In this tutorial, I will show you how to use the Dolby Audio API to enhance the sound in your Android applications. To show you how to use the Dolby Audio API, we will create a simple yet fun puzzle game.
Introduction
In today's crowded mobile market, it's important to make your applications as compelling as they can possibly be. Enhancing an application's audial experience can be as appealing to the user as having a stunning user interface.
The sound created by an application is a form of interaction between the user and the application that is all too often overlooked. However, this means that offering a great audial experience can help your application stand out from the crowd.
Dolby Digital Plus is an advanced audio codec that can be used in mobile applications using Dolby's easy-to-use Audio API. Dolby has made its API available for several platforms, including Android and Kindle Fire. In this tutorial, we will look at the Android implementation of the API.
The Dolby Audio API for Android is compatible with a wide range of Android devices. This means that your Android applications and games can enjoy high-fidelity, immersive audio with only a few minutes of work integrating Dolby's Audio API. Let's explore what it takes to integrate the API by creating a puzzle game.
1. Overview
In the first part of this tutorial, I will show you how to create a fun puzzle game. Because the focus of this tutorial is on integrating the Dolby Audio API, I won't be going into too much detail and I expect you're already familiar with the basics of Android development. In the second part of this article, we'll zoom in on the integration of the Dolby Audio API in an Android application.
We're going to make a traditional puzzle game for Android. The goal of the game is to slide a puzzle piece into the empty slot of the puzzle board to move the puzzle pieces around. The player needs to repeat this process until every piece of the puzzle is in the correct order. As you can see in the screenshot below, I've added a number to each puzzle piece. This will make it easier to keep track of the pieces of the puzzle and the order they're in.
To make the game more appealing, I'll show you how to use custom images as well as how to take a photo to create your own unique puzzles. We'll also add a shuffle button to rearrange the pieces of the puzzle to start a new game.
2. Getting Started
Step 1
It's not important what IDE you use, but for this tutorial I'll be using JetBrains IntelliJ Idea. Open your IDE of choice and create a new project for your Android application. Make sure to create a main Activity
class and an XML
layout.
Step 2
Let's first configure the application's manifest file. In the application
node of the manifest file, set hardwareAccelerated
to true
. This will increase your application's rendering performance even for 2D games like the one we're about to create.
android:hardwareAccelerated="true"
In the next step, we specify the screen sizes our application will support. For games, I usually focus on devices with larger screens, but this choice is entirely up to you.
<supports-screens android:largeScreens="true" android:anyDensity="true" android:normalScreens="true" android:smallScreens="false" android:xlargeScreens="true"/>
In the activity
node of the manifest file, add a node named configChanges
and set its value to orientation
as shown below. You can find more information about this setting on the developer website.
android:configChanges="orientation"
Before we move on, add two uses-permission
nodes to enable vibration and write access for our game. Insert the following snippet before the application
node in the manifest file.
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.VIBRATE" /> <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
Step 3
Let's also add the resources that we'll be using later in this tutorial. Start by adding the image that you want to use for the puzzle. Add it to the drawable
folder of your project. I've chosen to add the image to the drawable-hdpi
folder of my project.
Last but not least, add the sound files that you want to use in your game. In your project's res
folder, create a new directory named raw
and add the sound files to this folder. For the purpose of this tutorial, I've added two audio files. The first sound is played when the player moves a puzzle piece while the second sound is played when the game is finished, that is, when the player completes the puzzle. Both sounds are available on SoundBible. The first sound is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license and was recorded by Mike Koenig.
3. Creating the Brain of the Game
As I mentioned earlier, I won't explain the game creation process in detail since the focus of this tutorial is integrating the Dolby Audio API. In the next steps, I will walk you through the steps you need to take to create the puzzle game.
We start by creating a new class, SlidePuzzle
, that will be the brain of the game. Every move made in the puzzle is processed and tracked by an instance of this class using simple math.
It's an important part of the game as it will determine which tiles can be moved and in what direction. The class will also notify us when the puzzle is completed.
package com.dolby.DolbyPuzzle; public class SlidePuzzle { }
We'll start by declaring a number of variables that we'll need a bit later. Take a look at the next code snippet in which I declare variables for the four possible directions the puzzle pieces can move in, two arrays of integers for the horizontal and vertical directions, and an array for the tiles of the puzzle. We also declare and create an instance of the Random
class, which we'll use later in this tutorial.
public static final int DIRECTION_LEFT = 0; public static final int DIRECTION_UP = 1; public static final int DIRECTION_RIGHT = 2; public static final int DIRECTION_DOWN = 3; public static final int[] DIRECTION_X = {-1, 0, +1, 0}; public static final int[] DIRECTION_Y = {0, -1, 0, +1}; private int[] tiles; private int handleLocation; private Random random = new Random(); private int width; private int height;
The next step is to create an init
method for the SlidePuzzle
class. The init
method accepts two arguments that determine the width
and height
of the SlidePuzzle
object. Using the width
and height
instance variables, we instantiate the tiles
array and set handleLocation
as shown below.
public void init(int width, int height) { this.width = width; this.height = height; tiles = new int[width * height]; for(int i = 0; i < tiles.length; i++) { tiles[i] = i; } handleLocation = tiles.length - 1; }
The SlidePuzzle
class also needs a setter and getter method for the tiles
property. Their implementations aren't that complicated as you can see below.
