Port the Godot editor to Android

[m4gr3d]

Describe the project you are working on

Running the Godot Editor natively on Android devices.

Note this proposal is a subset of #1061 as it focuses on issues specific to the Android port of the Godot Editor.

Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project

Ability to use the Godot Editor natively on an Android device.

Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation

The Godot Editor is itself a Godot app and thus can be made to run on Android devices since Godot can create / build / export Android apps and games.

Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudo-code, mock-ups, and/or diagrams

This proposal tracks the work of getting the Godot Editor running natively on Android devices:

• 3.x version: [3.x] Editor Android Port godot#57747
• 4.x version: Editor Android Port godot#58160 (original PR: [WIP] Editor Android Port  godot#36776)

This proposal will centralize developers / users feedback as well as suggestions to the editor core logic and UX in order to produce a high quality port of the Godot Editor.

If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script?

No

Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library?

This is about expanding the reach of the Godot Editor to the Android platform.

[m4gr3d]

Godot Android Editor updated builds:

• Version 3.x: v3.6.0.beta.0
• Version 4.x: in progress...

[SoyoTamo]

It would also be the easiest way for someone from the third world (like me) to use Godot 4 with Vulkan. Since the mobile hardware equipped with the latest technologies is much easier to get than the desktop.

[fire-forge]

Using Godot on a phone would probably be difficult because of how small it is, but this will really be great for Chromebook and tablet users who have to use the web version right now.

[MichaelGlenMontague]

Using Godot on a phone would probably be difficult because of how small it is, but this will really be great for Chromebook and tablet users who have to use the web version right now.

My main reason for wanting an Android port is to have both the API documentation and an experimentation environment available from a single app on the phone in my pocket. But for such a small screen, it has to support portrait mode and fullscreen docks, hide the navigation bar, and use long-press in place of right-click.

[Roosader]

Using this on something like a foldable phone is such an interesting use case. I have a Z Fold 3 and, from my simple testing, the interface, while small, is honestly fairly easy to navigate with the S Pen. I really want to see this come to fruition, as I've been using Construct 3 for development across my laptop and Fold but having something as powerful as Godot on my phone would be amazing!

[akien-mga]

Implemented by godotengine/godot#57747

[m4gr3d]

@akien-mga I'm keeping the proposal open to gather feedback for updates and improvements!

[Roosader]

The fact that this is now gonna be official is so freaking cool. Having a REAL full featured game engine on a mobile device is absolutely insane. Are touch gestures planned? Like gestures for moving around the viewport? And also maybe long press for right click or something? Thank you for all of your hard work guys! You guys are amazing!

[AlphinAlbukhari]

My feedback:

• Maybe two (close) fingers gesture for right click? Just like how it is on most touchpads
• PopupMenus should be scrollable
• WindowDialogs are hard to resize, maybe enlarge the resize area?

[Calinou]

The fact that this is now gonna be official is so freaking cool. Having a REAL full featured game engine on a mobile device is absolutely insane. Are touch gestures planned? Like gestures for moving around the viewport? And also maybe long press for right click or something? Thank you for all of your hard work guys! You guys are amazing!

This is all planned, but it'll take a while to be fully implemented. We need to focus on releasing 4.0 as well 🙂

[Roosader]

The fact that this is now gonna be official is so freaking cool. Having a REAL full featured game engine on a mobile device is absolutely insane. Are touch gestures planned? Like gestures for moving around the viewport? And also maybe long press for right click or something? Thank you for all of your hard work guys! You guys are amazing!

This is all planned, but it'll take a while to be fully implemented. We need to focus on releasing 4.0 as well 🙂

Ah okay! Awesome :). It's already super usable with a mouse and keyboard, so no biggie!

[Starkium]

I just loaded this onto an oculus quest and for the most part the editor works! I lost input when the 3d editor got summoned and I have a grey screen when trying to run a downloaded project, but still it loads up and even accesses the keyboard and file directory. This is sick!

Can we get a native vr editor? IE: launches into a vr environment when working on the 3d stuff? I would LOVE to be a part of the development of this. Godot Editor Android VR could be THE tool that the metaverse is founded on, this is absurdly interesting. :)

[m4gr3d]

Can we get a native vr editor? IE: launches into a vr environment when working on the 3d stuff?

@Starkium This is definitely on the roadmap (see https://godotengine.org/article/godot-engine-receiving-new-grant-meta-reality-labs)!

I would LOVE to be a part of the development of this.

We'd appreciate all the help we can get!
One of the initial tasks that would improve the experience on the Quest is support for touch interaction. If you try it on a Android device or tablet today, and as reported by several folks in the thread, the touch interaction is basic and doesn't give you full access to the functionality.
By improving it, we'd also be improving interaction on the Quest with the controllers or hand tracking.

Godot Editor Android VR could be THE tool that the metaverse is founded on, this is absurdly interesting. :)

Couldn't agree more!

[AMAIOLAMO]

I booted it up and it was super awesome!

