HI @bking,
I’ve used ESP8266 a few times. Never ESP32 but I think it’s mostly the same.
IP Address? Most of the example programs print the IP address on serial, so at first when you are developing your program connected to PC you can see the IP address on serial. When you take the ESP32 to another WiFi there are tools for the Android phone e.g. NetCutPro or WUMWiFi that will help you find it. I think the best way is to put code in the ESP to send an occasional UDP message. A listening program your PC can catch the messages.
I’d like to post 2 programs. The first is ESP8266 code which has a web-page, you’ll see that it’s developed from the Ard IDE examples. The buttons on the web-page switch a 4-wire fan on/off, and control the speed. The ESP measures the speed and puts that on the web-page. You don’t need all that, the part you want is where it UDP broadcasts the fan speed. (There’s another part where if you UDP send it an ‘A’ it replies with data.) It doesn’t need the fan etc. to run. You might have to alter it if I’ve used a pin that does something else on the ESP32
The 2nd is a Processing sketch which listens for the broadcast messages, and shows them in a window.
I’ve tried posting, but the ESP sketch is full of html, quotes, asterisks, and the forum software is changing it.