public void setTiles(int[] tiles) { this.tiles = tiles; for(int i = 0; i < tiles.length; i++) { if(tiles[i] == tiles.length - 1) { handleLocation = i; break; } } } public int[] getTiles() { return tiles; }
In addition to the accessors for the tiles
property, I've also created a handful of convenience methods that will come in handy later in this tutorial. The getColumnAt
and getRowAt
methods, for example, return the column and row of a particular location in the puzzle.
public int getColumnAt(int location) { return location % width; } public int getRowAt(int location) { return location / width; } public int getWidth() { return width; } public int getHeight() { return height; }
The distance
method, another helper method we'll use in a few moments, calculates the distance between tiles
using simple math and the tiles
array.
public int distance() { int dist = 0; for(int i = 0; i < tiles.length; i++) { dist += Math.abs(i - tiles[i]); } return dist; }
The next method is getPossibleMoves
, which we'll use to determine the possible positions the puzzle pieces can move to. In the following screenshot, there are four puzzle pieces that can be moved to the empty slot of the puzzle board. The pieces the player can move are 5
, 2
, 8
and 4
. Didn't I tell you the numbers would come in handy?
The implementation of getPossibleMoves
might seem daunting at first, but it's nothing more than basic math.
public int getPossibleMoves() { int x = getColumnAt(handleLocation); int y = getRowAt(handleLocation); boolean left = x > 0; boolean right = x < width - 1; boolean up = y > 0; boolean down = y < height - 1; return (left ? 1 << DIRECTION_LEFT : 0) | (right ? 1 << DIRECTION_RIGHT : 0) | (up ? 1 << DIRECTION_UP : 0) | (down ? 1 << DIRECTION_DOWN : 0); }
In the pickRandomMove
method, we use the Random
object we created earlier. As its name indicates, the pickRandomMove
method moves a random piece of the puzzle. The Random
object is used to generate a random integer, which is returned by the pickRandomMove
method. The method also accepts one argument, an integer, which is the location we ignore, that is, the empty slot of the puzzle board.
private int pickRandomMove(int exclude) { List<Integer> moves = new ArrayList<Integer>(4); int possibleMoves = getPossibleMoves() & ~exclude; if((possibleMoves & (1 << DIRECTION_LEFT)) > 0) { moves.add(DIRECTION_LEFT); } if((possibleMoves & (1 << DIRECTION_UP)) > 0) { moves.add(DIRECTION_UP); } if((possibleMoves & (1 << DIRECTION_RIGHT)) > 0) { moves.add(DIRECTION_RIGHT); } if((possibleMoves & (1 << DIRECTION_DOWN)) > 0) { moves.add(DIRECTION_DOWN); } return moves.get(random.nextInt(moves.size())); }
The invertMove
method, which is used a bit later in the shuffle
method, inverts the integer used for a chosen direction.
private int invertMove(int move) { if(move == 0) { return 0; } if(move == 1 << DIRECTION_LEFT) { return 1 << DIRECTION_RIGHT; } if(move == 1 << DIRECTION_UP) { return 1 << DIRECTION_DOWN; } if(move == 1 << DIRECTION_RIGHT) { return 1 << DIRECTION_LEFT; } if(move == 1 << DIRECTION_DOWN) { return 1 << DIRECTION_UP; } return 0; }
The moveTile
method accepts two integers, which are used to calculate the moves needed using basic math. The method returns true
or false
.
public boolean moveTile(int direction, int count) { boolean match = false; for(int i = 0; i < count; i++) { int targetLocation = handleLocation + DIRECTION_X[direction] + DIRECTION_Y[direction] * width; tiles[handleLocation] = tiles[targetLocation]; match |= tiles[handleLocation] == handleLocation; tiles[targetLocation] = tiles.length - 1; // handle tile handleLocation = targetLocation; } return match; }
The shuffle
method is used to shuffle the pieces of the puzzle when a new game begins. Take a moment to inspect its implementation as it's an important part of the game. In shuffle
, we determine the limit based on the height
and the width
of the puzzle. As you can see, we use the distance
method to determine the number of tiles that need to be moved.
public void shuffle() { if(width < 2 || height < 2) { return; } int limit = width * height * Math.max(width, height); int move = 0; while(distance() < limit) { move = pickRandomMove(invertMove(move)); moveTile(move, 1); } }
There are two more helper methods we need to implement, getDirection
and getHandleLocation
. The getDirection
method returns the direction to which the puzzle piece at location
is moved and getHandleLocation
returns the empty slot of the puzzle board.
public int getDirection(int location) { int delta = location - handleLocation; if(delta % width == 0) { return delta < 0 ? DIRECTION_UP : DIRECTION_DOWN; } else if(handleLocation / width == (handleLocation + delta) / width) { return delta < 0 ? DIRECTION_LEFT : DIRECTION_RIGHT; } else { return -1; } } public int getHandleLocation() { return handleLocation; }
4. Creating the Puzzle Board
Create a new class and call it SlidePuzzleView
. This class is the view of the puzzle board, it extends the View
class and will take up the entire screen of the device. The class is responsible for drawing the puzzle pieces as well as handling touch events.
