NDK for Google TV

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Release NDK for Google TV.

The latest available NDK r7 for Android does not produce compatible binaries. 
Tested on both Fishtank and Logitech Revue.

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Original issue reported on code.google.com by Alexey.V...@gmail.com on 1 Feb 2012 at 1:44

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Original comment by mjo...@google.com on 1 Feb 2012 at 7:31

• Changed state: Acknowledged

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Original comment by mjo...@google.com on 6 Apr 2012 at 7:09

• Added labels: log-4445407

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The NDK missing from the GoogleTV seems to be blocking a lot of ppl from 
developing for it...

Original comment by zezba9...@gmail.com on 17 Apr 2012 at 4:03

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Update: NDK r8 still does not produce compatible binaries for Google TV.  
Please add support.

Original comment by ruebsame...@gmail.com on 6 Jun 2012 at 10:30

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Please add support

Original comment by lowe.chr...@gmail.com on 22 Jun 2012 at 2:10

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Please support. It is very important function for game developer. 

Original comment by vanny...@gmail.com on 26 Jun 2012 at 5:11

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It is also very important in order to be enable the Xamarin Team to enable 
googletv programming in Mono for Android. You would get some C# developers

Original comment by dan.ardelean@gmail.com on 12 Jul 2012 at 12:49

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Would be a huge help.  XBMC will also require it to run.

Original comment by gbren...@gmail.com on 16 Jul 2012 at 4:54

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Please support. It's important.

Original comment by bjwf2...@gmail.com on 16 Jul 2012 at 6:01

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It is worth noting that I have stopped working on Google TV apps because I know 
I won't be able to achieve acceptable performance. The lack of the NDK is a 
major discouragement for developers

Original comment by bostwick...@gmail.com on 16 Jul 2012 at 7:55

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Even a reason why it isn't supported would be helpful

Original comment by lowe.chr...@gmail.com on 8 Aug 2012 at 12:49

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Not having NDK support on GTV is getting to be a joke. I think that's why major 
projects (Ouya, Raspberry Pi, even Google's Nexus Q!) are building there own 
platforms for Android on TV. Please make the NDK available to the public to 
make future development on existing and new GTV hardware available.

Original comment by kug...@gmail.com on 14 Aug 2012 at 3:16

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Not having NDK support yet really shows the level of commitment to Google TV.  
Sadly, this is first time I question why I even bought one.

Original comment by brandon....@gmail.com on 15 Aug 2012 at 2:24

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I thought this issue was limited to the x86 ABI, but I just got my Vizio 
Co-Star and it also fails to load my native code library the same way it failed 
on the Logitech Revue. This is completely unacceptable. Google needs to fix 
this situation immediately. Why is it so difficult to support loading native 
code on the Google TV platform? The tools work, so why block the code from 
running?

Original comment by tdfsoftw...@gmail.com on 19 Aug 2012 at 4:59

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The CoStar is based on ARM, so the technique to make native code run on the
coStar is already totally different.
-RL
http://short.cybikbase.com/cybik_plus

Original comment by r...@cybikbase.com on 19 Aug 2012 at 5:02

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Indeed, the newer devices are ARM based as opposed to the previous x86 devices. 
This makes the lack of NDK support even more frustrating as ARM NDK is 
supported on practically every other Android device. The Android NDK even 
builds binaries compatible with the completely unofficial 
http://www.android-x86.org/ project but we still lack support for library 
loading on Google TV. The required components could fairly easily be brought 
down from mainline Android.

Original comment by bostwick...@gmail.com on 19 Aug 2012 at 10:09

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There's probably a hackishly stable way of making a gcc toolchain that's
compatible with GTVx86 and _another_ that forces ARM ABI. right now
though... Nada.

-RL
http://short.cybikbase.com/cybik_plus

Original comment by r...@cybikbase.com on 19 Aug 2012 at 10:17

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There is actually a hacked together NDK for x86 
http://www.gtvhacker.com/index.php/Logitech_Revue_Technical#NDK_Support but of 
course you can't release apps using it.

Also on http://www.google.com/tv/publisher/faq.html

"Does Google TV support NDK?

No. Currently, Google TV does not support NDK. The Android NDK will be 
available for Google TV at a future date, in the meantime you can build an 
Android app with the Android SDK with Google TV-specific APIs."

So hopefully NDK is in the pipeline somewhere. Maybe this issue should be 
updated to Accepted status?

