http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog <p>As an Assistant Professor, I'm teaching Symbian OS at the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg, Austria. My company &quot;Mopius&quot; is developing mobile software with a special focus on Symbian OS.</p> mopius 2009-11-24T01:40:56Z http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2009/03/24/carchallenge <p> <table align="right" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="240"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/carchallenge.jpg" alt="CarChallenge is controlled through the compass of the mobile phone." /></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><em>CarChallenge is controlled through the compass of the mobile phone. </em></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> The <a href="http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/6210_Navigator">Nokia 6210 Navigator</a> is the first device from Nokia that features a magnetometer. It allows using the phone as a compass &ndash; very important for pedestrian navigation. GPS alone can only determine the direction in which you&rsquo;re facing when you are moving. With a compass, the phone instantly knows in which direction you&rsquo;re facing and rotates the map accordingly. This makes me happy when I step out of the underground and want to know where to go &ndash; without having to walk several meters only to find out that I chose the wrong direction. </p> <p> A traditional compass only works when it is held horizontally. As Paul Coulton recently described in his <a href="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/paul-coultons-forum-nokia-blog/2009/03/17/understanding-the-magnetometer-digital-compass-sensor">Forum Nokia Blogs posting</a>, the Nokia 6210 includes a 3-axis magnetometer. Through some calculations, it is possible to find out the absolute direction in which the phone is facing, no matter how the phone is oriented. The <a href="http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/S60_Sensor_Framework">S60 Sensor Framework</a> provides a processed sensor output that gives you the degrees relative to the North Pole. </p> <h2>Compass Applications</h2> <p> Traditional applications that greatly benefit from a compass are apps like the &ldquo;Magic Wand&rdquo; (recently described by <a href="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/paul-coultons-forum-nokia-blog/2009/01/06/point-n-seek-the-return-of-the-geo-wand">Paul</a>; our students have also been working on a similar app during the winter semester): just point the phone to a building and the phone tells you what it is. By combining information from GPS, the accelerometer and the compass, it is possible to determine where the user is pointing his phone and for example to augment the camera picture with additional information about what he sees. </p> <p> Another possibility would be to use the same method for showing information about the stars and constellations. Just point your phone to a star and instantly get information about it. I&rsquo;m not yet aware of any such applications for S60 phones that integrate the magnetometer. General planetariums are of course available, like for example <a href="http://www.piecafe.co.uk/">Solun&rsquo;</a>. </p> <p> A few days ago, I&rsquo;ve been chatting with <a href="http://www.mobilizy.com/?lang=en">Philipp Breuss</a>, one of the winners of the first Android challenge and now teaching Android at our <a href="http://www.fh-ooe.at/mc">Mobile Computing</a> department in Hagenberg. He told me that there are currently two such planetarium applications that make use of the magnetometer for the Android platform; one of them being his own. An easy to understand concept that has great potential. </p> <h2>Compass Games</h2> <p> The compass is of course not limited to applications. A novel idea is to use it for controlling games. <a href="mailto:christian.feldbacher@fh-hagenberg.at">Christian Feldbacher</a> and his colleagues Philipp Rakuschan and Clemens Stangl have been busy developing a 3D car game with a clever artificial intelligence over the last two semesters - called <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/carchallenge.php">CarChallenge</a>. As an experiment, we decided to include the compass as an additional control method. </p> <p> Playing the game with the compass requires physical action &ndash; the car drives in the absolute direction you&rsquo;re facing. Want to turn the car left? Just turn yourself to the left. How to turn the car around? Make a 180&deg; turn yourself (e.g, from North to South). </p> <p> In contrast to the compass, the acceleration sensor is only able to measure relative movements on this axis. The rather small resulting sidewise acceleration forces would not be sufficient for accurate game control. Instead, accelerometer based car games usually rely on tilting the device &ndash; something that can be measured easily through the different distribution of gravity to the three accelerometer axes. However, there would not be a difference at all if you&rsquo;re facing to the North or the South &ndash; the gravity is always just directed downwards. Through the compass, the game is now able to integrate the absolute direction in which you&rsquo;re facing. </p> <p> His video on YouTube demonstrates the look and feel of the game, as well as the compass-based control mechanism. Of course, steering via the compass isn&rsquo;t well suited for playing the game in a bus and is probably problematic for long gaming sessions. However, it&rsquo;s great fun! </p> <p align="center"> <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="350" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/z6ezAGhJNjc" id="ltVideoYouTube"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/z6ezAGhJNjc" /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /> <param