In addition to a Context
object, the constructor of SlidePuzzleView
also accepts an instance of the SlidePuzzle
class as you can see below.
package com.dolby.DolbyPuzzle; import android.content.Context; import android.view.View; public class SlidePuzzleView extends View { public SlidePuzzleView(Context context, SlidePuzzle slidePuzzle) { super(context); ... } }
public static enum ShowNumbers { NONE, SOME, ALL }; private static final int FRAME_SHRINK = 1; private static final long VIBRATE_DRAG = 5; private static final long VIBRATE_MATCH = 50; private static final long VIBRATE_SOLVED = 250; private static final int COLOR_SOLVED = 0xff000000; private static final int COLOR_ACTIVE = 0xff303030; private Bitmap bitmap; private Rect sourceRect; private RectF targetRect; private SlidePuzzle slidePuzzle; private int targetWidth; private int targetHeight; private int targetOffsetX; private int targetOffsetY; private int puzzleWidth; private int puzzleHeight; private int targetColumnWidth; private int targetRowHeight; private int sourceColumnWidth; private int sourceRowHeight; private int sourceWidth; private int sourceHeight; private Set<Integer> dragging = null; private int dragStartX; private int dragStartY; private int dragOffsetX; private int dragOffsetY; private int dragDirection; private ShowNumbers showNumbers = ShowNumbers.SOME; private Paint textPaint; private int canvasWidth; private int canvasHeight; private Paint framePaint; private boolean dragInTarget = false; private int[] tiles; private Paint tilePaint; public SlidePuzzleView(Context context, SlidePuzzle slidePuzzle) { super(context); sourceRect = new Rect(); targetRect = new RectF(); this.slidePuzzle = slidePuzzle; tilePaint = new Paint(); tilePaint.setAntiAlias(true); tilePaint.setDither(true); tilePaint.setFilterBitmap(true); textPaint = new Paint(); textPaint.setARGB(0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff); textPaint.setAntiAlias(true); textPaint.setTextAlign(Paint.Align.CENTER); textPaint.setTextSize(20); textPaint.setTypeface(Typeface.DEFAULT_BOLD); textPaint.setShadowLayer(1, 2, 2, 0xff000000); framePaint = new Paint(); framePaint.setARGB(0xff, 0x80, 0x80, 0x80); framePaint.setStyle(Style.STROKE); }
We override the class's onSizeChanged
method and in this method we set puzzleWidth
and puzzleHeight
to 0
.
@Override protected void onSizeChanged(int w, int h, int oldw, int oldh) { puzzleWidth = puzzleHeight = 0; }
The refreshDimensions
method is invoked when the dimensions of the view change and the puzzle needs to be rebuilt. This method is invoked in the class's onDraw
method.
private void refreshDimensions() { targetWidth = canvasWidth; targetHeight = canvasHeight; sourceWidth = bitmap.getWidth(); sourceHeight = bitmap.getHeight(); double targetRatio = (double) targetWidth / (double) targetHeight; double sourceRatio = (double) sourceWidth / (double) sourceHeight; targetOffsetX = 0; targetOffsetY = 0; if(sourceRatio > targetRatio) { int newTargetHeight = (int) (targetWidth / sourceRatio); int delta = targetHeight - newTargetHeight; targetOffsetY = delta / 2; targetHeight = newTargetHeight; } else if(sourceRatio < targetRatio) { int newTargetWidth = (int) (targetHeight * sourceRatio); int delta = targetWidth - newTargetWidth; targetOffsetX = delta / 2; targetWidth = newTargetWidth; } puzzleWidth = slidePuzzle.getWidth(); puzzleHeight = slidePuzzle.getHeight(); targetColumnWidth = targetWidth / puzzleWidth; targetRowHeight = targetHeight / puzzleHeight; sourceColumnWidth = sourceWidth / puzzleWidth; sourceRowHeight = sourceHeight / puzzleHeight; }
In the onDraw
method of the SlidePuzzleView
class, the actual drawing of the puzzle takes place, including drawing the lines of the puzzle board, but we also set the dimensions of the puzzle pieces to make sure they neatly fit the screen of the device. The view's SlidePuzzle
instance helps us laying out the view as you can see in the implementation of onDraw
below.
