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Author Topic: StarMap Developer Info
samsyn
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Here is a link to the first cut Starmap Developer Pages

http://www.synthetic-reality.com/drone/coding/

It includes a link to the source of the current tutorial script. You're free to re-use this to get started making your own maps.

And to set the context, these are StarMaps for the android game synSpace: Drone Runners, available now in the Android Play Store.

Here is the backstory page for that:

http://www.synthetic-reality.com/drone/synspaceAndroid.htm

[ 01-05-2017, 05:59 PM: Message edited by: samsyn ]

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Posts: 10561 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998  |  IP: Logged
samsyn
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This topic is intended to handle general Developer questions and problems. Please post here if you need help or have a suggestion.

[ 01-05-2017, 06:01 PM: Message edited by: samsyn ]

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samsyn
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Just grabbing the first couple of replies as I have wont to do. Someday this will be a list of known bugs or something

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samsyn
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And this one might be a list of requested/upcoming features

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Posts: 10561 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998  |  IP: Logged
zim zim
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I ended up copying the text for the map file and did some minor changes to make it easier to spot. Unfortunately it seems that it isn't connecting to google play for me. Any chance I would need to use a WiFi source to connect instead of mobile signal? Or is it not liking my device so much?
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[samsyn says]

It's always possible I somehow coded it to only work with my own Google Drive.... but more likely Google Play Services is having trouble authenticating you for some reason, and sending me an error message which I am somehow failing to display to you.

Does this work for you:

* using your mobile device
* install/run a copy of the Chrome Browser
* navigate to "drive.google.com"

Are you able to sign in and see the contents of your Google Drive when you do that?

[ 01-09-2017, 06:59 PM: Message edited by: samsyn ]

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Posts: 547 | From: USA-WI | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
zim zim
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I got both chrome and the drive app and have no problem signing into those. I even have other games which have no problem connecting to my account. As far as I know my device is working perfectly.

Later tonight I'm going to remove google from my phone's account settings and re-add it to see if that works. If it doesn't I'll try to uninstal/reinstall synspace. Beyond that I'm not sure what else I could do on my end.

--------------------
I'll be around here until the plug gets pulled.
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Posts: 547 | From: USA-WI | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
samsyn
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to be clear, I meant it is likely my fault. The way intents are shared between apps (synSpace and Google Play Services in this case) is mysterious. In theory, when GPS has an issue they reinvoke me with an intent that includes a way for me to resolve an error message.

Though usually, they bring up their own 'activity' panel for that sort of communications, and I don't get reinvoked until they are completely done.

I still feel like there are probably intents that I mis-handle, which would otherwise be letting you see something important, like an ad :-)

----

I completely forgot about 'install the Google Drive app for android' I don't think that's installed by default everywhere.

Most of my research along these lines has been trying to get it to work on a kindle fire. The code runs great, but there is no Google Play Services around to use to access the google drive.

I find this inconvenient, since the google drive should just be about storage, and that should be platform agnostic

But, unlike synSpace itself, which is an anonymous game, the Play Store really wants you to log in with an actual google account so they can sell you stuff.

Kindle has its own store to meet that need, and I can separately submit synSpace to that platform, but I can't use Google Drive unless google and amazon work out some sort of agreement, or they remove the GPS requirement for people like me who just want the drive.

More likely though, is that people like me should learn for sure what GPS gives me, and make the most of it.

Plays great on a Kindle Fire HD 7" for $39 over the holidays.

----

I have a new release ready to go which fixes an interesting crash on older phones. Parts of the google API have 'aged out' so you can be in the situation where a program compiled to work with version 4 is running on a version 3 phone.

So you have to check before calling certain system functions, to make sure they exist on this phone, right now.

One of these checks tests at compile time, and another tests at run time. Any failure results in an unpleasant user experience.

So, I use this 'new' feature that lets me ask what the current audio sampling frequency is. Doesn't exist in older phones. My code tested that the device was HONEYCOMB or later, but apparently, that was too soon. Now, would I have just picked a version at random, or did I code that with some reference by my side?

Anyway, because I didn't test much on my oldest phone (droid razr max), and this only came up in an infrequently-called function, it escaped my notice until after release 1

I checked, and the other ten or so spots I do this sort of thing LOOKED correct to me, but until those exact combinations of machines come along, I can't know for sure.

Now, google offers something that looks like an automated testbed on hundreds of different devices. I wonder if that is AI input.

So, if you care, and if it is a problem, there are solutions.

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so a vanity google search for synspace drone runners brings up an alarming number of "get the APK for free" sites. They can't truly have automated the fetching of every posted app, can they? It seems more likely they offer you their standard app, that roots and enslaves your phone to their botnet or whatever.

I was browsing (in chrome, mobile) and picked up some javascript that is pretty persistent, going back and forth between ransomware demands and 'you have won a free iphone' messages in all sorts of different typestyles and humorous spelling errors.

