ScummVM 2.1.0 unavailable on Google Play Store

[BoTToX]

Only the old 2.0.0 (jan 1 2018) is availliable on google play. (samsung galaxy s8 ans Tab S3)
And .apk don't work (black screen)

[Praetorian]

Only the old 2.0.0 (jan 1 2018) is availliable on google play. (samsung galaxy s8 ans Tab S3)
And .apk don't work (black screen)

Hello,
The 2.1.0 version on the Google Play store has been recalled for the time being as we work out some outstanding issues that have been reported to us.

The new version changed quite a few things as to how the Android port works (mainly the non-SDL port is now adopted as the Google Play release package) and even though it has introduced quite a few improvements overall, there have been a few regressions too; namely tiny UI text in high resolutions and "loss" of existing game entries and save data made with the old version (fortunately this should not be permanent).

Please be patient for a few more days as we are resolving these issues.

[TheHutt]

Well... how about not reinventing the wheel every upgrade?

The 2.1 version was automatically installed on my tablet during the night, with the following result:
- All game data, all savegames ( ) are lost.
- The GUI was illegible on FullHD resolution: too small buttons and texts.
- The mouse steering has been changed once again.

As you cannot downgrade with GooglePlay, the only way I could go back to 2.0 was uninstalling 2.1 and reinstalling 2.0, resulting in:
- All the game data, all savegames ( ) are lost.

[Larrynho]

Only the old 2.0.0 (jan 1 2018) is availliable on google play. (samsung galaxy s8 ans Tab S3)
And .apk don't work (black screen)

Hello,
The 2.1.0 version on the Google Play store has been recalled for the time being as we work out some outstanding issues that have been reported to us.

The new version changed quite a few things as to how the Android port works (mainly the non-SDL port is now adopted as the Google Play release package) and even though it has introduced quite a few improvements overall, there have been a few regressions too; namely tiny UI text in high resolutions and "loss" of existing game entries and save data made with the old version (fortunately this should not be permanent).

Please be patient for a few more days as we are resolving these issues.

May I ask why the non SDL port is adopted as the release package? I found the SDL version more suitable for us Android users :/ Not that Im Complaining; Scummvm is great but SLD was more convenient.

[Praetorian]

May I ask why the non SDL port is adopted as the release package? I found the SDL version more suitable for us Android users :/ Not that Im Complaining; Scummvm is great but SLD was more convenient.

Ultimately, it was a team decision which I agree with.

Some of the benefits that I'm seeing for it are:

1. The official ScummVM buildbot built daily development builds only for the non-SDL port (and always did). That to me means this has always been the version that most people were testing with. So, it should follow that this was the most tested version.
2. The non-SDL version got more love from our developers the last few months. All Android port related patches were to improve this version.
3. The non-SDL version currently supports older devices that the SDL port did not.
4. The SDL port uses and depends on a few hacks and a difficult to maintain /update process for its build toolchain. Since I have a few Android devices and I wanted to set up the app to test Blade Runner on them, I had to set up building environments for both SDL and non-SDL ports. In fact, I had to update some of the scripts and re-write the instructions on how to build the SDL port based on my experience. Personally, even though I appreciate the extra functionality, I hated that process. Conversely, the non-SDL port has a much more straightforward way to set up its toolchains and we were able to cross-compile more 3rd party libraries for it and up-to-date versions of those already included (our wiki page for the build process is still outdated but we now have various easy to setup environments for this version including dockerised processes).
5. Performance-wise I have noticed no differences, and all the recent code updates for the port helped a lot.

We knew that moving back to the plain port would result to some loss of existing functionality (while gaining other new functionalities at the same time), but in the end I do not regret the decision of the team.
I, along with other team people I have discussed with, do intend to keep improving the non-SDL port and building that functionality into it in the future.

[Praetorian]

...

I apologize for the inconvenience and I recognize that mistakes were made; this is why the Play Store version is currently put on hold, so that it won't affect more people in that way (loss of configuration and save files).

For those who did not uninstall the ScummVM app, someone on reddit posted a temporary workaround that may work for people, while our team is working on a proper solution integrated in our code:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ScummVM/commen ... e/f3ecj6v/

Well... how about not reinventing the wheel every upgrade?

I don't agree with this; we are not reinventing a wheel, and certainly not with "every upgrade".
So, here is what I know:

• The ScummVM project is based on volunteers work and the Android port has not had dedicated developer(s) maintaining it for a long time (probably more than a year) as far as I know.
• As mentioned above, the non-SDL port is the only Android port that is built by our buildbot daily. This was for all we know the version that people were testing with, during the test phases that were officially announced prior to release.
• Consequently this version's outstanding bugs (crashes/ SD card paths etc) were the focus of any developers (including myself) that shifted time to the port in the days leading up to the release.
• As far as I know there were no bug reports on our tracker about the issue of small text in high resolutions and, while I agree that it's a real issue which needs to be resolved immediately, my three android devices (phones) are not of such high resolution. So personally I never encountered this issue quite as hard as it hit people with tablets or more hi-def devices than mine.
• The other bugs you are reporting are a result of the upgrade process between the SDL-port and the non-SDL port, because for whatever reason the SDL port version changed the way these important paths are set up, and we failed to catch this in time (...).

We're still working on the issues and hope to have a proper solution soon.

[TheHutt]

I am apologizing for my rather harsh words.

