Announcing ALPS - Easy live wallpaper integration for Android

Introduction
ALPS(Android Live wallPaper Service) is a Unity plugin that allows you to easily create live wallpapers for android without using AndroidStudio at all. That means, you can create a Unity project with target set as Android and launch it directly as a live wallpaper all from within the Unity editor. There is no need to deal with any Java code, ALPS takes care of all that for you.

ALPS is stable, clean and customizable and provides all functionalities that live wallpapers will generally need. ALPS is also super optimized to avoid reloading wherever possible. ALPS is already being used by ValyannanApps in the following 2 live wallpapers.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.valyannan.android.wallpaper.paintedforest3d
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.valyannan.android.wallpaper.mysticportal3d

ALPS will be submitted to Unity Asset store in a couple of days. But I thought of posting here first so that I can get some early feedback and include any other important features that I may have missed even before the first release.

Features

• Create and launch live wallpapers directly from within Unity Editor
• No Java coding or AndroidStudio needed
• Ready made Preference classes such as ColorPicker, Slider, Spinner and more
• Ready made homescreen and freeform scrolling
• Support for Boolean UserPreference
• Custom theming for preference activity
• No reloading on rotation or if the app is already running as the wallpaper
  

Prerequisites

• Unity 2017.1.0 or higher
• Android device with live wallpaper support
• Be able to launch your project as a regular Android app on the device

Please follow Unity’s official documentation/help pages to setup your project as a regular Android app. Once you can launch your project a regular Android app, you are ready to import ALPS and configure your app into a live wallpaper.

Setting up

Please follow the steps below carefully to setup APLS in your unity project. After setting up, you can launch the live wallpaper using Unity Editors own ‘Build and Run’ button.

• Select your ‘Assets’ folder in Unity editor and import ALPS
• Select all contents inside ALPS while importing
• Wait for the import process to finish
• See that an ‘ALPS’ folder got added under ‘Assets’ folder as shown below

​

• Move the ‘Plugins’ folder from ‘Assets/ALPS’ to ‘Assets’ as shown below
• If you already had a Plugins folder, please merge the contents.

​

• Drag the ‘ALPS’ prefab from ‘Assets/ALPS/Core’ into your scene as shown below

​

• From your c# script register to ALPS by providing an instance of ALPSListener. This is needed if you want to be notified of changes for scroll position, user preferences or window size.
• Apart from the callbacks, there are a number of public apis from ALPS that you may use. Please refer to the ALPS demo script ‘ALPSDemoListener.cs’ at ‘Assets\ALPS\Demo\ for more details and sample usage.
• At this point, if you click on the ‘Build and run’ button of Unity Editor, your project shall get launched in the Android device as an ALPS live wallpaper, and you shall get callbacks on your ALPS listener any time when scroll position, user preference or window size changes.

Customization

1. You can configure your settings Activity by editing ‘alps_preferences_xml.xml’ at ‘Assets\Plugins\Android\res\xml’. You can use any standard Android preference classes in this file. You can also use the following classes from ALPS also.
   1. ClickPreference – Not really a means to save a settings, rather you can use it to listen for a click action on a row. This may be useful to show ‘More apps’ row to the user. When user clicks on this item, ALPS will send a callback to ALPSListener telling the preference got changed.
   2. ColorPreference – This preference saves a color as an integer. It will show a color picker dialog to user and allow them to choose color.
   3. SliderPreference – This preference shows a slider to user and allows them to choose a value in the range of 0 to 100. It is saved as an integer.
   4. SpinnerPreference – This preference shows a drop-down list of items to user and allows them to select any one of them. It saves index of the selected item as an integer.
   5. SupportPreference – This is not a means to save a setting, rather it presents users with some buttons to connect with the developer such as email, Google+, PlayStore, Facebook and Twitter.
2. You can setup custom styles for your preference Activity by editing the style elements in ‘alps_styles.xml’ at ‘Assets\ALPS\Plugins\Android\res\values’.
3. If you want custom layout of preference screen, you can edit the layout file ‘alps_preferences_layout.xml’ at ‘ALPS\Plugins\Android\res\layout’ to adapt the settings Activity layout to your designs.
   

Please share you thoughts, questions and feedback.

Regards,
-Androbean.

 

This looks amazing . Which Android versions are supported by the plugin?

Edit: Just saw that it supports all versions with live wallpaper support which is excellent! For the FPS slider, what is the lowest value possible?

 

Hi,

Thanks for your post.

