All posts tagged: android

Android Application Development Tips: Pull screenshot with ADB

Published by Matthias Gall

For some reason, pulling screenshots in the DDMS view in Eclipse doesn’t always work. In that case, the following calls became handy (tested with HTC Hero): adb pull /dev/graphics/fb0 fb0 dd bs=1920 count=800 if=fb0 of=fb0b ffmpeg -vframes 1 -vcodec rawvideo -f rawvideo -pix_fmt rgb565 -s 320×480 -i fb0 -f image2 -vcodec png image.png More examples available at the source.

Android Application Development Tips: ADB server didn't ACK

Published by Matthias Gall

If you’re working on Windows and have HTC Sync installed, you may run into this error message. I hardly develop under Windows anymore, but since the Android plugin was a little buggy on OSX, I had to. This message drove me nuts and I did a little research: with netstat -o I could see which process ID was occupying the port and with Process Explorer I could see that HTC Sync itself was the culprit. I killed it but this didn’t help until I hindered it completely from auto-starting and restarted my machine afterwards.

Android Game Development (Day 6)

Published by Matthias Gall

It took some time until I finally could get back to my little Android game and I must admit that this wasn’t really a “day” I worked on it. Instead, it were multiple, scattered and short sessions where I worked on the collision testing and response code, some effects and UI stuff. It’s simply too hot currently… so bear with me that there’s no cool video this time. Keep reading below if you’re interested in the recent progress. Comments are welcome! In case you missed it, also don’t forget to read the earlier reports on my steps in Android game development: Steps 1-3, Step 4, Step 5.

Android Game Development (Day 5)

Published by Matthias Gall

Day #5, Sunday, June 27th. Here’s the rough concept for timed events I already mentioned in my last posting. It’s working for now, but I’ll do some more tweaks to abstract this even further and make it more flexible. Keep reading below if you’re interested in today’s progress. Comments are welcome! In case you missed it, also don’t forget to read the reports on my steps in Android game development: Steps 1-3 and Step 4.

Android Game Development

Published by Matthias Gall

I’m building rather boring enterprise applications at work and I love creating more appealing things in my spare time, so I do a bit of game development whenever I can. The main problem for a programmer is to get some graphics, but fortunately I have some nice renderings from my old Project E tutorial and the even older Project D game by sechsta sinn on my harddisk that I could put into use (all done by my friend and favorite artist Martin Ernst, btw.). This is what I managed to do in three after work sessions so far, if you’re interested in the details, continue reading after the video.

Don't ever say it's almost done.

Published by Matthias Gall

Chris Pruett at Google I/O on Android Game Development. Besides that quote I used as the post caption he shows some very interesting ideas how he analyzed the behavior of his users in order to improve their game experience. I love that hotspot idea, probably something useful for my friends working on Glow as well. And for the record, also watch the excellent day 2 keynote. I had a good laugh at all the Apple taunting. For example, Android 2.2 features tethering and portable hotspot mode and guess what they’re showcasing? They’re using a Nexus One as an AP for “… another device that doesn’t have connectivity. What about that iPad?” Apple, Google, whatever… they all have their downsides. But they bring so much innovation that I’m eagerly looking forward to seeing more cool things becoming reality in the next years and building cool things with them myself.