@Override protected void onDraw(Canvas canvas) { if(slidePuzzle == null || bitmap == null) { return; } if(puzzleWidth != slidePuzzle.getWidth() || puzzleHeight != slidePuzzle.getHeight()) { refreshDimensions(); } boolean solved = slidePuzzle.isSolved(); canvas.drawColor(solved ? COLOR_SOLVED : COLOR_ACTIVE); int[] originalTiles = slidePuzzle.getTiles(); if(tiles == null || tiles.length != originalTiles.length) { tiles = new int[originalTiles.length]; } for(int i = 0; i < tiles.length; i++) { if(originalTiles[i] == originalTiles.length - 1) { continue; } if(dragInTarget && dragging.contains(i)) { tiles[i - SlidePuzzle.DIRECTION_X[dragDirection] - puzzleWidth * SlidePuzzle.DIRECTION_Y[dragDirection]] = originalTiles[i]; } else { tiles[i] = originalTiles[i]; } } int delta = !dragInTarget ? 0 : (SlidePuzzle.DIRECTION_X[dragDirection] + puzzleWidth * SlidePuzzle.DIRECTION_Y[dragDirection]) * dragging.size(); int shownHandleLocation = slidePuzzle.getHandleLocation() + delta; tiles[shownHandleLocation] = tiles.length - 1; int emptyTile = tiles.length - 1; for(int i = 0; i < tiles.length; i++) { if(!solved && originalTiles[i] == emptyTile) { continue; } int targetColumn = slidePuzzle.getColumnAt(i); int targetRow = slidePuzzle.getRowAt(i); int sourceColumn = slidePuzzle.getColumnAt(originalTiles[i]); int sourceRow = slidePuzzle.getRowAt(originalTiles[i]); targetRect.left = targetOffsetX + targetColumnWidth * targetColumn; targetRect.top = targetOffsetY + targetRowHeight * targetRow; targetRect.right = targetColumn < puzzleWidth - 1 ? targetRect.left + targetColumnWidth : targetOffsetX + targetWidth; targetRect.bottom = targetRow < puzzleHeight - 1 ? targetRect.top + targetRowHeight : targetOffsetY + targetHeight; sourceRect.left = sourceColumnWidth * sourceColumn; sourceRect.top = sourceRowHeight * sourceRow; sourceRect.right = sourceColumn < puzzleWidth - 1 ? sourceRect.left + sourceColumnWidth : sourceWidth; sourceRect.bottom = sourceRow < puzzleHeight - 1 ? sourceRect.top + sourceRowHeight : sourceHeight; boolean isDragTile = dragging != null && dragging.contains(i); boolean matchLeft; boolean matchRight; boolean matchTop; boolean matchBottom; int di = i; if(dragInTarget && dragging.contains(i)) { di = di - SlidePuzzle.DIRECTION_X[dragDirection] - puzzleWidth * SlidePuzzle.DIRECTION_Y[dragDirection]; } if(di == tiles[di]) { matchLeft = matchRight = matchTop = matchBottom = true; } else { matchLeft = (di - 1) >= 0 && di % puzzleWidth > 0 && tiles[di] % puzzleWidth > 0 && tiles[di - 1] == tiles[di] - 1; matchRight = tiles[di] + 1 < tiles.length - 1 && (di + 1) % puzzleWidth > 0 && (tiles[di] + 1) % puzzleWidth > 0 && (di + 1) < tiles.length && (di + 1) % puzzleWidth > 0 && tiles[di + 1] == tiles[di] + 1; matchTop = (di - puzzleWidth) >= 0 && tiles[di - puzzleWidth] == tiles[di] - puzzleWidth; matchBottom = tiles[di] + puzzleWidth < tiles.length - 1 && (di + puzzleWidth) < tiles.length && tiles[di + puzzleWidth] == tiles[di] + puzzleWidth; } if(!matchLeft) { sourceRect.left += FRAME_SHRINK; targetRect.left += FRAME_SHRINK; } if(!matchRight) { sourceRect.right -= FRAME_SHRINK; targetRect.right -= FRAME_SHRINK; } if(!matchTop) { sourceRect.top += FRAME_SHRINK; targetRect.top += FRAME_SHRINK; } if(!matchBottom) { sourceRect.bottom -= FRAME_SHRINK; targetRect.bottom -= FRAME_SHRINK; } if(isDragTile) { targetRect.left += dragOffsetX; targetRect.right += dragOffsetX; targetRect.top += dragOffsetY; targetRect.bottom += dragOffsetY; } canvas.drawBitmap(bitmap, sourceRect, targetRect, tilePaint); if(!matchLeft) { canvas.drawLine(targetRect.left, targetRect.top, targetRect.left, targetRect.bottom, framePaint); } if(!matchRight) { canvas.drawLine(targetRect.right - 1, targetRect.top, targetRect.right - 1, targetRect.bottom, framePaint); } if(!matchTop) { canvas.drawLine(targetRect.left, targetRect.top, targetRect.right, targetRect.top, framePaint); } if(!matchBottom) { canvas.drawLine(targetRect.left, targetRect.bottom - 1, targetRect.right, targetRect.bottom - 1, framePaint); } if(!solved && (showNumbers == ShowNumbers.ALL || (showNumbers == ShowNumbers.SOME && di != tiles[di]))) { canvas.drawText(String.valueOf(originalTiles[i] + 1), (targetRect.left + targetRect.right) / 2, (targetRect.top + targetRect.bottom) / 2 - (textPaint.descent() + textPaint.ascent()) / 2, textPaint); } } }
To handle touch events, we need to override the class's onTouchEvent
method. To keep onTouchEvent
concise and readable, I've also declared a few helper methods, finishDrag
, doMove
, startDrag
, and updateDrag
. These methods help implementing the dragging behavior.
