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Space simulator for Android
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| gpaw5765 | Date: Monday, 03.12.2012, 22:21 | Message # 1 |
 Astronaut
Group: Users
Spain
Messages: 40
Status: Offline
| Hello,
I´m developing a space simulator app for android and I wanted to ask permission to talk about it in the forum.
I know it's against the forum rules to promote non SpaceEngine sanctioned games but since this app was inspired by Space Engine and I name both Space Engine and Vladimir in the credits I think you could make an exception.
Obviously my app won't come even close to Space Engine in terms of detail and scale, but I think you may find it interesting.
RegardsAdded (04.12.2012, 01:21)
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I've just finished version 1.0 of my app, and since nobody has answered me one way or the other I guess it's ok to put some info about it here.
My app is basically a planetarium, but where you can "design" spaceships and put them into interplanetary orbits. The point is to have a realistic simulation of how much time and how much fuel a spaceship would need to reach any particular planet. I'm particularly proud about the way I've implemented relativistic effects for interstellar travel, which I've never seen any other space simulator to do.
I've currently put the solar system and 15 other extrasolar systems (3 in the demo), but I plan on adding a lot more systems. At some point I hope to have most discovered extrasolar systems (that will depend on how fast we keep discovering them and how they affect performance).
Anyway, here's a link to the demo:
https://play.google.com/store....ghtLite
And here to the full version:
https://play.google.com/store....eflight
Hope you enjoy it, and any feedback would be welcome!
By the way, I´d be happy to send Vladimir the 2 euros it costs the full version in case he doesn't want to spend his own money, but I´m not sure how could we arrange that transaction.
Check my Space Flight Simulator for Android!
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| Talyn | Date: Monday, 03.12.2012, 23:47 | Message # 2 |
 Explorer
Group: Users
Portugal
Messages: 207
Status: Offline
| Force Close 
Using a HTC Desire HD
Advice?
PC: Intel Core2Duo E6850 @ 3.00 GHz & 4GB DDR3 @ 1333 - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS with 640 MB VRAM
Laptop: Intel Core2Duo T9400 @ 2.53 GHz & 4 GB DDR @ 1066 - NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
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| gpaw5765 | Date: Tuesday, 04.12.2012, 01:06 | Message # 3 |
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Astronaut
Group: Users
Spain
Messages: 40
Status: Offline
| When did it force close? If it was during loading time it's probably lack of memory and there's not much I can do about it. If it was somewhere else it may be a bug. What android version do you have?
I have only fully tested it on a Samsung Galaxy S II. I may have to exclude lots of phones from the list of compatible devices.
Added (04.12.2012, 04:06)
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I've received an error report from google dated 30 minutes ago and it seems definitely a memory problem.
It seems that your phone (assuming the error report was generated from your phone) crashes when trying to increase the heap memory from 18 to 22MB. The only solution is to configure a higher heap memory size for your phone (my app needs at least 32MB), but I don't know how it is done (or if it is at all possible). The problem may be solved by upgrading to a newer android version.
Check my Space Flight Simulator for Android!
Edited by gpaw5765 - Tuesday, 04.12.2012, 01:08 |
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| Talyn | Date: Tuesday, 04.12.2012, 01:25 | Message # 4 |
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Explorer
Group: Users
Portugal
Messages: 207
Status: Offline
| Crashed while loading
Running Android version: 2.3.5 (no updates available OTA )
I presume that heap memory has nothing to do with the memory available for apps right? My phone reports 140 MB free before running the program
EDIT: I did some research and found this (the NDK part)
I'm no Android developer but maybe that can help you overcome that limit and make future versions compatible with a lot more devices
PC: Intel Core2Duo E6850 @ 3.00 GHz & 4GB DDR3 @ 1333 - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS with 640 MB VRAM
Laptop: Intel Core2Duo T9400 @ 2.53 GHz & 4 GB DDR @ 1066 - NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
Edited by Talyn - Tuesday, 04.12.2012, 01:35 |
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| Salvo | Date: Tuesday, 04.12.2012, 15:48 | Message # 5 |
 Star Engineer
Group: Local Moderators
Italy
Messages: 1400
Status: Offline
| It works so good for me, no lag, very nice graphics, good job, i will have something more to do when i will wait for autubus 
The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.
CPU: Intel Core i7 4770 GPU: ASUS Radeon R9 270 RAM: 8 GBs
(still don't know why everyone is doing this...)
Edited by Salvo - Tuesday, 04.12.2012, 15:51 |
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| gpaw5765 | Date: Tuesday, 04.12.2012, 19:18 | Message # 6 |
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Astronaut
Group: Users
Spain
Messages: 40
Status: Offline
| Quote (Talyn) I presume that heap memory has nothing to do with the memory available for apps right? My phone reports 140 MB free before running the program
EDIT: I did some research and found this (the NDK part) I'm no Android developer but maybe that can help you overcome that limit and make future versions compatible with a lot more devices
Heap memory is no dependent on how much memory the device has, it's just a silly limitation android puts on how much memory will be available for each application.
Using the NDK is not practical at this point, as I have coded all my app in Java and migrating it to C++ would be like starting again from scratch. Besides, Google doesn't recommend it and I can anticipate finding a lot of new problems if I try to program for Android in C++.