I tried to do a simple platformer and realized some problems that requires improvement ( all the problems below are which I didn't use a mouse and keyboard ):

• Scenes are hard to drag and move around. ( though I see it's going to be implemented by gestures so that's not a problem :) )

• There doesn't seem to have a delete button for nodes lol.

• There's one problem in code editor when using specific keyboards that checks for the current typing word, it glitches out and might accidentally type the same thing 2 times in a row, switching to another keyboard that doesn't do it fixes the problem.

• There are still some problems in quitting back to editor while play testing, it sometimes doesn't quit back to editor when I tried to return, it just allows me to quit the whole app.

• Sliding on mobile is hard, the code completion isn't scrollable by dragging, and sometimes pressing on one of the code completion to select it isn't possible ( not sure how that works )

Those are my first impressions while making a super basic platformer game

wish it'll help improve the android port more, I'm super excited to see how this is gonna work out!

[filipworksdev]

Just built this and works well so far.

Some feedback and or issues:

• I keep getting error spam in Output such as base_button.cpp:351, viewport_container.cpp:171 , script_editor-plugin.cpp:2733, input_map_cpp:129 mostly around this p_event.is_null() some issue with unhandled input. Anyone else getting this? Could it be something to do with S-Pen or Samsung specifically? I need to test it again
• S-Pen draws blue lines like Godot Editor is a drawing application when I start drawing from the very top downwards.
• The flicker is gone but I still see occassional glitchy graphics especially in 3D or if I scroll very quickly but is actually usable so is no longer an issue. It actually works now.
• Due to small screen space built in documentation is mostly unreadable and AssetStore can push the right panel off screen if you have an asset item with long name.
• Choosing to restart after changing some settings will never restart. In fact setting is reversed. You need to change the setting. Close settings. Quit the application and load it again manually.
• GLES3 appears very slow on my system Samsung Tab S6 Lite but GLES2 works okay.
• There is no way to open FileSystem items since double-tapping doesn't appear to be working. You need a mouse to effectively use this but works alright.
• There is no way to show the right click context menu either. I tried tap and hold and two finger tap and doesn't appear to do anything. I assume those functions have not been implemented yet.

Overall I'd say this is great. Is about 99% working minus the ui stuff. My tablet actually supports DEX mode with mouse cursor so I can use it just like a regular computer but I suspect other tablets will have a bit of a hard time making it work properly.

[Calinou]

GLES3 appears very slow on my system Samsung Tab S6 Lite but GLES2 works okay.

The GLES3 renderer has a high base cost which isn't suited to mobile devices. It can run a bit better if you disable HDR and depth prepass in the project settings, but it will still have a higher base cost compared to GLES2.

We should probably default newly created projects to GLES2 on Android, and use GLES2 for the project manager too. (Always using GLES2 for the project manager on desktop could also be a good idea, as it might decrease power consumption slightly.)

[idchlife]

@m4gr3d hey, responding in this thread.

So I am using this thing: http://innov8tiv.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/14-inched-Samsung-Galaxy-Tab-S8.jpeg

I did not yet test with separately connected mouse, so I cannot yet say if it works or not.
Touchpad works in the way it kinda resembles macbook touchpad. It has mouse cursor, it has gestures, but it's not yet full-blown mouse.

I made screen recording of my usage of template project. As you can see, I often do "something" which makes sliders highlight. I am using 2 fingers to scroll, but it results in something odd, "real" cursor seems to obtain some kind of offset, while it's gui representation stays as it was. You can see later, that I cannot normally click things despite the fact of pointing at them.
Also about usage of viewport, my mistake, I meant I cannot rotate the camera, look anywhere using touchpad, because I assume - there is no wheel mouse button. And 2/3/4 fingers do nothing. I also tried holding alt, ctrl, shift - nothing.

https://easyupload.io/edj5xr

I am aware of a niche setup here, with my touchpad for tablet, so I think I better help with testing keyboard/mouse duo instead, because this will be the most used setup I predict (connect android phone to external display - connect mouse/keyboard - voila, you are a game dev).

[Calinou]

@FlykeSpice Please don't bump issues without contributing significant new information. Use the 👍 reaction button on the first post instead.

[Starkium]

Has there been any progress with usage within a VR environment like the quest yet?

[m4gr3d]

Has there been any progress with usage within a VR environment like the quest yet?

@Starkium Not yet. We're focusing on stabilizing the Android port first (getting fairly close to a beta state!), and we'll follow up with the Quest port.

One of the major remaining issue before beta is improving touch interactions for the port on Android devices. Solving this issue should also improve the current state of the port when sideloaded to a Quest device.

[VoxSkynned11]

Has there been any progress with usage within a VR environment like the quest yet?

@Starkium Not yet. We're focusing on stabilizing the Android port first (getting fairly close to a beta state!), and we'll follow up with the Quest port.

One of the major remaining issue before beta is improving touch interactions for the port on Android devices. Solving this issue should also improve the current state of the port when sideloaded to a Quest device.

How closer would you say :3 sorry I'm anxious about it, will itt be for 3.5?

[Calinou]

How closer would you say :3 sorry I'm anxious about it, will itt be for 3.5?

New features will only land in 3.6 and 4.0, not 3.5.x.

