note: content was updated on 9 february 2023 to correct information about the podcast. hello everyone! my colleagues are still on holiday, enjoying socially-distant vacations and staycations. while they're on hikes in the sierra mountains and swimming in backyard pools, i'll continue on from my post last week. we made big changes to the layout and function of the samsung developers site in january, so if you haven't explored the site in detail, here are some highlights. d'ya like games? if you're a game developer or have interest in developing games in the future, you'll want to investigate the galaxy gamedev section of the site. our colleagues in the gamedev team are building useful tools for optimizing games so they'll run great on galaxy phones, tablets, as well as other android devices. the gamedev team is updating their content frequently, so if you want to get the most out of your game projects, check back often. if you have existing game titles and you're interested in expanding your user base, spend some time in the galaxy store games section to learn how to list your games (and other apps) in galaxy store. you can also learn how to use samsung's in-app purchase (iap) sdk for new ways to increase your revenue. what's up, docs? we know, what you're looking for is information and ways to develop faster and smarter. a developer site would not be complete without reams of technical documentation describing the apis and tools. that's all there, again, with new ways to view and access the information. most every tool or sdk listed on the top navigation bar has documentation affiliated with it. after choosing a topic from the navigation bar, often you can access the documentation by clicking the "get started" button in the header image, or by scrolling down the page and looking for the specific api you are interested in. for example, if you're looking for information on optimizing your apps for foldable devices, use the main navigation bar to go to build > mobile and then click the galaxy fold icon partway down the page. test, test, & test when you're ready to test your app on a real device, you have a couple of options. the remote test lab allows you to test real devices in labs located in asia, north america, and europe. this includes the latest devices like the galaxy z flip or galaxy s20, as well as galaxy watch and galaxy tab devices. if you have a galaxy android device, you can test locally with your mac, linux, or windows device using the android platform sdk tools. windows users will need to install the samsung-specific usb drivers, which can be found on the developer portal. feed me, again i mentioned the rss feed features of discourse in my earlier post. if it's not obvious, i really enjoy the convenience and consistency of reading my day's worth of news all within one app. if i find an article or topic that i want to read in more depth, i'll click the heading and go to the site in my mobile browser or save it for later reading on the desktop. here, you can see that i can read all the latest posts from android enthusiast sites, the ny times, and our very own product teams. the link to the samsung developers portal (sdp) rss feed can be found at the footer of every page, or you can simply add https://developer.samsung.com/feed to your favorite rss reader. we got you covered if you have a question that can't be answered in the public forums, you can request support through the portal dashboard. if you log into the site using your samsung account id, you can submit a ticket to our developer support team. to check on the status of your ticket and read feedback, visit the dashboard support page. in addition to submitting and viewing support tickets, the portal dashboard is your gateway to special partner benefits. for example, if you're a registered galaxy themes or galaxy watch creator, you can use the dashboard to access tools, services, and sdks for developing new content. from the dashboard, you can also sign up for our monthly newsletter or withdraw membership from the developer program altogether. pow! while it's not exactly a feature of the site, it's an example of the ways we're trying to reach developers. my colleague tony morelan started working on a new podcast earlier this year. tony's guests are a mix of samsung thought leaders and successful galaxy store sellers. tony has a lot of enthusiasm for design and he's always searching for his next great topic. give him a listen on your favorite podcasting app or by visiting our podcast archive. we still 💙 feedback i hope you're enjoying the new layout and design of the site. if you have suggestions (or even bug reports), hop into the feature requests section of the forums and let me know. thank you for being a samsung developer.

optimize unity game performance objective learn how to optimize the performance of a demo game using the adaptive performance package from within unity. the adaptive performance package provides you with tools, including relevant information from the mobile device. the tools allow you to edit different features in the game with useful scalers that give you the ability to improve the overall game performance. overview galaxy gamesdk delivers an interface between game application and device which helps developers optimize their games. integrating unity adaptive performance with galaxy gamesdk allows unity developers to use this feature on unity editor within unity package manager and also customize their game contents by c# scripting. game performance and quality settings can be adjusted in real-time by identifying device performance status and heat trends. moreover, using a set of simple ui controls, you can scale the quality of the game to match the device platform. samsung galaxy s10 / note10 devices and onwards support adaptive performance. thermal throttling mobile devices don’t have an active cooling system, so temperature continues to rise and it will limit the cpu / gpu clock to control heat and consequently degrading the performance. the ideal goal is to make performance stable with low temperature. adaptive performance, primarily for performance and quality balance management, can help achieve this. thermal warning the warning system implemented in gamesdk can trigger the throttling system to adjust the cpu/gpu clock. adjust quality it also provides you with the option to adjust the quality of the game to maintain stable performance at different warning levels. dynamic quality setting you can scale the quality of your game in real-time to meet the desired performance. this includes changes in network, animation, physics, level of detail, and visual effects. scalers with the latest addition to the adaptive performance tool v2.0, available in the 2020 version of unity, here’s a list of features that can be managed within the adaptive performance scalers in the project settings: frame rate resolution batching level of detail (lod) look up texture (lut) multisample anti-aliasing (msaa) shadow cascade shadow distance shadow map resolution shadow quality sorting transparency view distance there are other available features in the adaptive performance settings menu that can be edited similarly with different scale ranges. variable refresh rate another latest addition provided in v2.0 is the variable refresh rate (vrr). this will increase frame rate for devices that support refresh rates above 60. simulator the newest and useful feature that allows you to facilitate mobile development would be the device simulator. this allows developers to display the game as it would be presented on a device. megacity demo game you will use a demo game, named megacity, and optimize its performance using adaptive performance tools. megacity contains the following: 8 million triangles 6 million entities 2000 cars 100 audio source (heavy for mobile in general case) unity 2019.1 visual studio 2017 android sdk + ndk 16b profiling: gpu watch gpuwatch gpuwatch is a profiling tool for observing gpu activity in your