I wasn't sure if I should post this in DevDB, so please move if I got it wrong (sorry).
Now, onto the nitty gritty.
I wish to create an Android app that allows 2 people to play a game via email, messenger, facebook, etc... The App should standalone from any other app.
I do not have the skills to program for AI, and I am going to have to seek permission from the holders of the rights to make this public, hence why I am being a little guarded about some of the details.
Basics - What It MUST Be Able To Do
Represent a "chess like" board. (It is actually larger than a chess board, and a different shape, but uses the same checker pattern).
Be able to add, move or remove playing pieces.
Ideal Minimum - What I Would Also Like It To Do.
Keep track of the number of each sides playing pieces in play/captured.
Keep track of whose turn it is.
Be able to highlight the spaces a piece can be moved to based on position and pieces around it.
Optional Extras - What I Would Also Like It To Do, But Can Live Without
Prevent illegal moves.
Prevent movement of the wrong side.
Automatically capture pieces.
Move by co-ordinates (i.e. A3-C6)
There are only 3 types of playing pieces, 2 ways of moving and 3 ways of capturing, so in that sense it is only slightly more complicated than draughts, and no where near as complicated as chess - and doesn't have any rules about having to move or block specific pieces (i.e. checking the king).
In it's most basic element it would just be a background image with freely movable sprites floating above it. Ideally they would "snap" to some sort of grid.
Related
I have a new Sprint Touch Pro 2 with 6.5 and 2.5, stock ROM. The Today screen works. However, as a smart phone, it really isn't usable as-is. There is a total of 9 quicklinks, and the start menu is a mess. If you move things in the start menu, you break the quicklinks, so best to leave things where they land. Whatever it is that works to organize the interface needs to show unread e-mails, voice mails, and texts on the home/today screen, and a link to contacts, not that lame people thing. I get around this with the stock interface by dropping people out of the slider and pointing one of the top quicklinks to contacts. When I click on a new text message from the slider, it's pretty clumsey if you ask me. I have to look around for delete all etc. Lots of mouse clicks. I've been looking around at the likely suspects and would value your input.
Edit:
1. SPB Mobile Shell 3.5: I installed it for the third time and worked with it. My impression is that it is more about personalization and special effects. My impression is the pieces are not logically woven together to create an environment. First there is the home tab, with exactly 3 home pages, one left, and one right. There are a collection widgets that I can put on them. Second, there is a launcher. The Launcher has some impressive graphics for launching things. However, is seems to represent their concept of organizing the Start Menu into folders. You can see them if you click on the Start Menu. To me, it was confusing. The third area is the Carousel. It is very nice idea for organizing things, but it's pretty much pre-defined. I won't be coming back here because it doesn't match my needs or organizing the many apps the way I want to. It's easy on memory, 42%.
2. I worked with iPhoneToday, today. It has things like voicemail, e-mail, texts, etc. on a bottom row which does not scroll, so the important stuff is always visible. It's perfect for organization. You can add home screens at will and even label then on the top. You can change programs and the tabs they use. You can point them at the .exes or the shortcuts in the Start menu. You change the icon spacing and even have them scale to get more on a line. It's the easiest on RAM coming in at 39%. From an appearance standpoint, they really try. True to it's name, it closely resembles the iPhone. (Rubic's Cube) It uses the same size square icons for everything from volume, battery, etc., to e-mail, texts, etc. It just puts a number on the cube. You look around a bit to find what you want. It would look pretty good to someone who hasn't seen Sense. There are not real docs. The basics your will figure out by simply guessing. The other types of formatting are not as straightforward as CHT. The best source I've found is the wiki http://iphonetoday.wikidot.com/the-menus and to ask questions on the thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=633618 where people have been very responsive and helpful. Before I tried it, I just thought it was for iPhone wanabes. Not so. Unlike Sense and Mobile Shell, it is in fact a very well thought out environment when you're looking to use your phone as a single device to organize your world.
