uLiveWallpaper - Develop Android Live Wallpapers with Unity!

Hi Guys,
How to hide the two buttons: "Settings" and "Set as Wallpaper" when calling a custom settings screen ?!!
Please any advice!

B.R
H-A

 

Hi ZimM,

Thanks for the awesome asset firstly.
Is there possible to implement other functions (e.g. camera rotate) when user swipe between pages ?
Thanks in advance!

BR
Coredump

 

Hi,

I would like to create my own setting in ULiveWallpaper so that if i select that it should switch the scene i have give link for reference also please check and let me know how can i able to achieve this .
http://i.prntscr.com/9bb34e3db5024de5b4858773008ce73c.png

waiting for your replay

 

@ZimM please replay i'm waiting for your answer and also i would like to know whic unity assest support for google admob for your ulive wallpaper

 

Hi!

Does anyone have any experiance of incorperating unity ads into their wallpaper project. I've found some steps to set-up android studio with Unity ads, but it's not really for people importing something from unity with the ads already in it, it's for people who want to use unity ads in a project built in Android studio.

Anyway I've followed all the steps a few times the app keeps stopping as soon as it launches. I'd just like to hear that it's possible really. So I know whether I should perservere or not Anyone done it?

 

I am using a custom settings screen, Can I use "PlayerPrefs.SetInt" to store the preferences?! or I have to use LiveWallpaper.Preferences.SetInt ?!
Please anyone advice because mr ZimM is not active here for a while!

Thanks in advance

 

I've emailed ZimM twice about this problem in the past 10 days, and still no response, so maybe the community can help:

The live wallpapers created with uLiveWallpaper cannot be opened in some devices i.e. after the user selects the live wallpaper from the list, the splash screen and the LWP preview never display. Most devices have no problem, but some do, e.g. Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini with Android 4.4.2.

Notably, these same devices can open with no problem LWPs created with previous plugins (Uni2LWP). Also, these same devices can play with no problem my game that I have created with the same version of Unity as the LWP. So, maybe I'm wrong, but the symptoms seem to point to uLivewallpaper.

Maybe it's a configuration problem that I'm not aware off, which affects only specific devices, or whatever...

Does anyone else have this problem, and if yes, is there a fix for it?

 

Sorry for the lack of communication everyone. I'll be back on April 16 and will start digging through the backlog immediately after that.

 

Unity ads works in Unity Activity which is generated uLiveWallpaper.
In Android Studio wallpaper project need to add unity-ads.arr library and in AndroidManifest.xml add
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />

 

Can you give me some advices to use android studio IAP to active some feature like change character,on/off particle or background.

 

uLiveWallpaper Pro is 30% off on a 24 Hour Sale right now! Go grab it while you can
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/52477
uLiveWallpaper Indie is also on sale with 20% off:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/52477

P.S. I'll answer all the questions on this thread later today.

 

lol, too late bro, you miss me

 

1) That's really strange. Unfortunately, I am unable to reproduce this issue on my device, but in any case, I doubt I can really do something about it. This must be something inside Unity not liking the live wallpaper setup.
2) Nothing I can do here. I send the orientation change event to Unity as soon as possible, but then it's up to Unity when to actually redraw the screen with the new orientation.
There is no way to force the orientation, and this doesn't makes a lot of sense for a live wallpaper. The launcher is what controls the orientation, live wallpaper is nothing more than an image drawn at background.

It might be possible to do this on Unity side... Somehow. The problem is that all IAP libraries for Unity that I know expect a regular Unity application with Activity, which is not the case with live wallpapers. Unfortunately, I don't have any sample code as of yet.

As @again said, the easiest way is to implement the wallpaper scene select scene directly with Unity UI. If you think about it a bit, it is pretty much the same as a level select screen for a game.

Unfortunately, that is not possible. You can avoid the "Settings" button by not having a Settings Activity, but that's it.