app. the following gpu related information are measured by the gpuwatch: fps counters current average cpu / gpu load cpu load gpu load gpu frequency frame info render pass stats vertex / fragment shader load set up your environment you will need the following: visual studio 2017 android sdk (latest) ndk r16b or later java se development kit (jdk) 8 or later unity 2019.1.14f1 or later https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download/archive run unity hub and add megacity project sample code here is a sample code for you to start coding in this code lab. download it and start your learning experience! adaptive performance sample code (1.93 kb) enable gpuwatch how to enable gpuwatch: test out the base sample app the base sample is written with classic simple approach: check cpu / gpu bottleneck trigger when thermal status is changed adjust cpu / gpu clock level adjust quality setting by setting lod adjust target fps all of these can be controlled in real-time. install adapative performance package go to editor > windows > package manager > install adaptive performance package. modify c# script go to editor > window > package manager > import adaptive performance package. double click adaptiveperformancecontroller.cs script file to edit. modify script as intended. build and launch apk select file > build settings. check that the device is connected and check the development build / scripts only build option. then, click patch and the installed apk on your device will be updated. measure performance to check current application performance, check the fps and cpu / gpu load counters. as you can see, the performance is not very good. the next step is to check current status where you will try to: check performance status to know if there is any bottleneck iadaptiveperformance.performancestatus.performancemetrics.performancebottleneck cpu: frame rate is limited by cpu processing gpu: frame rate is limited by gpu processing targetframerate: can’t reach target frame rate frame rate is limited by application.targetframerate. in this case, the application should consider lowering performance requirements. check thermal status register event handler to trigger thermal status and set handler into: ithermalstatus.thermalstatus.thermalevent check thermalmetrics information in event handler: warninglevel temperaturelevel (0.0 ~ 1.0) current normalized temperature level in the range of [0, 1]. a value of 0 means standard operation temperature and the device is not in a throttling state. a value of 1 means that the maximum temperature of the device is reached and the device is going into or is already in throttling state. temperaturetrend (-1.0 ~ 1.0) current normalized temperature trend in the range of [-1, 1]. a value of 1 describes a rapid increase in temperature. a value of 0 describes a constant temperature. a value of -1 describes a rapid decrease in temperature. please note that it takes at least 10s until the temperature trend may reflect any changes. adjust target frame rate change target frame rate when thermal status is changed. for example: change the quality setting change the quality setting by adjusting lod in real-time. adjust cpu/gpu clock change cpu / gpu clock level by ideviceperformancecontrol. ideviceperformancecontrol automaticperformancecontrol when set to true (default) cpulevel and gpulevel are set automatically by adaptive performance. maxcpuperformancelevel the maximum valid cpu performance level you use with cpulevel. the minimum value returned is mincpuperformancelevel. this value does not change after startup is complete. maxgpuperformancelevel the maximum valid gpu performance level you use with gpulevel. the minimum value returned is mingpuperformancelevel. this value does not change after startup is complete. cpulevel the requested cpu performance level. higher levels typically allow cpu cores to run at higher clock speeds. the consequence is that thermal warnings and throttling may happen sooner when the device cannot sustain high clock speeds. changes are applied once per frame. it is recommended to set the cpulevel as low as possible to save power. the valid value range is [mincpuperformancelevel, maxcpuperformancelevel]. gpulevel the requested gpu performance level. higher levels typically allow the gpu to run at higher clock speeds. the consequence is that thermal warnings and throttling may happen sooner when the device cannot sustain high clock speeds. changes are applied once per frame. it is recommended to set the gpulevel as low as possible to save power. the valid value range is [mingpuperformancelevel, maxgpuperformancelevel]. summary check the current status by: thermalmetrics.warninglevel (nowarning/ throttlingimminent/ throtting) performancebottleneck (cpu / gpu / targetframerate) control the performance by adjusting: lod bias cpu / gpu clock level target frame rate if possible, gfx load (triangles, memory, draw calls..) performance results frame rate now displays a stable fps with adaptive performance. you're done! congratulations! you have successfully achieved the goal of this code lab. now, you can improve the frame rate using adaptive performance by yourself! if you're having trouble, you may download this file: adaptive performance complete code (2.25 kb) to learn more about adaptive performance, gpuwatch, and galaxy gamedev, visit: www.developer.samsung.com/galaxy-gamedev

we are thrilled to be part of the game developers conference (gdc) 2019 at the moscone convention center in san francisco from march 18-22. join us in person or online for our expert-led sessions on a full range of game development hot topics. here’s a sneak preview: a quick look inside your game: gpuwatch & gamesdk (presented by samsung) learn how to create high-performance gaming experiences with ease using gpuwatch. in this session, you will hear the announcement about gamesdk and optimization practices with unity based mobile games. galaxy gamedev: bringing maximum boost to mobile games learn how samsung helps game developers optimize games faster with new technologies like vulkan and by working together with game developers tightly to give a real contribution to the game development process. samsung & google present: how to develop games for foldables games are now being played on more than just mobile devices. consumers demand versatility, and broader device landscape is fueling the shift to a more immersive gameplay. learn how leading developers address multiple surfaces and form factors like the new samsung foldable. grow reach and engagement with the latest techniques. how to get your game on samsung galaxy learn how samsung will help game developers deliver better experiences to their customers. hear from thomas ko, vp of service partnership, samsung electronics co. ltd., on how game developers can prepare themselves for this special opportunity to become part of the galaxy store. the session will also include important information about game launcher which will help people easily can access games. how to make use of new vulkan features discover recent developments in the vulkan api and ecosystem. you will leave this session with better insight into day to day development with vulkan, and how game developer needs drive where the api goes next. bringing fortnite to mobile with vulkan and opengl es learn the strategies that epic and samsung found effective when developing a rendering api interface to bring high-end games to android devices. get the best practices for optimal vulkan performance when targeting the latest generation of mobile socs. download fortnite from galaxy store. all-in-one guide to vulkan on mobile (presented by samsung and arm) learn about codified best practices for vulkan and how they impact performance in mobile, with specific game examples. megacity on mobile: how we optimized it with adaptive performance join us for the joint samsung / unity session in the unity booth on thursday at 11:45am – 12:15pm. we hope to see you there!