Fortunately, I've found a different solution that's more simple and likely to work: it seems there are already several apps in the android market that allow you to modify the heap size configuration of your device. The only problem is that they require root access. I haven't rooted my phone so I'm not sure how hard it is to do that, but I guess it won't be too difficult.
Here's one example of such application:
https://play.google.com/store....eaptool
I'm now working on detecting max. heap size at runtime so it will show the cause of the problem and avoid a force-close.
Check my Space Flight Simulator for Android!
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| Salvo | Date: Thursday, 06.12.2012, 14:37 | Message # 7 |
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Star Engineer
Group: Local Moderators
Italy
Messages: 1400
Status: Offline
| Quote (gpaw5765) full version
What about adding banners? Lot of android developers use them for lite version 
The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.
CPU: Intel Core i7 4770 GPU: ASUS Radeon R9 270 RAM: 8 GBs
(still don't know why everyone is doing this...)
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| gpaw5765 | Date: Thursday, 06.12.2012, 18:22 | Message # 8 |
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Astronaut
Group: Users
Spain
Messages: 40
Status: Offline
| I have made some changes to reduce heap memory usage somewhat. Still I don't think it will be able to run on an HTC Desire HD, but if it doesn't it should show an error message and don't force-close.
Now it should be able to run on most phones with 32MB heap size.
About adding banners... maybe in the future. I'll have to do some research about it to see how it works. The current price is not prohibitively expensive anyway... it's not much more expensive than price of a bus ticket.
Check my Space Flight Simulator for Android!
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| Talyn | Date: Thursday, 06.12.2012, 22:44 | Message # 9 |
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Explorer
Group: Users
Portugal
Messages: 207
Status: Offline
| Quote (gpaw5765) I don't think it will be able to run on an HTC Desire HD
YES IT DOES
Yayyy, I'm so happy
Thanks for the update 
Off to give it a try...
EDIT:
Works fine now, even on a HTC Desire HD :P
Found 2 related bugs:
1-The game keep playing even if you turn off the phone (at least I keep hearing the music)
2-When the phone is turned back on, or if you switch between apps (or answer a phone call while playing) the graphics get corrupted
PC: Intel Core2Duo E6850 @ 3.00 GHz & 4GB DDR3 @ 1333 - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS with 640 MB VRAM
Laptop: Intel Core2Duo T9400 @ 2.53 GHz & 4 GB DDR @ 1066 - NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
Edited by Talyn - Thursday, 06.12.2012, 23:02 |
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| gpaw5765 | Date: Friday, 07.12.2012, 19:43 | Message # 10 |
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Astronaut
Group: Users
Spain
Messages: 40
Status: Offline
| Fixed a few bugs. You may want to download the update.
Check my Space Flight Simulator for Android!
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Friday, 07.12.2012, 21:34 | Message # 11 |
 Cosmic Curator
Group: Administrators
United States
Messages: 8717
Status: Offline
| gpaw5765, did you get permission from the authors for all the assets you used in your program? Because I see a few things in there that are not licensed for free commercial use, so I wanted to make sure you weren't profiting from anyone's work without their permission. Simple attribution is not sufficient for use of all of those assets.
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
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| anonymousgamer | Date: Friday, 07.12.2012, 22:38 | Message # 12 |
 World Builder
Group: Global Moderators
United States
Messages: 1011
Status: Offline
| Oh, so THIS was the app that was using my texture... too bad, my Android phone sucks and I can't run it lol. I'll try with another one later. It looks does look really interesting.
Desktop: FX-8350 4.0 GHz, 8 GB DDR3 RAM, EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FTW 8 GB, 2 TB HDD, 24 inch 1920x1080 screen
Laptop: Core i5 480M 2.66 GHz (turbo 2.93), 8 GB DDR3 RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6550m 1 GB, 640 GB HDD, 17.3 inch 1600x900 screen
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| gpaw5765 | Date: Sunday, 09.12.2012, 20:22 | Message # 13 |
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Astronaut
Group: Users
Spain
Messages: 40
Status: Offline
| Quote (HarbingerDawn) gpaw5765, did you get permission from the authors for all the assets you used in your program? Because I see a few things in there that are not licensed for free commercial use, so I wanted to make sure you weren't profiting from anyone's work without their permission. Simple attribution is not sufficient for use of all of those assets.
I tried to be careful selecting my sources. Most textures come from Björn Jónsson and JHT's Planetary Pixel Emporium, and my use of them is compliant with the copyright policies they state in their pages. Is there any particular resource that troubles you?
Check my Space Flight Simulator for Android!
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Sunday, 09.12.2012, 20:57 | Message # 14 |
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Cosmic Curator
Group: Administrators
United States
Messages: 8717
Status: Offline
| Steve Albers' maps are not free for commercial use (I saw his name in the credits, which is why I mention it). Also, any images or products made from SpaceEngine (skyboxes, planet textures, screenshots, and other resources) are also not free for commercial use without Vladimir's permission.
Those would probably be the two that I am specifically asking about.
All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
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| gpaw5765 | Date: Sunday, 09.12.2012, 22:00 | Message # 15 |
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Astronaut
Group: Users
Spain
Messages: 40
Status: Offline
| You are right about Steve Albers. I got confused because I downloaded them from here and assumed they were freely available for public use (as stated in the section "Data Usage"). I will have to contact him now.
As for Space Engine, I asked Vladimir about planet textures here:
http://en.spaceengine.org/forum/21-514-2
Check my Space Flight Simulator for Android!
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