Unity android apk file

Support for APK expansion files (OBB)

APK expansion files are used as a solution for the 100MB app size limit in the Google Play Store. If your app is larger than 100MB (which is quite likely for a big game), you have to split your output package into the main part (APK) and the expansion file (OBB). Refer to the Android Developer documentation on expansion files for more information.

Unity automatically splits the output package into APK and OBB. This is not the only way to split the app package (other options include third-party plug-ins and AssetBundles), but it is the only automatic splitting mechanism officially supported by Unity.

Note: Unity only creates the main expansion file. If you want to manually create the patch expansion file, you must include a file named with your build-id; otherwise, the patch expansion file won’t load. The file can be empty, but you must place it in the Assets directory inside the patch expansion file. This file’s name must match the unity.build-id metadata, which Unity automatically adds to the manifest when you build the APK. Alternatively, you can copy this file from the main expansion file into the patch expansion file.

Building the app with expansion files

If you want Unity to split the app output package into APK and OBB for you, open the Player settings (menu: Edit > Project Settings A broad collection of settings which allow you to configure how Physics, Audio, Networking, Graphics, Input and many other areas of your project behave. More info
See in Glossary , then select the Player category), and in the Publishing Settings panel, enable the Split Application Binary property.

The Publishing Settings panel of the Player settings, with the Split Application Binary checkbox highlighted

Both parts of the output package (APK and OBB) are copied to the output directory you specify when building the app. For example, if the APK has the name mygame.apk, the OBB is in the same directory under the name mygame.main.obb.

If you select Build and Run, the APK and OBB files are installed on your device by Unity. If you select Build The process of compiling your project into a format that is ready to run on a specific platform or platforms. More info
See in Glossary and want to install the app manually using the ADB An Android Debug Bridge (ADB). You can use an ADB to deploy an Android package (APK) manually after building. More info
See in Glossary utility, you must first install the APK and then copy the OBB into the correct location on your device. The OBB file name must correspond the format required by Google. Refer to the expansion files section of the Android Developer documentation for more information.

If the app starts and can’t find and load the OBB, only the first Scene A Scene contains the environments and menus of your game. Think of each unique Scene file as a unique level. In each Scene, you place your environments, obstacles, and decorations, essentially designing and building your game in pieces. More info
See in Glossary is available (see documentation on how data is split between the APK and OBB below for more information). Do not use the contents of the OBB separately — always treat the APK and OBB as a unique bundle, the same way as you would treat a single APK.

How data is split between the APK and OBB

When the Split Application Binary option is enabled, the app is split the following way:

APK The Android Package format output by Unity. An APK is automatically deployed to your device when you select File > Build & Run. More info
See in Glossary — Consists of the executables (Java and native), plug-ins A set of code created outside of Unity that creates functionality in Unity. There are two kinds of plug-ins you can use in Unity: Managed plug-ins (managed .NET assemblies created with tools like Visual Studio) and Native plug-ins (platform-specific native code libraries). More info
See in Glossary , scripts A piece of code that allows you to create your own Components, trigger game events, modify Component properties over time and respond to user input in any way you like. More info
See in Glossary , and the data for the first Scene (with the index 0).

OBB — Contains everything else, including all of the remaining Scenes, resources, and streaming Assets.

If your APK is still too large for publishing in the Google Play Store (more than 100MB), try reducing the size of your first Scene, making it as small as possible.

Downloading the OBB expansion file

The Unity Asset Store offers a plug-in that allows you to access an adapted version of the Google Play market_downloader library for Unity, which you can use to download the OBB from Google Play Store, or an external source, and move it into the correct directory.

Hosting OBB files on the Google Play Store

OBB expansion files should be published to the Google Play Store along with your APK. Any OBB files published with your APK will be automatically downloaded when a user installs your app from the Google Play Store.

You should include code in your app that downloads missing OBB files in the case of a Google Play Store error, or if a user removes the OBB files from their device. For more information about downloading OBB files, refer to the APK Expansion file section of the Android Developer documentation.

Hosting OBB files without using the Google Play Store

You can also host OBB files yourself if you do not want to use the Google Play Store. However, hosting OBB files without using the Google Play Store is only recommended for advanced users.

