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iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

macrumors.com

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Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#51

Post by hombre_fatal »

gambiting wrote: post #42
throwaway48476 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The glass transparency effect is just very computationally expensive.

I just don't understand how if Visa could render its transparency efects smoothly on Intel 920 grade GPUs with 128mb of ram.

That's not how I remember it. Back in the day the first thing you did was disable the Aero stuff to claw back some performance on Vista.

That said, who knows how efficient the implementation is compared to other changes in iOS 26. I turned liquid glass off with "reduced transparency" because even 1% extra battery usage for it would be too much even though I kinda appreciated the new look.

Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#54

Post by Gigachad »

dabinat wrote: post #28

It’s technically impressive that they’re simulating the way light travels through glass. But a lot of the time it’s so subtle that I wonder if they could have just used simple semi-opacity and it would have had 85% of the same effect at a fraction of the CPU cycles.

I'm not sure how but it doesn't seem to use that much processing power. My 5 year old apple watch seems to render the glass UI fairly well and I assume this thing has the bare minimum processing power.

Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#55

Post by Gigachad »

GenerocUsername wrote: post #5
montroser wrote: post #3

So, so, much money, time, and resources poured into this update that only made things worse; and now again to roll it back...

I don't see it said enough, but liquid glass slowed my M3 noticably. Odd I got the update 2 weeks before M5 launch. Software as a means to obsolete hardware. Trillion dollar company

I don't think that's the UI, it's some other bug. My M1 is still running at full speed after Tahoe. Some people have said there is a broken version of Electron which causes slowdowns on Tahoe currently, most but not all apps have updated to a newer fixed version of Electron.

Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#56

Post by Gigachad »

throwaway48476 wrote: post #15
zamadatix wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The M3 can run modern 3D games at high frame rates, surely it was something else about the update than the glass effect in the UI causing slowness?? It's a more appreciable burden on older iPhones though.

The glass transparency effect is just very computationally expensive.

The glass UI renders on my Apple Watch 6 just fine and that thing has probably 0.5% the GPU power as the Macbooks.

Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#57

Post by gambiting »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #51
gambiting wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don't understand how if Visa could render its transparency efects smoothly on Intel 920 grade GPUs with 128mb of ram.

That's not how I remember it. Back in the day the first thing you did was disable the Aero stuff to claw back some performance on Vista. That said, who knows how efficient the implementation is compared to other changes in iOS 26. I turned liquid glass off with "reduced transparency" because even 1% extra battery usage for it would be too much even though I kinda appreciated the new look.

>>That's not how I remember it. Back in the day the first thing you did was disable the Aero stuff to claw back some performance on Vista.

I remember it being kinda like placebo - you did, you marvelled at how much faster it's working, but in reality nothing changed. I really liked the look, and it did run smooth unless you had something below the minimum spec(which a lot of people did at the time).

Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#58

Post by isodev »

spankalee wrote: post #45

How did they not do enough user testing to know users wanted this before it even got to beta? Are they so paranoid about secrecy that they can't do event the most basic of UX design processes?

I would’ve killed it even before user testing. It’s borderline malicious that this thing was shipped in the first place

Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#59

Post by Gigachad »

mikepurvis wrote: post #23
GenerocUsername wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see it said enough, but liquid glass slowed my M3 noticably. Odd I got the update 2 weeks before M5 launch. Software as a means to obsolete hardware. Trillion dollar company

Wasn't Windows 7 doing this same stuff back in like 2009?

Nah liquid glass isn't just transparency and gaussion blur, it refracts/bends light around the rims as well as a kind of sub pixel colour splitting on some elements like when you have a water droplet magnifying your screen.

Re: iOS 26.1 lets users control Liquid Glass transparency

#60

Post by toast0 »

gambiting wrote: post #49
toast0 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should try it if you're only a step into their ecosystem. Kiddo got some airpods for use with his android phone. Registered them with 'find my' on an iPhone SE I have for work that sits on my desk, so that when they get lost, we have a chance of finding them. Now, we get to be alerted to potential trackers every time when travel with him... even he gets the alerts, because he travels with his airpods frequently.…

I just don't understand how more people don't complain about this all the time. My wife has an apple tracker on her keys and I get a notification about an unknown tracker travelling with me on my phone every time we go anywhere. Why isn't there an "I know this tracker, leave me the fuck alone" option anywhere???

Yeah, seems like we should be able to acknowledge known trackers, or something. Or be able to enroll multiple phones or other devices (of multiple OSes) as owners, so if the keys move with your phone instead of hers, that counts as 'not being separated from the owner', rather than throwing another BS alert.
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