I disabled javascript in chrome since I can't find anything like a home page setting (which I assume these guys hijacked on my phone). but they might just be an app I installed, sending intents to chrome to open web pages.

OK, I managed to get Chrome to its outermost layer, showing the normal desktop entry box in the middle of the page. Then below that was a curios gray square that smelled of "you have 'pinned' this url so as to auto open it whenever you start chrome". So I long-pressed removed that and then I cleared history and restarted the device again, and... (js still disabled).. no evidence of adware.. now I reenable javascript.. and it is still clean.

OK, so I think that's the idea. somehow they added themselves to my 'chrome desktop' and then managed to 'click away' so fast you never saw it.

----

I have been tailing the logs, watching players not quite run into each other yet. But I see 'sax' changed from ship_000 to ship_008! a wise choice indeed, though possibly lacking the drama of zz's "star" shell. Someday I will have the big data needed to determine people's favorite starting faces...

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zim zim
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Any thoughts on a local save system as an alternative for a temporary fix to the Google drive issues. It would be nice to make some maps. I haven't made a synSpace map for quite some time.

--------------------
I'll be around here until the plug gets pulled.
http://flashzz.webs.com/

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saxamophone0
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I, too am unable to connect to GPS and drive. When i hit options/starmap export or import to drive, the menu comes up asking which drive account I want to use (i have different google accounts on my phone), I select the right one, and their window vanishes putting me back where I paused the game from.
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samsyn
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do you see a brief red error message at the bottom of the screen? I know you don't or you would have mentioned it, but it's very brief

If, after it fails, can you open OPTIONS/STARMAP/SCRIPT WINDOW/LOG and see if it says anything interesting near the end?

I doubt it will say anything interesting, but that's a place I could maybe ADD something interesting.

--

so far I have fixed two crash bugs in the production version, one for older phones, and one that looks like during 'playback' on the vocoder. Google passes along quality crash reports with stacks. And if you got the same crash from more than one device, they even tabulate all that for you. Plus I even get to see the (optional) user comment. Thank you for your comment!

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I have a pesky non-crashing bug, though, that sometimes locks up a groove. So all is well until you try to PLAY that groove, at which point the music engine jams, the PLAY light never goes out, and you can no longer make music until you restart the game. But the game, other than the music, is fine, it's just the music subsystem that gets jammed. It might only happen when you have a full 1000 events in a track. Or maybe if track 0 is not the longest track. I dunno and I can't attach the debugger until I move the project to Android Studio, which I am loathe to do.

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samsyn
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ah, the good news is i can duplicat the failing g drive on one of my phones, so I shuld be able to log my way through it.

symptom I see: I select IMPORT and get a google account selection panel. I select my account and that panel goes away and nothing else appears to happen.

---

OK, was able to add some logging and it was indeed being rejected by google (I mean the login request was being rejected). I added a red error message to document when that happens so it is less of a mystery

Then I tried to see where I might be dropping the ball in intent land, and suddenly it started working.

I'm pretty sure the fundamental issue is 'permissions' and for some reason it sometimes says you lack permission to use the feature. But it MIGHT be trying to say I have not jumped through enough hoops with Google Play Services yet and hence the app itself is not permitted, but then why has it always worked for me in the past....

Google used to get your approval for app permissions at the time of install, but now they defer some until you actually use them. So maybe this is a side effect of that and the missing dialog is one like "this app needs access to your google account" or something scary like that.

But maybe they just approved the app and now it wil work for yuo guys as well.

At least there will be a red error message going forward. I doubt we have gotten to the end of this. Note that once I was logged in, I could navigate my g drive just fine, but I lost wifi during my first file fetch and that was unpleasant, but at least it logged a red error.

-------

update.. looks like i stumbled onto the real problem. when you try imprting for the very first time it hass to do some extra work involving the play store to authenticate you. initially my code worked and all my devices got approved. but after that some combination of bug in my code and a change in their api. made it no longer poossible to do this initial authorization. i was onle able to duplicate the problem by fully uninstalling and then reinstak
lliny. i then saw the same error as you guys and was able to fix the problem. weell.. so i hope but probability is good you will have working import in version 1.0.04

[ 01-27-2017, 08:11 PM: Message edited by: samsyn ]

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Posts: 10561 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998  |  IP: Logged
samsyn
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I just updated the 'developer page' for synSpace in support of today's "Release 6"

http://www.synthetic-reality.com\drone\coding\index.html

I include the source for the new 'lubrary' (lua library that allows YOUR starmap to not have to duplicate MY thousands of lines of api code, if you like.) Well, you have access to my api whether you use it or not. :-)

And then it gives the source file for each of the (scripted) maps provided in this release.

It also shows the single script that was included in the build 5 release, which is now out of date, and probably I should remove it, or move it to some other spot.

[ 05-14-2017, 03:11 PM: Message edited by: samsyn ]

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He knows when you are sleeping.

Posts: 10561 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998  |  IP: Logged
   

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