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Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

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Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#2
I stopped looking at Firebase for a while since they seemed to have trouble with my multiple, simultaneous Google account logins. Pretty reasonable growing pains actually, and based on clicking around now, possibly fixed.

No opinion on the current news, other than that it's nice to see continued signs of life.

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#3
Firebase needs to get a C++ SDK for Unreal Engine 4 so I can put it to use in the FPS I'm working on.

I would love to setup a master server browser list that updated in real time so that you can see by the moment the availability of servers and stats of current players in the server. I think Firebase would really make this electrifying! Right now the delay that Steam's master server browser list has is just so 1998.

After that I'd add realtime global chat to the main menu of the game and server administration without having to log into a server. Then maybe I'd play around with doing some funky stuff where I push player locations in real time to Firebase and use that to drive a webclient that just renders the map artwork and player location dots.

So many possibilities (!!!) but without a true C++ Firebase SDK I can't justify the time to develop these features or the SDK myself as I have a boatload of other tasks to complete for the game.

If anyone is interested in freelance C++ work and thinks they could create a true socketed Firebase SDK solution (not REST) in UE4 send me an email at contact@drivenarts.com

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#4
Excuse the tangent, but what problem does Firebase solve?

I was updating my app and AdMob and they want me to use Firebase now. https://firebase.google.com/docs/admob/ios/quick-start

I wanted to know why should I include it just to use AdMob so I checked the video on the page: https://youtu.be/9qCxo0D-Sak They promise to explain benefits for me but they only tell me how to use it. The docs also don't do it.

It seems to me that it solves more some problem Google has than the developers have.

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#5
post #3

Firebase needs to get a C++ SDK for Unreal Engine 4 so I can put it to use in the FPS I'm working on. I would love to setup a master server browser list that updated in real time so that you can see by the moment the availability of servers and stats of current players in the server. I think Firebase would really make this electrifying! Right now the delay that Steam's master server browser list has is just so 1998.…

Hi, Stewart here from the Firebase team.

We released a C++ API for the Realtime Database earlier today targeting iOS and Android, you can get started with it here https://firebase.google.com/docs/database/cpp/start

Using the C++ API within Unreal (assuming you're targeting mobile) is a little tricky as we have dependencies upon Android resources (e.g AARs) that can be hard to integrate into Unreal's build system. You would probably need to list the set of transitive dependencies (see https://groups.google.com/d/msg/firebase-talk/15SdQA8xtnc/aw...).

It would be informative for us to understand which platforms you're targeting and which features of Firebase (we support more than the Realtime Database) you would consider using.

Cheers, Stewart

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#6
The free version of Google Analytics gets capped at a certain volume of traffic whereas Firebase doesn't. That's definitely one motivating factor to make the switch.

I'll be interested to check it out when they get around to introducing Real-Time user stats to firebase. That's a pretty crucial component of analytics which I have open all the time.

Google contacted me to switch to firebase from analytics. Seems like they're putting a lot of effort into re-launching the firebase brand this year.

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#7
post #4

Excuse the tangent, but what problem does Firebase solve? I was updating my app and AdMob and they want me to use Firebase now. https://firebase.google.com/docs/admob/ios/quick-start I wanted to know why should I include it just to use AdMob so I checked the video on the page: https://youtu.be/9qCxo0D-Sak They promise to explain benefits for me but they only tell me how to use it. The docs also don't do it. It seems…

Hi, Stewart here from the Firebase team.

https://firebase.google.com/docs/admob/admob-firebase has a pretty good explaination of the benefits. For example, using AdMob + Firebase you'll immediately be able to take advantage of Firebase Analytics to "measure sessions, user demographics, revenue from in-app products" and you'll have a relatively easy path to start utilize other Firebase features - if you want - in future.

Cheers, Stewart

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#8
post #4

Excuse the tangent, but what problem does Firebase solve? I was updating my app and AdMob and they want me to use Firebase now. https://firebase.google.com/docs/admob/ios/quick-start I wanted to know why should I include it just to use AdMob so I checked the video on the page: https://youtu.be/9qCxo0D-Sak They promise to explain benefits for me but they only tell me how to use it. The docs also don't do it. It seems…

[Firebase Founder] The combination of the two is meant to help you maximize ad revenue.

Since Firebase has a free & unlimited analytics product, you can see your AdMob stats in the same place as your other analytics data.

From a conceptual point-of-view, the Firebase SDKs are now the place Google puts 'core mobile offerings', AdMob is one of those

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#9
post #4

Excuse the tangent, but what problem does Firebase solve? I was updating my app and AdMob and they want me to use Firebase now. https://firebase.google.com/docs/admob/ios/quick-start I wanted to know why should I include it just to use AdMob so I checked the video on the page: https://youtu.be/9qCxo0D-Sak They promise to explain benefits for me but they only tell me how to use it. The docs also don't do it. It seems…

Hi, Stewart here from the Firebase team. https://firebase.google.com/docs/admob/admob-firebase has a pretty good explaination of the benefits. For example, using AdMob + Firebase you'll immediately be able to take advantage of Firebase Analytics to "measure sessions, user demographics, revenue from in-app products" and you'll have a relatively easy path to start utilize other Firebase features - if you want - in futu…

Thanks for answering, I appreciate it.

I already use Google Analytics and it works really great. I don't need the other features and I don't want to include the whole framework just to display ads, it seems really overkill.

I'm glad we have an option to use AdMob separately, please don't take it away.

Re: Firebase gets better analytics, crash reporting and more

#10
post #4

Excuse the tangent, but what problem does Firebase solve? I was updating my app and AdMob and they want me to use Firebase now. https://firebase.google.com/docs/admob/ios/quick-start I wanted to know why should I include it just to use AdMob so I checked the video on the page: https://youtu.be/9qCxo0D-Sak They promise to explain benefits for me but they only tell me how to use it. The docs also don't do it. It seems…

Similarly, Google is pushing developers toward Firebase as a replacement for their identity toolkit[1]. However, while reading the provided documentation and tutorials, it's not clear how anything is better than the old toolkit except that the tutorials now assume you'd like to use Firebase to store your user DB (which I have no interest in). I also have trouble discerning where the free ends and usage starts costing money.

Compared to Facebook's acquisition of Parse, I'm happy that the Firebase team hasn't been shut down and has been shipping new stuff. However, it's disappointing that instead of continuing to build a great value-add, they seem to be consuming existing Google platforms and fairly often making the documentation for those things much more confusing.

1. https://developers.google.com/identity/toolkit/

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