This reposiotory is a simple example of a Plugin architecture for the UE4 Engine to interface with BioGears. It supports several action types and polling mechanisims.
We hope to maintain and contribute to this plugin overtime to create a more robust UE4 capabilities when interfacing with BioGears
| Requirment | NOTE |
|---|---|
| android-ndk-17c | This is the only version of the NDK that the current native components can build under UE4.23 the required UE4 version of this plugin. |
| android-21 | This is the API and build tools you must install to build the Non native parts of the Android Package |
| Gradle | A tool for bundling up Java Builds |
| Ant | A tool for bundling up Java Builds |
| CMake > 20.0 | A Meta Project Compiler for building BioGears |
| GRADLE_HOME | The Build will use this to find gradle even if its in your path |
| JAVA_HOME | The Build will use this to find JAVA |
| ANDROID_NDK_ROOT | Parts of the Build use this to find your NDK |
| ANDROID_SDK_HOME | Parts of the Build use this to find the SDK |
| ANDROID_NDK_VERSION | This helps the Build choose the right NDK componets to build against |
| ANDROID_HOME | This helps the build find the SDK in various parts of the build |
| NDK_ROOT | Again some parts of the build use this variable |
| NDKROOT |
We will work to reduce these requirments over time
Make a fresh checkout of the BURNCARE Repsitory. For this article we assume the REPO is checked in to E:\burncare on a windows 10 machine with Visual Studio MSVC15 2017 installed. Adjust all paths based off your checkout location/
Repo Location in P4V
UE4/BuncareAfter Burncare is checked out DELETE E:\Burncare\Game\Plugins\VH_Biogears
VH_Biogears is versioned in GIT. We keep a copy of it in the Burncare repo but for development purposes you need to clone it from GIT. If you have your P4IGNORE setup (See Seeting up P4Ignore) then P4 will ignore the extra files from the clone
In a command prompt go to
cd E:\Burncare\Game\Plugins
git clone ssh://git@sed-stash.us.ara.com:7999/bg/ue4plugin.git VH_BiogearsOnce this is done run GenerateProjectFiles.bat in E:\burncare and build the engine as normal. Once the build is done (4 hours) setup Visual studio to run the game as an editor
Open UE4 and right click the Game target in the Solution Explorer. Select properties. In the proeprties window select debug and fill in the command line arguments as
Game -logUse the Green Arrow or F5 to launch the editor from inside MSVC
You will need to download the android-sdk and android-ndks for this project. The Engine comes bundeled with an installer for NVPACK_1R7 which is a good starting place, but not required.
You can download the SDK, NDK and Java 1_8 from the following locations
Java JDK 1.8 Is getting older and harder to download JAVA 11 may work but since we are using an older SDK set of tools it doesn't hurt to have the version of java they were built against avaliable.
For this build to work Gradle/CMake and Java need to be in the PATH of the Visual Studio instance. Adding them to your PATH is the easiest solution, but if this conflicts with your standard environment you can choose to write a BAT file which primes the PATH or set them in a command prompt before launching Visual Studio.
For this tutorial lets assume that everything was installed in
E:\AndroidTools
You should now have a folder structure that looks like this
E:\AndroidTools\
|---jdk1.8.0_77
|---android-ndk-r17c
|---gradle
`---cmdline-tools
When build your environment will need to contain the following variables. Adjust accordingly to your actual install locations
| Variable | Value |
|---|---|
| GRADLE_HOME | E:\AndroidTools\gradle |
| JAVA_HOME | E:\AndroidTools\jdk1.8.0_77| |
| ANDROID_NDK_ROOT | E:\AndroidTools\android-ndk-r17c |
| ANDROID_SDK_HOME | E:\AndroidTools| |
| ANDROID_NDK_VERSION | android-ndk-r17c |
| ANDROID_HOME | E:\AndroidTools\android-sdk |
| NDK_ROOT | E:\AndroidTools\android-ndk-r17c |
| NDKROOT |
|P4IGNORE|.p4ignore.txt|
Open the SDKManager in *E:\AndroidTools\cmdline-tools\bin\sdkmanager.bat
The command line tools simply allows you to install packages that will be used durring the build. The following commands should install all required packages
E:\AndroidTools\cmdline-tools\binsdkmanager --sdk_root=E:\AndroidTools\android-sdk\ Platforms;android-21 ndk;17.2.4988734 build-tools;27.0.3 cmake;3.18.1
Before Packaging for Android a few things should be known. First the inculusion of BioGears in the Android Build is dependent on values in
E:\burncare\Game\Plugins\VH_Biogears\Config\DefaultEngine.ini[/Scripts/VH_BioGears/Thirdparty]
bEnableBiogearsOnWindows=True
bEnableBiogearsOnAndroid=TrueTo build with out biogears libraries for testing change bEnableBiogearsOnAndroid to false else leave it as true.
Next in the running editor go to Edit->Project Settings -> Android and uncheck Support armv7 At this time armv7-eabi is untested and can not be gaurenteed to function.
Now in Platforms:Android SDK: Set the following values
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Location of Android SDK | E:\AndroidTools\android-sdk |
| Location of Android NDK | E:\AndroidTools\android-ndk-r17c |
| Location of ANT | EMPTY |
| Locatin of JAVA | E:\AndroidTools\jdk1.8.0_77 |
| SDK API Level | latest |
| NDK API Level | android-21 |
P4 Will check the current environment it is running under for a P4IGNORE variable and read the file it points to. This file can be absolute and shared among all P4Ignore repos or it can be relative and it will read it with respect to the current Depot. A P4Ignore is provided in the Burncare Repo so please set your P4Ignore to .p4ignore or maintain one yourself to avoid checking E:\Burncare\Thirdparty\ and E:\Burncare\Game\PLugins\VH_Biogears.git
In the UE4 Editor File->Package Project->Android->Android Multi. Select the default folder of E:\Burncare\Android (2 hour wait)
When GenerateProjectFiles is run for the first time. CMake will be launched and compile native libraries for Biogears in E:\Burncare\Thirdparty\Artifacts. Intermediaries and Source will be stored in E:\Burncare\Thirdparty\<Platform>\<Config> If you have trouble with this build it is most likely that you need to delete E:\Burncare\Thirdparty\<Platform>\<Config>\biogears\{build,src} And rerun GenerateProjectFiles.bat for windows and Package Build for android. The Plugin tracks the biogears branch r/burncare so it does change from time to time to fix builds.
Once the Editor is built unless VH_Biogears.Build.cs is edited MSVC is not able to know it should rebuild Biogears. So if you expect a software update to the BioGears libraries manually run GenerateProjectFiles.bat again to ensure that CMake is kicked off. This will always happen automatically for Android builds. For better or worst this adds a few minutes to every Android Package.
The File VH_Biogears_APL.xml contains Plugin instructions to copy the Libraries from E:\Burncare\Thirdparty\Artifacts to the APK staging ground and how to load them on the NDK. Assuming no complications with the repos that CMake is referencing when it pulls the BioGears code base. The build should be fairly automated if the correct Android SDK,NDK,Java,Gradle, and CMAKE versions are referenced.
This style of Plugin is a work in progress please report any issues.
This plugin is provied under the APACHE 2.0 license.
https://dl.google.com/android/repository/commandlinetools-win-7583922_latest.zip