so there must be some demos floating around somewhere.
Vulkan will make it easier for devs to port games since it's going to be huge on desktops/consoles as well. Remember this was developed by AMD and "given" to the Khronos group to develop and open source.

Is Vulkan API coming to Zenfone 2?

I just heard that Vulkan API is coming to mobile and it is supporting PowerVR chips like the one we have on the phone.
(PowerVR G6430). Some people say on the ZENTALK forum that that's why it takes so much freaking time for Asus to implement Marshmallow as they are busy incorporating the API on the phone.
If this is true just image the gigantic boost it will give to our phones! (just watch on Youtube or search on Google for more information about Vulkan API)

If Vulkan API is implemented at our phone it would be fantastic. Hope Asus will work on the API and make the best for our phone, let's see in a couple of months of so

Too good to be true man, too good to be true.

hi, I'm very interested in everything about vulkan since i could see some videos about it. But my knowledge about api, android and rom's is not that good, so i would thank you if i could get some answers.
1 - Is this implementation of API a work for ASUS or Intel?
2 - Since i saw that PowerVR Rogue has now SDK(i dont know what it is) for Vulkan, Is ANYONE able to make a custom rom that could use Vulkan?
3 - I've heard that Android N will have native support for Vulkan. Does it mean that if i download a custom rom, like a cyanogenmod, for Android N to my Zenfone 2 i will have the benefits of using Vulkan?
4 - Does anyone know if that Galasy S7 that had 135k+ on antutu was using Vulkan? Because my Zenfone 2 is a great phone and only scores 65k, it's scary to thing that a S7 should have more than the double of hardware capacity that my Zenfone has. I thing that should be because of vulkan, but i need to hear it from someone who knows what's talking.
I hope to get answers for this questions. Thank you all.

SSJMatt said:
)Some people say on the ZENTALK forum that that's why it takes so much freaking time for Asus to implement Marshmallow as they are busy incorporating the API on the phone.
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Sorry, that's not how ASUS usually manages fixes and updates. That would take time and money and we've already spent our money so they have nothing to gain, therefore nothing will happen. Only future customers are a priority for ASUS.
A happy ASUS customer is one with low expectations.

Well, at least It'd give Asus a good excuse for being so late...

Vulkan is something that would need to be implemented at the OS level on Android (mainly the kernel, no idea what other bits Google is including in the rest of the OS). And support for each hardware would need to be provided by the OEM or manufacturers. It MAY be possible for a custom ROM to implement Vulkan support in some fashion in a current version of Android (harder and more "impossible" things have been accomplished) but it's not likely due to too many technical challenges. Besides, it wouldn't happen until after Android N is released and the AOSP code is posted. Only then would someone attempt to backport Vulkan.
I'm not 100% sure, but I do believe that Vulkan support will be a requirement by Google for devices to run Android N. So if Asus does plan on upgrading the phones then they will need to include a kernel for the hardware that supports Vulkan and those drivers would come from Intel. So the chance of the Zenfone supporting Vulkan is 100%, provided Asus upgrades it to N.

SSJMatt said:
I just heard that Vulkan API is coming to mobile and it is supporting PowerVR chips like the one we have on the phone.
(PowerVR G6430). Some people say on the ZENTALK forum that that's why it takes so much freaking time for Asus to implement Marshmallow as they are busy incorporating the API on the phone.
If this is true just image the gigantic boost it will give to our phones! (just watch on Youtube or search on Google for more information about Vulkan API)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So is the VULCAN API present in the M update?

Is Vulkan something like the Mantle for Desktops?
EDIT:
Vulkan Drivers for Nexus Player
Google’s Android Image
As part of the Android N Developer Preview 2 release, Google released an Android N image for the Nexus Player that includes Vulkan drivers. You can find out more about the Android N Developer Preview here and can download the image here. As this image is officially supported by Google, we recommend using it for Vulkan Android development.
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https://community.imgtec.com/developers/powervr/vulkan/
There is two possibilities:
1- Vulkan added in Android N's mainline code, and CM14 (maybe) will do this too.
2- Vulkan driver will be only in manufacters Android N's source. In this case, will be needed to be backported.
In both possibilites, isnt impossible to do it, even without Asus help. But would be awesome if some official MM give it to us (not in the first version, obviously).

Its GPU manufacturer job to implement vulkan, they provide the drivers to OEM manufacturer implement it on their otas. Nvidia already did that on latest MM update to shield TV and shield tablet.