That said, I'd be very surprised if a VR editor was completed before 4.0 is released. This is probably 4.1 material at best, considering it's something only a few people will be able to use effectively.

[Starkium]

That said, I'd be very surprised if a VR editor was completed before 4.0 is released. This is probably 4.1 material at best, considering it's something only a few people will be able to use effectively.

I think you're grossly underestimating what the android editor with vr mode on quest really means for the entire vr community at large.

[VoxSkynned11]

That said, I'd be very surprised if a VR editor was completed before 4.0 is released. This is probably 4.1 material at best, considering it's something only a few people will be able to use effectively.

I think you're grossly underestimating what the android editor with vr mode on quest really means for the entire vr community at large.

No you misunderstood me, i was talking about the touch support 👉👈

[VoxSkynned11]

Noo please don't hate me, i didn't mean the VR i meant the touch support for android.. 😢 i know android OS sucks for development Em 31 de ago de 2022 11:29, "Aaron Benjamin" ***@***.***> escreveu:

…

That said, I'd be very surprised if a VR editor was completed before 4.0 is released. This is probably 4.1 material *at best*, considering it's something only a few people will be able to use effectively. I think you're grossly underestimating what the android editor with vr mode on quest really means for the entire vr community at large. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#3931 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AZRDMAVKPLQBN2FSPC7ULY3V35T35ANCNFSM5NY2JQCA> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[m4gr3d]

FYI, we should have a beta build ready once godotengine/godot#65398 & godotengine/godot#65434 are submitted!

[m4gr3d]

FYI, we should have a beta build ready once godotengine/godot#65398 & godotengine/godot#65434 are submitted!

Update beta build of the Godot Android Editor with numerous bug fixes and updates!

Godot Android Editor v3.6.0.beta.0

[VoxSkynned11]

FYI, we should have a beta build ready once godotengine/godot#65398 & godotengine/godot#65434 are submitted!

Update beta build of the Godot Android Editor with numerous bug fixes and updates!

Godot Android Editor v3.6.0.beta.0

Can you tell if this is a known issue:
While testing the game, the game doesn't recognize the keyboard input(android keyboard) in the project input map it does recognize it but while playing it simply doesn't work, i remember i tried some weird stuff like running godot under proot and still no luck, i tried different keyboard apps , i think i saw someone talking about it but i couldn't find it anymore..

[VoxSkynned11]

FYI, we should have a beta build ready once godotengine/godot#65398 & godotengine/godot#65434 are submitted!

Update beta build of the Godot Android Editor with numerous bug fixes and updates!
Godot Android Editor v3.6.0.beta.0

Can you tell if this is a known issue: While testing the game, the game doesn't recognize the keyboard input(android keyboard) in the project input map it does recognize it but while playing it simply doesn't work, i remember i tried some weird stuff like running godot under proot and still no luck, i tried different keyboard apps , i think i saw someone talking about it but i couldn't find it anymore..

Oh wait actually it works with the bt controller (you van doenload from playstore) but you'll need a second smartphone

And it seems much more stable than last time i want to learn to use godot but my pc don't support it :( then i have to use this phone i hope it works well on this phone a6+ it has almost 4gb has a 64bit cpu(useless because someone stupid decided to put a 32bit android in it) :3

[SBHattarj]

it seems I can't add new script language to my project with addons

[m4gr3d]

it seems I can't add new script language to my project with addons

We haven't tested the use of add-ons yet with the Android port but it's unlikely that scripting languages other than gdscript will work out of the box.

[SBHattarj]

it seems I can't add new script language to my project with addons

We haven't tested the use of add-ons yet with the Android port but it's unlikely that scripting languages other than gdscript will work out of the box.

Is there any plans for supporting addons or custom scripting language also, I don't have long access to a computer, so would like to work on my android, and I really want to use python for my project which can be added by godot python addon which works on desktop.

Also after working on got this error on the debugger, which doesn't occur on desktop:
E 0:00:00.199 open_dynamic_library: Can't open dynamic library: libpythonscript.so, error: dlopen failed: library "libpythonscript.so" not found.
<C++ Error> Parameter "p_library_handle" is null.
<C++ Source> platform/android/os_android.cpp:274 @ open_dynamic_library()

I'm not sure if this'll help, but thought this might be usefull info.

[Zireael07]

This is an android version, I strongly doubt custom scripting languages are possible on Android.

[SBHattarj]

This is an android version, I strongly doubt custom scripting languages are possible on Android.

Actually certain languages can be ran on android through proper binaries, termux and pydroid being great example, so if an adon can give proper binaries to run the language, I believe it maybe posible to be ran on android

[Calinou]

C# is not supported on Android yet due to missing/incomplete upstream support. It won't be done in time for 4.0.

GDExtension support is technically feasible, but also missing in 4.0. Note that even once GDExtension support is added, extension developers will still need to build a library for Android for extensions to work there.

[ShalokShalom]

What is missing for dotnet support?

[m4gr3d]

Port of the Godot Editor on Android released on the Play Store!

https://godotengine.org/article/android_godot_editor_play_store_beta_release/