Источник

Inside the Android build process

There are two Android build process output types in Unity: the output package (APK) and the exported project. An APK is automatically deployed to your device if you select Build and Run. Alternatively, you can use Android Debug Bridge (ADB) to deploy the APK manually after building. For the full list of ADB commands, refer to the Android Debug Bridge section of the Android Developer documentation.

The output package includes APK expansion files (OBB) if the Split Application Binary option is selected in the Unity Editor’s Player Settings window. For more details on OBB files, refer to the OBB Support section of the Unity Manual

Unity supports two Android build systems: Gradle and Internal. Unity exports projects in two formats: ADT (Google Android project) and Gradle.

Internal build system

The Internal build system creates an APK by invoking Android SDK utilities in a specific order. Unity automatically performs a number of steps to create the APK, including:

Preparing and building the Unity Assets

Processing the plug-ins

Splitting the resources into the parts that go to the APK and the OBB, if Split Application Binary is selected

Building the Android resources using the AAPT utility

Generating the Android manifest and merging the library manifests into it

Compiling the Java code into the Dalvik Executable format (DEX)

Building the IL2CPP library, if IL2CPP Scripting Backend is selected

Building and optimizing the APK and OBB packages

For more information about OBB files, see Unity documentation on OBB Support. For more information about the Android Manifest, see Unity Android Manifest documentation.

Gradle build system

The Gradle build system uses Gradle to build an APK or export a project in Gradle format, which can then be imported to Android Studio. For more details, see Unity documentation on Gradle for Android.

When you select this build system, Unity goes through the same steps as the Internal build system excluding resource compilation with AAPT and running DEX. Unity then generates the build.gradle file (along with the other required configuration files) and invokes the Gradle executable, passing it the task name and the working directory. The APK is then built by Gradle.

Exporting the project

For more control over the build pipeline, or to make changes that Unity does not normally allow (for example, fine tuning the manifest files that are automatically generated by Unity), you must export your project for use with external tools.

Unity supports exporting projects in two formats:

Gradle project — Gradle projects are the recommended export format when exporting into Android Studio.

Google Android project (also known as ADT or Eclipse projects) — ADT projects can be imported into Eclipse or Android Studio (importing into Android converts the project to Gradle). This format is outdated and is no longer supported by Google.

To export the project:

Select Gradle or ADT in the Build Settings window (and check the Export Project checkbox if you have selected Gradle).

Click Export and select the destination folder.

When the export has finished, open Android Studio and import your project. For more information on importing projects to Android Studio, refer to the Migrate to Android Studio section of the Android Developer documentation.

Texture compression

In the Build Settings window, there is a Texture Compression option. By default, Unity uses the ETC texture format for textures that don’t have individual texture format overrides (see Unity documentaton on Textures for more information).

When building an APK to target specific hardware architecture, use the Texture Compression option to override this default behavior. Any texture that is not set to be compressed is left alone — only textures using a compressed texture format use the format selected in the Texture Compression option.

To make sure the app is only deployed on devices which support the selected texture compression, Unity edits the Android Manifest to include tags that match the particular format selected. This ensures that the Google Play Store filtering mechanism will only serve the app to devices with appropriate graphics hardware.

Build or Build and Run

The Build Settings window offers two options: Build and Build and Run. When building, the output packages (APK and OBB, if enabled) are saved to the path that you select. You can publish these packages to the Google Play Store, or install them on your device manually with the help of ADB . For further information about installing apps manually, refer to the Running Your App section of the Android Developer documentation.

Selecting Build and Run saves the output packages to the file path you specify, while also installing your app on the Android device connected to your computer.

If the Split Application Binary option is enabled, the OBB file is pushed to the correct location on your device. If Development Build is checked, Unity also sets up a profiler tunnel and enables CheckJNI. After that, the app is launched.

Tip: Once you specify the output path for the packages, use the Ctrl+B (Windows) or Cmd+B (OSX) keyboard shortcut to Build and Run using the saved output path.

Источник

Building apps for Android

There are two locations to configure settings that affect how your app is built:

• Player settings — Allows you to configure runtime settings for the app. For more information on Player settings, see Player settings for the Android platform.
• Build settings — Allows you to configure build system parameters and build the app.

The output package includes an APK, and an APK expansion file (OBB) if the Split Application Binary option is selected in the Player settings. For more information on OBB files, see OBB Support.

