Blackberry PlayBook Force Install

Hi,

Was not sure if the Blackberry Playbook is fully supported by Unity or not, but I thought I give it a try anyway to experiment if my game may work or even load. It failed with the below error message.


Info: Sending request: Install
Info: Action: Install
Info: Development mode: on
Info: File size: 41355281
Info: Installing ...
Info: Processing 41355281 bytes
actual_dname::
actual_id::
actual_version::
result::failure 821 Application-Requires-System: unrecognized system name 'BlackBerry 10'

UnityEditor.HostView:OnGUI()

After doing some Google work and search, I think .bar is not supported on the BlackBerry PlayBook.
What I would like to know is if there is any hack that will force the install file?

Secondly if this will not work what about the Android version of my game some how converting this:
https://developer.blackberry.com/playbook/android/tools/


Please share your thoughts and ideas, this would be interesting if someone has officially got the PlayBook to load something from Unity3d, even if the device is old and useless - I wish to provide something to the customers who bought this PlayBook like I did stupidly.

Thank you.

 

The architectures of a BlackBerry 10 BAR file and a PlayBook BAR file are completely different. It's not that it *can't* run, but I would be *very* surprised if someone managed to get a BAR file built for recent versions of BlackBerry 10 to run on the PlayBook. Especially in the case of something like a Unity build that likely has a lot of dependencies. If you were looking at a Hello World C application built natively, *then* maybe...

Similarly on the Android side, the Android implementation on PlayBook is very far behind that of BlackBerry 10 as it hasn't been under active development (i.e. new features) for quite some time. I would be even more surprised to see an Android port working than I would the direct BAR file.

 

There's some Unity games already on the market available for bb playbook:
https://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/vendor/16944

 

Interesting. I see some were released recently even (i.e. 2014) It would seem that the base Unity functionality may then be supported; though if you are using any BlackBerry 10 specific plugins, those would not carry over in most cases.

Again, it's not that it can't run, but due to architecture changes, be sure to thoroughly test before posting for sale.

 

Yes, Gameloft + Unity (the company not the program) are able to build and release applications for the PlayBook. Just like Roku, LG Smart TVs, etc however they go through a special amount of effort and special compiling using libraries to make this work. It is not something the average user should do.

Regarding the OPs question, and a quick mention. BAR files are supported on the PlayBook and there is not a major amount of architectural changes in a Bar file. However there are many missing libraries.

The BAR descriptor files - specifically the manifest post signing - tell it to use BlackBerry 10. You can unpack the bar - rework the xmls to target PlayBook using a PB release XML for comparison. And repackage using the blackberry batch files. And resign manually at the command prompt level.

At that point I expect it will install. Icons will be the wrong size (should be blank) and the game will likely crash right away with errors from missing libraries. If you unpack a BAR from gameloft it should show the missing libraries - which you could theoretically link, compile, package sign and create a new BAR. But now your floating in the unknown and using hijacked libraries from unity so...

The easier option is to sweet talk unity to release your game under the game loft umbrella. Which they don't like to do for small developers.

~ed