[Larrynho]

May I ask why the non SDL port is adopted as the release package? I found the SDL version more suitable for us Android users :/ Not that Im Complaining; Scummvm is great but SLD was more convenient.

Ultimately, it was a team decision which I agree with.

Some of the benefits that I'm seeing for it are:

1. The official ScummVM buildbot built daily development builds only for the non-SDL port (and always did). That to me means this has always been the version that most people were testing with. So, it should follow that this was the most tested version.
2. The non-SDL version got more love from our developers the last few months. All Android port related patches were to improve this version.
3. The non-SDL version currently supports older devices that the SDL port did not.
4. The SDL port uses and depends on a few hacks and a difficult to maintain /update process for its build toolchain. Since I have a few Android devices and I wanted to set up the app to test Blade Runner on them, I had to set up building environments for both SDL and non-SDL ports. In fact, I had to update some of the scripts and re-write the instructions on how to build the SDL port based on my experience. Personally, even though I appreciate the extra functionality, I hated that process. Conversely, the non-SDL port has a much more straightforward way to set up its toolchains and we were able to cross-compile more 3rd party libraries for it and up-to-date versions of those already included (our wiki page for the build process is still outdated but we now have various easy to setup environments for this version including dockerised processes).
5. Performance-wise I have noticed no differences, and all the recent code updates for the port helped a lot.

We knew that moving back to the plain port would result to some loss of existing functionality (while gaining other new functionalities at the same time), but in the end I do not regret the decision of the team.
I, along with other team people I have discussed with, do intend to keep improving the non-SDL port and building that functionality into it in the future.

That was a very concise answer, thank you :!

As a dev myself, I undestand very dearly the problem of maintaining a hacky version vs having a proper maintained app, even if you lose some of the benefits of the hacky one.

[zeropolis79]

I've just downloaded the latest version of this port from the Google Play store on my 'new' Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet but when I Try to load it, i get a black screen and a message saying "Unfortantly, ScummVM has stopped"..

Is this anything to do with the things mentioned above?

Thanks.

[Praetorian]

I've just downloaded the latest version of this port from the Google Play store on my 'new' Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet but when I Try to load it, i get a black screen and a message saying "Unfortantly, ScummVM has stopped"..

Is this anything to do with the things mentioned above?

Thanks.

I am unsure. The version available on Google Play Store is not the 2.1.0 yet.
So your getting a black screen / crash could be due to a bug of the old version.

[zeropolis79]

I've just downloaded the latest version of this port from the Google Play store on my 'new' Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet but when I Try to load it, i get a black screen and a message saying "Unfortantly, ScummVM has stopped"..

Is this anything to do with the things mentioned above?

Thanks.

I am unsure. The version available on Google Play Store is not the 2.1.0 yet.
So your getting a black screen / crash could be due to a bug of the old version.

I get the title screen with an unclickable "Change device configuration" message, then it goes to black then goes back to the main Android screen with the message "Unfortantly ScummVM has stopped".

[jortlaban]

here are some issues I have noticed (some that have been stated already).
- Resolution is locked to device, resulting in extremely small items
- Embedded Audio Synthesis crashes the app, as does Fluithsynth.

The new design DOES look cleaner though, so that is a plus!

(Edit: Mouse mode found under new tab!!! )

[Praetorian]

- Embedded Audio Synthesis crashes the app, as does Fluithsynth.

This was unknown to me. Can you issue a ticket on the ScummVM bug tracker about it? Please provide a detailed explanation of the issue as possible (your device model, Android OS, etc).

I get the title screen with an unclickable "Change device configuration" message, then it goes to black then goes back to the main Android screen with the message "Unfortantly ScummVM has stopped".

Then this seems to be a bug of the old Android-SDL port (2.0) version. Hopefully it should be fixed for you in the new 2.1 version. Could you create a bug ticket for this in the bug tracker anyway, and mention your Android OS version on your device too?

[Bluddy]

- Embedded Audio Synthesis crashes the app, as does Fluithsynth.

This was unknown to me. Can you issue a ticket on the ScummVM bug tracker about it? Please provide a detailed explanation of the issue as possible (your device model, Android OS, etc).

I thought this was a well known bug. I'm sure I saw discussion about it somewhere. It happens on Android OS >= 8, I believe.

[Praetorian]

I thought this was a well known bug. I'm sure I saw discussion about it somewhere. It happens on Android OS >= 8, I believe.

I did remember after I posted that, that another developer (ccawley2011) has addressed the issue about EAS (or a similar one) in a PR of his here:
https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/pull/1815

However, as far as the FluidSynth bug goes, we didn't include FluidSynth support in the Android version up to now. So that's completely new.

Ideally we'd have both of these bugs registered in our bug tracker which is the go to place to check on pending issues.

I was able to reproduce both bugs by the way (and indeed the EAS bug does not seem to affect the armeabi and arm-v7a versions or it's probably because I'm testing with them on devices with Android <= 5.1)). I haven't yet tried ccawley's PR to check if it fixes the issue for me.

The FluidSynth issue I believe is a combination of a missing warning dialogue and a missing sound font (which the warning dialogue should be about, instead of having the app exit to desktop). Could you try to download a soundfont (eg the one at https://fatboy.site/ ) then, after unzipping it, load it from the Midi tab (ScummVM Options) and report back if this fixed the issue?