Animation delay when turning screen on

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Ozsi
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 1:37 am

Animation delay when turning screen on

Post by Ozsi » Thu Oct 11, 2012 2:05 am

Hi, I have one question - I don't have my phone plugged in to charge while I'm listening, so I normally have the screen turned off. I've found that when I turn the screen back on (normally to pause playback, because someone at work wants to talk to me!) a short animation plays where the playback controls slide up and the album art fades in. I can't pause the music until that finishes.

I know it only takes a second or so, but it gets quite frustrating when it happens everytime. In other players I can turn the screen on and tap pause (or whatever else) straight away.

I also tried leaving Neutron in the audio controls screen, but then when I turn the screen off and on again it defaults back to the "now playing" screen, and again plays the short animation.

Is there any way to disable this so it becomes responsive as soon as I turn the screen on?

But aside from that, I'm really loving it! Thanks :)

Ozsi
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 1:37 am

Re: Animation delay when turning screen on

Post by Ozsi » Fri Oct 12, 2012 5:37 am

Actually, disabling the "Swap Main" option has pretty much solved this for me. The audio controls screen becomes responsive almost immediately after turning the screen on, eliminating the frustrating delay on the album art screen.

And I think I actually prefer too having the audio controls as the default page, so it's a win-win situation :)

dmitrykos
Site Admin
Posts: 1914
Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2011 6:15 pm

Re: Animation delay when turning screen on

Post by dmitrykos » Fri Oct 12, 2012 7:24 am

Hi! :)

The main problem with preserving UI for quick showing when screen is switched on lies in Android OS graphic sub-system. Initially it was supposed that OpenGL context (which is used for drawing UI to the screen) can be only one and thus when application exits from own UI it must destroy graphics context. As a result when screen is switched on graphics context must be restored completely from zero, e.g. load all textures, build UI framework and etc. That is why information is lost regarding some of the states of UI because restoring them in some situations is very complex and may not be bug free. Since Android 3.0 Google made it possible to preserve OpenGL context but the solution is not clear. There are possibilities to implement context preserving since Android 2.3 and there is trial implementation in Neutron but it is not clean yet and thus not used.

Using Swap Main option probably is the best idea.

I will think about instant controls rather than animation when screen is switched on, I agree that it is more convenient than to wait when controls show up fully.

Ozsi
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 1:37 am

Re: Animation delay when turning screen on

Post by Ozsi » Sat Oct 13, 2012 9:28 am

Thanks for the explanation, it's interesting to hear how it works under the surface.

I'm sticking with "swap main" for now. In the past (with other players) I'd always liked seeing the album art, now I'm really liking having the EQ showing all the time :)

I look forward to what you have in store for the future!

Simon.

cantara256
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Jul 14, 2012 3:26 am

Re: Animation delay when turning screen on

Post by cantara256 » Fri Oct 26, 2012 12:01 am

It would be awesome to have the album art screen show up instantly; I also struggle with the delay when switching the screen off. I prefer to see the album art screen rather than the full EQ/control screen and generally find disabling "Swap Main" confusing.

I actually don't mind the animations, they are cool, but often when I switch the screen on there's a pause of about a second or two where the screen is "frozen" in the last frame, before it redraws with the animation and right track position. It's that pause before the animation that sucks.

Thanks again Dmitry!

dmitrykos
Site Admin
Posts: 1914
Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2011 6:15 pm

Re: Animation delay when turning screen on

Post by dmitrykos » Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:56 pm

> It's that pause before the animation that sucks.

I agree and also dislike it. Will try to improve it by re-writing some of OpenGL related Android interface stuff. Currently standard Android API is used for maximum compatibility and due to fear of Android bugs in that area I was not doing modifications there.

On well designed (API, framework for developers) OSes this problem does not exist. On BlackBerry PlayBooks OS (and Blackberry 10) Neutron does not have such kind of problem at all, it even does not reset UI states and you have alive UI on the very first frame once screen is on or focused to app, really nice and fluid behavior. When I switch to Android after it, perception is not satisfactory...

Will try to see what can be done for Android OS. Unfortunately Google is too quick with version switches and such rush decreases quality/stability/compatibility of API for the developers... :(

cantara256
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Jul 14, 2012 3:26 am

Re: Animation delay when turning screen on

Post by cantara256 » Tue Nov 06, 2012 6:51 am

It sucks you have to deal with such differences and that the Google API isn't great. :-( It is really appreciated if you can fix this though.

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