[4.0b3 - 4.0RC2] Black Screen and Screen Tearing on Android

DaveTheCoder

snowy-fox I'm not sure we're going to be able to get any further unless somebody who knows a lot more about Godot 4's Android compatibility finds the thread and chips in.

You could also look through the posted issues for possible clues.
https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues?page=2&q=is%3Aissue+android+in%3Atitle

If you don't find anything relevant, you could post a new issue, and include a minimal reproduction project and a link to this thread.

snowy-fox

Megalomaniak I really hope that's not the case. The Retroid Pocket 2+ is just one of many "retro handhelds" that run on Android - often older versions, presumably for lightness - which are becoming very popular. Not supporting Android 8 and 9 would be locking Godot 4 off from those devices, not to mention people who just have older phones, which is a whole other, probably much bigger potential player base.

Though looking at the issues on GitHub, as mentioned below, it looks like the devs are investigating the issue and trying to find solutions.

DaveTheCoder Yeah, good call. I didn't create a new issue, as others are clearly having similar problems - I added a brief explanation and a link to this thread into a post in https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues/63943

Megalomaniak

snowy-fox Not supporting Android 8 and 9 would be locking Godot 4 off from those devices

Yes, but the idea is likely for Godot 3 to see some continued support for at least a few years after Godot 4 gets a stable release.

snowy-fox

Update: after updating to Godot 4.0 beta 5, the issue still persists, with no change.

EDIT
Progress, though. If I switch the renderer to OpenGL, rather than crashing, it now gives this error on my Retroid:

EDIT
And the same on my phone.

While it's still not working, it at least feels like a step forwards.

snowy-fox

Update: exported from Godot 4.0 beta 7, the issue is back to being a black screen following the Godot splash, this time on both devices - the game no longer crashes on the Pocket 2+, but there are no visuals. I'll test again once I've added some sound effects to find out whether the game is actually running amidst the infinite darkness.

cybereality

This page seems to indicate that Vulkan was available starting with Android 7.0
https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/graphics/getting-started

However, that does not guarantee that your particular device has a SoC with a GPU that supports Vulkan, and, additionally, a Vulkan compatible graphics driver.

All those things would need to be current for it to work. I've found some devices from even a few years ago don't support OpenGL ES3, so you can forget Vulkan.

Download the app GPU Info, and find the model number of the CPU/GPU (usually one unit, the SoC). Then put that into this website: https://www.notebookcheck.net

It will tell you which OpenGL/Vulkan versions are supported.

snowy-fox

cybereality Yup, OpenGL ES3 had issues on these devices exporting from Godot 3.x, too, and I had to use ES2, or there would be visual errors. At this point, I'm just reporting my findings in the hopes that it might help other people having similar issues, and that better backwards compatibility for software and hardware used by these popular devices - particularly the Android-based retro handhelds - will be included in future Godot 4.x releases.

cybereality

I have a RG552, which does support GLES 2/3 and Vulkan. But it's on the high end of retro handhelds, I think it cost over $200 when I bought it.

I tried one of my GLES3 demos and it works, not very fast, but it loaded without glitches. I didn't try Vulkan, cause I was having problems exporting. But I tried Vulkan on some emulators, and it worked.

snowy-fox

cybereality It certainly seems very hit and miss at the moment as to which devices happen to have the right gubbins to run what Godot 4's putting out. It's unfortunate, but I'm just gonna sit tight and wait to test my project on Android if and when a build comes out that works on my devices.

As for GLES3, on the Pocket 2+, exported from Godot 3.x, I was having a weird screen tearing issue. where one half of the screen was lagging about ten or twenty frames behind the other. GLES2 worked just fine - as well as on PC, with the li'l project I had at the time - but ideally, I'd like to be able to stick to Godot 4 moving forward, since that's the direction support is moving in in the long term, so that's what I'm slightly stubbornly building my "big" game in.

cybereality

Honestly, I'm not sure what the best idea is. Godot 3.x is very stable and well supported. Godot 4.0 is somewhat okay on desktop, but there are still lots of glitches and crashes with the editor. And I'm considering mobile and/or web for my game, and the support right now is not even usable. It may be 6 months, maybe a year, before it is solid and production ready. It could be a good investment, if you are working on something in the 1 year time frame, but it could also be a lot of headache and risk when 3.x works fine right now. I'm not sure what the right answer is.

snowy-fox

cybereality Yeah, pretty much my thoughts exactly. I decided to go with 4.x, even while it's in beta, because I'm banking on that long-term support, and because it's where things are inevitably going to be moving to sooner or later, so I might as well get used to the new paradigm now. Besides, I've been dropping in occasional feedback and small feature/improvement proposals, so I feel like I'm contributing in some small ways, too. Whether or not 4.x is the best choice for my game, only time will tell.

cybereality

Yeah, I understand. This is why I have been experimenting with Godot 4.0, and I already managed to fix one thing (small contribution for getting newer Xbox controllers working on Linux). So I think that is good, because the more people that use 4.0 beta, the faster the bugs will get fixed. But I also worry mainly about the Vulkan support. On desktop it's okay, Vulkan has been supported well for almost 8 years. But on mobile it is a different story, especially when you consider old or low-end devices (particularly internationally, in the US many people have newer phones). For me, I am trying to do a high end 3D mobile game with console-like graphics, so you need a newer phone anyhow. But if it was like a 2D pixel art game or something, I wouldn't risk it since Godot 3.x can handle that fine.

snowy-fox

Success! I tested an export from 4.0b8, and there is now a picture! I had some scaling issues at first, but with a little testing, I found they were due to a problem with my project, and was able to fix it.

Annoyingly, though, a common screen tearing issue I was having with Godot 3.x has reared its ugly little head again.

This seems to be a common issue on older versions of Android when using GLES3. So, this is excellent progress, but all that remains now is to wait and hope that they re-add GLES2 support.

snowy-fox

Just tested an export from Godot 4.0 beta 9 - no change since last post.

Also, forgot to mention - I opened a new issue for the screen tearing over on GitHub. https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues/70031

EDIT 11.01.23 - 20.02.23
Tested export from Godot 4.0 beta 11 - Godot 4.0 RC 2 - no change

snowy-fox

I just tested an export from Godot 4.0 Release Candidate 3, and the screen tearing is no longer occuring on the Retroid Pocket 2+!

Re-tested on the Huawei P10 Lite, too, and it's still no longer occuring on that, either.

This exhausts the Android devices I'm able to test on. Hopefully no-one else is still having the issue on theirs! I encourage reporting it in this thread or on Github if you are.

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