name="allowScriptAcess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="quality" value="best" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /> </object> </p> <p> As a next step, why not make a game that determines how often you can turn around before you get dizzy and fall to the ground (detected by the accelerometer, to use the available sensors to their full extent)? </p> <p> CarChallenge is essentially finished and will be released shortly. Watch the <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/carchallenge.php">project page at symbianresources.com</a> for updates! </p> Entertainment Games General S60 2009-03-24T22:08:07Z mopius http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2009/03/19/slidersedge <p> <table align="right" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="240"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/slidersedge1.jpg" alt="SlidersEdge" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><em>Accelerometers fully integrated into the game design - turn your phone to change the gravity of the environment! </em></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Nearly nobody noticed the <a href="http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/5500">Nokia 5500 Sports</a>, most likely the first phone equipped with an accelerometer that was accessible for 3rd party developers. <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/gboarder.php">gBoarder</a> (application for recording snowboarding statistics like the number of crashes or jumps) and <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/carmeter.php">CarMeter</a> (measures g forces when driving a car) were one of the few applications that made use of it - already released in February 2007. </p> <p> When Nokia finally released the R&amp;D API for the N95, the boom began and many acceleration sensor-based applications appeared. Many of them are useful (<a href="http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/007/12/pypoziomica_freeware_level_tool.htm">pyPozentica</a>), others are just for fun (<a href="http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/008/01/light_sabre_gets_an_update.htm">Light Sabre</a>). And of course, there are some entertaining games as well (<a href="http://blogs.s60.com/2006/08/groove_labyrinth_fun_with_3d_s">Groove Labyrinth</a>, <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/pywuzzler.php">pyWuzzler</a>). </p> <p> Especially with the <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/">iPhone</a> lacking any keyboard, many game concepts simply were not really possible &ndash; as an effect, the accelerometer got to be an accepted control method for commercial games. Racing games are a good example, where the tilt of the phone simulates a steering wheel. Much like in <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/shakerracer.php">ShakerRacer</a>, which uses the same concept for controlling a real car. </p> <p> However, most of the games just use the acceleration sensor as an input method that fits to the game (up to some degree). Only very few games completely base the whole game concept on the use of the accelerometer. One of those few games has been developed by the Mobile Computing students <a href="mailto:david.berger@fh-hagenberg.at">David Berger</a> and <a href="mailto:david.berger@fh-hagenberg.at">Stefan Poremba</a> from the <a href="http://www.fh-ooe.at/mc">Hagenberg University o.a.S</a>. </p> <h2>SlideEscape / SlidersEdge</h2> <p> On the first sight, the game <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/slidersedge.php">SlideEscape / SlidersEdge</a> could be seen as a normal jump &amp; run. The fact that the left/right-movement of the character can be controlled by tilting the phone and jumping by quickly pulling the phone towards you is nice, but not something new either. </p> <p> The innovation comes from the fact that turning the phone changes the gravity of the virtual game world. An example: the character is standing in front of an uncrossable abyss. How to get over it? Turn your phone upside down to walk on the ceiling and safely pass the depths! </p> <p> Through this mechanism, the acceleration sensor not only influences the movement, but is directly integrated in the whole game experience as well as the level design. It&rsquo;s not just an add-on that could be easily replaced by a key control mechanism (like in a racing game), but an essential part of the game. </p> <p> The video on YouTube demonstrates how this works in real life: </p> <p align="center"> <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="350" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/FRjUTPwblMs" id="ltVideoYouTube"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FRjUTPwblMs" /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /> <param name="allowScriptAcess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="quality" value="best" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /> </object> </p> <p> The project is available as a free download from <a href="http://www.slidersedge.com/">David&rsquo;s official homepage</a>, as well as from the project page at <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/slidersedge.php">symbianresources.com</a>. </p> <p> Please note that the game is a prototype and therefore not really bug-free. The main game is a Java ME application. As it still isn&rsquo;t possible to access accelerometer data from Java ME on Nokia phones, a native S60 application is provided as well, which runs in the background and provides acceleration data to the game via an internal socket (does not lead to data charges, even though the Java ME game warns you upon start-up). </p> Entertainment Games General Java S60 Symbian C++ 2009-03-19T19:25:13Z mopius http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2009/03/11/mobile-physics <p> <table align="right" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="240"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/t_chipmunks60_2.png" alt="Chipmunk is an open source physics engine and is now available for S60." /></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><em>Draw abstract objects on the screen; they will instantly get physical properties!