Android Studio Release Updates: Emulator 29.2.11 and AMD Hypervisor 1.2 to Stabl...

Emulator 29.2.11 and AMD Hypervisor 1.2 to Stable Emulator 29.2.11 and AMD Hypervisor 1.2 are now available in all channels. Major changes:

In the following sections, we present the AMD Hypervisor and list all other notable changes relative to the previous stable version.

AMD Hypervisor for Windows users on AMD CPUs

Currently, Windows Hypervisor Platform (WHPX) is required to run the emulator on AMD CPUs on Windows. However, there are compatibility and performance issues. To address this, since emulator 29.2.3, we've added a new hypervisor backend + driver, based on KVM, that allows you to run the emulator on Windows with AMD CPUs with compatibility and performance that should be on par with HAXM.

This is meant for AMD users on Windows who want a faster AVD experience on par with HAXM, or cannot run with Hyper-V / WHPX enabled (e.g., running other virtual machine engines such as VMware/VirtualBox or not running Windows 10; however, note that we are still committed to WHPX / Hyper-V for the use cases where that is optimal, such as interop with Docker on Windows).

The implementation is developed by our team and based on Linux KVM. The code has been open sourced and is available on GitHub here: https://github.com/google/android-emulator-hypervisor-driver-for-amd-processors

First, make sure your AMD CPU supports virtualization and BIOS has NOT disabled it. As BIOS options are different among vendors, please refer to your system manufacturer's manual.

Next, make sure Hyper-V and Windows Hypervisor Platform are disabled. All Windows features enabling Hyper-V either explicitly or silently must be turned off. See the screenshots below for a few examples:

Then, launch SDK Manager via Android Studio and you should see “Android Emulator Hypervisor Driver for AMD Processors”. Check and click “Apply”. The SDK Manager will download the installer package and unpack it to <Your Android SDK Path>\extras\google\Android_Emulator_Hypervisor_Driver.

Open a Windows command console with administrator privilege, go to <Your Android SDK Path>\extras\google\Android_Emulator_Hypervisor_Driver, and run the following command silent_install.bat. Make sure you see the desired output from the installer: STATE: 4 RUNNING

If something goes wrong, please reach us or file a bug. Make sure to submit your CPU model, OS version info, and installer output.

AMD Hypervisor for Windows users on AMD CPUs - Known Issues

• On some Windows 7 setups, driver signing fails. This can be worked around by disabling driver signing and then reinstalling the AMD Hypervisor. https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/145362247

Emulator 29.2.11 changes relative to previous stable version

Snapshots

• Fixed an issue when running the Windows emulator on AMD CPUs (with either Windows Hypervisor Platform or the AMD Hypervisor) where when resuming from a snapshot from the AVD Manager in Studio, the emulator would show up as offline.
• Snapshots now should work again with users who are running on Windows Hypervisor Platform.
• Quickboot snapshots now work again for ARM system images.
• Snapshots (incl. Quickboot) can now be taken in -no-window mode and resumed with a window, and vice versa.
• Windows: Fixed issue where VCPU shutdown request would occur if loading snapshots while the emulator is running.

UI / Input

• Removed some spammy log prints.
• Fold/unfold button now works more reliably.
• Linux: Fixed Alt key not working on non-QWERTY layouts.
• Fixed issue where virtual scene camera WASDQE controls did not work with non-QWERTY layouts.
• Keycode forwarding: We now maintain a mapping of host keyboard type to Android keyboard type, and only forward host keycodes when both the host and Android keyboard type can be determined and correctly mapped (An upcoming suitable system image is still required).
• Ctrl-Shift-M can now be used to bring up the Multi Display UI.
• Fixed issues with emulator window size not updating.
• Tweaked button sizes, colors, font size of titles, and positions of icons.
• Fixed issue where usage metrics were not sent.

Headless build

• The binary emulator-headless is now retired. Headless builds of the engine are now launched via emulator -no-window, thus unifying the previously separate (but similar) paths.
• 32-bit ARM headless build (qemu-system-armel-headless) is now included with the distribution.
• Fixed issue around crash service not being able to start in -no-window mode.

Console interface

• Added interface to screenshot to a particular PNG file instead of one with an autogenerated filename. Usage:
  • adb emu screenrecord screenshot customFileName.png
• Added a command line option to start a screen recording along with the emulator launch:
  • Format: -record-session <filename>,<delay-until-start>,<duration>
  • Example: -record-session tmp.webm,5,10
• Added telnet console interface to query whether the emulator is running headless or not, via adb emu avd windowtype.

Graphics

• (Requires future system image update)
  • Fixed issue where Unity Vulkan examples would not work out of the box.
  • Improved performance of glMapBufferRange and glUnmapBuffer
  • Greatly improved performance when OpenGL ES draw calls are issued at a high rate.
  • Added new AVD config.ini property, hw.lcd.vsync (default 60), which, given an upcoming suitable system image build, will allow the guest's VSYNC rate to be controlled by the AVD configuration. This can be useful for testing apps on high frame rate (HFR) displays.
    • Note that in order to be able to see the visual effect of higher VSYNC rates, a monitor with refresh rate greater than or equal to the setting is required.
• Fixed potential deadlocks related to gralloc buffer destruction.
• Fixed issue on API 22 system images where if using the swiftshader_indirect renderer, black frames would result on video playback.
• Vulkan driver changes
  • ASTC LDR compressed textures are now supported via emulation if not supported on the host GPU (textureCompressionASTC_LDR).
  • Removed support for 1D compressed textures (this is not a use case that is commonly considered).