[Mark]

This looks really interesting, I like Qt Creator and even thought about building a cross-platform mobile framework for iOS/Android/BB10/whatever other Linux based OS people come up with next – on top of Qt/QML…

I’ve also thought about using Corona for this, although native extensions and local builds are only available in their expensive enterprise version.

Before I even download the SDK though, some queries:
Are you planning on offering local builds for mobile platforms?
I’m not at all keen on having my build dependent on any 3rd party server, plus I’d like to be able to use cross-platform assets as part of a larger project in some cases. This would probably be a showstopper for me – particularly if the only real reason is revenue protection/fear of piracy as with Corona.

Are the graphics hardware accelerated with OpenGL ES 2.0 on all the mobile platforms?

Are you using parts of Qt? (I assume so) – if so, what’s your position on the licensing issues, e.g. http://qt-project.org/wiki/Licensing-talk-about-mobile-platforms
Are you using dynamic linking? Has Apple approved any apps built with your engine? Is QML in use (I saw it mentioned in some documentation somewhere) – if so then presumably LGPL must apply to application code!?

Thanks!
Mark

[ChristianFelgo Team]

Hi Mark,
thanks for your interest in Felgo! We like QtCreator and QML very much as well, and believe this combination is one of the most powerful programming environments out there.

Regarding your queries:
1.) Are you planning on offering local builds for mobile platforms?
Yes we are! We are currently working on providing public templates for XCode and Eclipse which allow you to build your apps/games locally. This also allows custom native extension development. Please feel free to contact us and we can provide you with early access to the templates and instructions how to set up the tool chain.

Are the graphics hardware accelerated with OpenGL ES 2.0 on all the mobile platforms?
Yes they are hardware-accelerated on iOS & Android as well as on Win, Mac & Linux. On these platforms we are using a custom accelerated renderer based on OpenGL ES 1.1. It features performance optimizations like sprite batching for minimum draw calls or resolution-dependent texture loading. We are planning to use this accelerated renderer on Symbian & Meego as well – please add this feature request to the roadmap post in the forum if this is a priority for you!

Are you using parts of Qt?
That’s a yes again, we are using QML & Qt as the underlying technology. On top of that we built the accelerated renderer, the gaming-specific components and the native platform extensions for iOS & Android. We have evaluated the licensing issues very carefully and found the following solution:

Application code can use LGPL v2.1 as long as the object files are provided online. That includes statically linked libraries of Qt and our engine for iOS. To make this process seamless for our users, we archive the object files for the final release builds with our build servers. In case you build your applications locally, you would need to archive the final release builds online. It is still possible to use the commercial Qt license if that is no option.

As we wanted to be sure of this, we sent an app to review to Apple which got approved without any troubles!

I hope that answers your queries, and if you have any further questions feel free to ask!

cheers,
Chris

[Mark]

OK, thanks. I’ll have a think about the licensing risks. Starting downloads for installation now. 🙂

BTW, what’s the overhead in terms of binary size for the bits of Qt and your engine that are included with every app?

[ChristianFelgo Team]

Our helloworld project that comes as a QtCreator wizard (without any images or sounds) has the following sizes:

• iOS: 8.8MB
• Android: 8.5MB

So that is the combined Qt & engine overhead.

cheers,
Chris

[sunilpro]

Hi Chris, Just wanted to make sure what I understood is correct: Your custom accelerated renderer plugin for iOS written in ES 1.1 or 2.0? is this plugin going to replace the uikit plugin that’s in Qt’s source?
If its using ES 1.1 context, can ES 2.0 based declarative items (For example ShaderEffectItem) would still work?

We are currently evaluating Qt/QML as our technology of choice for building our next app. Having a stable and well supported framework is important to be reliable.

Can you let us know when you are releasing templates for local builds on XCode, Unfortunately we cannot use the online tool as we have lot of custom declarative items written in Obj-C.

Can you also let us know the pricing for deployment on iOs?

Thanks for your time in answering these questions!

[Chris]

Hi sunilpro,

Our renderer is based on ES 1.1, so custom shaders are currently not possible. However, if you tell us what you want to achieve, we could integrate it to the engine. We also plan to switch to ES 2.0 mid-term, that is roughly til the end of 2012.

And yes, we have enhanced the UIKit plugin with a custom AppDelegate, and also added lots of iOS features including multitouch support, GameCenter integration, orientation support, retina support up to iPad3, local storage, custom fonts from the QML font loader, and low latency audio.

Considering you have existing logic in Obj-C, I guess you have your wrapper logic for the QDeclarativeItems in C++? With our plugin system, integration of custom C++ and Obj-C code is fairly easy. More news on that are coming the following weeks. The Xcode templates, together with the public plugin system should be available until september.

Regarding the pricing: building for the desktops, as well as Symbian & MeeGo is free. Using our build servers for iOS and Android is limited with the free version, but development and local testing on the device can be done with the free version. For deployment to the App Store and Google Play Store, the indie licence will be 500€ as an early bird discount. We did not finalize the prizing on custom builds, but for early users it will be the price of indie license!

If you have any further questions, I’m glad to help out.

cheers,
Chris

[sunilpro]

Thanks Chris.
Looking forward for the release!

[Chris]

So are we 😉
We will keep you updated in our email newsletter, or you can follow us on twitter on https://twitter.com/vplayengine

In the meantime, you can already use our build server to create iOS and Android apps from QML code. You can also already add custom QML items from C++ for Symbian, Meego and the desktop platforms.

cheers,
Chris