Original comment by bostwick...@gmail.com on 19 Aug 2012 at 10:53

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Is Google being pressured by the Movie/TV industry to prevent native code from 
running on their box out of fear? The LoadLibrary function had to be disabled 
to make NDK apps fail on GTV, so this is not a problem of missing tools or lack 
of code; someone specifically had to take some time to disable it.

We've been waiting for over a year and have not received any reasonable answer 
except to wait. GTV could be a great home gaming console if only Google would 
get some courage and let us write native code.

Original comment by laurence...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2012 at 7:51

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Google TV was the first Android derivative to support Chrome. In order to pull 
that off there was a technical need to not use Bionic (tool chain 
compatibility). This means we currently cannot support NDK. We are actively 
working on this and understand the frustration you feel on the matter. Please 
be patient as we work to resolve this and know that we are just as excited at 
the possibilities that can be unlocked by having NDK support on Google TV.

Original comment by kri...@google.com on 21 Aug 2012 at 8:15

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Even though the answer is unsatisfactory, thank you for at least giving us a 
sign of life. Even that little is appreciated.

Original comment by r...@cybikbase.com on 21 Aug 2012 at 8:18

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Thanks for the answer. I had hoped that some wild speculation might coax info 
out of the GTV team. Can you provide a rough ETA?

Original comment by tdfsoftw...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2012 at 8:35

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ETA = A point in time between now and the heat death of the universe, which is 
infinitely better than never. Does this mean the Bionic library was updated in 
4.0 to support building Chrome? It is all starting to make sense.

What a price to pay for Chrome :(. 

Original comment by bostwick...@gmail.com on 22 Aug 2012 at 12:26

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WE NEDD XBMC. SOON. PLEASE.

Original comment by vingle...@gmail.com on 4 Sep 2012 at 1:58

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THAT WAS NEED. SORRY. AT WORK.

Original comment by vingle...@gmail.com on 4 Sep 2012 at 2:00

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PLease fix this for GTV!

Original comment by cjh...@gmail.com on 4 Sep 2012 at 4:46

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Since the new line of motorolla phones will ship with chrome, are any closer to 
ndk?  Isn't that the main reason we don't have it yet?

Original comment by brandon....@gmail.com on 7 Sep 2012 at 5:10

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Well since this is not coming very soon (I guess it would be the next year). We 
might be better starting porting our app to run on Android natively (dalvik) 
:-). 

Original comment by wutipong...@gmail.com on 8 Sep 2012 at 7:27

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RE:  wutipong...  No way, Java sucks ass for game development.  Its either C++ 
or Mono C# for me.

Original comment by zezba9...@gmail.com on 8 Sep 2012 at 5:20

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#32 then you have to wait for either NDK or PSS for GoogleTV.

PS. I never been seriously benchmarking C# against Java in game developement 
(although I was a game programmer before... it's a long past now). My good 
guess is it won't be much different.

Original comment by wutipong...@gmail.com on 9 Sep 2012 at 1:31

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Need support !

Original comment by trib...@gmail.com on 9 Sep 2012 at 6:00

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RE: wutipong #33.

Iv'e actually done some benchmarking before (Java vs C#) and have to say C# is 
way faster for games.  Mostly because of structs, and its more productive when 
it comes to vector and matrix math calculations because of custom operators.  
These are actually two things that benefit c++ vs java as well.

Java did seem to create class objects a little faster then C# .NET4, but you 
use pooling for reference types in a game, so its the structs(value types) that 
make the difference and Java does not have them.  I would like to do the tests 
again with C# .NET4.5 though.

P.S. If you plan on doing your own benchmarks on windows you must set 
"timeBeginPeriod" to 1 millisecond before using the stopwatch or your tests 
will be inaccurate.  Also note Mono C# is slower in most cases and if on Linux 
or Mac I would recommend testing against Mono 2.11+ as its faster.

Also Android was ported to C# to see how it compared against Dalvik, see here: 
http://blog.xamarin.com/2012/05/01/android-in-c-sharp/

Wow this was off topic, but I just had to get it out O_o... forgive me my 
brothers!

Original comment by zezba9...@gmail.com on 9 Sep 2012 at 6:38

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NDK support PLEEEEEEAAAAAAAAASSSSEEEEEE

Original comment by mash...@gmail.com on 10 Sep 2012 at 2:43

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I have a game built with Java(old version) and NDK/GL support(new version). The 
old version drew canvas bitmaps and was getting 30 frames a second on a 480x800 
screen and the CPU was at 1 GHz. If I dare to make that compatible with the 
GoogleTV it's going to run with <10 FPS at 1920x1080. And to begin porting tons 
of code back to Java just because Google said so ? No way !