@Override public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent event) { if(slidePuzzle == null || bitmap == null) { return false; } if(slidePuzzle.isSolved()) { return false; } if(event.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN) { return startDrag(event); } else if(event.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE) { return updateDrag(event); } else if(event.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_UP) { return finishDrag(event); } else { return false; } } private boolean finishDrag(MotionEvent event) { if(dragging == null) { return false; } updateDrag(event); if(dragInTarget) { doMove(dragDirection, dragging.size()); } else { vibrate(VIBRATE_DRAG); } dragInTarget = false; dragging = null; invalidate(); return true; } private void doMove(int dragDirection, int count) { playSlide(); if(slidePuzzle.moveTile(dragDirection, count)) { vibrate(slidePuzzle.isSolved() ? VIBRATE_SOLVED : VIBRATE_MATCH); } else { vibrate(VIBRATE_DRAG); } invalidate(); if(slidePuzzle.isSolved()) { onFinish(); } } private boolean startDrag(MotionEvent event) { if(dragging != null) { return false; } int x = ((int) event.getX() - targetOffsetX) / targetColumnWidth; int y = ((int) event.getY() - targetOffsetY) / targetRowHeight; if(x < 0 || x >= puzzleWidth || y < 0 || y >= puzzleHeight) { return false; } int direction = slidePuzzle.getDirection(x + puzzleWidth * y); if(direction >= 0) { dragging = new HashSet<Integer>(); while(x + puzzleWidth * y != slidePuzzle.getHandleLocation()) { dragging.add(x + puzzleWidth * y); dragStartX = (int) event.getX(); dragStartY = (int) event.getY(); dragOffsetX = 0; dragOffsetY = 0; dragDirection = direction; x -= SlidePuzzle.DIRECTION_X[direction]; y -= SlidePuzzle.DIRECTION_Y[direction]; } } dragInTarget = false; vibrate(VIBRATE_DRAG); return true; } private boolean updateDrag(MotionEvent event) { if(dragging == null) { return false; } int directionX = SlidePuzzle.DIRECTION_X[dragDirection] * -1; int directionY = SlidePuzzle.DIRECTION_Y[dragDirection] * -1; if(directionX != 0) { dragOffsetX = (int) event.getX() - dragStartX; if(Math.signum(dragOffsetX) != directionX) { dragOffsetX = 0; } else if(Math.abs(dragOffsetX) > targetColumnWidth) { dragOffsetX = directionX * targetColumnWidth; } } if(directionY != 0) { dragOffsetY = (int) event.getY() - dragStartY; if(Math.signum(dragOffsetY) != directionY) { dragOffsetY = 0; } else if(Math.abs(dragOffsetY) > targetRowHeight) { dragOffsetY = directionY * targetRowHeight; } } dragInTarget = Math.abs(dragOffsetX) > targetColumnWidth / 2 || Math.abs(dragOffsetY) > targetRowHeight / 2; invalidate(); return true; }
I've also declared getter methods for targetWidth
and targetHeight
and accessors for bitmap
.
public int getTargetWidth() { return targetWidth; } public int getTargetHeight() { return targetHeight; } public void setBitmap(Bitmap bitmap) { this.bitmap = bitmap; puzzleWidth = 0; puzzleHeight = 0; } public Bitmap getBitmap() { return bitmap; }
5. Creating the Activity Class
With the implementation of the SlidePuzzle
and SlidePuzzleView
classes finished, it is time to focus on the main Activity
class that your IDE created for you. The main Activity
class in this example is named SlidePuzzleMain
, but yours may be named differently. The SlidePuzzleMain
class will bring together everything that we've created so far.
package com.dolby.DolbyPuzzle; import android.app.Activity; public class SlidePuzzleMain extends Activity { @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); ... } }
protected static final int MENU_SCRAMBLE = 0; protected static final int MENU_SELECT_IMAGE = 1; protected static final int MENU_TAKE_PHOTO = 2; protected static final int RESULT_SELECT_IMAGE = 0; protected static final int RESULT_TAKE_PHOTO = 1; protected static final String KEY_SHOW_NUMBERS = "showNumbers"; protected static final String KEY_IMAGE_URI = "imageUri"; protected static final String KEY_PUZZLE = "slidePuzzle"; protected static final String KEY_PUZZLE_SIZE = "puzzleSize"; protected static final String FILENAME_DIR = "dolby.digital.plus"; protected static final String FILENAME_PHOTO_DIR = FILENAME_DIR + "/photo"; protected static final String FILENAME_PHOTO = "photo.jpg"; protected static final int DEFAULT_SIZE = 3; private SlidePuzzleView view; private SlidePuzzle slidePuzzle; private Options bitmapOptions; private int puzzleWidth = 1; private int puzzleHeight = 1; private Uri imageUri; private boolean portrait; private boolean expert;
In the activity's onCreate
method, we instantiate the bitmapOptions
object, setting its inScaled
attribute to false
. We also create an instance of the SlidePuzzle
class and an instance of the SlidePuzzleView
class, passing the activity as the view's context. We then set the activity's view by invoking setContentView
and passing in the view
object.
bitmapOptions = new BitmapFactory.Options(); bitmapOptions.inScaled = false; slidePuzzle = new SlidePuzzle(); view = new SlidePuzzleView(this, slidePuzzle); setContentView(view);
In loadBitmap
, we load the image that you added to the project at the beginning of this tutorial and that we'll use for the puzzle. The method accepts the location of the image as its only argument, which it uses to fetch the image.
