Pender Android for Phonegap Cordova

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  • Hello

    I was doing some research, and I stumbled across this:

    https://github.com/lorinbeer/pender-android

    Has anyone tried this yet?

    It says:

    "Pender is a dom-less JS runtime with a high-performance graphics api implementing the HTML5 Canvas spec. Pender is open source and multiplatform.

    The primary goal is to provide a hardware accelerated graphics api to mobile devices which lack high performance graphics in the native browser. The impetus behind that is mobile game development using web tech. On a given platform, we use an embedded javascript engine to provide faster js processing, and tighter coupling between native and js api's.

    Pender's use case philosophy mirrors phonegap/cordova's: write once, run everywhere. A Pender "client" application is a javascript renderer (e.g. a game engine) expecting a canvas api. On desktop browsers, or any browser with a hardware accelerated canvas implementation (IE9), a shim allows Pender Clients to run without modification. On Android/iOS, the Pender Client is dropped into a project container, and Pender supplies the necessary js hooks."

    After finding this I did a search on it, and all I could find was this slide presentation:

    http://www.slideshare.net/phonegap/pender-presentation-20

    This PhoneGap Meetup post with Cordova-Client and Pender:

    http://www.meetup.com/PhoneGap-SF/events/90110302/

    And a bunch of past-bins of email between PhoneGap, and Pender scattered around the internet.

    It kind of looks like a nice little Open Source accelerated plugin for PhoneGap.

    Just thought I would share this with everyone.

  • Ohh. I'm going to look into this right away. I'll post up here :).

  • ArcadEd that sounds great! I was going to try to make a quick build before I shared this with everyone but Iv been awake for over 20 hours now, and I didn't want to make any mistakes.

    I hope this is as good as it sounds. I know a lot of people here have been wanting a good open source accelerated option.

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  • Do they have game demos?

  • Yes, they have demos I'm not sure if there games though I haven't got that far I'm still going through all there documentation.

    Here:

    https://github.com/lorinbeer/pender-demos

  • How do we set this up, is there any tutorials?

  • Quite exciting, but seems like it's a ways off from being ready, though I might be wrong about that. In the pipeline though is stuff like webgl support through OpenGL ES.

    https://github.com/lorinbeer/Pender-android/issues/4#issuecomment-10942831

  • Well Iv been at it for a while now and I cant seem to get the pender tool to work. I'm trying to build a Android library project from the command prompt but its not recognizing any of the supplied commands from the Quick Start guide. Ive tried different variations of commands in case there was a typo or something but no luck so far.

    Here is the Quick Start guide:

    ##Quick Start

    * open a unix terminal or terminal emulator (OSX Terminal, Windows Cygwin etc)

    * Obtain Pender Source

            git clone git@github.com:lorinbeer/Pender-android.git

    * navigate to Pender-android/tools

            cd Pender-android/tools

    * Create a Pender Android project, omitting -p will create a pender android project in the current directory

            ./pendertools -p /path/to/put/pender/project

    ##Pender Build Tool

    * run the pendertool from the tools directory

            cd Pender-android/tools

            ./pendertools

    executing the script without arguments will create an Android library project in the current working directory.

    * for a complete list of options

            ./pendertools -h

    I cant even seem to bring up the list of options from the command prompt. I must be doing something wrong.

    ArcadEd Have you had any luck with this?

    rfisher No, just the build instructions that I cant seem to get working.

    Arima Yes, this is very exciting. I'm not really sure how far this is from a final but the source from git says that "Efforts are currently underway to upgrade Pender Android to V8". I just wish I could get the commands right so I could try it out.

    If anyone has any luck getting this working could they please post the steps taken here.

  • I just got as far as installing Cygwin, I quickly tried the git command and it's not found. Later tonight I might play around with it, or tomorrow.

    Make sure you are not just using a windows command prompt, you need cygwin installed. Maybe a quick google of git and cygwin will find a good result.

    OK, so yeah. You need to select those packages during the install.

    ccn.ucla.edu/wiki/index.php/Setting_Up_and_Using_Git

  • Actually this seems easier than CYGwin.

    help.github.com/articles/set-up-git

    However, all the linux stuff hurts my head. LOL

  • ArcadEd Yes, thanks for the Git link. I actually already had Git installed on my PC for years now that's how I cloned the repository using Git's Git Gui. But after reading your posts I realized what I was doing wrong.

    I was trying to execute the build command through windows command prompt. lol Know wonder it wasn't working usually when I pull source code from GitHub I edit, and build the solution in visual studios. I completely forgot about Gits Git Bash command prompt.