Of course it is possible, the API provides all the data. You can start with LiveWallpaper.WallpaperOffset or any of the included demos (for example, WallpaperOffsetToObjectTransform script)

Standard Android PreferencesActivity is used by uLiveWallpaper by default. The "res/xml/preferences.xml" file inside your Android Studio project describes the structure of settings screen. Official Android documentation on the subject (section "Defining Preferences in XML"):
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/settings.html

I don't know which assets for Google AdMob might work, I never used any of them. In general, though, I would implement ads natively using Java and Android API.

 

Just tried upgrading everything (Unity & Android SDK) - no dice.

With Unity 5.6, there's a strange Android tools hack just to get up and running with a Unity project & Android. Same is true for uLiveWallpaper, obviously.

I suspect that this hack is creating issues with the next bug I'm experiencing, Gradle Sync Issues

I've tried using Android 5.1 without any luck.

Anything I can try to get back up and running?

 

I've tried integrating Unity Ads a few times. Unfortunately, it doesn't seems to be possible - Unity Ads expect an Activity, and the only Activity that live wallpapers have is a Settings Activity. I guess you can create a separate Unity Activity with Unity Ads integrated, but that sounds pretty unreliable to me. I would recommend implementing ads (Google AdMobs, for example) natively using Java and Android API.

You only have to use LiveWallpaper.Preferences to work with native Android preferences, for example, if you have a native Settings Activity. Otherwise you are free to use anything you want.

Thanks for reporting this issue. I don't have access to S5 Mini, but I'll try to reproduce this issue on a regular S5 with Android 4.4.2.

I don't have any examples. However, there are thousands of articles on the Internet about this, I don't think there is much need for yet another one...

Apparently, the problem is because you've updated the SDK. Latest version of Android SDK did some breaking changes, so all versions of Unity are affected, not just 5.6. It is suggested that you downgrade the SDK to the last version that Unity understands currently, 25.2.5:
https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/unity3d-5-5-0fx-unable-to-list-target-platforms-error.446096/
http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/1323731/unable-to-list-target-platforms-please-make-sure-t.html

Not sure about the Gradle Sync issues, though. I'll try to reproduce this and write here when I'll have some info.

 

@ZimM Thank you for your response!
I Think i have a bug or maybe it is something with my phone:
After installing the wallpaper - open it and press "Set as Wallpaper" button - Once it run as a wallpaper try double Tabbing it - Nothing Happen!
Try touching any app to change the focus then go back double Tab the wallpaper again - then it will work fine and bring the settings screen.

My Phone: Sam Note 5
OS: Nougat 7.0

 

I'm not sure that it can be reproduced on a regular S5... From the indications I have, it seems that although it's an issue with Android 4.x , it also has to do with the actual device:

- Most, if not all, occurrences have Android 4.x (and probably just 4.4.x)
- But most devices running 4.x have no problem
- The latest occurrence I had, which made me report the problem (S5 mini) was running 4.4.2, but after upgrading to Android 5.1 the problem got fixed!

So, maybe I'm wrong about this, but I suspect the issue presents itself with devices using the low-end Cortex A7 CPU as the main processor, in combination with Android 4.x (and probably just 4.4.x).

 

hi, is there any video tutorial?
your pdf really different than what we must do in the actual android studio
so it's really missleading and frustating...

really stuck and can't make any livewallpaper at all.
i'm using unity 5.5.1p3

 

That's weird. I'll try to check on Note 5 and report back to you.

S5 and S5 Mini have identical specs, the only difference is that S5 Mini is, well, smaller, and has lower resolution screen, so there is a good chance they might be identical in this aspect as well.
On a side note, ever since uLiveWallpaper release I started to hate Android phones by Samsung. Whenever there is a device-specific issue, it is always a Samsung device Samsung is really messing with Android on their devices in a bad way.

Huh, what is different from the PDF manual? Everything is exactly the same as described there. What version of uLiveWallpaper do you use?
There is no video tutorial at the moment, precisely because the manual is detailed, and video tutorials are very hard to keep up-to-date.

