Setup Native Development Environment

Apart from Publish games to the Web, Cocos Creator uses JSB technology based on the Cocos2d-x engine for the cross-platform release of native games. Before using Cocos Creator to build and publish games to native platforms, you need to configure related Cocos2d-x development environment first.

Android platform dependencies

To publish to the Android platform, you need to install all of the following development environments.

If you do not have a plan to publish to the Android platform, or if your operating system already has a full Android development environment, you can skip this section.

Download the Java SDK (JDK)

Compile the Android project requires a complete Java SDK tool on your local computer, download it at the following address:

Java SE Development Kit 8 Downloads

Download and pay attention to select the machine and the operating system and architecture, download the installation can be completed after the installation process.

After the installation is complete, please confirm that the java command is valid on the command line. Input the following code into Mac terminal or Windows command line tool for check:

  1. java -version

If JAVA SE displays, there is no problem. If JRE displays, then you need to install JAVA SE running environment).

On Windows platform, please confirm if JAVA_HOME is included in your environmental variables. By right clicking Computer on your computer, choosing Property -> Advanced system setting -> Environment Variables to check and modify environmental variables. For effective running on Windows platform, you might need to restart the computer. For details, please refer to the document: How do I set or change the PATH system variable?.

Download and install Android Studio

Cocos Creator does not support Eclipse’s ANT build, we need to use Android Studio v4.1 and above as an Android platform’s build tool and you should download the required SDK and NDK packages in Android Studio. First, install Android Studio.

Download the SDK and NDK required to publish the Android platform

After installing Android Studio, refer to the official documentation and open the SDK Manager: SDK Manager Instructions.

  1. In the SDK Platforms tab page, check the API level you want to install, and it is recommended to select the required mainstream API Level such as API Level 23 (6.0), API Level 26 (8.0) and API Level 28 (9.0), etc.
  2. In the SDK Tools tab page, first check the lower right corner of the Show Package Details, show the version of the tool selection.
  3. In the Android SDK Build-Tools, select the latest build Tools version.
  4. Check the Android SDK Platform-Tools and CMake. If you need to install the Android Support Library, please refer to the official Support Library Setup.
  5. Check the NDK and the recommended version is r20.
  6. Take note of the path of Android SDK Location on top of the SDK Manager window. Later we need to fill in the location of the SDK in Cocos Creator.
  7. Click OK and follow the prompts to complete the installation.

sdk manager

Install C++ compiling environment

Please install the following running environment:

  • Python 2.7.5+, download page. Pay attention! Don’t download Python 3.x version.

  • In Windows, the installation of Visual Studio 2017/2019 Community Edition is needed. When installing Visual Studio, please check Desktop development with C++ and Game development with C++ two modules.

    Note: there is a Cocos option in the Game development with C++ module. Do NOT check it.

  • In Mac, the installation of Xcode and command line tool is needed.

Configure Native Develop environments path

Next, go back to Cocos Creator to configure the environmental path of the native platform. Choose Cocos Creator -> Preferences in the main menu, and open the Preferences panel. We need to configure the following two paths here:

preference

  • Android NDK: choose the ndk-bundle folder in Android SDK Location path we just noted in Android Studio SDK Manager window. You can skip this if you don’t need to compile on Android platform.

  • Android SDK: choose the Android SDK Location path we just noted in Android Studio SDK Manager window (the directory of Android SDK should include folders like build-tools, platforms, etc.). You can skip this if you don’t need to compile the Android platform.

Close the window after configuration is completed.

Note: the configuration will work when build native project. If the configuration not work, please try to set these settings to System Environment manually: COCOS_CONSOLE_ROOT, NDK_ROOT, ANDROID_SDK_ROOT.

Notes

We have received lots of feedback about native packing in the public beta, and some possible reasons are supplemented here:

  1. Package name issue

    Check the Game Package Name in the Build panel, including blank space, -, etc. are all illegal.

  2. Android built successfully, but prompt dlopen failed: cannot locate symbol "xxxx" referenced by "libcocos2djs.so"... in runtime.

    Please check if the architecture and version of NDK and Android SDK correspond to the phone’s Android system. In addition you can try to use the NDK and Android SDK version used in this article to test.

In the end, if building still fails, please send a question to the Forum with the Creator version, the build log file in the Build panel, and a demo that reproduces the problem.