    Anyway, so once I cloned the repository I opened up the new pender-android folder it created, right clicked on the tools folder, opened the Git Bash command prompt, typed ./pendertools, hit enter, and it built the PenderAndroidLibrary right inside of the tools folder. Simple as that   <img src="smileys/smiley4.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

    Now the problem is how to incorporate it <img src="smileys/smiley5.gif" border="0" align="middle" /> since there is no real documentation on how to do that.

    It says:

    "On Android/iOS, the Pender Client is dropped into a project container, and Pender supplies the necessary js hooks."

    Could it really be just that easy? I mean how would you do this? Import it into Construct 2's game file system? Or try to figure out were to put everything inside of Eclipse?

    Hmm, any suggestions?

  • <font size="6">It works!</font>

    OK, after doing an extensive search through the deep dark hidden corners of the internet looking for any type of a hint on how to implement this I came across an email in Adobes email past-bin. Pender said to Adobe that the simplicity of pender is that it gets baked into the project so that the user doesn't have to touch anything but the JavaScript of there own project.

    So I used a not so optimized earlier version .capx of my game Falling Fruit Frenzy, exported it from Construct 2 for PhoneGap, zipped it up, named it app.zip, placed it on my C: drive, opened up the pender-android folder, right clicked on the tools folder, opened the Git Bash command prompt, typed ./pendertools -p C:/app.zip, hit enter, and it baked it right into my app.zip folder.

    I then made another export from the same .capx, zipped it up and left it as is. Then I ran some tests using PhoneGap Build. Here are the results:

    Tested on Samsung Galaxy S3

    Without Pender:

    Here is a screenshot from my phone. Notice how web font works in the upper left corner. Also notice in the bottom right corner It says 39 fps, with 24 objects on the screen most of them moving at angles.

    <img src="http://i46.tinypic.com/14sfll1.png" border="0">

    With Pender:

    Notice how the web font doesn't work anymore just like CocoonJS. Also notice the increase in fps. 50 fps with 31 moving objects. That's a gain of 19 fps.

    <img src="http://i50.tinypic.com/14o0m87.png" border="0">

    I bet if you built this in eclipse it would even be faster.

    Still though my game using CocoonJS runs 60, to 62 fps on the same phone so IMO Cocoon is still superior.

    I would like to see what other peoples games are getting for performance with Pender. Please give it a try and post your experiences here.

  • Wink

    That's awesome. I'm running into an issue just getting Pender. Any advice?

    Using: git clone git@github.com:lorinbeer/Pender-android.git

    Cloning into 'Pender-android'...

    Warning: Permanently added 'github.com,207.97.227.239' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.

    ERROR: Repository not found.

    fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

    Please make sure you have the correct access rights

    and the repository exists.

    Thanks

  • OK, so I got it installed. Always love learning new stuff :).

    Anyway, now when I try to build with Pender I get

    $ ./pendertools -p /c/java/kaplow-pend.zip

    PenderTools: Creating Library Project

    ./pendertools: line 81: android: command not found

    grep: invalid option -- o

    Usage: grep [OPTION]... PATTERN [FILE]...

    Try `grep --help' for more information.

    android create lib-project --name Pender --target 0 --path /c/java/kaplow-pend.z

    ip/PenderAndroidLibrary --package com.pender

    ./pendertools: line 73: android: command not found

    I don't expect you know how to help with this, but figured I would post it up :).

  • ArcadEd Sure just:

    1. Make a new folder on your desktop, and name it anything you want.

    2. Right click on your folder then select Git GUI Here.

    3. When git opens select Clone Existing repository.

    <img src="http://i49.tinypic.com/33vhgd1.jpg" border="0">

    4. Go to https://github.com/lorinbeer/pender-android, and copy the Git Read-Only link to notpad. Git wont let you past so you will have to type the link into git.

    <img src="http://i49.tinypic.com/s3ka44.png" border="0">

    5. In Git's new window type that link in were it says Source Location. Then click on Browse by the Target Directory field, navigate to your newly created folder select it, Then add this to the end of it /pender-android, and select Clone.

    <img src="http://i45.tinypic.com/a1mgp4.jpg" border="0">

    6. When it's finished a new window will open.

    <img src="http://i45.tinypic.com/291hx21.png" border="0">

    You can close it. And that should do it.

    If your still having problems with it you can just click on the zip download button on the

    https://github.com/lorinbeer/pender-android page. The button is located next to the Git Read-Only link. This is not a good idea though because you might not get the latest code (depending on the developer), or sometimes a corrupt file.

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