protected void loadBitmap(Uri uri) { try { Options o = new Options(); o.inJustDecodeBounds = true; InputStream imageStream = getContentResolver().openInputStream(uri); BitmapFactory.decodeStream(imageStream, null, o); int targetWidth = view.getTargetWidth(); int targetHeight = view.getTargetHeight(); if(o.outWidth > o.outHeight && targetWidth < targetHeight) { int i = targetWidth; targetWidth = targetHeight; targetHeight = i; } if(targetWidth < o.outWidth || targetHeight < o.outHeight) { double widthRatio = (double) targetWidth / (double) o.outWidth; double heightRatio = (double) targetHeight / (double) o.outHeight; double ratio = Math.max(widthRatio, heightRatio); o.inSampleSize = (int) Math.pow(2, (int) Math.round(Math.log(ratio) / Math.log(0.5))); } else { o.inSampleSize = 1; } o.inScaled = false; o.inJustDecodeBounds = false; imageStream = getContentResolver().openInputStream(uri); Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(imageStream, null, o); if(bitmap == null) { Toast.makeText(this, getString(R.string.error_could_not_load_image), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show(); return; } int rotate = 0; Cursor cursor = getContentResolver().query(uri, new String[] {MediaStore.Images.ImageColumns.ORIENTATION}, null, null, null); if(cursor != null) { try { if(cursor.moveToFirst()) { rotate = cursor.getInt(0); if(rotate == -1) { rotate = 0; } } } finally { cursor.close(); } } if(rotate != 0) { Matrix matrix = new Matrix(); matrix.postRotate(rotate); bitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(bitmap, 0, 0, bitmap.getWidth(), bitmap.getHeight(), matrix, true); } setBitmap(bitmap); imageUri = uri; } catch(FileNotFoundException ex) { Toast.makeText(this, MessageFormat.format(getString(R.string.error_could_not_load_image_error), ex.getMessage()), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show(); return; } }
In loadBitmap
, we also invoke setBitmap
. The implementation of setBitmap
is shown below.
private void setBitmap(Bitmap bitmap) { portrait = bitmap.getWidth() < bitmap.getHeight(); view.setBitmap(bitmap); setPuzzleSize(Math.min(puzzleWidth, puzzleHeight), true); setRequestedOrientation(portrait ? ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT : ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE); }
To make the puzzle game more appealing to the player, we'll add an option to customize the game by allowing the player to select an image for the puzzle from the user's photo gallery or take one with the device's camera. We'll also create a menu option for each method.
To make all this work, we implement two new methods, selectImage
and takePicture
, in which we create an intent to fetch the image we need. The onActivityResult
method handles the result of the user's selection. Take a look at the code snippet below to understand the complete picture.
private void selectImage() { Intent photoPickerIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK); photoPickerIntent.setType("image/*"); startActivityForResult(photoPickerIntent, RESULT_SELECT_IMAGE); } private void takePicture() { File dir = getSaveDirectory(); if(dir == null) { Toast.makeText(this, getString(R.string.error_could_not_create_directory_to_store_photo), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); return; } File file = new File(dir, FILENAME_PHOTO); Intent photoPickerIntent = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE); photoPickerIntent.putExtra(MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT, Uri.fromFile(file)); startActivityForResult(photoPickerIntent, RESULT_TAKE_PHOTO); } @Override protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent imageReturnedIntent) { super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, imageReturnedIntent); switch(requestCode) { case RESULT_SELECT_IMAGE: { if(resultCode == RESULT_OK) { Uri selectedImage = imageReturnedIntent.getData(); loadBitmap(selectedImage); } break; } case RESULT_TAKE_PHOTO: { if(resultCode == RESULT_OK) { File file = new File(getSaveDirectory(), FILENAME_PHOTO); if(file.exists()) { Uri uri = Uri.fromFile(file); if(uri != null) { loadBitmap(uri); } } } break; } } }
All that's left for us to do is create a menu option for each method. The below implementation illustrates how you can create a menu with options, which is shown to the user when they tap the device's options button.
@Override public void onCreateContextMenu(ContextMenu menu, View v, ContextMenuInfo menuInfo) { super.onCreateContextMenu(menu, v, menuInfo); onCreateOptionsMenu(menu); } @Override public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) { boolean hasCamera = getPackageManager().hasSystemFeature(PackageManager.FEATURE_CAMERA); menu.add(0, MENU_SELECT_IMAGE, 0, R.string.menu_select_image); if(hasCamera) { menu.add(0, MENU_TAKE_PHOTO, 0, R.string.menu_take_photo); } menu.add(0, MENU_SCRAMBLE, 0, R.string.menu_scramble); return true; } @Override public boolean onContextItemSelected(MenuItem item) { return onOptionsItemSelected(item); } @Override public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) { switch(item.getItemId()) { case MENU_SCRAMBLE: shuffle(); return true; case MENU_SELECT_IMAGE: selectImage(); return true; case MENU_TAKE_PHOTO: takePicture(); return true; default: return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item); } }
The options menu should look similar to the one shown below.
By tapping Select image or Take photo, you should be able to select an image from your device's photo gallery or take one with the camera, and use it in the puzzle game.
