minetest/doc

Minetest Android port
=====================
Date: 2014 06 28

Controls
--------
The Android port doesn't support everything you can do on PC due to the
limited capabilities of common devices. What can be done is described
below:

While you're playing the game normally (that is, no menu or inventory is
shown), the following controls are available:
* Look around: touch screen and slide finger
* double tap: place a node or use selected item
* long tap: dig node
* touch shown buttons: press button
* Buttons:
** left upper corner: chat
** right lower corner: jump
** right lower corner: crouch
** left lower corner: walk/step...
   left up right
       down
** left lower corner: display inventory

When a menu or inventory is displayed:
* double tap outside menu area: close menu
* tap on an item stack: select that stack
* tap on an empty slot: if you selected a stack already, that stack is placed here
* drag and drop: touch stack and hold finger down, move the stack to another
  slot, tap another finger while keeping first finger on screen
  --> places a single item from dragged stack into current (first touched) slot

Special settings
----------------
There are some settings especially useful for Android users. Minetest's config
file can usually be found at /mnt/sdcard/Minetest.

* gui_scaling: this is a user-specified scaling factor for the GUI- In case
               main menu is too big or small on your device, try changing this
               value.

Known issues
------------
Not all issues are fixed by now:

* Unable to exit from volume menu -- don't use the volume menu, use Android's
  volume controls instead.
* 512 MB RAM seems to be inadequate -- this depends on the server you join.
  Try to play on more lightweight servers.

Versioning
----------
Android version numbers are 4 digits instead of Minetest's 3 digits.  The last
number of Android's version represents the Android internal version code. This
version code is strictly incremental. It's incremented for each official
Minetest Android build.

E.g. prerelease Minetest Android builds have been 0.4.9.3, while the first
official version most likely will be 0.4.10.4

Requirements
------------

In order to build, your PC has to be set up to build Minetest in the usual
manner (see the regular Minetest documentation for how to get this done).
In addition to what is required for Minetest in general, you will need the
following software packages. The version number in parenthesis denotes the
version that was tested at the time this README was drafted; newer/older
versions may or may not work.

* android SDK (api-26)
* android NDK (r17c)
* wget (1.13.4)

Additionally, you'll need to have an Internet connection available on the
build system, as the Android build will download some source packages.

Build
-----

Debug build:
* Enter "build/android" subdirectory
* Execute "make"
* Answer the questions about where SDK and NDK are located on your filesystem
* Wait for build to finish

After the build is finished, the resulting apk can be fond in
build/android/bin/. It will be called Minetest-debug.apk

Release build:

* In order to make a release build you'll have to have a keystore setup to sign
  the resulting apk package. How this is done is not part of this README. There
  are different tutorials on the web explaining how to do it
  - choose one yourself.

* Once your keystore is setup, enter build/android subdirectory and create a new
  file "ant.properties" there. Add following lines to that file:
  
  > key.store=<path to your keystore>
  > key.alias=Minetest

* Execute "make release"
* Enter your keystore as well as your Mintest key password once asked. Be
  careful it's shown on console in clear text!
* The result can be found at "bin/Minetest-release.apk"

Other things that may be nice to know
------------
* The environment for Android development tools is saved within Android build
  build folder. If you want direct access to it do:
  
  > make envpaths
  > . and_env
  
  After you've done this you'll have your path and path variables set correct
  to use adb and all other Android development tools

* You can build a single dependency by calling make and the dependency's name,
  e.g.:

  > make irrlicht

* You can completely cleanup a dependency by calling make and the "clean" target,
  e.g.:

  > make clean_irrlicht