</em></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Physics engines simulate behaviour and motion of objects in a virtual world. With the increased processor resources available on today&rsquo;s PCs, almost every game integrates a more or less advanced physics engine. </p> <p> Even if the dedicated physics PCI card for the PC, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhysX">PhysX by AGEIA</a>, did not really succeed in reaching the mass market, it increased the awareness that the game experience is greatly enhanced if physics are accurately simulated. Nowadays, <a href="http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_physx.html">NVidia</a> has bought this company and physics simulations are often calculated directly on the 3D graphics hardware. </p> <p> The oldest game I can remember that heavily relied on physics simulation was called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Machine">The Incredible Machine</a>. Released in 1993, players had to place various objects in a 2D plane to solve puzzles. This included placing machines, lights, ropes, balls and much more. </p> <p> Another game, <a href="http://www.bridgebuilder-game.com/">Bridge Builder</a>, has now been around for quite some time (first release in 2000) and also uses physics as the main gameplay element. Players have to build bridges and ensure that they do not break. Later examples like <a href="http://www.worldofgoo.com/">World of Goo</a> follow a similar basic concept, but make the game a lot more accessibly by integrating a different scenario and pleasant graphics. </p> <p> Another possibility for games that mainly rely on physics simulation is represented by <a href="http://www.crayonphysics.com/">Crayon Physics</a>. In a pre-defined scenario, players have to move an abstract object (like a circle) from its starting position to a target. This can be done by drawing 2D objects (like other circles that behave like balls, rectangles, or ropes); physical attributes are applied to those. Of course, solving the levels gets very challenging over time. </p> <h2>Mobile Physics</h2> <p> Even if advanced 3D physics like found in <a href="http://orange.half-life2.com/">Half Life 2</a> would still be too much for today&rsquo;s mobile devices, they are certainly up to the task of running 2D physics engines. A good example is <a href="http://numptyphysics.garage.maemo.org/">Numpty Physics</a>, available for free for the <a href="http://www.maemo.org/">Maemo-platform</a>. </p> <p> <a href="mailto:david.berger@fh-hagenberg.at">David Berger</a>, a student in the 3rd semester of Mobile Computing in Hagenberg, has now ported the open source 2D physics engine called <a href="http://wiki.slembcke.net/main/published/Chipmunk">Chipmunk</a> to the S60 platform. </p> <p> With the help of the <a href="http://www.forum.nokia.com/Resources_and_Information/Explore/Runtime_Platforms/Open_C_and_C++/">OpenC++ libraries</a>, it was possible to run the engine without any serious modifications. As the foundation for the user interface, he used the <a href="http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/f63ebb0a-3cee-4a02-b4f6-6c9090bfddc9/S60_5th_Edition_Mobile_Paint_Example.html">Mobile Paint</a> example from Nokia. All objects that you draw on the screen instantly get physical properties and move according to the current gravity level as well as collisions with other objects. </p> <p> David&rsquo;s video on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxNDmP0M5jg">YouTube</a> demonstrates how well the engine works. Unfortunately, there were some problems with regards to the screen update and the TV out when drawing &ndash; but as you can see in the video, the engine works totally fluid and fast. Now, I&rsquo;m looking forward to seeing the first physics-based games on the S60 platform! </p> <p align="center"> &nbsp; <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="350" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/xxNDmP0M5jg" id="ltVideoYouTube"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xxNDmP0M5jg" /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /> <param name="allowScriptAcess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="quality" value="best" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /> </object> </p> <p> More information, the download of the demo plus source code is available on <a href="http://forum.fantasyhaze.com/index.php?page=Thread&amp;postID=2854">David&rsquo;s website</a> as well as on the project website on <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/chipmunks60.php">symbianresources.com</a>. </p> Entertainment Games General Open C S60 2009-03-11T19:21:54Z mopius http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2009/01/14/mopoid <p> <table align="right" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="240"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/Mopoid-Screenshot.png" alt="Develop a full-blown Arkanoid-like game - and play it!" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><em>Develop a full-blown Arkanoid-like game - and play it!