get started in galaxy store the following is a list of tasks (required, recommended, and optional), videos, and recommended reading to help you start selling your apps in galaxy store. a link to more detailed information is provided, when available. the icons represent the following: required task recommended task optional task video recommended reading prepare before you do anything, sign up for a samsung account. using your samsung account, you can register with samsung developers and seller portal and apply for commercial seller status. then, understand what you need to do if you are submitting your app to more than one app store, and review the online resources provided by galaxy gamedev. register with seller portal (downloadable pdf). seller portal is used to manage your applications that are distributed in galaxy store. if you want to sell your app in galaxy store, you must have a seller portal account. the seller portal user guide provides more information about seller portal registration. also, watch the video about how to create a seller portal account. apply for commercial seller status (downloadable pdf). in seller portal, you must apply for commercial seller status. the seller portal user guide provides more information about commercial seller status. review apk package naming and billing guidelines. when you are submitting a game or app to more than one app store, you need to keep track of the package name and/or version codes you use in your apk for each app store and, if you have in-app purchases, the billing solution used. add a galaxy store review link. get feedback from your customers by adding a link from your app to your app's review page in galaxy store. positive feedback can influence users to purchase your app. explore the samsung developers portal. samsung developers portal provides access to sdks, services, tools, and guides. you can also sign up for a newsletter that keeps you up-to-date with the latest blogs, news, and events. register using your samsung account. how to create a seller portal account. seller portal is used to manage your applications that are distributed in galaxy store. if you want to sell your app in galaxy store, you must have a seller portal account. explore the seller portal dashboard. check out the top level menus, learn some of the basic tasks, and discover where to find additional information and support for seller portal. learn about samsung seller portal. a basic overview of the major features in seller portal. learn about galaxy gamedev. review technical support options for game developers. monetize learn about requirements for in-app items and paid apps. integrate with samsung in-app purchase (iap) (downloadable pdf). if you are selling your app and/or in-app items, you must use samsung iap as your billing solution. samsung iap includes an sdk, guides, examples, and unity and unreal plugins. maximize your revenue with samsung in-app purchase. learn about the new features and improvements released in samsung in-app purchase (iap) 6.0. monetize your games with samsung in-app purchase. introduction to samsung iap plug-in functionality for unity and unreal game engines. learn more about samsung iap. review the online samsung iap documentation. make the most from your games. discover different ways to generate revenue in galaxy store. launch register your app and in-app items in seller portal, test your app, then launch your app in galaxy store. all apps must be reviewed and approved by samsung before they are distributed to galaxy store for sale. noteare you a developer of a popular game on galaxy smartphones? we can help you go live in five minutes in galaxy store. contact us to learn more about our fast app review process. register your app in seller portal (downloadable pdf, by app type: android, galaxy themes. how to register your app in seller portal, based on the app type. the seller portal user guide provides more information about app registration. pre-certify your app. if you are working with the samsung business development team, your new apps or major updates must be pre-certified. pre-certification helps to uncover issues before an app is submitted to galaxy store. if no issues are found, pre-certification can take around five days to complete. review the app distribution guide. ensure that your app meets samsung's requirements and standards of quality to pass publication review. set a publication date. determine when your app becomes available in galaxy store. your app can be published when it passes an initial review, on a set date, or you can manually control the release of your app. in seller portal, set the publication date in the publication tab using the start publication field. beta test your app. learn how to deploy your app for beta testing and receive valuable feedback from testers. test your in-app item transactions. test your samsung iap integration, such as in-app item offering, purchase, and payment functionality. available for closed beta testing only. publish in five minutes. contact us to find out if your games qualify for our fast app review process. review the seller portal user guide. review information about seller portal. use the galaxy store developer api. learn how to manage your apps and in-app items and view statistics about your apps programmatically. seller portal android app binary registration device resolution. lists the device resolutions most used by customers in galaxy store. this is a required field when you register your android app in seller portal. manage in-app items. read more about how to manage your in-app items in seller portal. test your app on a samsung device. test your app on the latest samsung galaxy devices using remote test lab. understand the review process. check out the steps samsung takes to review your app. level up after you app is published in galaxy store, learn more about tracking performance metrics, promoting your app, and tracking user data. engage on social media. promote your content and attract new customers using our social media kits, hashtags, and guidelines. create galaxy store badges. directly link users from your web site or social media channels to your app product detail page. generate badges from seller portal after the publication of your app. request promotion for your galaxy themes. promote your app