Getting started in dolphin for android

bentomo · 03-08-2017, 05:34 AM #1

So I decided to start looking at the android development side of Dolphin and before I ask questions I wanted to get through the setup and build to make sure I wasn't asking things that have already been answered.

I installed android studio, imported the gradle script, set up the keystore file, and ran the gradle build script.

It seemed to go well as I had a release APK and attempted to install and got the App not installed message.

I tried the official apk from the website but got the same message.

So I must conclude that my phone doesn't support 64 bit dolphin, which seems strange to me.

I have a Moto G4 2016 with an adreno 405. I know this probably won't run any GC game past 1-2 fps but I just want to get the thing built for testing. As far as I know my phone has a 64 bit processor with open gl 3.0 support according to the internet and the opengl checker app.

Could it be my drivers not supporting 64 bit applications?

**Helios** · 03-08-2017, 05:45 AM #2

You might have a 32 bit OS on a 64 bit chip.

It's not uncommon.

bentomo · 03-08-2017, 06:21 AM #3

Ah there it is, according to AnTuTu my os is 6.0.1 32 bit.

I guess there's no fix for this without building my own custom 64 bit rom. XD

**Helios** · 03-08-2017, 08:09 AM #4

Yeah. Which is usually impossible.

**degasus** · (This post was last modified: 03-08-2017, 11:02 PM by degasus.)

(03-08-2017, 05:34 AM)bentomo Wrote: [..] set up the keystore file [..]
It seemed to go well as I had a release APK [..]

Feel free to use the debug build instead. The GUI will be a bit slower, but all native code is compiled in the same way. And you'll be able to use it within the debugger Wink

About your mobile, it is very sad, but there are *so* many 64bit devices with 32bit android. They waste about 20% of the CPU performance, just for a few MB of libraries. For dolphin, it is worse. They drop the ability to address a linear 4GB range of memory, so memory accesses would be a lot slower. As nobody wanted to maintain our 32bit ARM JIT any more, we've dropped it about a year ago - and IMO it's not worth working on this one again.

But it is possible to build a generic version (interpreter-only) of dolphin, which supports 32bit just well. eg I can "play" Wind Waker fine on my 32bit mobile. But you may call it watching a slide show Wink

Hint: https://github.com/dolphin-emu/dolphin/blob/master/Source/Android/app/build.gradle#L66

Feel free to ask me everything about the android port. Best on IRC: #dolphin-emu @ freenode