 

Actually, according to gsmarena, there's a significant difference in their chipsets:

S5 regular:
Chipset: Qualcomm MSM8974AC Snapdragon 801
CPU: Quad-core 2.5 GHz Krait 400
GPU: Adreno 330
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s5-6033.php

S5 Mini:
Chipset: Exynos 3470 Quad
CPU: Quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A7
GPU: Mali-400MP4
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s5_mini-6252.php

I totally agree with your view about Samsung devices messing with Android... I also hate Cortex-A7 processor being used as the main processor of a device, since it was designed to be a low-end, economy, secondary processor, which should only be used to preserve battery.

The issue could very well be related to the Android customization from the device manufacturer. If I remember well, most issues are with Samsung, and also some devices whose manufacturer is unheard of.

By the way, I went through some of the reviews I was getting, where they were complaining about LWP not opening. Although what I said before (re Android 4.x, Cortex-A7) seems to be the norm, I did get a couple of occurrences with Android 5.1 or Cortex-A53. Nevertheless, I'm not sure about the validity on the issue of these two reviews, because they were very brief, like "not working" or "cannot select, I only see ads", and they were also poorly auto-translated. They probably just mess-up the picture, but I thought I should mention them.

I just keep wondering what could be the reason that a properly installed LWP won't start as a service. OK, this doesn't occur on all devices, but maybe there is some proactive measures we could take, in order to take care of the rare cases, and make sure that the service does start.

 

guys, i can't see a button to drag from palette (im complete blind in Android studio), but it not happen when i create a blank project, need your help

 

i use 1.4.1.0 (Feb 05, 2017) uLive Pro version.
haven't give review yet, because my project still fail.

Step 3
Test if your wallpaper project builds fine by doing “Build → Rebuild Project”. If no errors
will occur, you’re all set! Otherwise, recheck previous steps.
To run the live wallpaper on your device, first connect your device to the computer,
then click the “Run” button ( ), or use “Run → Run” main menu item.​

this part does only this isn't? [Gradle sync completed]

To run the live wallpaper on your device, first connect your device to the computer,
then click the “Run” button ( ), or use “Run → Run” main menu item.
​

i can't click the Run button, it's darkened out

so there must be many reason that Run button disabled
and your PDF just expect everything to be the same :/


-after googling, looks like the problem is on android manifest

anyway, looks like my problem is
1. you only use library 25. i googled the soludtion is : make new android manifest.xml
2. that manifest.xml is fail

so basically, is your library only suport android 25? how to lower that?
or how to fix this problem then, if it not making new android manifest file on Plugin -> Android?

*i'm just frustated because the asset seems create the problem that wasn't on PDF at all

 

Indeed, the specs are different, my fault. But it is nearly impossible to tell why LWP isn't working without logs and/or proper debugging. As long the wallpaper preview screen has started, the service is launching properly, the problem is Unity player not starting for some reason. In theory, that sounds like a possible race condition somewhere in the code... But that's unlikely at this point. I'm not saying uLiveWallpaper is perfect, but I've made sure I was double-checking everything that could lead to issues like this.

So, after some googling, I've discovered Xamarin Test Cloud and made a test of the uLiveWallpaper demo APK on all Samsung devices available there. There are 68 Samsung devices available on Xamarin Test Cloud in total, S5 Mini with Android 4.4.2 included. And... it ran just fine there. Here is the full report:
https://testcloud.xamarin.com/test/...8b064-38ca-40f3-89c7-b285012020e7/?step=0_0_0
As you can see, the demo APK runs fine on all devices (except 3 devices with Android < 4.1 that had to use a different method of starting the test, so I didn't bothered), including S5 Mini. So it's definitely not an issue that can be reproduced even on identical devices. At this point, I'm out of ideas, unfortunately. If live wallpapers built with uLiveWallpaper work on 99% of devices, but sometimes they don't work on some particular device, while they still work on a device that is exactly the same... I can only assume that there is some wrong with that specific device, not with the device model in general.