You may have noticed that I've also added a third menu option to shuffle the pieces of the puzzle board. This menu option invokes the shuffle
method that we implemented in the SlidePuzzle
class a bit earlier in this tutorial.
Before we implement the Dolby Audio API, let's create the two methods that will trigger the playback of the audio files we added earlier. You can leave the implementations of these methods blank for now. The onFinish
method is invoked when the game is finished while playSound
is called whenever a puzzle piece is moved.
public void onFinish() { } public void playSound() { }
All that's left for us to do is invoke loadBitmap
from the activity's onCreate
method and pass it the location of the image you want to use for the puzzle.
Uri path = Uri.parse("android.resource://com.dolby.DolbyPuzzle/" + R.drawable.dolby); loadBitmap(path);
Take a look at the image below for an example of what your game should look like, depending on the image you've used for the puzzle.
6. Implementing the Dolby Audio API
Step 1
As I mentioned at the beginning of this tutorial, integrating the Dolby Audio API is easy and only takes a few minutes. Let's see how we can leverage the Dolby Audio API in our game.
Start by downloading the Dolby Audio API from Dolby's developer website. To do so, create a free developer account or sign in if you already have one. Once you've downloaded the API, add the library to your project.
Step 2
Before you integrate the Dolby Audio API, it's a good idea to add volume controls to your application. This is easy to do and takes only a single line of code. Add the following code snippet to your activity's onCreate
method
setVolumeControlStream(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC);
Step 3
The next step is to declare two variables in your Activity
class, an instance of the MediaPlayer
class and an instance of the DolbyAudioProcessing
class. Don't forget to add the required imports at the top.
import android.media.MediaPlayer; import com.dolby.dap.*; MediaPlayer mPlayer; DolbyAudioProcessing mDolbyAudioProcessing;
Step 4
We'll now make the Activity
class adopt the OnDolbyAudioProcessingEventListener
and MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener
interfaces.
public class SlidePuzzleMain extends Activity implements MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener, OnDolbyAudioProcessingEventListener { ... }
To adopt these interfaces, we need to implement a few methods as shown in the code snippet below.
// MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener @Override public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) {} // OnDolbyAudioProcessingEventListener @Override public void onDolbyAudioProcessingClientConnected() {} @Override public void onDolbyAudioProcessingClientDisconnected() {} @Override public void onDolbyAudioProcessingEnabled(boolean b) {} @Override public void onDolbyAudioProcessingProfileSelected(DolbyAudioProcessing.PROFILE profile) {}
We enable the DolbyAudioProcessing
object when onDolbyAudioProcessingClientConnected
is invoked and disable it again when onDolbyAudioProcessingClientDisconnected
is called.
@Override public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) { if(mPlayer != null) { mPlayer.release(); mPlayer = null; } } @Override public void onDolbyAudioProcessingClientConnected() { } @Override public void onDolbyAudioProcessingClientDisconnected() { } @Override public void onDolbyAudioProcessingEnabled(boolean b) {} @Override public void onDolbyAudioProcessingProfileSelected(DolbyAudioProcessing.PROFILE profile) {}
As you can see in the previous code snippet, we release the MediaPlayer
object when it has finished playing the audio file.
To play a sound when the player moves a puzzle piece, we need to implement the playSound
method. Before we focus on playSound
, we first create an instance of SlidePuzzleMain
in the SlidePuzzleView
class and in the view's playSlide
method, we call playSound
on the SlidePuzzleMain
instance.
private void playSlide() { SlidePuzzleMain activity = (SlidePuzzleMain) getContext(); activity.playSound(); }
In the playSound
method, we create an instance of the MediaPlayer
class and make use of the Dolby Audio API to initiate the processing of the audio. If the Dolby Audio API isn't supported by the user's device, the getDolbyAudioProcessing
method will return null
.
public void playSound() { if(mPlayer == null) { mPlayer = MediaPlayer.create( SlidePuzzleMain.this, R.raw.slide); mPlayer.start(); } else { mPlayer.release(); mPlayer = null; mPlayer = MediaPlayer.create( SlidePuzzleMain.this, R.raw.slide); mPlayer.start(); } mDolbyAudioProcessing = DolbyAudioProcessing.getDolbyAudioProcessing(this, DolbyAudioProcessing.PROFILE.GAME, this); if (mDolbyAudioProcessing == null) { return; } }
As you can see below, the implementation of the onFinish
method is very similar to that of playSound
. The main difference is that we show a message to the user if the Dolby Audio API isn't available. As you may remember, the onFinish
method is played when the game is finished and the player has completed the puzzle.
public void onFinish() { if(mPlayer == null) { mPlayer = MediaPlayer.create( SlidePuzzleMain.this, R.raw.fireworks); mPlayer.start(); } else { mPlayer.release(); mPlayer = null; mPlayer = MediaPlayer.create( SlidePuzzleMain.this, R.raw.fireworks); mPlayer.start(); } mDolbyAudioProcessing = DolbyAudioProcessing.getDolbyAudioProcessing(this, DolbyAudioProcessing.PROFILE.GAME, this); if (mDolbyAudioProcessing == null) { Toast.makeText(this, "Dolby Audio Processing not available on this device.", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); shuffle(); } }
We also call shuffle
at the end of onFinish
to start a new game when the player has finished the puzzle.
