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How about some Android graphics true facts?

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Re: How about some Android graphics true facts?

#61

Post by mgkimsal »

jan_g wrote: post #44
mgkimsal wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I'll just go out and say that it's a non-issue for mainstream user." Might also be why the "mainstream" is primarily using Apple iPads/iPods/iPhones vs the myriad of Android devices available. What bothers people is that when you swipe from screen 1 to screen 2, there can be a > .5 second delay. It doesn't feel remotely "natural" for something that you're physically touching and supposedly interacting with.

>Might also be why the "mainstream" is primarily using Apple iPads/iPods/iPhones I don't believe the reason for that is UI responsiveness (also, I don't agree with your 'primarily' assessment, but let's not chew on that). In my opinion, the differences are so small that UI performance just isn't an issue. There are other areas where iDevices are noticeably better compared to every competing device. >What bothers peop…

This has got to be mostly a perception problem, because it's all I ever notice when using any Android device. Swipe/scroll lag has always been noticeable for me. And yes, iPhones do crash/break/jitter, but it's by far a very small percentage of the time compared to how often they're used.

As for a "reason" for people using Android: most of the people I know who use Android-based devices have "It's not Apple" as one of the top few reasons for using it.

Re: How about some Android graphics true facts?

#62

Post by Symmetry »

I seem to recall hearing that one of the main drivers of people's preferences for Android or iOS scrolling is how far you have to move your finger before scrolling starts. The delay in space, rather than in time.

I can understand why Andoid would have theirs set as they do, but I also understand how someone used to iOS could find it unpleasant.

Re: How about some Android graphics true facts?

#63

Post by mgkimsal »

mbell wrote: post #45
mgkimsal wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I'll just go out and say that it's a non-issue for mainstream user." Might also be why the "mainstream" is primarily using Apple iPads/iPods/iPhones vs the myriad of Android devices available. What bothers people is that when you swipe from screen 1 to screen 2, there can be a > .5 second delay. It doesn't feel remotely "natural" for something that you're physically touching and supposedly interacting with.

>Might also be why the "mainstream" is primarily using Apple iPads/iPods/iPhones vs the myriad of Android devices available. Which mainstream? Last time I looked Android market share was substantially higher than iOS.

The mainstream who shop at stores where every single appliance/device has "works with your iPod/iPhone!". The mainstream who go to hotels that have iPod docking stations in the room alarm clocks. The mainstream who go to fitness gyms that have iPod/iPhone docking stations in the workout equipment.

Re: How about some Android graphics true facts?

#64

Post by maximusprime »

angrycoder wrote: post #48
maximusprime wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downmodders: Can you explain why? My point is, software is rendering the graphics. Either it's software running on one chip, or it's software on another chip. That's irrelevant. What matters, is how fast the graphics are rendered.

There is a big difference between hardware and software rendering. Software rendering has you plotting each pixel individually and writing to the framebuffer. Hardware rendering uses specialized APIs and hardware to dramatically speed up drawing and transformation functions.

No, they both involve software, writing to a framebuffer. (By software, I mean code - software/firmware/etc).

A crappy 'hardware' accelerated GPU can be slower than a 'software' framebuffer write.

My point was that saying "It's hardware accelerated" is meaningless marketing speak.

Re: How about some Android graphics true facts?

#65

Post by kooshball »

podperson wrote: post #40
divtxt wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It blows my mind that people can't understand that scrolling "feels right" is a show-stopper feature for a touch interface. Meanwhile, at Apple, they would have got it right in version 0.1, and Steve Jobs would treated that as prototype quality and made the team do 10 better variations.

It's a definitional thing. "Works" at (say) Microsoft or Google means "produces a correct result at the end" whereas it means something quite different at Apple. The most egregious example I've seen of this is the way Mac OS filtered mouse movement data from the beginning, but it still doesn't feel right on Windows (and wasn't even in the ballpark until around Windows 98/NT4). (And, by contrast, the Amiga had pretty…

All the windows phone 7 devices I have seen work extremely well in terms of smooth scrolling. Definitely on the same levels as ios devices if not better.

Re: How about some Android graphics true facts?

#66

Post by babebridou »

beatle wrote: post #59
mrich wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple makes compromises, too. On the original iPad scrolling can be really laggy (probably only after installing a couple of apps, so you won't notice it in the store). Meanwhile, the current generation of dual core Android phones have hardly any lag issues anymore.

Garbage collection in Android is another performance bottleneck. ICS "fixes" this by allowing the garbage collector to run on a different thread but imo that's a kludge.

You're beating a dead horse alright, but it's the wrong one.

Garbage collection has never had anything to do with poor UI performances, and everything to do with making poor code stutter. When the GC starts hitting your framerate, it means you are creating far too many objects and far too frequently. Before ICS, android implemented the incremental GC that runs more often but for "negligible" sub-1ms lengths.

If you absolutely need 60fps, make sure the GC never gets to do any work and start monitoring your own memory through buffers, just like you would in any other language.

Re: How about some Android graphics true facts?

#67

Post by rieter »

w0utert wrote: post #41
justincormack wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currently reading this on Galaxy Nexus. No need to throw at wall in my view. Feels much like the iphone 3gs i had before...

So you're basically saying a brand-new phone with 3 times the specs feels much like an almost 3-year old iPhone? Amazing!

It has a much higher resolution than iPhone 3GS. In fact, it has six times more pixels.

Re: How about some Android graphics true facts?

#68

Post by sofal »

babebridou wrote: post #37
seclorum wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> OS given a powerful enough phone, the goal has been met, with one (critical!) exception Two exceptions: Audio latency. It is impossible to write certain classes of table applications for Android right now, because no priority was given to having a low-latency audio subsystem. Its at least as big a mess as display acceleration.

You're 100% right. For more information on this issue: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3434

Any Android users out there that want to see Android succeed should star the issue linked in the parent comment. There are a significant number of excellent music/audio apps for musicians and tinkerers for iOS that are not possible on Android because of the above issue. For example, search YouTube for "EveryDay Looper".

Re: How about some Android graphics true facts?

#70

Post by gareim »

gareim wrote: post #53
mbell wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Might also be why the "mainstream" is primarily using Apple iPads/iPods/iPhones vs the myriad of Android devices available. Which mainstream? Last time I looked Android market share was substantially higher than iOS.

Look again, because iOS has greater market share than Android does. But it's a moot point anyways, because one OS is limited to a few devices that sell at high price points and the other is used by tens of manufacturers and hit low, medium, and high price points. Actually, because of that, it makes iOS's market share even more impressive.

What did I say that was wrong? The guy had the idea that Android has greater market share than iOS, I stated my belief that he was wrong, and then I got downvoted. Some of you guys are too trigger happy with your downvoting buttons. If you're going to downvote, at least explain why so everyone is wiser in the end.
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