I am sorry that I am unable to solve this issue, but I am honestly out of ideas what else can I possibly do.

What are you seeing instead? When I double-click the generated preferences.xml file, this is what I get, and the pallete is there:

The PDF manual can not possibly describe all possible combinations of things that could possibly go wrong. I mean, what if the source of the problem is in the OS or something else? It is expected that you have the latest Android SDK installed and working.
But I guess it would make sense to lower the API requirement to 23, since not everyone keeps Android SDK up-to-date.

So do you get any actual error messages in Android Studio? I'm just doing a blind guess here, but from the sound of it, looks like you don't have API 25 support installed in Android SDK. Please try installing that, and it should build fine.
Also, hm, do you have a custom AndroidManifest.xml in your project? If yes, then you have to add targetSdkVersion="25":

Code (CSharp):

1. <uses-sdk android:targetSdkVersion="25" />

 

Guys, I create a purchase button in android studio( my android studio is soo noob, its take me 2days (), all is good, but i dont know how to make this button pass a bool value which can use to check and active some feature at unity scene. Thanks guys
PS1: may be a bug, after update android studio, the virtualbox apk can't run in my phone and virtual device(force close)
PS2: In virtualBox unity, i see the string.xml have other parameter like scene_gravity_scale, but when i build string.xml is the same as basic

 

I didn't get an email notification about your response, and just found out about it.

I'm not quite sure what you are saying this. In my case, the wallpaper preview screen does not start. Also, there's no problem with that device with Unity player not starting, because the user started my Unity game with no problem (same Unity version as the LWP).

Thank you for taking the time to test in Xamarin Test Cloud. Interesting results.

I agree with this, it's very reasonable. However, I now suspect about my build configuration. Maybe I'm missing something about my build configuration, which causes this problem with that particular device model/Android version combination.

In other words, your test LWP runs well on the problem device, which I know has no problem running the Unity player. So, could there be something in my build configuration that would cause the Preview/WallpaperService not starting (for a problem device)? something, that you have configured properly in your build? Hey, you're the expert! My Android knowledge is quite limited at the moment .

 

Hey @ZimM,
Would it be possible to have the separate activity (that is created if you check "create unity activity") launched from within the Settings activity and vice versa (the settings activity launched from the separate activity)?

 

Hello, I'm not sure if anyone can help me but I have a problem creating a build in android studio I get the following gradle sync issue:

Error org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.DefaultTaskInputs$TaskInputUnionFileCollection cannot be cast to org.gradle.api.internal.file.collections.DefaultConfigurableFileCollection
Possible causes for this unexpected error include:<ul><li>Gradle's dependency cache may be corrupt (this sometimes occurs after a network connection timeout.)
​

I've tried many things to fix it, including deleting the .gradle folder to re-download all in my user folder, restarted windows, searched google, etc.

Any ideas how I might fix this would be appreciated.

(Unity 5.5.1, Android SDK 7.0 API 24, Windows - I can build a normal apk just fine)
_____
Edit:

I found the answer! corpsinhero's post has the answer, but it didn't come up in my searches because its an image attachment. Changing the url in gradle-wrapper.properties works for me!

 

Hi,

I am currently testing out having a wallpaper and a traditional Unity activity in the same application. This generally seems to work. Two questions have popped up though:

1) Are you doing any back key handling? It seems the "traditional" activity is closed when the back key is pressed, but I cannot find what is triggering this. Our actual activity does its own back key handling, so no default behavior is needed that stop the activity.

2) Some of our native Android functions need to have passed the activity from Unity (using currentActivity as AndroidJavaObject from com.unity3d.player.UnityPlayer as AndroidJavaClass on the C# side). It seems currentActivity is null. This is currently happening in our tests on Android 6. Android 4.4, e.g., does not seem to have the problem. Should this still be working with your infrastructure or is there another way to get the activity (when not being in the wallpaper).

