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Deprecation of Android x86 target in Unity 2019.3

Discussion in 'Android' started by Simon-Larsen, Aug 14, 2019.

?

Should Unity still support the x86 arch for Android

Poll closed Sep 13, 2019.
  1. Yes

    70.0%
  2. No

    30.0%
  1. Simon-Larsen

    Simon-Larsen

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2013
    Posts:
    11
    With the release of 2019.3 the Android x86 target for Unity Android projects will be deprecated. Source: https://blogs.unity3d.com/2019/03/0...bit-and-app-bundles-backported-to-2017-4-lts/

    While I understand not many Android phones are actually using this arch, it is however very frequently used for development. The x86 Android emulators are much faster than the Arm counterpart. How do you guys expect to handle this issue? As for myself I have been looking into libhoudini, but I have yet to completely figure out how to use it. I also considered Genymotion, but I am hesitatant to pay for it (does not seem like it is free to use anymore).

    If you ask me there should still be support for the x86 arch, but I presume that will not happen. Also if any of you have any success with libhoudini, please do share.
     
  2. Voxel-Busters

    Voxel-Busters

    Joined:
    Feb 25, 2015
    Posts:
    1,952
    Yes, at-least for running on emulator.
     
    dm_bond and Simon-Larsen like this.
  3. aleksandrk

    aleksandrk

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Jul 3, 2017
    Posts:
    2,983
    Unity doesn't support Android emulators, and real devices that have x86 CPUs are very rare, as mentioned in the first post.
     
  4. Simon-Larsen

    Simon-Larsen

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2013
    Posts:
    11
    I see... I have not heard an official message as such (have not heard the opposite either). However, pre 2019.3 the x86 arch ran very well on the x86 emulator images
     
    johanhelsing_attensi likes this.
  5. Voxel-Busters

    Voxel-Busters

    Joined:
    Feb 25, 2015
    Posts:
    1,952
    All of our emulators (through AVD) are working only when x86 is on. And the reason for using x86 is just for performance alone. Else, the emulator is dead slow.
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2019
  6. Nodupe

    Nodupe

    Joined:
    Jan 26, 2018
    Posts:
    12
    Why are you saying Unity doesn't support emulators? they do
    You basically just want emulators die for no reason
     
  7. xandelee

    xandelee

    Joined:
    Sep 12, 2013
    Posts:
    29
    I just found out i will not be able to play the new game im developing on my acer tablet when 2019.3 comes out, i dont understand why discontinuing the support, the amount of devices that runs intel processors are low but they're still around.
     
    marclar83 likes this.
  8. mansoor53

    mansoor53

    Joined:
    May 6, 2018
    Posts:
    2
  9. marclar83

    marclar83

    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2012
    Posts:
    16
    I'm teaching game development and Android is a big component of the course curriculum, but not every students have real Android hardware to test their games. We use Android Studio emulator to test our apps and the default images (and recommended) images for Android OS are using x86 architecture. It's 10 times faster to emulate on Windows using x86 instead of ARM emulation. Last year we were using it without any issues, but this semester I won't be able to teach Unity 2019.3 and Android using the official emulator from Google.

    We really hope x86 support will come back.
     
  10. MaxGuernseyIII

    MaxGuernseyIII

    Joined:
    Aug 23, 2015
    Posts:
    315
    What is Unity's recommendation for running UI-level tests without being able to use an emulator?

    Is it "build a hardware lab"?
     
  11. kaarloew

    kaarloew

    Joined:
    Nov 1, 2018
    Posts:
    360
    You can run Unity made .apks in emulators. It is just not officially supported.
     
  12. MaxGuernseyIII

    MaxGuernseyIII

    Joined:
    Aug 23, 2015
    Posts:
    315
    It's hard to get an ARM emulator to work and they all have old OSes. Unity is no longer generating x86 apks as of 2019.3, near as I can tell.

    I did get the Genymotion emulator with the ARM translation flash working. So that's an option, but it costs money.
     
  13. DesigningKnight

    DesigningKnight

    Joined:
    Aug 21, 2018
    Posts:
    21
    For a good emulator for testing, get Bluestacks 4.x It uses ARM for the apks but it runs pretty fast, and does support debugging and ADB.
     
    ulebule likes this.
  14. ProjectileVomitTV

    ProjectileVomitTV

    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2020
    Posts:
    30
    I tried Bluestacks but didn't seem to support Google Play services for AR
     
  15. ascavalcante80

    ascavalcante80

    Joined:
    Jun 28, 2018
    Posts:
    12
    I`m a little disappointed about this decision... I`m developing geo-located games, and using emulators help a lot with testing. For example, using Android Virtual Devices was pretty great to test the geo-localisation features while walking/running making long distances without having to leave my home to do it.
     
  16. EuanHollidge

    EuanHollidge

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2014
    Posts:
    69
    This is super annoying, especially when you're trying to test functions on a system per system level. I doubt many people have the money to go out and buy multiple devices to build unity apps to test it on. Emulators are a lot of peoples only options and killing efficient emulators without giving a good reason isn't good, especially with alternative engines offering support
     
  17. codestage

    codestage

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2012
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    1,931