LibGDX is a popular Java based open source cross platform game programming library that supports desktop, Android, HTML5 and now… iOS.
Other details about this release:
- Minor changes to the Livewallpaper API. Note that the LWP support is still a little buggy. It’s a contribution, and while i did quite a bit of clean-up it’s still not entirely where it should be. I’d be super happy if someone took on that backend!
- If you want to deploy to HTML5 you now need to use GWT 2.5!
- We have rudimentary Maven support. Thanks a ton to Team Gemserk for libgdx mavenizer and all their help with this!.
- Android Daydream support, a contribution by talklittle! This one is stable.
- Gdx controllers extension, for Android/Ouya and desktop. HTML5 could be an option too! Volunteers? (looking at you Nex) Some notes on the current stub backend for HTML5
- The gdx-net API is now part of core. Fetching things via HTTP should work on all backends. Here’s a little test. Big thanks to Noblemaster and Gemserk who led this effort!
- Not exactly part of the release, but here’s a quick rundown on how to make your libgdx game work with Ouya!
- Again, not exactly part of the release, but here’s an awesome guide by Swarm on how to integrate Swarm with your libgdx app! Note that you should probably interface the Swarm API so your desktop project continues to work.
- First release of the iOS backend
The iOS release does have some caveats though. You need a Mac, XCode and ( here’s the stickler ) a MonoTouch license, just like the PlayN project’s iOS port. Unfortunately, MonoTouch costs 400$, so this is one of those things you should be aware of upfront.
That said, iOS is often the biggest market place, so being able to port your game could be easily worth the 400$ price tag.
The following features are in the queue for the 0.9.9 release:
- New 3D API
- New Tilemap API
- New Reflection API that also works with HTML5
- Finish up some lose ends in the iOS backend, mostly the Sound implementation
- Provide more documentation, especially on how to integrate native iOS APIs like Game Center
You can read the entire release notes here, and access the source code here.
Nice work LIBGDX team.
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