and increase your downloads by being included in a collection in galaxy store. discover user attribution data. identify how a user finds your app's detail page in galaxy store using galaxy store statistics. integrate with third-party attribution platforms. track user data using third-party attribution platforms integrated with galaxy store. become familiar with galaxy store statistics. galaxy store statistics (gss) is a tool that is included with seller portal and allows you to see the performance metrics of all your apps. learn about the valuable data available to you in gss. u.s. partner onboarding guidelines the pdf content provided on this page was taken from the u.s. partner onboarding guidelines. for your convenience, the entire guideline is provided in a single downloadable pdf for each app type. you must log in or be logged in to your samsung account to download these pdfs. u.s. partner onboarding guideline (android) 4.25mb (pdf) u.s. partner onboarding guideline (galaxy themes) 3.8mb (pdf)

mobile get set up to use samsung mobile sdks in your apps. all things for samsung mobile galaxy sdk get started create your own applications with a variety of samsung galaxy sdks, services, and tools. galaxy ar emoji sdk create your own avatar in your app galaxy edge sdk specialized widgets for extended functions in the android view system galaxy gamedev build games for galaxy devices - the world's largest mobile gaming platform galaxy performance sdk optimize your application performance galaxy s pen remote sdk control apps remotely with your s pen galaxy themes with galaxy themes, you can personalize\ngalaxy devices’ screens galaxy z (foldable) app design guide for foldable phones health create a useful health app on galaxy watch and a smartphone penup a creative social network service for digital arts samsung application management a solution to manage background applications for better system health samsung automation studio develop your apps using samsung automation studio samsung dex build apps to control desktops with smartphones samsung blockchain build blockchain-enabled services for mobile devices samsung ese sdk provides a way for service providers to deploy services using ese on samsung devices samsung iap sdk make it possible to sell a variety of items in samsung galaxy applications samsung internet build web apps for the samsung internet browser-powering all samsung devices samsung pay integrate secure samsung pay functionalities into your mobile app or website samsung teegris a powerful solution to run applications in a trusted execution environment samsung wallet an all-in-one, single-swipe solution for tickets, boarding passes, coupons, and more samsung wireless fast charge enables samsung mobile devices to be fast-charged with the wireless fast charger experience the latest one ui with android 13 open to all users, the one ui beta program is an opportunity to try one ui features before their official release. learn more foldables and large screens new opportunities in the mobile experience. learn more new watch face design tool new opportunities for new watch devices. get started test your apps test your apps on your galaxy devices or on the emulator, or remotely. samsung android usb driver for windows samsung usb driver for mobile phones galaxy emulator skin check out the newly released emulator skins for galaxy s23 series and other latest devices. download now! remote test lab use the remote test lab to remotely access a real device online. distribute your apps reach customers in more than 180 countries through galaxy store. how to distribute use these guides and checklists to prepare your apps, themes, and watch faces for galaxy store. seller portal the seller portal site supports those who want to sell their apps on galaxy store galaxy store badge an one click link to your app detail page or brand page. social media kits social media is the most powerful tool in engaging an audience and attracting new fans.

last month, the samsung galaxy gamedev team attended develop: brighton – the uk’s biggest developer-focused games industry event. the sun-kissed conference showcased the best local talent, with some fantastic experiences from indies and big publishers alike. i particularly enjoyed ndreams' showcase of their upcoming vr game phantom: covert ops – it looks set to be the biggest kayaking stealth shooter of the year! samsung was out in force at the event with two business staff and two technical staff, along with yours truly. we spent most of the time having meetings on the beach in the delightfully bright sunshine. i’m leaving a note to myself that breakfast beachside chats are my new favorite way to spend a work trip! it was particularly lovely to see ex-colleagues and friends from sega, sony, jagex, miniclip, and sumo digital while hanging out in the bar. though i can't go into great detail about what we discussed behind closed doors, believe me when i say the uk has some incredible products coming to mobile over the next couple of years. i am not talking your typical hyper-casual games either – core gaming might be seeing a bit of a shakeup very soon! another show highlight was the develop: star awards, which featured industry heavy hitters like gabe newell and sean murray, and of course, many excellent games. while we were too busy networking to attend any sessions, there were many interesting topics discussed during the conference. three of the speakers that caught my eye were: in-game content generation using machine learning (raheel yawar) mmobile: bringing old school runescape to smartphones (christopher knowles) next gen vr - what developers need to know (andrew ayre/alvaro barua) it would be remiss of me not to mention the social side of develop: brighton, as it is part of what makes the conference so popular. we managed to get along to the gamesindustry.biz party on wednesday night and what a turn out it was. the warm night was filled with energy & laughter, with some excellent new connections made and far too many cheeky lemonades. i can’t tell you how grateful i was to mag interactive for providing free bacon rolls the morning after. if you were there, then thank you for being part of such a great event. if you weren’t, i strongly recommend you come along next time – i may even buy you a beachside breakfast!