3. CHT 2.0: Sense by itself doesn't make any sense. Since people have been hammering me to try CHT, I've been following the CHT threads, 1.85 and 2.0. Normally, it makes sense to go with the newer one because that is where development would be, but my concern is the new 2.0 seems to have worn out the Cookie Monster, and he would be too worn out to support it. However, I decided to try 2.0 since the he wrote every line was gone through and made squeaky clean, and he did stick around long enough to wean the product.
Of the hundreds of posts I read, many say it's pretty resource intensive, and not so good for multi-taskers. (Like me) That makes sense, since it adds functionality to the an already pretty good size Sense UI, so that became my expectation. I started thinking that if it adds say 10%, it would make sense that things would get shaky, pretty quickly. Thus it made sense to test before and after adding CHT. The percent RAM usage came in at exactly 52%, and remained there even after using it for awhile. Since iPhoneToday can be run inside Sense, I'm doing that now. What doesn't make sense is it only requires an additional 2% of RAM.
As for multi-tasking, I'm running out of porkers to load and I'm at 72%. (See attached images) After these screen shots I added Oprah and iPhoneToday, which is a UI on top of a UI. After playing around, I was able to get it to 77%. That's more apps than a 5 person office runs at a time. It still loads things fast. Initially, I thought scrolling perhaps was degraded slightly, but later I did before and after and even that wasn't affected. Maybe I don't have to worry.
As for the CHT UI, I read the User's Manual. It's only 12 pages, and 1/3 has to do with installing it. It's simple enough to where if you read it once to understand the paradigm it uses, you won't need to refer to again. I plan to run iPhoneToday inside of Sense/CHT and organize both to see which I like the best.
Edit It was tough to choose between Cookies Home Tab 2.0, AKA CHT 2.0, and iPhoneToday. You can't lose with either because the struggle is to pick the best of the best, rather than pick your poison. iPhoneToday is light, fast, and smooth. It would win if I were a fan of the iPhone interface, but I'm not a fan of anything except functionality and efficiency. In the end I went with Cookies Home Tab 2.0 for these reasons.
- It allows me to use widgets, and place them wherever I need.
- It allows me to place quicklinks called FreeLinks anywhere
- It allows me to have levels (scroll up and down) as well as pages (scroll side to side)
- If it doesn't support what you want directly, you can indirectly. Example: Let's say you want QuickLinks on all of your pages, line the iPhone, but not on the home screen where you have your clock weather. Just make the upper rows on your home screen invisible. Lets say you want one row of QuickLinks to be the same on every page. Simply pin them.
- There is no practical limitation that I've found as to how you arrange things. I can't say that about anything else I've tried.
- Configuration is easier to understand. The book is only 12 pages, 1/3 is install, another 1/3 is common sense, and the other 1/3 tells doesn't lead you step by step, it gives you the concept of operation. Because of that, once you read it, you'll never have to refer back to the manual.
I may not have gotten any help from the thread this time around, but other threads and people here have helped me plenty. Apparently, it was my turn to give back.
Enjoy!
PS: I also played with ThrottleLauncher and the WP7 clone. It didn't make the cut because its organizational capabilities are far too limited for someone like me (IT Architect) who has lots of apps. It's more for people who's life revolves around a close group of friends, music, and social networking. This is not a problem with ThrottleLauncher itself, but rather the design of the WP7 architecture. The real phone has the same problem.
Hi I have been working with app inventor and Iam trying to make a tiny wings port with this tool.
What I have accomplished so far
1) I have the tiny wings charactor heading downward angeled left when screen starts
2) When the tiny wings charactor lands on the ground , he bounces upward at angle
3) When you press the screen the tiny wings charactor will make a quick dive down.
4) I have a score thats triggered when the bird collides with the ground
5) Reset button to reposition the tiny wings bird.
