OXCE for Android

OXCE for Android is, as the name suggests, a port of OXCE to the Android platform. In order to achieve this, it uses SDL2 set of libraries, and a portion of Java code for some convenient features like auto-updating files after installing new version.

Uses afiledialog library.

Building

In order to build OXCE for Android, you'll need:

• Android Studio (latest stable recommended)
• Android SDK with compileSdk 35 and targetSdk 36
• Android NDK r30 (30.0.14904198)
• Gradle 9.3.1 / Android Gradle Plugin 9.1.1 (handled automatically by the wrapper)

Getting the Code

This project uses git submodules, so in order to get the code, you'll have to do the following:

1. Clone this project:

   git clone https://github.com/MeridianOXC/openxcom-android.git
   cd openxcom-android
   git checkout oxce-plus-proto
   

2. Get submodules:

   git submodule init
   git submodule update
   

3. The SDK and NDK paths are detected automatically by Android Studio. If building from the command line, create a local.properties file in the project root:

   sdk.dir=/path/to/Android/sdk
   

   The NDK version is pinned in app/build.gradle (ndkVersion) and will be downloaded automatically by the SDK manager if not already installed.

Building the app

Run the Gradle wrapper with the assembleDebug or assembleRelease task:

$ ./gradlew assembleRelease

The resulting .apk will be in app/build/outputs/apk/ folder.

You might also include additional data in the apk itself. Everything you put in app/src/main/jni/OpenXcom/bin subdirectories will be packed as assets and automatically installed on first launch. Note that redistribution of such builds may be illegal in some countries and should only be used for debugging purposes.

NDK compatibility notes

The following NDK-level compatibility shims are in place (see commit history for details):

• NDK r28+ — -Wincompatible-function-pointer-types is now an error; suppressed for the SDL2 target where the GL ES2 function table has a benign const-qualifier mismatch.
• NDK r30 — ALooper_pollAll was removed; replaced with ALooper_pollOnce (identical signature, same semantics for a zero-timeout non-blocking poll).

Android 11+ storage permissions

The app writes game data to external storage (/sdcard/openxcom/). On Android 11 and later (API 30+), WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE has no effect. The app requests the MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE ("All files access") permission at first launch via a system settings screen. This permission must be granted for the preloader to extract bundled assets.

Credits

This is a fork of sfalexrog's repository of OpenXcom for Android and most of the actual work has been done by him.

I (Meridian) have only copied and customized his work on this build system.

Many thanks also to Stoddard for helping with all aspects of the project (2019).

Many thanks also to robmat for modernising the build system (2026).