</em></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Probably the largest and longest free workshop for S60 development is now available in a completely rewritten and updated version. The unique aspect: everything is explained based on a fully working Arkanoid-like game called <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/tutorials/mopoid.php">Mopoid</a>. </p> <p> While reading through 76 pages and 175 slides, you will explore most of the important concepts behind Symbian OS / S60 &ndash; including using the UI designer of Carbide.c++, scalable vector graphics, localizable text and of course all the traditional topics like the cleanup stack, descriptors or periodic timers. </p> <h2> The Origins </h2> <p> In 2004, I prepared my very first Symbian OS workshop at the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg. Its aim was to give a compressed overview of the most important concepts of development for S60 &ndash; in form of a large, fully working game. Students would implement certain parts; the specialities of native Symbian OS C++ development were explained right when they were relevant. I still remember working through the whole night on the day before the workshop, testing everything ten times to make sure that everything really worked as expected. </p> <h2> The Update </h2> <p> Back then, the tutorial was based on the free <a href="http://www.newlc.com/en/A-first-sight-at-Borland-C-Builder.html">Borland C++ Builder Mobile Edition</a>, which already featured a UI designer. While the IDE had potential, it was slow and buggy. Soon after, it was abandoned. </p> <p> The mobile world moves quickly, and the tutorial soon got outdated. Still based on S60 1st Edition, the game wouldn&rsquo;t run on current devices. Also, Borland C++ Builder does no longer exist, with the (much better) <a href="http://www.forum.nokia.com/Resources_and_Information/Tools/IDEs/Carbide.c++/">Carbide.c++</a> IDE now being the standard for Symbian OS development. </p> <p> As it would have been a pity to simply let dust settle on Mopoid and watch it disappear, I decided to take on the task of updating the tutorial for today&rsquo;s environment. The game has now been greatly extended and improved - for example, it includes support for scalable screens. Of course, most parts of the tutorial had to be rewritten as well. The slides are completely new. </p> <h2> The Future </h2> <p> The workshop was just published on the <a href="http://developer.symbian.com/main/documentation/example_app_code/cpp/index.jsp" title="Mopoid at the Symbian Developer Network">Symbian Developer Network</a> and is now also available from <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/tutorials/mopoid.php" title="Mopoid at symbianresources.com">symbianresources.com</a>. The whole tutorial might be a bit too steep if you don&rsquo;t have any experience with Symbian OS at all, but for a little more advanced developers, it&rsquo;ll be interesting to see how all the idioms and concepts fit together in a real game. </p> <p> The source code is released using the GPL license. Mopoid already supports level files, saving the high score and much more. If someone wants to add more features or levels, it&rsquo;d be great to release a polished game without some rough edges to the public in the future! </p> <p align="center"> <img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/t_Mopoid-Tutorial.jpg" alt="The Mopoid tutorial comes with 76 pages and 175 slides full of free Symbian OS information." /> </p> Entertainment Games General S60 Symbian C++ Training 2009-01-14T00:23:36Z mopius http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2008/06/16/pywuzzler <p> <table align="right" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="215"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/pywuzzler_overview.jpg" alt="pyWuzzler - accelerometer controlled table soccer" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><em>pyWuzzler - accelerometer-controlled table soccer on your phone.</em></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </p> <p> Austria is currently one of the host countries of the <a href="http://www.euro2008.uefa.com/" title="Euro 2008">Euro 2008</a>, the UEFA European Football Championship. Naturally, soccer is one of the biggest topics in our country at the moment, even though our chances of winning the tournament are, well, not so high. </p> <p> To compensate for this, Benjamin Gmeiner and Yen-Chia Lin, two students of the <a href="http://www.fh-ooe.at/mc" title="FH Hagenberg - Mobile Computing">Mobile Computing department</a> of the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg (Austria), have developed a new application called &ldquo;<a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/pywuzzler.php" title="pyWuzzler">pyWuzzler</a>&rdquo;. </p> <p> In short, it&rsquo;s a table soccer game on a S60 phone, which you control through the accelerometer. After all, Austria won the <a href="http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2006/05/29/567563.html" title="Table Soccer World Championship 2006 (in German)">world championship in table soccer</a> in the year 2006, something that won&rsquo;t happen too soon for traditional soccer. </p> <p> The whole frenetic game might be a bit too difficult to play on a phone. Therefore, the students have reduced it to a head-to-head match of the two attacking players against the goalkeeper (controlled by an artificial intelligence). Score as many goals as you can within two minutes! </p> <p align="center"> &nbsp; <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="350" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/jzvceJAgpX8" id="ltVideoYouTube"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jzvceJAgpX8" /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /> <param name="allowScriptAcess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="quality" value="best" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /> </object> </p> <p> How to score a goal? It&rsquo;s intuitive, just by turning your phone. Change the inclination of the phone to move the attacking players (red) to the right and left. Turn the phone to trigger a shot. The movement of the ball is based on a small physics engine to simulate accurate movement. With this control scheme, you can even perform tricks like in a real table soccer match, as can be seen in the YouTube video. </p> <p> pyWuzzler is available for free from <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/pywuzzler.php" title="pyWuzzler">symbianresources.com</a>. The source code is published under the Apache Licence.