To optimize for download and installation size, enable the Split APKs by target architecture option in the Player settings. The Split APKs by target architecture option produces one set of APKs and OBBs for each device architecture selected in the Target Architecture list in the Player settings. You can upload this set of APKs (and OBBs, if enabled) to the Google Play, or other, store instead of a FAT APK in which all of the selected architectures are included into a single APK. For more information on this feature, see Multiple APK support on the Android Developer website.

Configuring Build Settings

To configure and build apps for Android, access the Build Settings window (File > Build Settings). In Platform, select Android.

To set Android as your default build platform, click the Switch Platform button.

After you specify your build settings, click the Build The process of compiling your project into a format that is ready to run on a specific platform or platforms. More info
See in Glossary button to create your build. To build the app, click Build And Run to create and run your build on the platform you have specified.

Setting	Function
Texture Compression A method of storing data that reduces the amount of storage space it requires. See Texture Compression, Animation Compression, Audio Compression, Build Compression. See in Glossary	The Unity Android build system supports the following texture compression format options: Don’t override, DXT (Tegra), PVRTC (PowerVR), ETC (default), ETC2 (GLES 3.0), and ASTC. For advice on using these formats, see the Texture Compression section below.
ETC2 fallback	32-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit, half resolution.
Build System
Internal (deprecated) — Generate the output package (APK) using the internal Unity build process, based on Android SDK utilities. Selecting Internal hides the Export Project checkbox.
Gradle — Generate the output package (APK) using the Gradle build system. Supports direct Build and Run and exporting the Project to a directory. This is the default Build System for Unity.
Export Project	Export the Project as a Gradle project that you can import into Android Studio.
Build AppBundle (Google Play)	Build an Android App Bundle for distribution on Google Play. Selecting this option also lets you configure the Warn about App Bundle Size option in the Player settings Settings that let you set various player-specific options for the final game built by Unity. More info See in Glossary .
Run Device	A drop-down list of attached devices on which you can test your build. If you connect a new device or you don’t see an attached device in the list, click the Refresh button to reload the list.
Development Build	A development build includes debug symbols and enables the Profiler A window that helps you to optimize your game. It shows how much time is spent in the various areas of your game. For example, it can report the percentage of time spent rendering, animating, or in your game logic. More info See in Glossary . Selecting Development Build allows you to select the Autoconnect Profiler, Script Debugging, and Scripts A piece of code that allows you to create your own Components, trigger game events, modify Component properties over time and respond to user input in any way you like. More info See in Glossary Only Build options.
Autoconnect Profiler	Allows the Profiler to automatically connect to the build. Selectable when the Development Build option is selected. For more information on the Profiler, see Profiler Overview.
Script Debugging	Allow script debuggers to attach to the Player remotely. Enabled when the Development Build option is selected.
Scripts Only Build	Check this option to build just the scripts in the current Project. Enabled when the Development Build option is selected.
Compression Method	Compress the data in your Project at build time. Choose between the following methods:
Default — The default compression is ZIP, which gives slightly better compression results than LZ4 and LZ4HC, but data is slower to decompress.
LZ4 — A fast compression format that is useful for development builds. Using LZ4 compression can significantly improve loading time of games/apps built with Unity. For more information, see BuildOptions.CompressWithLz4.
LZ4HC — A high compression variant of LZ4 that is slower to build but produces better results for release builds. Using LZ4HC compression can significantly improve loading time of games/apps built with Unity. For more information, see BuildOptions.CompressWithLz4HC.
SDKs for App Stores	Select which third party app stores to integrate with. To include an integration, click Add next to an App Store name. The Unity Package Manager automatically downloads and includes the relevant integration package.

Texture compression

Unity uses the Ericsson Texture Compression (ETC) format for textures that don’t have individual texture format A file format for handling textures during real-time rendering by 3D graphics hardware, such as a graphics card or mobile device. More info
See in Glossary overrides. When building an APK to target specific hardware, use the Texture Compression 3D Graphics hardware requires Textures to be compressed in specialized formats which are optimized for fast Texture sampling. More info
See in Glossary option to override this default behavior. Texture Compression is a global setting for the Project. If a texture has a specific override on it, that texture is not affected by the Texture Compression setting. For additional information, see Textures An image used when rendering a GameObject, Sprite, or UI element. Textures are often applied to the surface of a mesh to give it visual detail. More info
See in Glossary .