There is no technical limitations for ALPS as such. I kept it as 16 because that appeared to be the minimum for Unity 2017.x.x

As for FPS, the range is 0 to 60. In the demo app, fps is calculated as:
mFPS = 5 + ALPS.getPrefInt (key_fps, 100) * 55 / 100;
So in this case, it will range from 5 to 60.

Regards,
-Androbean.

 

Attaching demo app screenshots:

 

Stumbled onto your post after looking into live wallpapers once more - I am very eager to try this out!

A few questions -

Any update on when it will be available and how much it could be expected to cost?
Will an in-depth and thorough documentation / example be in the works and available?
On a basic scene, what kind of size live wallpaper does this produce?

 

Hi,

Thanks for your interest in ALPS.
I have already submitted it to AssetStore about a week back and current status is "Pending review".

Yes ALPS comes with step-by-step guide for setting up and converting your regular Unity-Android project to a live wallpaper. There is a simple sample app also in the same bundle. The attached screenshots are from this demo.

The contribution to size by ALPS is just about 500KB. But as you might know the barebone unity project will be about 12MB even without ALPS.

The price is 60USD.

Regards,
-Androbean.

 

Super - sounds great; Really looking forward to try out your asset - fingers crossed for a speedy review process

 

Was this ever released? :3

 

Hi,

Even after 16 days, the status is still "Pending review" !!!
So sad Unity takes this long to get anything reviewed

UPDATE:
I have raised a ticket with Asset store support regarding this. Lets see.

-Androbean.

 

What will the cost be?

 

Hi,

The price is 60USD, as it was noted in a previous post here.

Regards,
-Androbean.

 

Hi,
IAP for android work with your plugin? for the user can buy option for the live wallpaper
Thank you

 

Hi,

For IAP, you can use Unity's inbuilt system as detailed in the following link.

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/UnityIAP.html

Please let me know if I am missing something.

 

Hi everyone good news !

ALPS got approved by Unity and is now live in Assset Store at:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#!/content/101053

Please use this thread or directly mail me for support and feature requests.

Regards,
-Androbean.

 

Hi,
Great plugin!
I have been able to customize it with my own settings, everything is working fine.
I'm not too familiar with the android preference calsses. I want the user to choose between 5 textures for the Live wallpaper. What is the class that I have to use in "alps_preferences_xml.xml"? could you give an example for the xml code?

 

Hi,

Thanks for using ALPS.

For choosing between a list of items, Android doesn't provide any inbuilt Preference class.

Therefore ALPS gives you one. Please use "com.androbean.android.unityplugin.alps.preferences.SpinnerPreference" as shown in the demo app's preference xml file under "res/xml".

Please check the section "Customization" in ALPS "ReadMe.pdf" to find out about other useful Preference classes ALPS provides such as ColorPicker, Slider and more.

Regards,
-Androbean.

 

Hi Everyone,

I have just submitted version 2.0 of ALPS with the following updates:

☆ Fixed the issue with string preferences.
☆ Updated the demo app to include sample usage for Color, Text and Click preference classes.
☆ Added a couple of useful extra APIs in ALPS script for Intents, Toasts and Color helper.

New version is 2.0
Please update as soon as Unity approves the update and makes it available.

Regards,
-Androbean.

 

Looking forward to the update! (I was about to suggest it could do with a couple more examples)

Anyone had any luck trying to use / trigger an IAP? I am trying to make use of the Click preference to trigger this but not had much joy yet - am I on the right path?

IAP or not, really enjoying this asset so far - very easy to build/upload and test in a virtual device (Emulator) too, makes for quick workflow. I'll be sure to leave a review once I have completed my first project with it

 

Hi,

Thanks for using ALPS.

I have updated ClickPreference in 2.0 to show ripple effect correctly while clicking.
Also, the demo app has been updated to show you how exactly it may be used to send user to a url.

I hope Unity wont take long to approve 2.0.

Regards,
-Androbean.

 

Hi everyone,

ALPS 2.0 is now live.
Please update and use.

Regards,
-Androbean.

 

Hello, for a long time I wanted to create an application wallpapers, using Unity 3d, I found alps on asset store, it's very simple to use, I created pretty wallpapers, but I want to collect them in a single application, as those found on google play, if you have to orient me on a track, I will be very grateful, thank you very much

 

I have been working with ALPS for quite awhile now but when I need to debug the app when it is running, I haven't been able to use eith of the debug assets I have SRDebugger or Lunar Debug. Can you recommend a good app debugger asset?

 

Can i make normal wallpaper with it, i mean just static images, not live ?

 

hi
can you please make a video to show how its work?
i want to buy it but i don't know how its working! what is this setting menu? can i change it?
and is it work with 2018.1? because last update is for 6 month ago!