Need immediate help with
1) Making the screen scroll to the right
2) Making platforms appear as screen goes to the right
3) Who to contact so I can make a larger file size game, so that I can add the music
4) If there is anyone who can make music and sound files smaller and compressed, can I get your email address ?
Need future help with
1) Restart and reset game
2) Change animations
Goal
To show how you can make great games with app inventor by making a tiny wings type clone game. I want app inventor to be put on the map and to further promote app inventor. Anyone who helps with the project will recieve credit and project will be promoted on twitter and facebook when its done. I made an apk so you can test it out the progress so far on your device. I will update the apk as I add more to it.
I havent progressed to far so you can try the alpha version here .
Are there any developers who are experianced with app inventor or just really good coders I could use your help. I just need a couple of things to make this project complete and will give credit to those who help me. Thanks for your time!
Questions or Problems Should Not Be Posted in the Development Forum
Please Post in the Correct Forums & Read the Forum Rules
Thanks ✟
Moving to General
lufc said:
Questions or Problems Should Not Be Posted in the Development Forum
Please Post in the Correct Forums & Read the Forum Rules
Thanks ✟
Moving to General
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok I thought the development forum was for any developer related subject. Now I know to post all questions here for the future.
Hi, im taking a look at the game you have sofar, now im not a pro dev but been dabbling in the arts of app inventor for a few months now, the problem is making games do what you want them to, even when your logic seems fair its not always easy to figure out what the issues are,
ill try figure out how to import the apk to app inventor, i dont think you can produce the sorce code from app inventor, however if it looks easy enough to fix i may need a map of your block editor and which components are used!
you can do this by taking a screen shot of your project open onscreen, i can quickly replicate this on my app inventor.
ill let you know what i think once i test this!
thanks
puggz
Edit:
Tested the apk, ike the little bouncy sound, reminds me of angry birds lol
I think the main problem your going to have is making the screen move when the target passes the screen value, quick and dirty ways to do it woud be having multiple screen arangments 12345etc when the target reaches a point on the screen arangment have it switch screen, how to do thes yet is only my basic theory's would need to mess around with the layout for this, another theory could be using thr clock timer to set screen changes, would mean calculating the time needed to pass to next screen, i think this might be a complex task..
another way would be to use an animation to move the screen a sprite function of sorts could work adding landing blocks as sprites to move with screen would need to be done too,
The problem with this its fine for a few sprites but get too complex and it will lag the app to hell,
Since there is no hardware acceleration involved, the trouble with the screen just now is it fills out to the parent, ie the devices set resolution, you could make the resolution wider and enable scrolling, this would in effect mean you could scroll left and right, up and down to the screens set resolution, it wouldent be an automatic procedure, but alot of finger swipeage.
for a basic game i think this might do the trick, just depends really on what you wish it to do really
i have ripped the main elements from the apk, all i would need is screen shots of the block editor and components used in app inventor, and settings used, or a screen shot of this too would be helpfull,
i can mess around with this idea if you like, i cant promise anything amazing but i should beable to atleast work out what needs to be done and if its possible to do in app inventor, certainly in a real sdk its possible
Ill play around with what i have for now, and workout how to implement a moving screen canvas
i think this is the easy part, getting the fixed landing blocks to be in sync may be the issue, anyways
no harm in trying huh!
thanks
thanks for trying and keep going bro you are making our dreams come true:angel:
Hi guys, Im not entirely sure this belongs in this thread but it seemed more appropriate here than in a specific phone thread.
I am in need of an app with some basic functionality, but very specific.
I need an app that specifically is for rough mapping of buildings and structures, preferably with a re-sizable grid overlay that can be added and removed from the picture.
I need the ability to draw rectangles/squares to represent a building and a 'snap to grid' option so that when I am drawing four rectangular buildings that are roughly the same size and shape, they will appear to be the same size in the picture.