Original comment by relative...@gmail.com on 16 Sep 2012 at 1:22

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Big daddy "G", we need NDK support, please ......

Original comment by israelol...@gmail.com on 23 Sep 2012 at 1:19

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What is going on here, why is this taking so long ? we need NDK support on the 
sony google tv, please how about a new update of what is going on?

Original comment by pampm...@gmail.com on 4 Oct 2012 at 3:21

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The pathetically slow death of a once innovative company lumbers on...
"+1 Me too!".

Original comment by SFano...@gmail.com on 4 Oct 2012 at 11:47

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I hesitate to talk about this here, because it's super hacky and probably 
doesn't work all the time, but: I managed to get working native libs packaged 
in an APK working on my (non-rooted) Sony Google TV.

I started typing a bunch of stuff and then realized it was probably enough 
material for a blog post, so here:

http://spurint.org/journal/2012/10/google-tv-and-native-libraries/

I'm posting this in the hopes that either a) it helps people get the idea that 
a GTV-compatible NDK may not be coming for quite a while (and maybe never for 
the current crop of devices that run Glibc-Honeycomb), or b) someone wants to 
run with the info I've provided and take my findings to a more polished level.

Original comment by br...@tarricone.org on 5 Oct 2012 at 12:29

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It's hard to know who to blame for GoogleTV's current situation. The NDK 
problem isn't the only major issue. I bought the new Vizio  GTV unit in the 
hopes that it had made some real forward progress. The slow WIFI connectivity 
and slow GUI make it nearly unusable. The truth is, I find it more useful (and 
pleasant) to run my MK802 on my TV than the GoogleTV box.

What is the real value of overlaying GTV on top of your normal TV image? So 
that you don't have to switch inputs on your TV? Mixing the GTV image with the 
TV image doesn't have any use for me. I tried to use GTV to run Netflix and 
Youtube, but found that my Win7 laptop does a much better job. Searching the 
internet, controlling AV devices and the other things that the GTV box do are 
not useful for me. I need a lag free experience that at least equals what my 
laptop can do with Netflix, Youtube and other video services; GTV isn't even 
close.

GTV: few apps, laggy GUI, why bother...

Original comment by tdfsoftw...@gmail.com on 5 Oct 2012 at 5:10

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I'm casting a vote (request) for NDK too. 

Original comment by weborder...@gmail.com on 16 Oct 2012 at 12:46

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WE NEED NDK...

Original comment by faizal.iqbaal on 16 Oct 2012 at 9:04

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Kristan said today that he is fighting for it. I hope they get it figured out 
soon. I would hate to send TV back.

Original comment by jarrettv on 18 Oct 2012 at 1:47

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PLEASE ADDRESS ISSUE!!! thanks in advance.

Original comment by thevanm...@gmail.com on 13 Nov 2012 at 1:57

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I am making a case for it - what would help me fight for this is an 
understanding of what all of you will do with NDK if it were available. Please 
post your thoughts here - I am listening

Original comment by kri...@google.com on 13 Nov 2012 at 2:45

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The GoogleTV is kinda like Google's mini console system.  I would port my kids 
art drawing program to it that i'm currently developing in C#.  I would also 
support it as a game platform for anything I come up with next.  I use 
MonoDroid for Android and the only reason I can't use it on GoogleTV is because 
the NDK is missing.

Original comment by zezba9...@gmail.com on 13 Nov 2012 at 2:55

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I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that several people would like to see 
a port of XBMC for Android on Google TV's. A $99 box that can run a sanctioned 
version of XBMC that doesn't require a hardware/software crack is a compelling 
consumer case.

Original comment by joseb...@gmail.com on 13 Nov 2012 at 2:56

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As a Google TV OWNER then I for one would love to see more native applications. 
I would love to see XMBC, SlimPlayer, hell, even a gmail client that would work 
on the GTV. I have asked so many developers when a "Google TV" version of the 
app would be available and I can not tell you how sick I am of hearing "We 
would consider it if Google ever publishes an official Google TV compatible 
NDK"..

Honestly, at this point it is almost a joke. I feel like a sucker for buying 
the device. 

I would love to see apps like a MiraCast compatible app to mirror the next 
Nexus device too. I don't see any reason why we cant have these apps and so 
many more if Google would only get behind the platform and finally give us 
google tv owners a little love! 

Original comment by kug...@gmail.com on 13 Nov 2012 at 2:59