 

Hi,

may I substitute the default settings Activity (‘alps_preferences_xml.xml’) with my custom made unity Settings Scene?

 

Getting an error in alps core on 2018.1.1f1
"Assets/ALPS/Core/ALPS.cs(318,10): error CS0165: Use of Unassigned variable 'c' "

Even though I am simply trying to test the demo scene it fails to compile the project due to this. I have no other assets imported?

 

Can you confirm that this works with Unity IAP?
And is there any playmaker actions for this plugin?
Thanks

 

To fix this change

Code (CSharp):

1. Color32 c;

to

Code (CSharp):

1. Color32 c = new Color32();

 

Hi,

ALPS 3.1 with support for Unity 2018.2.7 is live in asset store now.

Please note that this update is NOT backward compatible with earlier versions of ALPS. Therefore, please remove previous versions and re-import version 3.1 of ALPS that works perfectly fine on any Unity version starting from 2017.1.5.

Installation process also has changed since ALPS 3.1. So, please read the instructions below or the accompanying ReadMe.pdf file carefully and follow accordingly while importing ALPS 3.1 into your projects.

Regards,
-Androbean Studio.


Prerequisites

• Unity 2017.1.5f1 or later
• Android device with live wallpaper support
• Be able to launch your project as a regular Android app on the device

Please follow Unity’s official documentation/help pages to setup your project as a regular Android app. Once you can launch your project a regular Android app, you are ready to import ALPS and configure your app into a live wallpaper.


Setting up
Please follow the steps below carefully to setup APLS in your unity project. After setting up, you can launch the live wallpaper using Unity Editors own ‘Build and Run’ button.

• Make sure that you can successfully launch your project as a regular Android app on the connected Android device or emulator.
• Select your ‘Assets’ folder in Unity editor and import ALPS
• Select all contents inside ALPS while importing. After import, you should see an ‘ALPS’ folder under ‘Assets’ folder.

• Copy and paste the ‘Plugins’ folder under ‘Assets/APLS’ into ‘Assets’ folder as shown below. Delete the ‘Assets/APLS’ folder to avoid duplicates.

​

1. Drag the ‘ALPS’ prefab from ‘Assets/Plugins/ALPS/Core’ folder into your scene as shown below
   

​

• From your c# script register to ALPS by providing an instance of ALPSListener. This is needed if you want to be notified of changes for scroll position, user preferences or window resize.

​

• Apart from the callbacks, there are a number of public apis from ALPS that you may use. Please refer to the ALPS demo script ‘ALPSDemoListener.cs’ at ‘Assets/Plugins/ALPS/Demo’ for more details and sample usage.
• At this point, if you click on the ‘Build and run’ button of Unity Editor, your project shall get launched in the Android device as an ALPS live wallpaper, and you shall get callbacks on your ALPS listener any time when scroll position, user preference or window size changes.
• Make sure to choose/reorder your scenes in the build settings.

Customization

1. You can configure your settings Activity by editing ‘alps_preferences.xml’ at ‘Assets/Plugins/Android/ALPS/res/xml’. You can use any standard Android preference classes in this file. You can use the following classes from ALPS also.
   
   
   1. ClickPreference – Not really a means to save a settings, rather you can use it to listen for a click action on a row. This may be useful to show ‘More apps’ row to the user. When user clicks on t
   2. his item, ALPS will send a callback to ALPSListener telling the preference got changed.
   3. ColorPreference – This preference saves a color as an integer. It will show a color picker dialog to user and allow them to choose a color.
      
      
   4. TextPreference – This preference shows a single line text in an editable field and allows user to see and edit it. This can be used to allow users to set custom strings for some items in your live wallpaper.
   5. SliderPreference – This preference shows a slider to user and allows them to choose a value in the range of 0 to 100. It is saved as an integer.
      
      
   6. SpinnerPreference – This preference shows a drop-down list of items to user and allows them to select any one of them. It saves index of the selected item as an integer.
      
      
   7. SupportPreference – This is not a means to save a setting, rather it presents users with some buttons to connect with the developer such as email, Google+, PlayStore, Facebook and Twitter.
      

   ​
2. You can setup custom styles for your preference Activity by editing the style elements in ‘alps_styles.xml’ at ‘Assets/Plugins/Android/ALPS/res/values’.
   
   
3. If you want custom layout of preference screen, you can edit the layout file ‘alps_preference_activity_layout.xml’ at ‘Assets/Plugins/Android/ALPS/res/layout’ to adapt the settings Activity layout to your designs.
   

 

Apologies for the extra long delay. I hope you have figured out a way to solved your problem in the meantime. I am still posting a possible solution here for future reference.

