Build for Android¶

Q: Can I use the SDK in a non-Unity Android project?

Yes — the underlying SDK ships as a standalone VisioForge.CrossPlatform.Core.Android NuGet package for raw .NET Android apps. The Unity package wraps that runtime plus the Java bootstrap and link.xml; the wrapper is Unity-specific.

Q: Which sources work over RTSP on Android?

The same RTSPSourceBlock used on Windows. Auto-reconnect, optional credentials, video-only and video+audio streams, and the standard RTSP transports (TCP, UDP, UDP multicast) are all supported. The Android flavor uses the GStreamer rtspsrc element internally — the same one as the Windows and macOS flavors.

Media Blocks SDK .Net

The Android flavor ships as a monolithic libgstreamer_android.so with every GStreamer plugin statically linked in, plus the package's managed assemblies built against netstandard2.1. This page covers the Build Profile settings, the manifest permissions, and the Android-specific gotchas. For the bring-up sequence shared across platforms, see Bootstrap and lifecycle.

The Android flavor is bundled into the .unitypackage when the build pipeline is run with -IncludeAndroid. The result is one cumulative package that holds the Windows, Android, and any opt-in Apple runtimes together — Unity then picks the correct one at build time from the per-file PluginImporter metadata.

Player Settings¶

Setting	Value	Where
Target Platform	Android	File → Build Profiles → Android
Texture Compression	ASTC (recommended; default in Unity 6)	File → Build Profiles → Android
Api Compatibility Level	.NET Standard 2.1	Project Settings → Player → Other Settings → Configuration
Scripting Backend	IL2CPP (mandatory — Mono is not supported on Android by Unity itself)	Project Settings → Player → Other Settings → Configuration
Target Architectures	ARM64 (ARMv7 not shipped — uncheck it)	Project Settings → Player → Other Settings → Configuration
Internet Access	Require (needed for RTSP / HTTPS sources)	Project Settings → Player → Other Settings → Configuration
Write Permission	External (SDCard) if you write or record media to external storage	Project Settings → Player → Other Settings → Configuration
Minimum API Level	24 (Android 7.0) or later	Project Settings → Player → Other Settings → Identification

Mono cannot load libgstreamer_android.so correctly through Unity's Android runtime — only IL2CPP is exercised in CI and supported in production.

Required AndroidManifest entries¶

Unity generates AndroidManifest.xml for you. The settings above translate into the standard entries; if you need a custom manifest, make sure it contains:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

<!-- Only if your app uses RTSP discovery / streams audio-out via UDP on the local segment -->
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />

<!-- Only if your app uses the microphone or camera as a source -->
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />

<!-- Only if you read media from external storage -->
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"
                 android:maxSdkVersion="32" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_MEDIA_VIDEO" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_MEDIA_AUDIO" />

READ_MEDIA_VIDEO / READ_MEDIA_AUDIO replace the legacy READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE on Android 13+ (API 33+); declare both forms so older devices keep working.

What the package adds for Android¶

The deploy-unity-natives.ps1 step stages the Android runtime into your project as follows:

Path	Contents
`Assets/Plugins/Android/libs/arm64-v8a/libgstreamer_android.so`	Monolithic GStreamer runtime — all plugins statically linked.
`Assets/Plugins/Android/libs/arm64-v8a/libVisioForge_Core.so`	The SDK's Android-flavor native shim.
`Assets/Plugins/Android/visioforge-gstreamer.aar`	The Java archive that exposes `org.freedesktop.gstreamer.GStreamer.init(Context)`.
`Assets/VisioForge/link.xml`	Type / member preservation rules for IL2CPP.
`Assets/Plugins/Android/`	Managed assemblies built against `netstandard2.1` with `UNITY_NS21_ANDROID` defined.

The link.xml is mandatory. Without it, IL2CPP's managed-code stripping removes types the SDK references through reflection — GLib.SignalArgs subclasses, SignalClosure.MarshalCallback — and the first delegate firing throws MissingMethodException. The package ships a tested link.xml; do not remove it from Assets/.

Build size¶

The Android flavor adds roughly 35 MB to the APK / AAB:

libgstreamer_android.so — ~30 MB (arm64-v8a, stripped)
libVisioForge_Core.so — ~2 MB
Managed assemblies — ~3 MB

If you ship ARMv7 too (not currently included by the package, but if you stage it manually), expect to double the native libraries.

Standalone build¶

File → Build Profiles → Android → Build (or Build And Run) produces an APK / AAB.

Tested on:

Unity 6 (6000.x) with the Android Build Support module installed
Android 9 through Android 15 devices
Pixel 6 / 7 / 8 / 9, Galaxy S22 / S23 / S24

Troubleshooting¶

Symptom	Cause	Fix
`DllNotFoundException: libgstreamer_android` at scene start	Scripting Backend is Mono, not IL2CPP.	Switch to IL2CPP under Project Settings → Player → Other Settings.
`MissingMethodException` from `GLib.SignalArgs` or `SignalClosure.MarshalCallback`	`link.xml` is missing or was stripped.	Confirm `Assets/VisioForge/link.xml` exists. Re-import the package if it is not there.
`InvalidOperationException: Unity Android bootstrap requires com.unity3d.player.UnityPlayer.currentActivity to be available`	Wear OS / Android TV / Unity-as-a-library host where the field is null at `BeforeSceneLoad`.	Defer `VisioForgeEnvironment.Configure()` to the first Activity event you can observe and call it manually from there.
Java init fails with `failed to find getFilesDir`	Activity is not a `UnityPlayerActivity` and does not expose the standard Android Context API.	Confirm the host Activity inherits from a real Android `Activity`.
RTSPS / HTTPS streams fail with a TLS error	CA bundle extraction failed silently.	Look in the Logcat for `[VisioForge] CA cert extraction failed`. Re-import the package if the embedded resource is missing.
App crashes on the second `Awake` after returning from background	`VisioForgeX.DestroySDK()` was called in `OnDestroy`.	Don't call it — see Bootstrap and lifecycle.

Frequently Asked Questions¶

Why is ARMv7 not shipped?¶

Modern Android devices (API 24 / Android 7.0 baseline) are predominantly arm64. Shipping the ~30 MB monolithic GStreamer for both ABIs would double the package size for a vanishingly small device share. If you have a hard ARMv7 requirement, contact support.

Can I use the SDK in a non-Unity Android project?¶

Yes — the underlying SDK ships as a standalone VisioForge.CrossPlatform.Core.Android NuGet package for raw .NET Android apps. The Unity package wraps that runtime plus the Java bootstrap and link.xml; the wrapper is Unity-specific.

Does the SDK work in the Android Editor (Project Player → Run In Editor) mode?¶

Run-in-Editor for Android targets is not exercised; build and deploy to a real device. The Editor itself runs the Windows flavor of the SDK on a Windows host — switching the Build Target to Android in Build Profiles does not change which native runtime the Editor loads.

Which sources work over RTSP on Android?¶

The same RTSPSourceBlock used on Windows. Auto-reconnect, optional credentials, video-only and video+audio streams, and the standard RTSP transports (TCP, UDP, UDP multicast) are all supported. The Android flavor uses the GStreamer rtspsrc element internally — the same one as the Windows and macOS flavors.