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[namre]

Hi guys,

I chanced upon this article http://www.creativeapplications.net/android/mobile-app-development-processing-android-tutorial/ which is a basic tutorial on how to create apps on android using Processing.

I'm fairly new to Processing and Android development so i was wondering if any of you guys have already used this to create games.

Is this a good option in android game development? Or am i beter off using something else? (if you have sometging that you can recommend, please do so)

Thanks!
 

[Skofo]

Nathan McCoy uses Processing for his weekly games: http://nmccoy.net/

I played around with it for a bit. It's hella easy to code particle systems, procedural graphics and stuff like that in it. It is less intuitive to use it for games because it doesn't abstract things that are common in games, like sprite animation. However, I still consider it vastly superior for making 2D games compared to regular Java with Swing/OpenGL. I don't know what Android uses for graphic rendering so I can't compare...

[namre]

Hi Skofo, thanks for your reply. I have seen some really cool stuff made with Processing but there weren't a lot of games. I almost had the impression that it is not suitable for game development as it is not widely used. Thanks to your comments, and the link to nmccoy.net, I'm a little more confident in trying it out.

I've read from other people that Processing is mostly for prototyping. I wonder if someone already made a complex and big game out of Processing.

[Skofo]

I don't think anybody has made a big and complex game in Processing, but I would assume that it is very capable of doing that. It's pretty much just Java with a lot of things simplified. It appears to be pretty efficient--I don't think that Game Maker could handle something like this or this. It also even has built-in socket/networking support.

[namre]

Woah. That fire fluid simulation is pretty awesome. Will check out its full documentation and see just how powerful it is.

Thanks, again.

[PGGB]

I'm not quite sure it will be efficient enough. On a PC sure, those have resources in abundance, but on a mobile device resources have to be used much more tightly. I haven't tested it myself though. I got an HTC mobile phone a couple of weeks ago but I haven't installed the Android SDK yet.

[st33d]

Wayfarer is a very good if unfinished Processing game:

http://benhem.com/games/wayfarer/

I enjoyed coding in Processing a lot (until I used better IDEs) and I would say it's very easy to get projects working well in it. I'm unsure of the OpenGL support on Android - if there is any at all - as that can make Processing render very fast and extend the scope of what you can do.

I've a reservoir of old Processing experiments if you're interested:

http://robotacid.com/experimentation.php

[Skofo]

I'm not quite sure it will be efficient enough. On a PC sure, those have resources in abundance, but on a mobile device resources have to be used much more tightly. I haven't tested it myself though. I got an HTC mobile phone a couple of weeks ago but I haven't installed the Android SDK yet.

Java is the primary language on Android anyway, and Processing works pretty damn closely with Java.

[Zaphos]

Processing is indeed Java + a small amount of preprocessing ... though from the Processing on Android wiki page though I did get the impression that Java performance in general on Android is not stellar -- see the notes here: http://wiki.processing.org/w/Android#Developing_for_Android

Also Processing on Android is relatively new so might be less stable than the rest of Processing -- that same page says "Do not use this code if you're prone to whining about incomplete software that you download for free"



I haven't tried it out on Android yet personally though -- I'd be interested in hearing how it goes if anyone has!  I've used Processing on PC a lot -- most of my recent game stuff is done in it -- and I find it pretty enjoyable to use ...

[namre]

Hi guys,

As for OpenGL, i think they have included it as a libary http://processing.org/reference/libraries/opengl/

I twas indeed mentioned that Processing for Android is currently unstable since it is still a work in Progress. They even have a warning: "Do not rely on this code for thesis or diploma work, as you will not graduate." Lol.

But still, having tried Processing yesterday, I'm pretty psyched with the future of Processing for Android. Here's me keeping my fingers crossed.