 

Hi,
Were you able to find a way to switch between the two?

 

The plugin offers the functionality to have an app and a wallpaper. Not sure what you mean by switching? The user needs to do the "switch". In this case, you can show a different scene or update your rendering accordingly, as described previously in this thread.

 

I know that the user can manually start each activity. I was wondering if you know of any code that starts one activity from the other and use it with a button. For example, have a button within the "settings activity" that opens the app in normal mode.

 

No, I have not done this and assume that the user opens the app itself. Sounds like plain Android stuff though to start the activity specified in the manifest created by this plugin.

 

Hi ZimM,

are you still around? Do you have any insights to my questions. I just discovered that various other native Android plugins are crashing as to null pointer exceptions when trying to work on UnityPlayer.currentActivity (on Android 6 at least).

 

Good news everyone!

uLiveWallpaper 1.4.2 is now live on Asset Store!

Change log:

New features

• Verbose logging for the Java library can now be enabled by adding a special tag into the manifest. Can be useful for debugging.

Improvements and fixes

• Improved Unity 5.6 support.
• Improved ProGuard support.
• Changed the way input events are handled by LiveWallpaperCompatibleUnityPlayerActivity, matches original Unity activity behavior now.
• Handled the situation when Android SDK is incompatible with used Unity version.

Also, uLiveWallpaper now has a free evaluation version available for download to anyone. The limitation is that live wallpapers built with this version show a watermark on top and self-close after 10 minutes. So if you were unsure about whether uLiveWallpaper will fit your needs, you can just try it out now.

Download FREE evaluation version​

 

There are multiple options here. You can send a custom event to Unity from Java like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. LiveWallpaperUnityFacade.getEventsProxy().customEvent("somethingHappened", "some event data");

Alternatively, you can write the value into Preferences and then read it in Unity using LiveWallpaper.Preferences API.

What error do you get in the log, exactly? Try doing "Build → Clean Project" before building.

The other parameters are there because I've added them for that demo. Basic preferences don't have anything related to gravity.

The fact that you are getting at least a black screen means that the service has started It might sound confusing, but first the service is started, and then the service starts the Unity player, given that all preconditions are met. So, something is preventing the service to start the Unity player, and it's complicated enough that it is nearly impossible to figure out what's going on without some deep debugging.

It could be anything, really. I did no special configuration in my build - basically, just exported the project and did a release build. Perhaps you can send me the APK for your live wallpaper, so I would test it on Xamarin Test Cloud as well?

uLiveWallpaper 1.4.2 has a workaround that should fix this error from ever happening, so that's it

Android OS itself is triggering it, that is the default behavior. However, it is not the same as with regular Unity Activity, so in uLiveWallpaper 1.4.2 I've made a change that will make it behave as expected. The activity won't close anymore when Back button is tapped.

It is a bit more complicated than that. UnityPlayer.currentActivity only has a non-null value when Unity Activity is visible. So it is set to null whenever it becomes invisible. I had to do this, since UnityPlayer.currentActivity must be set to null for live wallpapers, otherwise Unity would hang randomly. This also means that UnityPlayer.currentActivity is null at all times for live wallpapers without a separate Unity Activity.
However, do you really need an Activity? Perhaps a regular Context might do it for you? You can get the Application Context from pretty much anywhere on Java side.

That is plain Android stuff. Starting the Unity Activity from pretty much anywhere is a one-liner:

Code (CSharp):

1. startActivity(new Intent(this, UnityPlayerActivity.class));

Hm, can you provide more information? Are you using the Unity Activity or a regular live wallpaper?

 

Thanks a lot for the update!!

The back key is now working as within the "traditional Unity case". Thanks for the fix / extension.