the latest edition of galaxy unpacked was held on wednesday, august 5th, and for the first time it was virtual. we unveiled five new devices that empower work and play. galaxy unpacked featured lots of exciting updates for our designer and developer community, and what was mystery became mystic (bronze). you can watch the full livestream on youtube, or fast forward to these time codes for key moments 8:50 galaxy note20 and note20 ultra 53:45 galaxy watch3 1:08:01 galaxy z fold2 be sure to check out our galaxy watch3 artboards, now available on the galaxy store asset creator. and now, here are the key takeaways on each of the new devices unveiled at galaxy unpacked. galaxy note20 and note20 ultra the galaxy note20 series is a productivity powerhouse that works like a computer and lets users game like a pro. the series comes in two versions: galaxy note20 ultra, designed for note fans who demand the ultimate in power and productivity, and galaxy note20, for those note users looking to maximize their time for work and play. the galaxy note20 series includes the ever-popular s pen. developers, you can leverage the s pen remote sdk, s pen framework, and air actions to enhance the experience of your apps and games. as part of our continued partnership with microsoft, xbox game pass is coming to galaxy store. with an xbox game pass ultimate subscription, users will be able to play their favorite xbox games in the cloud (beta) right from their galaxy device. galaxy users are always looking for new games to play, so be sure to submit your own game to galaxy store. if your game has in-app items for sale, be sure to check out the samsung in-app purchase sdk which lets users transact with any of the payment methods associated with their samsung account, including samsung pay and samsung rewards. we also have numerous technical resources and best practices on optimizing your game and getting the most out of the device gpu in galaxy gamedev. we also unveiled the new wireless version of samsung dex. as samsung dex becomes even easier to use, you'll want to ensure your apps are optimized for samsung dex. our resources detail how to add multi-window support, handle runtime configuration changes, and support different input modes. galaxy watch3 the galaxy watch3 is a next-generation companion for managing routines, smashing fitness goals, and taking ownership over health. built with premium materials and a slimmed-down version of the popular rotating bezel, galaxy watch3 features the craftsmanship of a luxury timepiece, while still being comfortable enough to wear all day and all night. developers can build tizen-based apps while designers can build watch faces with galaxy watch studio to enhance and customize the user's experience. we will begin reviewing new watch face designs starting next week, but you can get a head start on the requirements now. as we mentioned, a new version of the galaxy store asset creator, which includes the galaxy watch3, is now available. new lifestyle photo assets featuring the galaxy watch3 are available as well. the new galaxy watch3 runs tizen 5.5. developers can check out this video tutorial to learn what is new in tizen 5.5. galaxy z fold2 last, but certainly not least, was the galaxy z fold2. this device builds on the experience of both the galaxy fold and the galaxy z flip to deliver unique foldable experiences. more details about the galaxy z fold2 will be released on september 1st. in the meantime, check out our resources on designing and optimizing for foldable devices. wrap up we also showcased the galaxy tab s7 and s7+, devices where your apps and games will be featured in galaxy store. the galaxy buds live introduced a new shape for wireless earbuds, an ergonomic design that’s being described as the perfect fit. can't get your hands on a physical device? stay tuned to our news feed - we'll announce when the new devices are available in our remote test lab. we can't wait to see what you create for these new devices. make sure to join us on the developer forums to share what you're working on and get your questions answered. catch up on all of yesterday's announcements on the samsung newsroom or watch the replay on youtube.

today we wrapped up #sdc18 on a high note! day two started off with a spotlight session featuring a panel with the creators from two of the world’s most popular games, fortnite and pokémon go. if you didn’t get a chance to tune in live, you can catch the replay. the action continued on the floor with lots of activity at the samsung pen, smartthings and bixby booths, just to name a few. there was no shortage of learning and collaboration, as developers made the most of their time at #sdc18. here are the highlights from today: positioning samsung to be a game changer with more than 2 billion gamers in the world, samsung is committed to creating a future where the hundreds of millions holding a samsung device are also holding a game controller. today they showed their support towards helping developers bring the mobile gaming experience to the next level. samsung announced that in the next year galaxy gamedev will expand to include even more cutting-edge tools to help developers create more immersive and unique experiences for gamers. to help bring a high-fidelity, console-like game experience to mobile phones, the vulkan api was enhanced to offer 10 percent improved performance compared to the opengl es. another improvement is the gpuwatch that will allow developers to measure graphics performance and view on-screen information while gaming in real-time. this insight into game performance will help developers optimize their games more efficiently and easily. it was also announced that the all-new galaxy store, set to launch in 2019, will become the single destination for all digital items related to galaxy devices. this will make it easier for gaming partners to deliver their latest creations to fans, as well as more convenient for consumers to discover and download everything from new games to apps. along with its key partnerships with some of the world’s biggest game companies such as epic games, square enix and niantic inc., samsung has built an unparalleled mobile gaming platform that makes having fun on the go easier than ever. samsung talking about #gaming @tkomobile says our engineers might not be fluent in english but they speak your language! #sdc18 pic.twitter.com/u7adfrwkwc— carolina milanesi (@caro_milanesi) november 8, 2018 creating a more intelligent pen stylus today it was announced that the s pen remote sdk is now available for integration with apps. developers can use the s pen’s remote-control feature to provide a unique experience in apps. and the best part is that it’s very easy to code. with the help of developers, samsung is planning to take the stylus pen from writing tool to a multi-purpose tool. from cameras to games, the possibilities are endless! additionally, wacom joined the stage and announced their wacom ink layer language, will 3.0, to help take digital ink to the next level. will 3.0 brings augmented reality, 3d creation and digital data to the drawings of users. combined with the power of ar technology on note9, users can turn their sketches into 3d renderings. will 3.0 is also ai ready, capturing all relevant data needed for deep learning. the technology captures the semantics and biometric information from the ink, creating a more personal digital experience. together with will 3.0, samsung is able to add a more personal touch to its devices. with the help of bixby users will be able to search through their notes with voice commands. and combined with the samsung pass, will 3.0 is adding a layer of intelligence to digital authentication. it’s biometric signature id can even track the history of signatures! it’s safe to say that samsung and wacom are bringing the pen into the 21st century! sdc bixby capsule showcase finale in addition to all these big developments, the bixby challenge came to a close. the five finalists took the stage to show off the capsules they developed using the bixby platform. it wasn’t an easy choice for the judges, and after much deliberation they came to a decision. congratulations to the winner! best of show: roger kibbe for his one bin app thanks to all the developers, designers, creators, partners, sponsors and everyone else who joined us at #sdc18. it truly was a great event and we’re excited to see how you bring all our announcements to life. follow us on @samsung_dev to keep the conversation going and keep an eye on our blog for technical content that will bring your dev game to the next level. see you next year!

