Peter Heinrich - Amazon Dev Day - Going Native on Fire TV: Building a Game with Android Studio and the NDK

Fire TV is a powerful and inexpensive Android streaming device, ideal for bringing mobile games to the living room and the biggest screen in the house. The Native Development Kit allows developers to create games using C/C++ on Android devices, achieving exceptional performance on a platform traditionally programmed in Java. In this session you will learn how to configure Android Studio for NDK support; create a simple, extensible game loop using OpenGL and C/C++; and deploy and debug on Fire TV.

Transcript

1. PETER HEINRICH D E V E L O P E R E V A N G E L I S T, G A M E S , A M A Z O N A P P S T O R E U K @peterdotgames linkedin.com/in/PeterHeinrich GOING NATIVE ON FIRE TV: B U I L D I N G A G A M E W I T H A N D R O I D S T U D I O A N D T H E N D K
2. Ze r o Ent e r t a i nm e nt PETER HEINRICH Developer Evangelist, Games @PeterDotGames PeterHeinrich heinrich@amazon.com
3. THE ANDROID NDK
4. THE ANDROID NDK What Is the NDK and Why Would You Use It? WHAT Toolset enabling use of "native-code" programming languages, such C and C++. Also allows use of code libraries written in those languages. WHY Simplify ports of existing code between platforms. Use third-party C/C++ libraries (or create your own). Increase performance. NDK = Native Development Kit
5. A COMMON USE FOR NATIVE CODE Games! Some game components usually coded for high-performance: • Physics, kinematics • AI • Path finding • Specialized rendering
6. Unity, Unreal, GoldSrc (Valve), CryEngine, id Tech, Lumberyard, and literally dozens of others. GAME ENGINES BASED ON C/C++
7. Box2D, Chipmunk, Boost, Bullet, and FMOD are a few of the hundreds of libraries available. LIBRARIES WRITTEN IN C/C++
8. USING THE NDK What's Involved? • Use a custom Activity or NativeActivity • Include JNI sources and libraries • Call JNI APIs where applicable • Build Java/native components separately • Package everything in one APK
9. AMAZON FIRE TV
10. Amazon Fire TV gives you a familiar Android–based platform to extend your apps and games to the big screen.
11. Android developers can use existing tools and frameworks to develop for Amazon Fire TV.
12. TV 4K & TV STICK
13. A LOT OF POWER IN A LITTLE BOX Inherently High-Performance Both Fire TV and Fire TV Stick have multi-core processors, a dedicated GPU, 8 GB of storage, and up to 2 GB of RAM.
14. USE A REMOTE OR GAME CONTROLLER Multiple Input Methods Fire TV works with the Amazon Fire TV Remote and the Amazon Fire Game Controller (among others) through the Bluetooth HID gamepad profile.
15. CONNECT UP TO 7 CONTROLLERS Local Multi-Player Support Amazon Fire TV allows up to 7 game controllers to be connected at one time, opening up multi-player gaming in the living room.
16. EXPLORE THE POSSIBILITIES Second Screen Experiences Amazon Fire TV supports second- screen experiences using DIAL, an open standard, that allows customers to discover and open apps on their television right from their tablet or phone.
17. 4K VIDEO AND DOLBY DIGITAL SURROUND Rich Media for Impact Fire TV and Fire TV Stick are certified for Dolby Digital Plus (eAC3). Fire TV is 4K video-compatible, while Fire TV Stick supports full HD.
18. bit.ly/firetvspecs TV TV Stick 4K compatible FullHD Quad-core CPU Dual-core CPU 2 GB RAM 1 GB RAM (2160p) (1080p) WiFi – Bluetooth 4.1 WiFi – Bluetooth 3.0 8 GB Internal Storage (actual formatted capacity will be less) 8 GB Internal Storage (actual formatted capacity will be less) USB-A and MicroSD slot MicroUSB (power only)
19. GETTING READY TO BUILD
20. Launch Android Studio and select Configure | SDK Manager from the welcome screen (or use menu: Tools | Android | SDK Manager) INSTALL THE NDK
21. Select SDK Tools tab and enable NDK and LLDB INSTALL THE NDK
22. Go to Settings | System | Developer Options on the Fire TV device. ENABLE FIRE TV DEVELOPMENT
23. Turn on ADB Debugging and Apps from Unknown Sources. USB debugging is optional. ENABLE FIRE TV DEVELOPMENT
24. Navigate to Settings | System | About. CONNECT VIA WIFI