Step 5
It's important that we release the DolbyAudioProcessing
and MediaPlayer
objects when they are no longer needed. Releasing these objects ensures we don't compromise the device's battery life and negatively impact the device's performance.
We start by declaring three methods. The first method, releaseDolbyAudioProcessing
, releases the DolbyAudioProcessing
object and sets it mDolbyAudioProcessing
to null
. The second method, restartSession
, restarts the session managed by the DolbyAudioProcessing
object and in the third method, suspendSession
, the audio session is suspended and the current configuration is saved for later use.
public void releaseDolbyAudioProcessing() { if (mDolbyAudioProcessing != null) { try { mDolbyAudioProcessing.release(); mDolbyAudioProcessing = null; } catch (IllegalStateException ex) { handleIllegalStateException(ex); } catch (RuntimeException ex) { handleRuntimeException(ex); } } } // Backup the system-wide audio effect configuration and restore the application configuration public void restartSession() { if (mDolbyAudioProcessing != null) { try{ mDolbyAudioProcessing.restartSession(); } catch (IllegalStateException ex) { handleIllegalStateException(ex); } catch (RuntimeException ex) { handleRuntimeException(ex); } } } // Backup the application Dolby Audio Processing configuration and restore the system-wide configuration public void suspendSession() { if (mDolbyAudioProcessing != null) { try{ mDolbyAudioProcessing.suspendSession(); } catch (IllegalStateException ex) { handleIllegalStateException(ex); } catch (RuntimeException ex) { handleRuntimeException(ex); } } } /** Generic handler for IllegalStateException */ private void handleIllegalStateException(Exception ex) { Log.e("Dolby processing", "Dolby Audio Processing has a wrong state"); handleGenericException(ex); } /** Generic handler for IllegalArgumentException */ private void handleIllegalArgumentException(Exception ex) { Log.e("Dolby processing","One of the passed arguments is invalid"); handleGenericException(ex); } /** Generic handler for RuntimeException */ private void handleRuntimeException(Exception ex) { Log.e("Dolby processing", "Internal error occurred in Dolby Audio Processing"); handleGenericException(ex); } private void handleGenericException(Exception ex) { Log.e("Dolby processing", Log.getStackTraceString(ex)); }
As you can see in the above code snippet, I've also created a handful of methods to handle any exceptions that may be thrown in releaseDolbyAudioProcessing
, restartSession
, and suspendSession
.
The three methods we just created need to be invoked at several key moments of the application's lifecycle. We accomplish this by overriding the onStop
, onStart
, onDestroy
, onResume
, and onPause
methods in our SlidePuzzleMain
class.
In onStop
, we tell the MediaPlayer
object to pause and in onStart
the MediaPlayer
object continues playback if it isn't null
. The onDestroy
method is called when the application is closed. In this method, we release the MediaPlayer
object, set mPlayer
to null
, and invoke releaseDolbyAudioProcessing
, which we implemented earlier.
@Override protected void onStop() { super.onStop(); if (mPlayer != null) { mPlayer.pause(); } } @Override protected void onStart() { super.onStart(); if (mPlayer != null) { mPlayer.start(); } } @Override protected void onDestroy() { super.onDestroy(); Log.d("Dolby processing", "onDestroy()"); // Release Media Player instance if (mPlayer != null) { mPlayer.release(); mPlayer = null; } this.releaseDolbyAudioProcessing(); } @Override protected void onResume() { super.onResume(); restartSession(); } @Override protected void onPause() { super.onPause(); Log.d("Dolby processing", "The application is in background, supsendSession"); // // If audio playback is not required while your application is in the background, restore the Dolby audio processing system // configuration to its original state by suspendSession(). // This ensures that the use of the system-wide audio processing is sandboxed to your application. suspendSession(); }
Finally, in onPause
and onResume
we suspend and restart the audio session by invoking suspendSession
and restartSession
respectively.
If you've followed the steps outlined in this tutorial, then your game should now be fully functional with the Dolby Audio API integrated. Build the project to play with the final result.
7. Summary
I'm sure you agree that integrating the Dolby Audio API is easy and doesn't take more than five minutes. Let's briefly summarize the steps we've taken to integrate the API.
- import the Dolby Audio API library
- create an instance of the
DolbyAudioProcessing
class
- implement the
OnDolbyAudioProcessingEventListener
interface.
- enable the
DolbyAudioProcessing
instance inonDolbyAudioProcessingClientConnected
- disable the
DolbyAudioProcessing
instance inonDolbyAudioProcessingClientDisconnected
- after starting the media player, initialize the
DolbyAudioProcessing
instance using theGAME
profile - check if the
DolbyAudioProcessing
object isnull
to verify if the Dolby Audio API is supported by the device - to conserve battery life and optimize performance, suspend and release the
DolbyAudioProcessing
instance when the application is destroyed or moved to the background
Conclusion
Even though the game we created is fairly simple, it is important to remember the focus of this tutorial, the Dolby Audio API. The mobile market is a crowded place and standing out from other games isn't easy. Adding superior sound to your game won't go unnoticed by your users and it will get your game noticed. Head over to Dolby's developer website to give it a try.
Comments