As to the activity being null:
I have altered one of your examples, printing out the Activity in the Update method when not running the wallpaper:

AndroidJavaClass unity = new AndroidJavaClass("com.unity3d.player.UnityPlayer");
AndroidJavaObject activity = unity.GetStatic<AndroidJavaObject>("currentActivity");
Debug.Log("currentActivity: " + activity);

The leads to a null reference.
This only seems to happen when some permission that needs approval when starting the activity is required (android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE in my case), leading to Android popping up the approval screen.

After the minimizing and maximizing the app, the null reference is gone.
Also once the permission is granted, the app starts without the null reference issue.
It seems that the activity is not set whenever Android pops up its approval dialog. Could this be the case?

 

@ZimM thanks for your help, i finish my first app like this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Company.Daheee, but after few days,the app make phone slower ( its not happen when i use this livewallpaper https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.invokerlwp). In Unity side i use update to recognize the behavior (swipe left, right and updown) combine with unity animator.
P/S:Maybe it becoz livewallpaper still running in background event when other app is open

 

Hello Everyone,

i really tired of unity ulivewallpaper indie services
i am getting this error by very along time ago i used Android Studio and Eclipse too.

my problem :
i opened ulivewallpaper package,
first i create simple cube in unity then i clicked tools > ulivewallpaper > Create Project > and the project is imported in android studio and Error was found
and i really searched so much behind this error ( followed manual unity help, check out unity forums and more...)
and even i set reference library too. bit still this error

please Help Me ;(
give me a short video tutorial of creating simple Live wallpaper ,

i have android studio 2.3.2
thanks in advance.

 

Unityrishab try updating to the latest versions of everything, at least on mac this worked fo me. So that is Unity 5.6.1, android studio 2.3.3, Java v 8 update 131, Android Api Level 25 , ulivewallpaper indie 1.4.2.0 on MAC OSX 10.12.5, as of today.
Cheers

 

in my device it seem laggy when use this livewallpaper for few days(becoz i'm use unity chan model). Its may be becoz GPU still draw when open other app. and like @pako said, black screen also happen to me some time (redmi 4 and nexus 5)

 

Hi i was not able to call android jar on the build

 

hola,
is there a way to distinguish between the app running as wallpaper or wallpaper in preview mode AND stand alone activity in order to show some gui elements just in the stand alone view or load certain scene when going back to lwp again?

i've added an own method to the java class UnityPlayerActivity that is being called from unity OnApplicationFocus()
since i thought this class is only being used in the stand alone player (if the method returns true - stand alone - otherwise an NullReferenceException...
but strangely enough it works only on some devices.. any ideas?

thanks!
louis.

 

Hi
I made simple scene and it works without errors for me. My problem is it makes 1 preview app with set as background and 1 regular unity app. I dont want regular unity app. Is it normal or i made something wrong. I am updating project but no success at this moment

 

Hi,
Does anybody tested this plugin on 2017.1?

 

like @pako said, black screen also happen to me 我也遇到了壁纸黑屏无法显示的问题。无论是我自己做的壁纸还是第一页的那个Androiddemo apk.希望能够尽快解决这个问题。稍后我会另外找一些设备来测试
Sony xzp G8142，Android7.1.1 45.0.A.79
unity3d 2017.1

 

demo apk直接打开会显示黑屏，需要先点击右上角的齿轮，再后退才会显示壁纸内容

 

not support unity 2017

 

Hi all,
I have finally managed to release my first livewallpaper made with this great plugin. You can check it out here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Again3D.GraffittiLiveWallpaper

 

Great work I'm interested in your approach to the settings screen, is there anything special you have to do to have it show up on that screen? My previous attempt at a live wallpaper used the native android settings, but this removed (or at least, made very difficult) any chance of using IAP to 'unlock' a full version. Your method would allow me to house all the settings (including easy to setup colour selection) along with IAP all in one neat wallpaper instead of having to manage two separate apps.

 

Some help on settings can be perfect for beginner like me. This asset need tutorials