25. Scroll down to Network and note the IP address associated with your Fire TV. CONNECT VIA WIFI
26. From terminal window, use adb to connect to your device at its IP address. CONNECT VIA WIFI
27. CREATING NATIVE APPS ON FIRE TV
28. JNI OPTIONS Choose the One Convenient to Your Situation • Regular Java-based Activity subclass • NativeActivity • android_native_app_glue.(c|h)
29. Java-Based Activity Subclass JNI OPTION 1
30. Java-Based Activity Subclass JNI OPTION 1 • Inherits from Activity, as usual • Necessary if targeting API level < 9 • You are responsible for passing through parameters like the initialization Bundle • Depends on repetitive pass-through calls (thunking) • Calls happen on main thread, and may block
31. NativeActivity JNI OPTION 2 • No need to inherit from the class • Just need to add it to the app manifest • Activity name must be android.app.NativeActivity • Meta-data identifies the native library with the C/C++ entry point for your application • Application should indicate that it has no Java code (unless it does!) • minSdkVersion >= 9
32. NativeActivity JNI OPTION 2 • Calls ANativeActivity_onCreate() in your native code • You need to initialize several callback pointers • Calls still happen on the main thread, and may block
33. JNI OPTION 3 android_native_app_glue.(c|h) • Built on top of NativeActivity • Declared in the manifest in the same way • Creates its own thread and message pump
34. android_native_app_glue.(c|h) JNI OPTION 3 • Built on top of NativeActivity • Declared in the manifest in the same way • Creates its own thread and message pump • You must implement android_main() • Auto-registers most callbacks • Needs static lib and include (more in a moment)
35. SIMPLE, FAST, & CONVENIENT android_native_app_glue.(c|h) We're going to use android_native_app_glue because it's straightforward and offers the threading advantage. gradle-experimental will make things a little easier and cleaner (no makefiles or ndk-build scripting).
36. STEP-BY-STEP Creating a Fire TV NDK Project in Android Studio • Create the project • Switch to gradle-experimental / update gradle files • Add Android static library module • Add our native code
37. Launch Android Studio and select Start a New Android Studio project from the welcome screen (or use menu: File | New | New Project…) NEW PROJECT WIZARD
38. Select the appropriate SDK. This is usually Phone and Tablet, but could include TV (pre-built fragments typically less useful to NDK apps) NEW PROJECT WIZARD
39. Choose Add No Activity, since we'll be adding the NativeActivity object ourselves. NEW PROJECT WIZARD
40. Replace the gradle dependency in the top-level build file for the project. SWITCH TO gradle-experimental
41. This requires minor changes to the gradle schema, but allows us to add NDK options. SWITCH TO gradle-experimental
42. Turn off backups and Java code; add NativeActivity. UPDATE AndroidManifest.xml
43. Create a new Android Library Module (File | New | New Module…) ADD STATIC ANDROID LIBRARY
44. Name the new library module nativeactivity. ADD STATIC ANDROID LIBRARY
45. Update the module gradle file. ADD STATIC ANDROID LIBRARY
46. Update the module gradle file. ADD STATIC ANDROID LIBRARY
47. Notice that Android Studio automatically connects to the subdirectory we specified. ADD STATIC ANDROID LIBRARY
48. Update the app gradle file to link to the static library; add other libs we might want to access. ADD STATIC ANDROID LIBRARY
49. ADD OUR NATIVE CODE Create a JNI source code folder in the app module (File | New | Folder | JNI Folder).
50. ADD OUR NATIVE CODE Implement the main entry point android_main().
51. QUICK RECAP
52. STEP-BY-STEP Creating a Fire TV NDK Project in Android Studio • NDK allows native language development • Great for 3P libraries, high-performance code • Fire TV: powerful, accessible living room device • Using NDK on Fire TV • Gradle-experimental simplifies AS integration • Multiple JNI options • android_native_app_glue is EASY
53. THANK YOU! Peter Heinrich @peterdotgames @AmazonAppDev heinrich@amazon.com developer.amazon.com/appstore