intro foldable technology for mobile is a ground-breaking experience not only for users, but also for developers. the presence of many form factors, like immersive display, app continuity, flex mode, and ux optimization, challenge developers to think outside of the box to adapt to this technology. there are already a large number of blogs talking about general application considerations, but what about gaming on a foldable device? in this blog, we look at the challenges and new opportunities foldable devices present for mobile game development. this blog focuses on unity and unreal engine as they are the most common game engines for mobile development. however, a lot of the information applies to other engines as well. app continuity and multi-window mode firstly, let's establish that the large internal display is called the main display whilst the smaller external display is called the cover display. app continuity and multi-window mode are two key features of foldable smartphones. with app continuity, you can seamlessly transition between the cover display to the main display without needing to reopen the app. with multi-window, you can run multiple apps at once and multitask like never before. app continuity moving an app between the two displays affects the size, density, and aspect ratio of the display it can use. app continuity is enabled and disabled from the android manifest of the app: the <activity> element has a new attribute called resizeableactivity. if not set, this attribute defaults to true, thus enabling app continuity and assuming the app fully supports both app continuity and multi-window mode. if set to true then the application automatically attempts to resize when moving between displays, as shown in the video below. if set to false then the system still allows you to transition from the cover display to the main display but does not attempt to resize the application. instead, a new button appears, allowing the user to restart the application at a time of their choosing, as shown below. when the app transitions between the two displays, the activity is destroyed and recreated. as such, the app data needs to be stored and then used to restore the previous state. from testing, both unity and unreal engine appear to handle this process already. however, if you are developing on a custom engine, it is worth confirming that your engine/app can handle this. continue on cover screen by default, foldable devices simply lock the device when closing the main display. however, it is possible for users to disable this functionality for certain apps. in the device's display settings, there is an option called "continue on cover screen" that has to be enabled by the user. entering this menu displays a list of all applications on the device and enables users to set specific applications to not lock the device when closing the main display. if an application has resizeableactivity set to false then the option to enable this functionality is greyed out and is not available. if your application supports resizing and app continuity then you should make sure to test that this works as users may wish to enable this functionality on their device. multi-window mode multi-window mode can allow up to three apps to run at the same time in a split-screen arrangement (see left image) or for two apps to run in pop-up mode which keeps one app full-screen but creates another app in a smaller pop-up window (see right image). just like app continuity, this is enabled using the attribute resizeableactivity in the android manifest. if resizeableactivity is not set then it defaults to true. so again, it is recommended that you set this yourself to ensure that your app works as intended. app continuity without multi-window mode if you would like your app to support app continuity but don't want it to be used by the multi-window mode, then this is possible. first, you should set the resizableactivity attribute to false to disable both app continuity and multi-window mode. next use the following <meta-data> element in your <activity> element: <meta-data android:name="android.supports_size_changes" android:value="true" /> this re-enables the app continuity feature without enabling multi-window mode. game engine features to use if using existing game engines then there are several existing features that are useful if developing for foldable devices. this section provides a high-level look at these features. for more in-depth information, i recommend visiting the engine's documentation. unity unity is a very good engine for developing on foldable devices, requiring little to no setup to enable features for foldable devices. the engine automatically handles resizing of the application without any modifications required. the resizeableactivity attribute is controlled by an option in the player settings: resizable window. when enabled, resizeableactivity appears to be set to true; when disabled, resizeableactivity appears to be set to false. note this option is not available in older versions of unity. if this option is not present then you have to set the resizeableactivity manually. the engine also provides a very robust ui scaling system that helps to reduce the amount of work required to create a ui that works across both the cover display and main display. the canvas scaler and anchor system work very well with foldable devices and work to resize and position elements consistently across the two displays, thus preventing developers from having to create two ui designs (one for cover display and one for main display). unreal engine 4 unreal engine 4 is another good engine for developing on foldable devices, although it requires a little more work to get it set up for foldable devices. first of all, unreal engine 4 by default disables the resize event on android devices, however, it is possible to re-enable it in device profiles using the console variable: r.enablenativeresizeevent = 1 unreal engine 4 by default also has a max aspect ratio of 2.1. this is, however, too small for the cover display of some foldable devices which can result in black bars on either side of the image. fortunately, unreal engine makes this value easily changeable in the project settings: platform -> android -> max aspect ratio from my testing, 2.8 is a good value. however, i recommend users experiment to find the best value. unreal engine's umg (unreal motion graphics ui designer) has a comprehensive set of tools for creating responsive ui designs. this system automatically scales ui elements to fit the screen size, and the anchor system is also very useful for ensuring the ui elements are positioned correctly between the two displays. samsung remote test lab no matter what engine you use, the best way to ensure your app works well on a foldable device is to test it on a foldable device. samsung remote test lab has a range of foldable devices available for developers to test their applications on if getting hold of a physical device is too difficult or expensive. all you need to do is create a samsung account and you can start using these devices for testing. android jetpack windowmanager despite being very good engines for foldable game development, neither unity nor unreal currently provide information about the current state of the foldable device (that is, is it open/closed/halfway?, where is the fold positioned?, what is the fold's orientation? and so forth). however, android has recently created a new library as a part of their android jetpack libraries that enables developers to access this information and make use of it in their apps. android jetpack in their own words is "a suite of libraries to help developers follow best practices, reduce boilerplate code, and write code that works consistently across android versions and devices so that developers can focus on the code they care about." windowmanager is a new library from the android jetpack suite, intended to help application developers support new device form factors and multi-window environments. the library had its 1.0.0 release in january 2022, and targeted foldable devices but—according to the documentation—future versions will extend to more display types and window features. more technical resources this blogpost has an accompanying technical blogpost and code lab tutorial, demonstrating how to use the android jetpack windowmanager with both unity and unreal to take advantage of the flex mode feature of samsung's foldable devices. i recommend starting with the jetpack windowmanager blogpost to learn how to set up the windowmanager in java: https://developer.samsung.com/galaxy-gamedev/blog/en-us/2022/07/20/how-to-use-jetpack-window-manager-in-android-game-dev then, follow it up with the code labs to learn how to make use of the windowmanager to implement a simple flex mode setup in either unreal or unity: https://developer.samsung.com/codelab/gamedev/flex-mode-unreal.html https://developer.samsung.com/codelab/gamedev/flex-mode-unity.html also, visit our game developer community to join the discussion around mobile gaming and foldable devices. click here to find out more about other design considerations when designing apps for foldable devices and large screens. final thoughts foldable devices provide a richer experience than regular phones. hopefully, this blogpost and accompanying tutorial have provided you with the necessary information to begin taking advantage of these new form factors and start providing users a richer foldable experience. additional resources on the samsung developers site the samsung developers site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with samsung devices and services. stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account and subscribing to our monthly newsletter. visit the galaxy store games page for information on bringing your game to galaxy store and visit the marketing resources page for information on promoting and distributing your android apps. finally, our developer forum is an excellent way to stay up-to-date on all things related to the galaxy ecosystem.

