Access to native PB API in Shiva?

[lcocea]

For testing purposes I built The Hunt demo game while choosing BlackBerry PlayBook OS 1.0 as the target platform (I temporarily reinstalled NDK 1.0 to this purpose; I will soon get a license to access the Authoring Tool 1.4 beta for Tablet OS 2.x compatibility). I was reassured to see that the game appears to install and launch successfuly on the PB. Obviously, the user controls are not exactly set up for a mobile device, which is to be expected. I wonder whether Shiva 3D includes:

(1) Support for BlackBerry Tablet OS native C++ API calls, to access the PB hardware;

(2) A common wrapper for sensor native APIs that are specific to each mobile platform;

(3) Tutorial(s) for creating touch screen controls (such as the ones in Modern Combat 2 Black Pegasus).

Thanks.

[dreamora]

1) Through plugins, sure.

2) If you mean accelerometer and touch then yes thats present

3) Look at the iOS examples, they work on any touch mobile platform

[lcocea]

As a happy owner of a basic license I started playing with Authoring Tool 1.4 beta. I successfully installed the iPhoneCamera and iPhoneCharacter demos on my PB. They both appear to run in portrait mode only -- is this because they were coded for the iPhone rather than the PB, and I assume the APIs for rotation detection are different? Thanks.

[peter]

One of the biggest Shiva feature is that it is cross-platform engine. So, most of implemented functions in Shiva will work on every platform which Shiva support.

It should help you:
http://www.stonetrip.com/developer/doc/api/application-kOptionViewportRotation

[lcocea]

Thanks, Peter. But then why do the "iPhone demos" run in landscape mode in Shiva Editor and in portrait mode on my PB? The default display mode on the PB is landscape.

[peter]

Maybe the problem is that the iphone has different default mode than playbook?

iphone -> portrait
playbook -> landscape

So if you rotate them by 90, you've got again different modes.

//edit:
So you must check on which platform program is running and then run specified mode.

or...
you can check height and width of screen and compare them. If width>height it means that you're starting your app in landscape mode, and analogously. Then you can rotate or no if you want.

[lcocea]

You may be right. However, I doubt these particular demo apps were supposed to run in portrait mode on the iPhone as half the objects in the scene are not shown in this mode and controls are very crowded. Anyway, I hope I will figure it out along the way. Cheers!

// re: edit

Yes, that's how I check & set the orientation in my WebWorks apps. I am a beginner in ShiVa though...

[peter]

Unfortunately it not always easy to make apps look good (and playable) in both modes together.

I'm using this method (comparing width and height) in my game created in Shiva which I want to run only in portrait mode on pb, and it works well.

In turn, I'm beginner in Webworks and Native SDK.
btw. bb10 seems to be nice platform.

[lcocea]

// update

Surprisingly, the iPhone demos do display on the PB in landscape mode but only if launched in portrait mode. Go figure...

[peter]

PB's "default" rotation is based on device orientation when you start app. I've solved this problem by checking width and height of screen.

Good luck

[dreamora]

If I recall right, the constants for the rotation are exactly vice versa on PB vs iOS