Hero Lab on Android

[Farling]

A simple which would work for those who keep their portfolios in a shared folder (e.g. dropbox) would be a tactical console or style of portfolio where the file for each hero is (or can be) stored separately.

Herolab can monitor the dropbox/shared folder for any changes to the file and then load them automatically (or at least alert the user so he can choose whether to load them or not).

With the correct style of monitoring, it could extend to monitoring a file stored at a HTTP address?

[Fuzzy]

I've recommended the party-sync feature before, and it was never well received by any of lone-wolf's employees that chose to respond. Web based got similar responses. Regarding connectivity, The way I see this really working well, is once an HTML5 Character sheet is created, then the full Hero Lab program would work as a web server for those pages, as well as the OPTION to use the cloud for those purposes. This would allow connectivity in places without internet, where all you'd need would be a router to provide a network for the devices to connect to, and Hero Lab w/web server running on the GM's laptop. I only see the need for the cloud as an option for use between sessions, and for online play.

[Fuzzy]

In fact, the last response I got on this alluded to them starting on some sort of API for this type of capability they were thinking of rolling out 'later' in 2014...

[kwiqsilver]

If they're going to redesign it, using a cross-platform toolkit that runs okay to poorly on multiple platforms (like Qt) is not a good idea. There would be a nightmare of integration, testing, debugging, and platform-specific hacks (i.e. future bugs).

A better solution would be to write a platform agnostic API and engine in C++, then write platform specific UI on each desired platform. Android supports C++ through the NDK and Windows C# supports native libraries (I forget what their native toolkit is called). macOS and iOS would be the easiest, since Swift and Obj-C both support C++ library calls out of the box.

[gamsOnline]

Please. Make. Android.
I. Give. You. More. Money.

[charlieluce]

With the end of Intel's mobile CPU strategy, I guess that the era of inexpensive Windows 10 (Full) tablets is over as well, so I guess if Lone Wolf ever decided to implement a Universal Windows Platform version of Hero Lab it would port over to Android and iOS relatively straightforwardly - assuming Microsoft's plans for Universal Apps don't go off the rails again.

[AndrewD2]

Didn't MS cancel the plans to make stuff easy to port to/from Android already?

[charlieluce]

They cancelled the "Project Astoria" bridge to get existing Android Apps working on Windows 10 quick-and-dirty, but they still support development tools to make new apps with Windows, Android, and iOS versions relatively easily.

[Farling]

Originally Posted by kwiqsilver

A better solution would be to write a platform agnostic API and engine in C++, then write platform specific UI on each desired platform.

Or use Qt which already provides the platform agnostic API in C++ :-)
(I'm not talking QML, just Qt widgets)

[kwiqsilver]

Originally Posted by Farling

Or use Qt which already provides the platform agnostic API in C++ :-)
(I'm not talking QML, just Qt widgets)

I was referring to an API for the Hero Lab engine. Put all the logic in platform agnostic C++, then access that logic via an API from a thin UI layer in Java, Swift, C#, or whatever produces full featured UIs that integrate well into the OS. The current Hero Lab app looks completely out of place on a Mac or iOS. And cross platform toolkits tend to produce lower quality UIs, which is why I suggested a dedicated UI per platform.