<br /> </p> Entertainment Games Python 2008-06-16T18:55:49Z mopius http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2008/03/18/mobile-game-controllers-problem-solved <p> <table align="right" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="215"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/t_mobipad1.jpg" alt="MobiPad" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><em>Play all the games you want on your mobile phone using mobiPad. </em></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> The article &bdquo;<a href="http://www.allaboutngage.com/features/item/Plausible_things_that_would_be_really_cool_on_N-Gage.php">Ten plausible things that would be really cool on N-Gage</a>&ldquo; recently suggested that a Bluetooth game controller should be released for mobile phones. It&rsquo;d greatly increase the way you could play your games. </p> <p> There have been several attempts at building dedicated gaming controllers for mobile phones. One recent example is the <a href="http://zeemote.com/">Zeemote JS1</a>, which is a small Bluetooth joystick that you can easily take with you. <a href="http://www.smartgamepad.com/">Another controller</a> more closely simulates a traditional gamepad layout. </p> <p> While these solutions might be good, there are some logical issues that might be problematic in real life: </p> <ul> <li>Some controllers require a <strong>specific SDK</strong> in order to use them on the phone &ndash; currently, not many games support such proprietary SDKs, making the adoption of those controllers some kind of a hen-and-egg problem.</li> <li>You have to <strong>buy extra hardware that you can only use for mobile phone gaming</strong>. Most likely, only very few will consider themselves as hardcore phone gamers to go into a shop and buy gaming hardware that they can only use for their phone.</li> <li>Compared to game controllers for game consoles, the controllers for mobile phones are selling at <strong>much lower volumes</strong>. As prices usually go down with volume, you&rsquo;ll not get the same <strong>bang for your buck / the same build quality</strong> for a dedicated mobile game controller.</li> </ul> <h2> mobiPad </h2> <p> All of those three issues are solved by the new <a href="http://www.mobi-pad.com/" title="MobiPad">mobiPad</a> application developed by the students <a href="mailto:alexander.erifiu@fh-hagenberg.at">Alexander Erifiu</a> and <a href="mailto:mario.grammer@fh-hagenberg.at">Mario Grammer</a> at the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg (Austria) at the department of <a href="http://www.fh-ooe.at/mc">Mobile Computing</a>. </p> <p> In a nutshell, mobiPad allows controlling your entire phone with the Nintendo Wii&trade; Remote. This includes all games that you might have installed, as well as the rest of the phone like the media player. Essentially, the Wiimote is turned into a high quality wireless controller for your phone. </p> <p> Tests have shown that it&rsquo;s not the best way to simulate digital keys (pressed or not pressed) using analogous motions of the WiiMote. As a consequence, you will usually control the games using a traditional d-pad. In contrast to the predecessor <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/wiirider.php" title="WiiRider">WiiConnect / WiiRider</a> (which allowed controlling a motorcycle game by using the Wiimote as a virtual handle of a motorbike &ndash; free download at <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/wiirider.php" title="WiiRider">symbianresources.com</a>, the new mobiPad dropped support of motion control in favour of utilizing all keys as well as the d-Pad of the Wii Remote for optimal control of every game. </p> <p> Another very interesting aspect is the recent ascent of touch screen dominated phones. A touch screen makes it impossible to play mobile games that have not been specifically designed for it. This situation is true for most of the currently available Java ME games, and already applies to most of the SonyEricsson UIQ-based phones &ndash; the keypad does not feature a joystick and the buttons are difficult for gaming due to their two-letter-input method. While this is a great feature, it just isn&rsquo;t optimal for mobile games. Through mobiPad, you can play any standard game on those phones as well, no matter if they have QWERTY-keys or no keyboard at all! </p> <h2> Summary &amp; Download </h2> <p> <table align="right" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="215"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/grizzledizzle2.png" alt="Grizzle Dizzle" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"><em><a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/grizzledizzle.php" title="Grizzle Dizzle">Grizzle Dizzle</a> is a free Java ME-based Bluetooth multiplayer-game that was also developed by Alexander Erifiu, Mario Grammer and Kristin Lie&szlig;. </em></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Getting back to the start of the posting, you can see how this solution solves the issues with dedicated mobile game controllers described above: </p> <ul> <li>You <strong>don&rsquo;t need an SDK</strong> for using the Wii Remote to play games. Just start mobiPad and connect it to the WiiMote. The application will be active in the background and transform the wireless control input into simulated key input.