how to add android GUI View over NativeActivity ?

PowerVR Insider
8

HI Marcus,



My solution applies to android side with no changes to c++/PVR code.



Here are steps.



Android side

  1. create a GUIActivity class which will handle interactions on the android side and will either use them or pass them to the underlying AppInterface class



    public class GUIActivity extends Activity


  2. create an AppInterface class. This is the class which the PVR will create on initialization.



    public class AppInterface extends NativeActivity


  3. AppInterface is first created. So you must create GUIActivity when this is created



    //inside AppInterface

    @Override

    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState){

    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    context = this.getApplication().getApplicationContext();

    Intent startNewActivityOpen = new Intent(this, GUIActivity.class);

    startActivity(startNewActivityOpen);

    }


  4. load PVR dll or .so inside AppInterface class

    //paste this code and change the library name from PVRPlatform to whatever you use



    static {



    try {

    System.out.println(“loading PVRPlatform …”);

    System.loadLibrary(“PVRPlatform”);

    System.out.println(“PVRPlatform load success”);



    }

    catch(UnsatisfiedLinkError e) {

    System.out.println(“got unsatisfiedlinkerror boss”);



    }

    catch(SecurityException e) {

    System.out.println(“got security exception boss”);



    }

    }






  5. mention in the manifest your acitivites





    <activity android:name=“com.powervr.GLES2App.AppInterface"

    android:label=”@string/app_name"

    android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar.Fullscreen"

    android:launchMode="singleTask"

    android:configChanges="orientation|keyboardHidden"

    android:screenOrientation=“landscape”>















    <activity android:name=“com.powervr.GLES2App.GUIActivity"

    android:theme=”@style/Theme.Transparent"

    android:screenOrientation="landscape"

    android:configChanges=“keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation”/>






  6. make sure your GUIActivity is a transparent theme which means its background is always transparent.
  7. now you have to play with GUI controls. You can add menu into GUIActivity which gets launched first. Here I have a start button, which will call Init into appInterface and launch the game and at the same make make GUIActivity clear of all controls.


  8. you can pass touch events from GUIActivity down to AppInterface like this



    @Override

    public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent ev) {

    if (isViewInGameMode == true) {

    if (ev.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN)

    AppInterface.OnTouchStart(ev.getX(), ev.getY());

    else if (ev.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE)

    AppInterface.OnTouchUpdate(ev.getX(), ev.getY());

    else if (ev.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_UP)

    AppInterface.OnTouchEnd(ev.getX(), ev.getY());

    else {

    System.out.println("action " + ev.getAction()
  • " unaccounted for in OnTouchEvent");

    }

    }

    return super.onTouchEvent(ev);

    }



    Let me know if you hit any snags.