For additional information on textures and texture compression, see the Mobile and WebGL specific formats and Notes on Android sections on the Texture compression formats for platform-specific overrides page.

Note: Texture Compression is a global setting. Individual textures override the global setting.

ETC2 fallback

For Android devices that don’t support ETC2 (which don’t support GL ES3), you can override the default ETC2 texture decompression by choosing from 32-bit, 16-bit, or 32-bit with half the resolution formats.

This option allows you to choose between the uncompressed image quality and the amount of memory the uncompressed texture occupies. 32-bit RGBA texture is the highest quality format, and takes twice the required disk space as the 16-bit format, but a texture in 16-bit might lose some valuable color information. 32-bit half-resolution reduces the memory requirement further, but the texture is likely to become blurry.

Build system

Unity supports two Android build systems: Gradle An Android build system that automates several build processes. This automation means that many common build errors are less likely to occur. More info
See in Glossary and Internal.

The steps involved with building for Android are:

Preparing and building the Unity Assets.

Processing the plug-ins A set of code created outside of Unity that creates functionality in Unity. There are two kinds of plug-ins you can use in Unity: Managed plug-ins (managed .NET assemblies created with tools like Visual Studio) and Native plug-ins (platform-specific native code libraries). More info
See in Glossary .

Splitting the resources into the parts that go to the APK and the OBB, if Split Application Binary is selected.

Building the Android resources using the AAPT utility (internal build only.)

Generating the Android manifest.

Merging the library manifests into the Android manifest (internal build only.)

Compiling the Java code into the Dalvik Executable format (DEX) (internal build only.)

Building the IL2CPP A Unity-developed scripting back-end which you can use as an alternative to Mono when building projects for some platforms. More info
See in Glossary library, if IL2CPP Scripting Backend is selected.

Building and optimizing the APK and OBB packages.

Gradle build system

The Gradle build system uses Gradle to build an APK or export a Project in Gradle format, which can then be imported to Android Studio. When you select this build system, Unity goes through the same steps as the Internal build system excluding resource compilation with AAPT, merging manifests, and running DEX. Unity then generates the build.gradle file (along with the other required configuration files) and invokes the Gradle executable, passing it the task name and the working directory. Finally, the APK is built by Gradle.

Internal build system

The Internal build system creates an APK using the Android SDK utilities to build and optimize the APK and OBB packages. For more information about OBB files, see OBB Support.

Exporting the Project

If you need more control over the build pipeline, or to make changes that Unity does not normally allow (for example, fine tuning the manifest files that are automatically generated by Unity), you can export your Project and import it into Android Studio. Exporting a Project is only available when you have selected Gradle as your Build System.

To export the Project:

1. From the Build System drop-down menu, select Gradle.
2. Check the Export Project checkbox. When Export Project is checked, the Build button is relabeled Export and the Build And Run button is disabled.
3. Click the Export button and select a destination folder for the project.

When the export finishes, open Android Studio and import your project. For more information on importing projects to Android Studio, see the Migrate to Android Studio section of the Android Developer documentation.

Build or Build and Run

The Build Settings window offers two options: Build and Build and Run. Using either option saves the output packages (APK and OBB, if enabled) to the path that you select. You can publish these packages to the Google Play Store, or install them on your device manually with the help of Android Debug Bridge (ADB). For further information about installing apps manually, see the Run your app section of the Android Developer documentation. For information on ADB An Android Debug Bridge (ADB). You can use an ADB to deploy an Android package (APK) manually after building. More info
See in Glossary commands, see the Android Debug Bridge section of the Android Developer documentation.

Selecting Build and Run saves the output packages to the file path you specify, while also installing your app on the Android device connected to your computer.

If the Split Application Binary option is enabled, the OBB file is pushed to the correct location on your device. If Development Build A development build includes debug symbols and enables the Profiler. More info
See in Glossary is checked, Unity also sets up a Profiler tunnel and enables CheckJNI. After that, the app is launched. The Split Application Binary setting is located in the Publishing Settings section of the Player settings.

Tip: Specify the output path for the packages and then use the Ctrl+B (Windows) or Cmd+B (macOS) keyboard shortcut to Build and Run using the saved output path.

2018–11–19 Page amended

Updated functionality in 5.5

Updated the Build Settings Configuration options

Источник