</li> <li>The Wii Remote is of course <strong>no specific mobile game controller</strong>. Use it at home for your console, put it into your rucksack when you&rsquo;re planning to travel and want to have a better gamepad with you.</li> <li>Due to the enormous experience of Nintendo producing game controllers and the huge volumes, the <strong>build quality of the controller is great</strong> and the price tag is good considering this.</li> </ul> <p> Alexander and Mario have released mobiPad as Freeware (donations are welcome), you can download it from their dedicated web site <a href="http://www.mobi-pad.com/" title="mobi-pad.com">http://www.mobi-pad.com/</a>. If you're searching for a new game to play using the Wii Remote, try <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/grizzledizzle.php">Grizzle Dizzle</a>, which was created by the same developers and Kristin Lie&szlig;, who did the wonderful graphics! </p> <p> <a href="http://www.mobi-pad.com/">mobiPad</a> is available for S60 3rd Edition and UIQ 3.x. The current version (1.0) is Symbian Signed and has been tested very thoroughly, but due to the nature as a non-commercial research project, it might not be 100% bug-free. Please inform the developers of any issues you might encounter. Future versions might also include the possibility to define a custom key mapping. This mostly depends on your feedback!<br /> </p> Entertainment Games S60 2008-03-18T17:08:47Z mopius http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2008/01/30/shakerracer-is-now-open-source <p>A short summary: ShakerRacer allows you to control a real RC car with the accelerometer of the N95. This means that you can turn and accelerate simply by tilting your phone. Read more at the previous <a href="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/python/2007/11/27/shakerracer" title="FN Blog post about ShakerRacer">Forum Nokia blog post</a>.</p><p><table align="left" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="215"><tbody><tr><td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/ShakerRacer.jpg" border="0" alt="Close-up of the modded RC car for ShakerRacer." /></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><em>Close-up of the modded RC car that can be controlled by the accelerometer.<br /></em></td></tr></tbody></table>We have published a video of the app in November 2007 &ndash; since then, a lot of things have happened. The <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=EMjAYdF13cU" title="ShakerRacer video at youtube">video at Youtube</a> is currently at a whopping 105,000 views. The <a href="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/python/2007/11/27/shakerracer" title="ShakerRacer FN Blog post">Forum Nokia Blog entry</a> has been read 10,000+ times. We improved the code and added several new features, e.g. a speed limit mode for demonstrating the car at exhibitions.</p><p>And we got countless emails asking for the source code.</p><p>Now it&rsquo;s finally ready &ndash; we have just released the source code along with some documentation. You can download it for free at <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/shakerracer.php" title="ShakerRacer source code">symbianresources.com</a>! So (nearly) nothing can stop the fun anymore.</p><p>Especially with the latest version of ShakerRacer, it is very easy to control the car &ndash; and of course it&rsquo;s a lot of fun. The great thing is that you don&rsquo;t have to explain the concept to anyone. It&rsquo;s just a natural way to drive.</p><p>We demoed ShakerRacer at an information exhibition for pupils interested at studying. Obviously, it drew a lot of attention when a small car races around on the floor and someone just tilts his phone. During the development phase, the car lost both bumpers due to some serious crashes &ndash; luckily, there was only a single small crash with one of the visitors thanks to the new speed limit mode :)</p><p><strong>Some more information</strong></p><p><table align="right" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="215"><tbody><tr><td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/ShakerRacer2.jpg" border="0" alt="How to control the car by tilting the mobile phone." /></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><em>The most natural way to control the car turned out to be the landscape mode.<br /></em></td></tr></tbody></table>Keep in mind that the phone cannot simply connect to an out-of-the-box RC car, as the standard wireless remote control of a car uses some proprietary protocol and technology for communication. Only by adding a microcontroller + Bluetooth module, you can make the car understand Bluetooth and enable it to communicate with the phone. Stephan Selinger has written some short instructions on how to accomplish this, but it requires some hardware ownership as well as &ndash;knowledge.</p><p><br />The Python application now uses the official <a href="http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/S60_Sensor_API" title="Nokia Sensor API at the Forum Nokia Wiki">Nokia Sensor-API</a> by default. This allows using the mobile client with the Nokia 5500, N95 (Firmware 20+), N95 8GB, N93i and the N82. For the N95 with older firmware, you can reconfigure the code to still use the very nice <a href="http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120394" title="aXYZ module">aXYZ Python-module</a> from Cyke64.</p><p>Some more pictures as well as the documentation and the source code are available from <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/shakerracer.php" title="ShakerRacer source code">symbianresources.com</a>.