The ability to draw predefined small circles (intended to represent interior and/or exterior lights). Predefined size is important because I dont want a bunch of randomly sized circles and having to size each circle so it 'looks' to be the same size is terribly time consuming.
The ability to 'fill' the above mentioned circles in black or yellow to show whether they are working or out and in need of replacement.
The ability to write text using the keyboard so that I can label each object. Specifically, I DONT want handwriting, I want to use the keyboard and type what I need and have the text appear in the picture where I can size it and move it around.
Drawing straight lines, again with a snap to grid option so that my straight line isnt a diagonal straight line.
I looked at a few apps, the closest I came across is SBM but the UI makes it a pain to use, has no snap to grid, and lacks the ability to place predefined shapes (even if I could make a single circle and copy and paste the circle as often as I need, I would be happy). And since everything in the UI is icon driven, its an utter pain in the ass to figure out what each option does. To give you an idea, I used SBM to make 4 buildings, label them and place circles for all the lights on the property and this took nearly 30 minutes to get it to look half way decent. I could have used a pen and a ruler and done a better job and in one quarter the time.
This doesnt seem difficult but I cant seem to find anything that does this sort of thing. Even MS Paint on Android would be fine.
Anyway, anyone have any suggestions?
Hi everyone, I'm a longtime lurker on this forum, but this is the first second thread I've opened. I've just begun studying at the university level, majoring in mechatronics systems engineering and minoring in computing science. I've done a lot of research in the area of music theory, and I discovered peculiar arrangement of musical notes which I call a "pitch-correct harmonic note table" (Google it for a higher resolution than the attached image; I'm too new to post links).
The concept has been explored in the past (see Wikipedia's harmonic note table layout) and the interesting thing about it is that it visually reveals how notes and chords are related to each other. My version, unlike every other one I've found, preserves the proper pitch spelling. A C minor chord, for example, is properly notated as C-Eb-G, not C-D#-G.
The table by itself can prove useful for those learning theory and composition, but right now it's just a picture. Here's where Android application development comes in. I hope to turn this picture into an interactive chord-generating device. It'd be like a guitar, except anyone can pick it up and create music with it, as the chords are easy to play and the relationships are obvious.
The application's general flow would go something like this: First, select a key signature (which positions the purple ribbon), time signature and tempo. Hold down the root of the desired chord. Slide your finger up to select its major chord or down to select its minor chord, and release. Press the root again to play the chord or press a different note (like the seventh) to play an extended chord. The chord will loop until you perform that last step again for a different chord (selecting another chord by touching and sliding does not interrupt the looping).
However, here's where my inexperience with development hinders my progress with this application. I've only taken one programming course and it was in C. I'm taking the Java course now but we're only going as far as the command line. I'm therefore at a loss as to where to begin. I have the SDK and Eclipse all set up and I have some basic ideas for how I would go about coding the notes, like using the "fifths" and "augmented" axes to create a rectangular grid instead of trying to use the hexagonal grid that the table is currently in. I'm probably going to end up creating a playChord() method with parameters for root, quality, extension, and bass. I'm not sure whether to use Canvas or OpenGL; I'm not sure whether to use JetPlayer or MediaPlayer, .mid's or .mp3's or .ogg's, or generate the chords on the fly; I'm not even sure how I'm going to voice the chords (though my Casio keyboard might be able to help with that).
Most of those issues I can worry about later though. For now I'm going to focus on creating something like a soundboard except more refined. This is why I looked to XDA - to give me an initial push in the right direction so I can avoid coding myself into a corner and having to start over. If you can give me any tips or advice, I'll greatly appreciate it. =)
Bump? =)
I've installed over 50 editors and reviewed 100s in the Play Store... none of them do everything I was looking for. Maybe I missed it.
Editor requirements:
Toolbars at the bottom.
Dark theme (option)
Dark paper / background
Autosave
Insert image (prefer in-line but thumbnail might be OK)
Formatting (bold/font/colors)
File Types = rtf or doc
Opens to last edited and in edit mode.