The way I understand, you want to aggregate a number of live wallpapers under a single app. This may be achieved using a 'SpinnerPreference' to let the user choose which live wallpaper they want to activate. The various options may be added as an array in 'Assets\Plugins\Android\ALPS\res\values\alps_arrays.xml' and can refered to from a SpinnerPreference added into 'Assets\Plugins\Android\ALPS\res\xml\alps_preferences.xml'

 

Apologies for the super long delay.

I personally have not used any of the afore mentioned tools. I think you may have to get help from the publishers of the respective debuggers.

That being said, please note that ALPS has changed the distribution method, and it now ships a classes.jar + res folder instead of a single .aar file. May be this change makes a difference for debuggers?

 

Apologies for the unreasonably long delay.
With ALPS you can make any Unity app as a live wallpaper.

The only requirement is that, you must already be able to run the app as a regular android game-app before you apply ALPS.

 

Apologies for the long delay.
ALPS has just been updated to version 3.1 with support for all Unity versions from 2017.1.5 to anything later on.

A video will soon be made demonstrating basic usage.

 

Apologies for the long delay.

You can definitely edit all the resources and customize the preference screen and more.
Please read the "Customization" section in the 'ReadMe.pdf' carefully to understand all the possiblities.

Please note that ALPS installation and distribution has changed with version 3.1.
So, please read the entire ReadMe carefully.

 

Apologies for the long delay.
This has been fixed in the latest version 3.1

Please update and use.
Kindly note that version 3.1 is not backward compatible, so you must remove old ALPS and the FOLLOW NEW ReadMe.pdf to install version 3.1 of ALPS.

 

Sorry for the delayed response.
Yes, you are right. That is the fix, and it is incorporated in the latest version 3.1 of ALPS released today.

Kindly note that version 3.1 is not backward compatible, so you must remove old ALPS and the FOLLOW NEW ReadMe.pdf to install version 3.1 of ALPS.

 

Sorry fore the delayed response.

Although ALPS doesn't explicitly prevent Unity IAP, I need to check the purchase flow and make sure that there are no blocking issues in regard to Unity IAP. I will get back on this.

ALPS doesn't have PlayMaker integration yet. I myself is not familiar with PlayMaker.
However, if you can post your requirements, it will certainly help me check the feasibility and also to design and implement PlayMaker support faster.

 

Is it fully open source like Ulivewallpaper Pro.

 

The use of ALPS is under consideration.
I have a question to ask you.

When a Smartphone is in standby mode, live wallpapers should also be stopped.
Does ALPS provide relevant information so that Unity can stop running when smartphone is in standby mode?

 

Hi,

Thanks for your interest in ALPS.
ALPS does pause and resume Unity based on if the wallpaper is visible or not.
This means that ALPS live wallpapers wont be running when it is not visible, may be because another application is on top or if the screen is off.

Hope this answers your question.
-Androbean.

 

Thank you for your answer.
Your ALPS is making a lot of people fun.

 

I made a simple Live Wallpaper and my Android installed it on my phone.
Thank you.

I have a question.

I heard that ALPS is going to pause and resume Unity depending on whether the background screen is visible. Is this a separate coding required? Can you give an example of how to do it if necessary?

 

Hi,

ALPS already does it for you.
There is nothing special you need to do to benefit from it.

Regards,
-Androbean.

 

Thank you.

 

Is it work with 2018.3.0f2 Personal?

 

Dear develoepr, this is not working with 2018.3.0f2.

Build failure:

error while merging dex archives... and a lot of error

stderr[
D8: Program type already present: com.androbean.android.
unityplugin.alps.AlpsActivity

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.


After the 7th try I get this:

It is building, and opening/closing the app:


Android Studio LogCat says:

D/GameManagerService: handleForegroundChange(). pkgName: com.androbean.android, clsName: com.androbean.android.unityplugin.alps.AlpsActivity,FgActivityName:com.androbean.android/.unityplugin.alps.AlpsActivity
2018-12-27 17:39:05.391 7142-7142/? W/CHANGE_LIVE_WALLPAPER: Not a live wallpaper: ComponentInfo{com.androbean.android/com.androbean.android.unityplugin.alps.AlpsWallpaperService}

android 8.0, please help

 

does this still work? id love to download it and start making lwps now

 

This issue has been resolved, and the user is able to use ALPS without anymore build issues since version 3.2

 

The build issues were because of some behavior changes in Unity 2018.3+
This has been solved in ALPS version 3.2

 

There were some issues with this version of Unity.
But all have been rectified and all is good starting ALPS version 3.2