</p> <p align="center">&nbsp;<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="350" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/EMjAYdF13cU" id="ltVideoYouTube"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EMjAYdF13cU" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="allowScriptAcess" value="sameDomain" /><param name="quality" value="best" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /></object></p> Connectivity Entertainment Games Python 2008-01-30T00:33:38Z mopius http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2008/01/16/3d-games-and-more-java-me-course-materials-available A few minutes ago, the last upload was finally finished and now <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com" title="symbianresources.com">symbianresources.com</a> does not only feature loads of Symbian OS-related projects and tutorials, but also the course materials of the introductory <a href="http://java.sun.com/javame/index.jsp" title="Java Platform, Micro Edition">Java ME</a> course from the Mobile Computing-department of the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg, Austria - all available for free.<br /><br />The slides and challenges are targeted at students with basic knowledge of Java and introduce the specific concepts of the Java Platform, Micro Edition. With almost 400 slides/pages, they cover quite much, but of course do not go too much into specific details that wouldn&#39;t be relevant for teaching.<br /><br />Some examples of the exercises, where solutions are provided with full source code:<br /><ul><li>A mobile 3D car racing game framework, created with JSR 184 (m3g). Includes: the first basic steps in creating your own 3D scene with <a href="http://www.blender.org/" title="Blender">Blender</a>, an open source 3D package written in Python, and how to display this 3D scene on a mobile phone. </li><li>A client for a multiplayer &ldquo;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroids_%28arcade_game%29" title="Asteroids at Wikipedia">Asteroids</a>&rdquo;-like game (server components and game protocol were developed by my colleague <a href="mailto:stephan.drab@fh-hagenberg.at">Stephan Drab</a>).</li><li>Your own small game, complete with an enemy, bullets, highscores and everything you want from a game &ndash; well, almost everything, at least. Based on the boss fights of <a href="http://s1.mopius.com/" title="Schlabo 1">Schlabo 1</a>, a text mode game that I wrote in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuickBASIC" title="QuickBasic at Wikipedia">QuickBasic</a> at school many years ago.<br /></li></ul>If you&rsquo;re interested, take a look at the <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/tutorials/javame.php" target="_blank" title="Java ME section at symbianresources.com">new Java ME section</a> at <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/" title="symbianresources.com">symbianresources.com</a>.<br /><br />I&rsquo;ve been rather silent on the blogs lately - but now that the semester is coming to an end, you can expect more content to be released soon, including:<br /><ol><li><a href="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/python/2007/11/27/shakerracer" title="ShakerRacer at Forum Nokia Blogs">ShakerRacer</a> source code and hardware setup instructions</li><li>Updated and improved Symbian OS course materials (@ symbianresources.com)</li><li>And of course, some fascinating new <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/" title="Projects at symbianresources.com">student projects</a>... I&#39;m looking forward to the results myself :)</li></ol><div style="text-align: center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/JavaME-Collage.jpg" border="0" alt="Some of the exercises that are part of the Java ME course materials at symbianresources.com" /></div> Games Java 2008-01-16T15:41:34Z mopius http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2007/11/27/shakerracer <p>Since the API to read the data of the acceleration sensor of the N95 has been released a short time ago, a lot of applications using it have been released. Some examples are the original <a href="http://research.nokia.com/projects/activity_monitor" title="Moving Ball sample application from Nokia">moving ball</a>-application from Nokia, the <a href="http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/6227_Light_Sabre_go_iPhone-hunting_.php" title="Light Sabre at AllAboutSymbian.com">light sabre</a> or <a href="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/luis-valentes-forum-nokia-blog/symbian-c/2007/11/20/accelerinvaders-video" title="Accelerinvaders">Accelerinvaders</a>. It&rsquo;s finally possible to reach a bigger target audience than a few months ago when we released <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/carmeter.php" title="CarMeter">CarMeter</a> and <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/gboarder.php" title="gBoarder">gBoarder</a>, which were only supported by the Nokia 5500 Sport.</p><p><table align="left" border="0" cellspacing="10" width="215"><tbody><tr><td align="center"><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com//data/blogs/resources/105214/t_ShakerRacer2.jpg" border="0" alt="ShakerRacer: Control a real car in a natural way by tilting your phone!" /></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><em>Control a real car in a natural way by tilting your phone!</em></td></tr></tbody></table>Now we wanted to take the acceleration sensor of a mobile phone to the next level and use it to control something literally &ldquo;bigger&rdquo; than an application that is running on the phone itself.</p><p>The result is called &ldquo;<a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/shakerracer.php" title="ShakerRacer">ShakerRacer</a>&rdquo; (thanks to Adam Montandon for this great name!). Stephan Selinger, one of our professors, bought a normal RC car for about &euro;90 and &ldquo;tuned&rdquo; it. Not in the traditional way, but instead he replaced the standard remote control component with an own microcontroller and a Bluetooth-module.