Trial/free version available for testing before purchase.
No pushy popups asking me to download other things.
Clipboard - easy to use.
Bonus:
Cross platform version in Windows (web version.ok)
Wont freak out if I use AI Keyboard to paste text.
Links - between docs / pages / to web.
Save as text only.
Save selection.
Send selection.
Clipboard history.
Undo history between edits.
No monthly/annual fees
Tags
Toolbars: App buttons should be configurable, always. Buttons for menu/bold/saveas/new could be at the top, bottom, left, right, or floating, per the user preference. I'm really disappointed android has not done more to assist users with reaching across their over sized screens. Almost no apps have this, and only a few place the controls in the obvious place = next to the keyboard = where the user is most likely to want to tap. S5 ships with quick screen sizing ability built in, seems Samsung is ahead on this one. And I don't think it's asking a lot, it's just a matter of moving the bar to a different place, it's too easy!
Theme: A dark theme uses less battery and is easier on my eyes, especially when it's dark out. The theme is the part around the edit area, strictly speaking. This would include all menu's and toolbars. There are great editors out there with dark themes and dark paper but the menu's open super bright, and whats worse is they'll put light gray text on them in wee little fonts with lots of space to make it bigger... and then ask for $$? No.
Paper: A dark paper is super easy to read in any lighting conditions, and uses less battery to display (the display takes 50%+ of most phones battery power) When printing, white paper is best because it is cheap and readily available, and printers are not generally equipped to print light colors on dark paper. Since most people are addicted to printing things they look at 0-1 times, we may be stuck with this for a while. In any case, I want dark paper. This has been a feature in editors for a long long time but is mostly missing from Android.
Autosave: This is a must. If it uses the "save every 10 seconds", it should also save on exit without prompting if I close in only 5s.
Insert image: My preference would be to have text above and below, not around, and not as a layer that is under typed text. If it's attached as a thumbnail, it should be easy to see and tap to zoom.
File Types: My favorite is RTF. It's been around a long time, compatible with most things. Any fairly common windows format is fine like doc or even pdf. I want to avoid special formats that wont work anywhere else. I don't mind if the program has this ability but if it cannot open/save in other formats by default, I'm not interested.
Opening: It should open to the last document opened, and ready to continue typing. If it opens to the home page, then I want to see a recent list with the last edited on top, and one tap to edit. I found some really nice apps that took 5-6 taps to edit a doc. For example, Evernote opens to the home page, you tap to view, scroll to where you want to type, tap and ... nothing.... you have to tap MENU and then some symbol for edit, and then you start typing and it's not typing in the right place, it moved to the top or the bottom or whatever... terrible app IMO.
Fees: I have dropbox and other storage already, I'd rather not sign up for yet another one. Many apps work with existing sharing services just fine, while others require payments for this, generally 4-8 per month. I'm only willing to pay if it is the only one that meets all my other requirements, and it has to be the super ultimate editor and really amazing too.
TagSpaces might do it. There's no trial for Android tho....
Downloads include linux, mac, windows, android and firefox/chrome extensions.
Looks really cool but there's no trial/free version.
TagSpaces does not support themes nor paper color choices.
I'm using SlimRom, it has a great holo theme, and inverted google app package.
Build 7-187 did not invert google play for me.
Build 6-112 works great
The Slim Gaap downloads are here Slim 4-4 Gaaps, stable addon page.
Still looking for a full editor with all the features I mentioned. It's very strange how many apps do not have proper color options for the canvas, any dev who ever opens an app at night or in a dark room knows why. Special lighting apps like Velis Auto Brightness with super dark mode enabled helps a lot, but in a dark room, if the large white areas are bright enough to see the lettering on them, then it's bright enough to light the whole room.
Anyone who wants a longer battery life should be asking every dev to add night modes to their apps