Archive
Android Wear Open GL ES 2 Test
I’ve finally got an Android Wear device and It’s the Huawei Watch. At first I wanted the Moto360 2nd gen (for the larger screen) but I was unable to buy it from motorola.com and after several attempts I ended up with a paid order but no watch (money is deposited somewhere and should return after once month of the “purchase”). I’m glad I didn’t end up with a “flat tire” and a pixelated ambient display!
So anyway, I went back to my old app Hexscreen and extracted some code to a separate module then used it in a new Android Wear application and ended up with this nice and interactive test 🙂
Split v2.0 – Going Online
A while ago I made a very small app around the idea of selecting an image, then revealing its details by touching the screen and moving your finger and once you’re happy with the result, you can share the photo to other apps.
Yesterday I published a new version where I changed the design and added the ability for users to sign in\register using a Google account then share what’s being created inside the app so other users can view and like.
In this post I’m going to share some technical details that I found interesting while improving the app and implementing the backend.
Hexscreen v1.2
Hello :D, Hexscreen v1.2 is now available!
I fixed some bugs and added some more features:
- Advanced color picker: the old color picker was very simple, it only allowed the user to select a hue. The new one allows the user to customize the colors to the max!.
- Higher quality image support: the older version limits the maximum image width (or height) to 512 pixels. You can now choose images up to 1024 pixels.
- Added a file picker: I made a mistake when I assumed that all Android users have a file browser installed! To deal with that I implemented a simple file picker (and I enjoyed it) and packaged it with the app. Now my Hex File Picker will be listed with any other file browser available on the phone when the user wants to pick a style from a file.
- Improved screen positioning: in this version the hex screen will always be centered in your screen, so hopefully no more empty areas are left.
Issues with some devices:
For some reason some devices couldn’t compile the shaders of the app. No shaders means no app!.
I did modify the shaders for this version and hopefully they will work on those devices too, one problem is that I can’t know if the app is working fine, I can only know that the app is not working well (using ACRA).
So if you have any of those devices please feel free to try the app and tell me of the results:
- LG Google Nexus 4 (Android 4.3)
- Huawei MediaPad 7 Lite (Android 4.0.3)
- Asus Google Nexus 7 (Android 4.3)
- Samsung GT-N7000 (Android 2.3.4)
- Samsung GT-N7100 (Android 4.1.2)
- Samsung GT-I9100 (Android 4.1.2)
- HTC One X (Android 4.2.2)
Get it!:
you can download the app freely from your favorite market:
Hexscreen on Google Play
The app is also coming soon on Opera market.That’s it I guess :D, If you have any questions or comments I’ll be happy to answer 🙂 .
Hexscreen : 3D Live Wallapper for your Android
I’m thrilled to announce my first app on the Google Play!!. The name is Hexscreen 😀 .
I like computer graphics and I like hexagons so why not combine them together 😀 ?.
Hex screen is a 3D screen made up from hexagons, the cool thing about this screen is that hexagons can be animated to give nice effects, hexagons can be rotated, moved and scaled. The cells can display images or colors of your own choice, It supports transparency and multi screen layers
You can check this promo video to see some of the features of the live wallpaper:
My apologies for the low-res recording but I had to sacrifice resolution for frame rate.
Wanna try it? it’s completely free, doesn’t contain ads, and the apk is less than 3MB. I made sure to optimize the app in terms of performance and memory usage.
The live wallpaper works on phones running Android 2.3.3+, works on tablets too :).
The app is also coming soon on Opera market.
It would be nice of you to rate the app, just give it what you think it deserves :). If you need something explained tell me and I’ll be happy to answer.
I still have more ideas for the app but I’m not going to spend more time developing it unless people are interested in it.
If you have anything to discuss please use the comments bellow, I’ll be happy to hear your opinions and answer your questions :).
OpenGL ES 2 for Android: A Quick-Start Guide
So you want to make your first Android game or want to make a live wallpaper or just a simple 3D scene?
On Android, games use OpenGL ES 2 for rendering, which means you’ll have to learn it, even if you want to use a game engine it’s always good to know how stuff works on a low level.
By learning OpenGL ES2, you’ll be also learning WebGL since they both use the same set of functions.
OpenGL ES2 is cross-platform which means once you learn the API on a specific platform you will only need to know some platform-specific details to get your game to the other platforms.
While learning OpenGL ES 2, you will face challenges even if you have a good background in computer graphics! This is where books like OpenGL ES 2 for Android: A Quick-Start Guide shine.
Learning OpenGL ES2 starts with a mountain that you have to climb even if you just want to render a single dot in a 3D world, it gets easier after that 🙂 .
The book has a unique approach which makes it easier to understand the process. Read more…
Android Terrain Test 2 : Clouds
So I again went playing with OpenGL ES 2 on Android, this time I added clouds to the terrain:
Not only that but I also learned new things about OpenGL ES 2 and fixed some deadly bugs in my previous code and reorganized the code in a better way.
Here are some screenshots showing the results of using different textures and different Read more…
Android terrain test
Hello :), a while ago I decided to learn OpenGL ES 2.0 in Android, so I decided to make a simple terrain, and now I want to share my thoughts about this experience :D.
Edit: after reading this post please take a look at Android Terrain Test 2 : Clouds where the code is better and bugs are fixed (clouds were added too 😛 ).
Terrain in landscape mode
Hex Screen
Intro:
Hello, it’s been more than three months since my last post, it’s also been more than three months since I last opened Visual Studio :(. A few days ago I decided that I should write something with XNA, that’s when I decided to write Hex Screen :D.
Hex Screen?
Hex screen is a 3D screen made up from hexagons, the cool thing about this screen is that hexagons can be animated to give nice effects, hexagons can be rotated, moved and scaled.
A screen made up of 42*20 Hexagons
Another screenshot 😀 :
FuchsGUI Update
Hello there, sorry for being inactive lately but I don’t feel like programming or learning something new :(.
Anyway, I fixed the issue in FuchsGUI where some text was blurry, the reason was that the text was being rendered with floating point values for position, something like (20.3f,29.4), this meant that spriteBatch should split physical pixels :(.
Anyway, thanks to a guy named Fab who told me how to fix this, the solution was something like this:
position.X = (int)Position.X; position.Y = (int)Position.Y; // Render here
So, here’s the fixed version (XNA4 only):
FuchsGUI v1.1 Source Bin XNA4 (Blurry Text Fixed)
I hope to see you later :)…
RobotWarz Alpha Release
Introduction (a boring one maybe 😉 ?)
Good morning\evening or whatever suites your timezone :).
I’ve been waiting for this :D!, I’ve finished programming the alpha release of the game.
The reason I’m publishing it right now is because It might take me some time to have a full game, so by publishing an alpha release I can get opinions & suggestions from people which will encourage me to complete the game.
This release isn’t meant for end-users but rather for fellow programmers.
Unfortunately my laptop doesn’t have a graphics card so Read more…
Ghoscher's Blog 