</p><p>Using the Python module <a href="http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120394" title="aXYZ Python module">aXYZ</a> from cyke64, it was possible to write a small application that translates the movements of the N95 acceleration sensor to commands that can be understood by the car. This enables you to go as fast as 30 km/h by just tilting your phone!</p><p>It is a bit similar to the control scheme of games like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excite_Truck" title="Excite Truck">Excite Truck</a> for the Nintendo Wii, with the huge difference that it&rsquo;s now in real life. Another idea that has a bit in common is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UzXVJodfpU" title="GroundSurf">GroundSurf</a> where a skateboard can either be controlled by your own movements (like the <a href="http://www.segway.com/" title="Segway">Segway</a>) or with a PDA through a Bluetooth connection &ndash; but through the stylus on a touch screen and not intuitively like it is possible with acceleration sensors. </p><p>Of course connecting the tile of the phone with a real toy car involves you as a player a lot more than the traditional controller ever could, making it a lot of fun!</p><p>If you&rsquo;d like to see it in action, check out the short video that we have made available at YouTube. Enjoy! As usual, you can find more information at <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/shakerracer.php" title="More information about ShakerRacer at symbianresources.com">symbianresources.com</a>.</p><p>&nbsp;James Bond would have loved it...&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="350" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/EMjAYdF13cU" id="ltVideoYouTube"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EMjAYdF13cU" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="allowScriptAcess" value="sameDomain" /><param name="quality" value="best" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /></object></p> Entertainment Games Python 2007-11-27T21:34:40Z mopius http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/andreas-jakls-forum-nokia-blog/2007/10/01/wii-controller-s60-phone-motorcycle-game Controlling a game on a mobile phone is often a bigger challenge than the game itself &#8212; with tiny buttons that are close together, playing a game can be cumbersome and inaccurate. Therefore, designers always have to adapt the games to the keyboard of mobile phones, which naturally limits the possibilities.<br /> <br /> <table width="265" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="1" border="0" align="right"> <tbody> <tr> <td><img src="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/file.html?id=572&amp;file=wiirider.jpg" alt="WiiRider" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">WiiRider is a motorcycle game that is controlled with the Nintendo WiiMote - connected to a S60 phone!</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> For gaming consoles, dedicated gaming hardware makes it possible to play complex and involving games. One of the most recent examples is the success of the Nintendo Wii. Its wireless Bluetooth controller includes great features, like motion sensors. Therefore, many projects have already tried to use it for many other things &#8212; e.g. for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qEotHQgUsg" target="undefined">controlling a roboter</a>.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/wiirider.php" target="undefined">WiiConnect / WiiRider</a> is a student project by Alexander Erifiu and Mario Grammer (developed at the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg), which now enables you to use the controller with your S60 phone.<br /> <br /> WiiConnect is a Bluetooth-"driver" for S60 phones. It allows using the features of the Wiimote, including the 3D accelerometer and rumble functionality. WiiConnect is very easy to use &#8212; activate Bluetooth on your phone, start the driver and you&#8217;re connected to the Wiimote. This application offers the data of the WiiMote to other applications through an internal socket connection.<br /> <br /> WiiRider is a motorcycle game, based on Java ME. The controls simulate driving with a motorcycle on a country road. You have to hold the Wiimote like the handlebar of a motorcycle. To accelerate, you symbolically open the throttle by turning the controller. Moving left or right is equally controlled by your motion &#8211; you do not have to press any buttons to play the game. To make the game more challenging, you have to evade several obstacles like cows and pigs, but you should try to collect petrol cans to fill up your energy. The goal of the game is to keep up as long as possible!<br /> <br /> The services could also be used by other games, of course it would be great to see more games use the Wii controller using this new project. The new <a href="http://www.n-gage.com" target="undefined">N-Gage</a> platform does also looks very promising - let's hope that it will contain games that make innovative use of the mobile phone features like the camera (remember <a target="undefined" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_SX1">Mozzies</a> from Siemens Mobile?) or acceleration sensors.<br /> <br /> You can download <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/wiirider.php" target="undefined">WiiConnect / WiiRider</a> for free from <a href="http://www.symbianresources.com/projects/wiirider.php" target="undefined">symbianresources.com</a> - the zip-file also includes the source code of the WiiRider Java-game, so that you can develop your own games using WiiConnect! Games Java S60 2007-10-01T22:32:45Z mopius