another year will soon be past and, like many of you, we’re looking forward to next year. we’ll be taking some time the next few weeks to be with our families, and will be back in 2022 with more blogs, podcasts, product announcements, and ways for you to succeed with galaxy store and samsung platforms. with the end-of-year holidays upon us, we’re stopping to reflect on what we did in 2021. even with covid making a disruption in everyone’s lives, we’re still here to help developers find answers and hopefully, also find success. here are some of our most memorable moments. 10. developer portal refresh brought a modern look and support for mobile we’ve been working for several years to bring samsung’s developer portal into a single web infrastructure. we moved content from multiple servers and cloud services into a cms that uses open standards and a responsive design for mobile devices. we pored through a decade of content to make sure it was still timely and accurate for your needs today. we integrated the developer forums to use the same samsung account login for both the developer portal and seller portal to give you a more seamless experience. in october of this year, we made a ux refresh to the site and the most amazing thing is how easy that process went. there were no late nights in the weeks prior to launch. we were able to test the new ux in a sandbox rigorously. then the deployment to production happened almost instantaneously. we spent less time worrying about our website and more time creating the content you need to do your work. we understand how important the samsung developer portal is to you and your work. that’s why we took the time to ensure a smooth transition as we made major infrastructure changes. 9. monthly updates keep developers up-to-date on new galaxy store features the galaxy store product management team began publishing monthly newsletters to enlighten developers of the latest features and improvements to seller portal. these updates also usually appear as blog posts in the first week or two of the month. some of the major announcements include: staged app rollouts (october) local currencies in settlement and financial reports (september) private beta testing (july) galaxy store developer api (april) look for more exciting improvements in 2022 as galaxy store continues to innovate. 8. unpacked events bring exciting new product announcements galaxy unpacked in january 2021 brought announcements of the galaxy buds pro, galaxy s21, and the new galaxy smarttag. the event highlighted samsung’s design concepts with one ui 3 and integrated experiences from partners like microsoft and google. the august galaxy unpacked event brought announcements of galaxy z fold3 and galaxy z flip3 phones. these devices have many new hardware and software features for developers to build upon. this blog post highlighted many of the ways that developers can implement features supporting flex mode and s pen remote, while ensuring that users have a seamless experience with app continuity. the most anticipated announcement of the august galaxy unpacked event was the unveiling of galaxy watch4, featuring wear os, powered by samsung. as with the tizen-powered galaxy watch devices, samsung released a new tool, galaxy watch studio converter, to help existing designers bring their watch faces to wear os. designers could also start a new watch face project from scratch with the newly-released watch face studio tool. 7. remote test lab updates allow developers to experience the latest hardware as new devices are announced, developers can use the remote test lab (rtl) to ensure that their apps work properly on the new version of one ui as well as different screen resolutions and pixel densities. in 2021, the rtl development team added support for foldables and galaxy s21 devices, allowing developers to ensure their apps work correctly before the devices are available to consumers. the rtl team also added support for android studio. in september, thousands of devices were added in data centers around the world to ensure that a compatible device is always available. as part of this release, rtl was re-engineered to work exclusively in the chrome browser, so that no external software is needed to test apps on all the latest devices. 6. samsung developer forums activity the samsung developer forums, based on the popular open-source discourse project, were introduced in january 2020, replacing an aging forum infrastructure that didn’t work well on mobile devices. by using the same samsung account authentication method as the samsung developers site, we’re able to provide a nearly-seamless experience across different hosts and platforms. since their introduction, we’ve seen large numbers of visitors stop by the forums with questions. community manager ron liechty has more than 25 years of experience in managing healthy communities—his knowledge and guidance keeps the forums a useful resource for developers. some of these visitors have become our best community members, providing valuable feedback to their peers as well as helping to moderate spam and malicious content. 5. supporting game developers in 2021 games are a noticeable part of the galaxy store experience and we work with many partners and internal teams to ensure that gamers have a great experience on galaxy devices. the galaxy gamedev team works closely with some of the top publishers and developers to improve performance of top titles on mobile. this team creates tools that provide great detail on the performance of the cpu and gpu during intense moments of gameplay. the gamedev team then documents their efforts in a series of best practices and blog posts to help developers everywhere. in addition to our internal team work, we frequently work with our partners at arm to deliver relevant content for game developers. this summer, we published and promoted a number of educational articles, webinars, and training series in cooperation with the arm developer team. best practices for mobile game developers and artists new vulkan extensions for mobile: maintenance extensions new vulkan extensions for mobile: legacy support extensions new game changing vulkan extensions for mobile: descriptor indexing new game changing vulkan extensions for mobile: buffer device address new game changing vulkan extensions for mobile: timeline semaphores mike barnes from the gamedev team, together with eric cloninger from the samsung developers team, presented at the virtual gdc2021 event in july. gdc is an important event for all of us at samsung and we hope to see you all there at the live event in march 2022. 