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Apps Want to make my first app

Hi guys,

I have recently thought that making an app would be a nice tech project that I can do in my spare time and had this idea for an app that helps you know what pool shots to do an when. E.g. if one of your balls is near the middle pocket it will tell you where to hit the ball. I've heard android studio is a good program to use. Is this a realistic task with very little experience? It would be great if anyone can offer any tips or advice. If it helps I was thinking of making an app where there is a 2D pool table and you can place balls on the table and it shows you the best shot. For example you can place the white ball and another near the middle pocket it, it will draw a line between the two balls showing you how to pot in the middle pocket. I was also thinking of a feature where you can get a detailed view of each ball such as the white ball you can press it and a picture of a white ball will fill the screen with a dot showing where to hit the ball. Is this possible with only a bit of experience with python and VB?

Would it be best to build up to this a make easier apps to begin with such as a knowledge based system?

Thanks in advance :)
 
To be honest, it's a challenging project for a first app. But as a snooker/pool player myself, I find it quite interesting. I think the main challenge here is to develop the analysis code, and the graphical aspects. But as a game, pool lends itself to a formulaic approach, because it depends on angles, which can be measured, and cue ball control, in terms of where you strike it.

For the UI, I think a top-down 2D view would be sufficient, and as you say, a close up view of the cue ball, telling the user where to aim for, and what power to use. Allowing the user to drag the balls and position them manually on the table would be required.

Considering your current level of knowledge, this is going to be a challenge, but with patience I think you can do it. Your first stop is learning about Java, then start with some really simple applications. Android Studio is rather good because it includes some nice sample apps, which can be useful to study.

In addition to the graphical aspects of your app, you need to think about how you analyse the ball positions, and what's required in terms of recommended shot. You could show projected ball trajectories using lines. This should be calculable, as it's basic geometry. Of course how you hit the cue ball affects its behaviour and you'd need to think very carefully about it. But I know all this is possible because I have a snooker game installed on my phone, and the AI manages to beat me consistently :)

Interesting project. Good luck with it.
 
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To be honest, it's a challenging project for a first app. But as a snooker/pool player myself, I find it quite interesting. I think the main challenge here is to develop the analysis code, and the graphical aspects. But as a game, pool lends itself to a formulaic approach, because it depends on angles, which can be measured, and cue ball control, in terms of where you strike it.

For the UI, I think a top-down 2D view would be sufficient, and as you say, a close up view of the cue ball, telling the user where to aim for, and what power to use. Allowing the user to drag the balls and position them manually on the table would be required.

Considering your current level of knowledge, this is going to be a challenge, but with patience I think you can do it. Your first stop is learning about Java, then start with some really simple applications. Android Studio is rather good because it includes some nice sample apps, which can be useful to study.

In addition to the graphical aspects of your app, you need to think about how you analyse the ball positions, and what's required in terms of recommended shot. You could show projected ball trajectories using lines. This should be calculable, as it's basic geometry. Of course how you hit the cue ball affects its behaviour and you'd need to think very carefully about it. But I know all this is possible because I have a snooker game installed on my phone, and the AI manages to beat me consistently :)

Interesting project. Good luck with it.

Thanks for your help and advice. In terms of learning Java do you know if there are any good apps for this because I spend a fair amount of time on buses so I feel like I can use this time productively? Otherwise I'm thinking of looking at free and maybe paid courses on Udemy, do you think these will help?
 
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Thanks for your help and advice. In terms of learning Java do you know if there are any good apps for this because I spend a fair amount of time on buses so I feel like I can use this time productively? Otherwise I'm thinking of looking at free and maybe paid courses on Udemy, do you think these will help?

If you're on a bus, then reading a book would be great. There are many beginner Java books available.
Alternatively, if you have a laptop, and want to use this on the go, then there are many free Java tutorials out there, not least Oracle's own material

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/

Also consult our sticky posts in this forum, for some useful links

http://androidforums.com/threads/please-read-me-before-posting.987318/
 
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If you're on a bus, then reading a book would be great. There are many beginner Java books available.
Alternatively, if you have a laptop, and want to use this on the go, then there are many free Java tutorials out there, not least Oracle's own material

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/

Also consult our sticky posts in this forum, for some useful links

http://androidforums.com/threads/please-read-me-before-posting.987318/

Thanks so much for your help. Sorry to ask another question but do you think I should build up to my pool app idea by creating some easier ones? I was thinking maybe a race tracker as I'm into running so it would let me keep track of my upcoming races, completed races etc. Or maybe a formation creator for football teams in the English premier league.
 
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I feel that challenging your ideas is good thing to do because it opens doors to limitations that you thought you never had and by doing so it help you build character to push on to bigger and better dreams. One can only fail is when they stop trying and don't let no one tell you what you can and what can't accomplished because everything is built from trial and error.
 
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My long tem project is to build a spectrum analyser that will do frequency analysis from the sound picked up with the mike.

Android Studio is a nice, reasonably intuitive development environment. However it will hover up computing resources so although it will work on a machine designed for surfing the net and answering e-mails, you really need one designed one designed for gamers if you don't want app development to drive you nuts spending forever waiting for builds.

I have had a limited bit of experience programming in Java and a bit more using C++ but I am a bit of an object oriented novice. However I have successfully built several small apps and tested them on the inbuilt emulation system. E.g. calculate a square / cube root, play tunes from a list of selected midi files, plot a series of sine waves. I have also successfully deployed them to my tablet.

All of this helps build up my experience of the basic functionality of Android Studio and expands my Java programming abilities.

So I just wanted to encourage shanesaunders22 in his project, you are doing all the right things and I will work but be patient and persevere.

 
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I completed the free courses at Udacity and found them by far the best out there but have you considered the free Unity software? I've only a little knowledge of it but it seems great for very graphic intense projects and games can be ported to Android.

A lot of programs on Android are powered by Unity and the software is free up to a business turnover of $100,000.
 
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