tuluse
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2008
- Messages
- 11,400
Genymotion No Longer Has a Free Version So This is All Useless
So lets say you want to play the fancy mobile version of King of the Dragon Pass, but you don't own a compatible mobile device (or you just want to experience it on your loved PC). Well I have found the way my friends, and it's both free and legal. It even works for MacOS and Linux. Truly stupendous.
We're going to use the Genymotion system. They were smart and built x86 android and put it on virtual box in the backend. This means full CPU speed and even emulated 3D acceleration.
Step 1: Get and install Genymotion
Head to the website, https://www.genymotion.com/. You will have to sign up for an account with them. The free personal license is all you need.
Step 2: Make a new virtual device
It's going to ask you when you first start if you want to make one (since you don't have any). Click yes.
The next part is important. Pick Android version 4.3. Don't be fooled by those higher version numbers, I'll explain why later. Then pick a tablet device. I went with the Google Nexus 7 as mine, but I think you should be fine with Custom Tablet or Nexus 10. We're going to change the resolution later anyways.
Click next. Name it whatever. Click next again. Now wait for it to download.
Step 3: Configure
Before you start up the device you need to change some settings.
Click the wrench icon on the right. Pick as many processors as you have physical cores, and as much ram as seems appropriate (1 gig should be fine, 2 might give a bit more breathing space). Modern virtualization is really nice at sharing CPU power, so don't worry about that. However, any ram you give it will be grabbed in full. Then change the resolution to what you want. I haven't had great luck with full screen, so I just pick a window size I like. Feel free to experiment with this as you can change it at any time.
Now you need to open up the Oracle VM Virtualbox program. In windows you can just search in the start menu for virtualbox to find it. Click on the virtual machine for the device you just made and then click settings. Go to display and then click the checkbox for Enable 3D Acceleration.
A couple optional things you can (I have no idea if they help, but they don't seem to hurt). Under system change chipset to ICH9 and in storage change the controller type to ICH6. These are more modern technologies that should support faster storage access speeds, but android is build to be run off slow-as-molasses SD cards so it probably doesn't matter.
Step 4: Run and install ARM Translation
Remember how I said Genymotion uses x86 Android? While that's great for speed, it causes a problem when running some programs as they were made for ARM processors. The good news is that someone smart has created a translation program/layer we can use. This is also why we have to use 4.3. The translation is buggy on 4.4 (I don't think there is a 5.0 version at all).
Download the ARM Translation from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2528952. You don't need to worry about the Google Apps links unless you want to try to run them. It's not needed for KotDP or many other games and is more trouble than it's worth imo.
Go ahead and run the virtual machine now. The first time it runs it will do a short walk-through of how to use Android. Once that's done, drag and drop the ARM Translation zip file unto the Android window. It will start transferring automatically. After a couple seconds it will detect that it's a flashable archive and ask if you want to flash the system. Click yes. A couple seconds later it will be done and tell you need to reboot. Just close the window and start the device again.
Step 5: Installing Apps
You need to open settings, go to security, and enable Unknown sources. Then grab the Amazon app store. You can just open
http://www.amazon.com/getappstore in the android browser. You'll need an Amazon account for this too. Run the downloaded .apk file and it will install. Then run the store and search for KotDP buy it and you're good to go.
You could go the google apps route instead of amazon if you wanted. The google play store does have a better selection. However, I just had lots of problems getting Google Services to work and the Amazon store is much easier imo.
You should also probably grab the humblebundle app (http://humblebundle.com/getapp). If you bought any bundles with Android games they'll show up.
You may want to test that everything is working before you pay any money for an app. The free netflix app seems to be a good test case. You don't need a netflix account, as long as the app starts, I *think* you should be good to go.
So lets say you want to play the fancy mobile version of King of the Dragon Pass, but you don't own a compatible mobile device (or you just want to experience it on your loved PC). Well I have found the way my friends, and it's both free and legal. It even works for MacOS and Linux. Truly stupendous.
We're going to use the Genymotion system. They were smart and built x86 android and put it on virtual box in the backend. This means full CPU speed and even emulated 3D acceleration.
Step 1: Get and install Genymotion
Head to the website, https://www.genymotion.com/. You will have to sign up for an account with them. The free personal license is all you need.
Step 2: Make a new virtual device
It's going to ask you when you first start if you want to make one (since you don't have any). Click yes.
The next part is important. Pick Android version 4.3. Don't be fooled by those higher version numbers, I'll explain why later. Then pick a tablet device. I went with the Google Nexus 7 as mine, but I think you should be fine with Custom Tablet or Nexus 10. We're going to change the resolution later anyways.
Click next. Name it whatever. Click next again. Now wait for it to download.
Step 3: Configure
Before you start up the device you need to change some settings.
Click the wrench icon on the right. Pick as many processors as you have physical cores, and as much ram as seems appropriate (1 gig should be fine, 2 might give a bit more breathing space). Modern virtualization is really nice at sharing CPU power, so don't worry about that. However, any ram you give it will be grabbed in full. Then change the resolution to what you want. I haven't had great luck with full screen, so I just pick a window size I like. Feel free to experiment with this as you can change it at any time.
Now you need to open up the Oracle VM Virtualbox program. In windows you can just search in the start menu for virtualbox to find it. Click on the virtual machine for the device you just made and then click settings. Go to display and then click the checkbox for Enable 3D Acceleration.
A couple optional things you can (I have no idea if they help, but they don't seem to hurt). Under system change chipset to ICH9 and in storage change the controller type to ICH6. These are more modern technologies that should support faster storage access speeds, but android is build to be run off slow-as-molasses SD cards so it probably doesn't matter.
Step 4: Run and install ARM Translation
Remember how I said Genymotion uses x86 Android? While that's great for speed, it causes a problem when running some programs as they were made for ARM processors. The good news is that someone smart has created a translation program/layer we can use. This is also why we have to use 4.3. The translation is buggy on 4.4 (I don't think there is a 5.0 version at all).
Download the ARM Translation from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2528952. You don't need to worry about the Google Apps links unless you want to try to run them. It's not needed for KotDP or many other games and is more trouble than it's worth imo.
Go ahead and run the virtual machine now. The first time it runs it will do a short walk-through of how to use Android. Once that's done, drag and drop the ARM Translation zip file unto the Android window. It will start transferring automatically. After a couple seconds it will detect that it's a flashable archive and ask if you want to flash the system. Click yes. A couple seconds later it will be done and tell you need to reboot. Just close the window and start the device again.
Step 5: Installing Apps
You need to open settings, go to security, and enable Unknown sources. Then grab the Amazon app store. You can just open
http://www.amazon.com/getappstore in the android browser. You'll need an Amazon account for this too. Run the downloaded .apk file and it will install. Then run the store and search for KotDP buy it and you're good to go.
You could go the google apps route instead of amazon if you wanted. The google play store does have a better selection. However, I just had lots of problems getting Google Services to work and the Amazon store is much easier imo.
You should also probably grab the humblebundle app (http://humblebundle.com/getapp). If you bought any bundles with Android games they'll show up.
You may want to test that everything is working before you pay any money for an app. The free netflix app seems to be a good test case. You don't need a netflix account, as long as the app starts, I *think* you should be good to go.
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