4. new voices appeared on samsung developers podcast, season 2 shortly before the covid-19 pandemic changed our lives, tony morelan from samsung developers attended a podcasting event and came back to the office inspired to start a podcast. he lined up guests from internal teams and important partners. everyone had a great time participating and it gave us a way to continue delivering quality content to developers. as 2020 turned to 2021, we continued bringing interesting guests from across the mobile design and development ecosystem. we used the podcast to talk about the upcoming virtual samsung developer conference and chat with the people that made the event a success. here are some of the highlights from season 2 of the samsung developers podcast: drazen stojcic, urarity – watch faces, design tan nguyen, butterfly-effected gmbh – galaxy themes, marketing, licensing the samsung internet advocacy team – web standards, privacy, foldable devices we’re still hoping for a return to days where we can travel and meet in person, but until that time comes, please join us in listening to these industry veterans and top developers on the samsung developers podcast. season 3 begins in early 2022. 3. blog series instructs readers on design and successful marketing without live events the past two years, we have searched for new ways to continue delivering timely and helpful advice to mobile app designers and developers. as mentioned previously, we worked with arm this year to bring great technical content front and center. we also worked with our network of top designers, developers, and thought leaders on concepts that will help you succeed on galaxy store and in creating better experiences for your users: better for all – in this blog series, we talked with leading designers and experts to help understand the increasingly important concepts behind the diversity, equality, and inclusion movement. this series discussed aspects of language used in apps, themes, and watch designs. it also highlights important guidelines to ensure apps and web sites are accessible to users with sight, mobility, and hearing impairments. better for all: mobile accessibility better for all: inclusive policies with daniel appelquist better for all: equal accessibility better for all: bringing diversity to design with eglantina hasaj and manpreet kaur better for all: diversity in design better for all: developing and designing for diversity refresh for success – it’s not enough to simply submit a title to a digital marketplace and assume success will follow and continue without extra effort. in this series, top galaxy store designers and developers talk about how they maintain their product lines to ensure a steady flow of revenue and new customers. refresh for success: maintain quality themes design with olga gabay from zeru studio refresh for success: improve your process to keep designs fresh with tan nguyen from butterfly-effected, gmbh refresh for success: improve your process and de-clutter your galaxy store with drazen stojcic from urarity prime time design – finding success in designing new products is an intensely unique and personal process. the prime time design series includes interviews with some of the most unique people creating for galaxy store. read how these talented people inspire themselves and how they convert that inspiration into action. prime time design: unpacking the creative process with ramon campos from friss in motion prime time design: unpacking the creative process with pedro machado from health face prime time design: unpacking the creative process with john shih from x9 studio strategies for success – tony morelan was a successful watch face designer before coming to work with the samsung developers team. we’re grateful for his knowledge of design as well as how to turn designs into revenue. in this four-part series, tony points out steps to creating successful galaxy store product submissions. strategies for success: selling your apps strategies for success: understanding consumer trends strategies for success: building your fan base strategies for success: making your brand successful 2. best of galaxy store awards highlight successful developers the galaxy store app on your mobile device is more than just an app. behind the scenes, there is a team of developers, product managers, business leaders, and security experts devoted to ensuring the best possible online experience for consumers in 180 countries. because of their dedication, developers and designers have a great platform for monetizing their work. each year, the samsung developers team works with the galaxy store operations and business development teams to determine the best games, apps, and themes based on revenue, downloads, and impact to consumers. the result is the best of galaxy store awards. in 2018 and 2019, the best of galaxy store awards were presented live, on stage, at the samsung developer conference (sdc). without a live event in 2020 or 2021, the samsung developers team decided to continue the tradition of highlighting and awarding our top galaxy store products. even without an in-person event, we used a live premiere on youtube to have a single moment in time to celebrate with the winners. tony morelan emceed the event, but he had a lot of help from ron liechty, jeanne hsu, susie perez, and shelly wu. we thank them for their hard work. we hope you’ll enjoy watching! look for the “best of galaxy store” sash on apps, games, themes, and watch faces in galaxy store to know that you’re getting a truly unique experience. 1. discovering new opportunities at sdc21 each year, the samsung developer conference is the culmination of an incredible amount of planning and work by hundreds of people. even though the event was virtual in 2021, there was still a huge volume of work. instead of preparing for a live audience, our teams practiced in front of a galaxy phone on a tripod (really). instead of building booths and planning meals, we built a website and social media campaigns to reach a larger audience. eric cloninger and tony morelan kicked off the promotion for sdc21 with a podcast featuring a previous sdc speaker, chris shomo. before the conference, visitors were invited to create whimsical caricatures of themselves using the mysdcstack mini-site and submit their designs to social media. by participating in the event website, watching sessions, and trying the code labs, visitors would earn points toward a prize drawing after sdc. relive the experience of sdc21 by watching the keynote or any of the highlight sessions and technical talks by viewing this playlist wrapping up when sdc is finished, our team takes a collective deep breath, happy to be done. it is a satisfying experience to pull off a big industry event. we don’t know yet how we’ll handle live events, but we remain optimistic that some will occur. we are making plans and we hope we’ll be able to see you, somewhere, in 2022. 🤞 take care. stay warm (or cool). best wishes to you all and happy new year!