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Android Studio

Android Studio is a free IDE for Android development made by Google and JetBrains. It's based on IntelliJ IDEA and has a feature-rich editor which supports Java and C/C++. It can be used to work on Godot's core engine as well as the Android platform codebase.

Importing the project

  • From the Android Studio's welcome window select Open.

../../../_images/android_studio_setup_project_1.png

Android Studio's welcome window.

  • Navigate to <Godot root directory>/platform/android/java and select the settings.gradle file.

  • Android Studio will import and index the project.

Android Studio project layout

The project is organized using Android Studio's modules:

  • lib module:
    • Located under <Godot root directory>/platform/android/java/lib, this is a library module that organizes

      the Godot java and native code and make it available as a reusable dependency / artifact.

    • The artifact generated by this module is made available for other Android modules / projects to use as a dependency, via MavenCentral.

  • editor module:
    • Located under <Godot root directory>/platform/android/java/editor, this is an application module that holds

      the source code for the Android port of the Godot Editor.

    • This module has a dependency on the lib module.

  • app module:
    • Located under <Godot root directory>/platform/android/java/app, this is an application module that holds

      the source code for the Android build templates.

    • This module has a dependency on the lib module.

Building & debugging the editor module

  • To build the editor module:
    ../../../_images/android_studio_editor_configurations_drop_down.webp
  • To debug the editor module:

    • Open the Build Variants window using View > Tools Windows > Build Variants from the top menu.

    • In the Build Variants window, make sure that in the Active Build Variant column, the :editor entry is set to dev.

    ../../../_images/android_studio_editor_build_variant.webp

    • Open the Run/Debug Configurations window by clicking on Run > Edit Configurations... on the top menu.

    • In the Run/Debug Configurations window, select the editor entry, and under Debugger make sure the Debug Type is set to Dual (Java + Native)

    ../../../_images/android_studio_editor_debug_type_setup.webp

Building & debugging the app module

The app module requires the presence of a Godot project in its assets directory (<Godot root directory>/platform/android/java/app/assets) to run. This is usually handled by the Godot Editor during the export process. While developing in Android Studio, it's necessary to manually add a Godot project under that directory to replicate the export process. Once that's done, you can follow the instructions below to run/debug the app module: