Database Users

Laggy Scrolling?

Is anyone else experiencing this? On web pages or long lists, scrolling around is not nearly as smooth as it should be. My brother has a Hero, and the Evo is not as bad as that... but it is nowhere near as smooth as an iPhone is. If I scroll around quickly, it gets pretty jumpy, where the frame rate slows down a lot. I read another thread (maybe on a different forum) where people claim that it's just the difference between the speed of scrolling and/or the "coasting" feature of the phones, but this is not what I'm referring to. I'm referring to mainly the frame rate of scrolling around and also the lag between when my finger moves and when the action takes place. It is most apparent on bigger web pages and long lists (like the Manage Application list). But it also does not happen all the time.
I have Advanced Task Killer running too, set at "Crazy" and the kill frequency set to "When screen off". Is there anything else I can do to make scrolling smoother?
I'm sick of having my friends who have iPhones playing with it, and immediately commenting on how it's not nearly as responsive.
Any ideas?

I played with an EVO in the Sprint store yesterday and noticed the same thing. While overall I found it to be really fast, in some areas (like switching between home screens) it was noticeably choppy compared to my Hero. Though I should note that my Hero is rooted and running Fresh 2.1.1.
One suggestion I might make is to not use overly aggressive settings with a task killer. This has been known to cause some odd behavior with Android including choppiness.

Working amazingly for me. As close to the smoothness of an iPhone as I've ever seen.
Have you tried a full restore? Keep checking after each app installation to figure out what (if anything) is causing the problem.
Sent from my HTC EVO using Tapatalk

Do you have Live Wallpaper running?

I do not. In fact while "conditioning" my battery, brightness down minimum, WiFi/GPS/4G/Bluetooth all off as well.
Sent from my HTC EVO using Tapatalk

How much free memory do you have?

I noticed the choppiness too but it wasn't too bad, just unfitting of a phone with such high specs.

It's because of the Live Wallpapers, some are more processor intensive than others so some it's more noticeable on than others. Put a regular Wallpaper up and everythings nice and smooth.
I don't use Live Wallpapers anymore, they were cool for awhile but after a couple months of them on my Nexus the novelty has worn off.

I notice it also even with a regular wallpaper..i mean its pretty smooth but it does lag a bit.

I notice laggy scrolling within the HTC-built applications. For example, when looking through contact information or social updates. The scrolling is really bad, and I think that just might be because of the huge amount of information the HTC apps are processing. I'm sure all the social information being pulled from every end of the Internet isn't the easiest thing for the device to do, even if it is the Evo.
Aside from that, everything else is as smooth as butter.

Still stock on mine and I haven't noticed any lag, though I use Dolphin HD and Skyfire.

I don't have Live Wallpaper running, and about 200MB of free memory.
And I don't think it's with the HTC-built applications only. I notice it in most applications. Just put an iPhone right beside it and scroll around on both... huge difference.
I just changed the settings on Advanced Task Killer to Aggressive (down from Crazy) and Every half hour (down from When screen off). Maybe this will help... we'll see. Maybe Advanced Task Killer is not the best app for this? Are there any better ones? Why didn't Google have this built in if it really helped so much with speed+battery life?
Maybe FroYo will fix this issue? Does anyone know when this will be available?

shawnee4885 said:
Maybe FroYo will fix this issue? Does anyone know when this will be available?
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I have noticed this too at times. Froyo made my Nexus One a hell of a lot faster, it will do the same for the Evo

Still on Stock rom and no root, scrolling, pinch zoom are all smooth and fast.

theoner1 said:
Still on Stock rom and no root, scrolling, pinch zoom are all smooth and fast.
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Click to collapse
Have you compared it to an iPhone though?

shawnee4885 said:
Have you compared it to an iPhone though?
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Click to collapse
I've seen this too and mentioned it to other Android people... and was promptly called a cry baby. I am coming from a 3gs...and just thought it was silly the 1ghz chip in this phone cant compare to the 600mhz chip in the iphone.

Grims said:
I've seen this too and mentioned it to other Android people... and was promptly called a cry baby. I am coming from a 3gs...and just thought it was silly the 1ghz chip in this phone cant compare to the 600mhz chip in the iphone.
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Click to collapse
It's all about the quality of the programming, i'm not calling htc programers bad but it seems like some of their stuff is just slow.

Grims said:
I've seen this too and mentioned it to other Android people... and was promptly called a cry baby. I am coming from a 3gs...and just thought it was silly the 1ghz chip in this phone cant compare to the 600mhz chip in the iphone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First u have to realize that the iphone was built with its gpu base OS. So all the scrolling and animation are base on gpu WITH THE HELP OF CPU. Android will be more dificult since of all its different hardware. Iphone OS is just base on iphone hardware but If iphone was running without gpu support, it would move like crap.
One example of this is zuneHD. it is base on a hardware base on tegra with gpu support and is smoother than iphone since tegra is a more capable gpu chip.
This discussion has been on and off with palmpre guys and waiting for an update to enable gpu support in the OS. Gpu support is supported in game but not in the OS for scrolling etc. Just like android.
This is the reason the iphone can run smooth at low mhz. The iphone 2g even at its low mhz still is smoother in scrolling and transiction than android because of it gpu intigrationbut ofcourse not faster. Hope this help.
Another example is compiz for linux. It create a semi gpu OS of linux and u can see how compiz on linux look light yeat better and smoother than wimdows 7 with a much lower hardware spec.

eduardmc said:
First u have to realize that the iphone was built with its gpu base OS. So all the scrolling and animation are base on gpu WITH THE HELP OF CPU. Android will be more dificult since of all its different hardware. Iphone OS is just base on iphone hardware but If iphone was running without gpu support, it would move like crap.
One example of this is zuneHD. it is base on a hardware base on tegra with gpu support and is smoother than iphone since tegra is a more capable gpu chip.
This discussion has been on and off with palmpre guys and waiting for an update to enable gpu support in the OS. Gpu support is supported in game but not in the OS for scrolling etc. Just like android.
This is the reason the iphone can run smooth at low mhz. The iphone 2g even at its low mhz still is smoother in scrolling and transiction than android because of it gpu intigrationbut ofcourse not faster. Hope this help.
Another example is compiz for linux. It create a semi gpu OS of linux and u can see how compiz on linux look light yeat better and smoother than wimdows 7 with a much lower hardware spec.
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Click to collapse
Thanks that explains a lot, i wasn't aware Android doesn't use GPU support in this area.

I just wanted to throw this in. I know everyone is comparing things like the scrolling framerate to the iPhone's. But there is one slight issue that a lot of developers can tell you off the bat.
JAVA
iPhone is not based on java and android UI is. This is sort of why JIT is slated to make such a big difference. Java is just laggy, especially when it comes to UI. For instance: open office, eclipse, and just about any other java based app I see on linux. GTK apps are fine in ubuntu, but when I open eclipse I just know there is a delay between when I click the "file" menu and when it actually opens.
I noticed it on my hero, and no amount of free ram or killing apps would completely get rid of it. Now I have to say going from the hero to the evo I honestly do not notice any lag. But the UI on the hero just has a solid delay EVERYWHERE you go. But I noticed it was not there as soon as I got into a game written in the dalvik way. It will come, and we will eventually be there. But I don't blame it on hardware. Core2quad in eclipse and the UI lags? Blame it on Java.
Now I know some folks will say "nu uhh. such and such java android app doesn't do that!" But almost all apps for android and sense do this if they are written in java. Some more than others.
One final thing, there are several articles about why you shouldn't use task killers. It became perfectly clear it was a bad idea on some of toast's later kernel. and yes, the memory management can be improved for root users. but for non root users, I know it is counter-intuitive but task killers have major drawbacks. Just do some searching and decide for yourself, but I noticed a huge difference on my hero when I stopped using a task killer and allowed the default memory management to take over. And honestly, on my EVO I don't EVER notice a slow down.

N64 emulation on later versions of android

So I was doing a little research and I read a while back that n64 emulation was almost impossible on the current versions of android because that it wouldn't allow the kind of hardware acceleration needed to run it. Now I was reading that recently that gingerbread or honeycomb, I can't remember which, will allow more optimization of the cpu and gpu and allow more extensive hardware acceleration. Anyone think it will ever be possible? I mean if the iphone can do it why not a high end android phone? Any thoughts?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Elite11b said:
So I was doing a little research and I read a while back that n64 emulation was almost impossible on the current versions of android because that it wouldn't allow the kind of hardware acceleration needed to run it. Now I was reading that recently that gingerbread or honeycomb, I can't remember which, will allow more optimization of the cpu and gpu and allow more extensive hardware acceleration. Anyone think it will ever be possible? I mean if the iphone can do it why not a high end android phone? Any thoughts?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Applications could do hardware acceleration ever since froyo...

[Q] 2D/3D Hardware Acceleration?

Is the 2D/3D hardware acceleration, offered on Honeycomb, available for newer phone builds of Android, 2.3 and up, or is that a tablet only feature?

I sure hope 2D HW acceleration is implemented into a FroYo/Gingerbread update, as it's one thing that's needed for a smoother UI.

2D acceleration is built in to 2.3, and you can feel the difference. You can get it working on 2.1/2 with the build.prop switch "debug.sf.hw" to 1. Your mileage may vary with that, though.

blackalice said:
2D acceleration is built in to 2.3, and you can feel the difference. You can get it working on 2.1/2 with the build.prop switch "debug.sf.hw" to 1. Your mileage may vary with that, though.
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Oh yeah! I had a look at the file but couldn't see the debug.sf.hw=0 line anywhere. Is there a specific place where I can add it?

SGS GPU acceleration for UI?

Hi,
I´ve read that ICS has GPU acceleration for the UI implemented as a standard. Is there really a difference in smoothness compared to custom gb roms? I´m talking about the i9001. But it should be the same as with the i9000
Regards
Lekor

Can't tell the difference.
I'm on RemICS v1.2 with Devil Kernel 3.0.72. I set GPU from stock 200MHz to OC at 250MHz and I can't tell the difference. But the Kernel developer did say it may not work. Still experimental.

Afaik no big difference, although our GPU is powerful. Maybe stock ROM has other imorovements, so the boost isn't good to feel on ICS.

Samurai05 said:
I'm on RemICS v1.2 with Devil Kernel 3.0.72. I set GPU from stock 200MHz to OC at 250MHz and I can't tell the difference. But the Kernel developer did say it may not work. Still experimental.
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GPU OC isn't same as GPU accelerated UI
And yes ICS should benefit from it..but can't really remember anyone GB times if there has been some speed gain..
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

Yeah it does, but i reckon that ICS is really unpolished with it.

Running slim with the latest semaphore and I can definitely say this is the slickest my phone has been, but that is just my opinion
Sent from the gutter, gazing at the stars

Lekor2k said:
Hi,
I´ve read that ICS has GPU acceleration for the UI implemented as a standard. Is there really a difference in smoothness compared to custom gb roms? I´m talking about the i9001. But it should be the same as with the i9000
Regards
Lekor
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are apks that use the gpu. In custom roms i saw that this is true on i9001

The stock browser in 2.3.6 uses GPU acceleration. There are other apps also, but not the OS UI.
In 4.0 custom rom it should work in the apps when you enable the option from the developer options.

No difference. Everything using 8 mb more ram with 200mhz GPU acceleration.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA

burakgon said:
No difference. Everything using 8 mb more ram with 200mhz GPU acceleration.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA
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Bro, just upgraded my i9000 to ice and forced gpu acceleration.
Man even on the xda app itself I can see a marginal difference in smoothness.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium

it has an option force gpu rendering that uses 2d hardware acceleration in applications...and you have to set it manual...but dont know if it rly helps in smoothness i think it depends more on the rom then to have this gpu option

MrAndroid12 said:
Bro, just upgraded my i9000 to ice and forced gpu acceleration.
Man even on the xda app itself I can see a marginal difference in smoothness.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Because it's cyanogen. You can see it's even faster on cm7.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda app-developers app

I see an awful lot of people saying it offers no improvements. Personally, I think it does.
I keep my phone up to date as much as possible. When ICS was stable, I jumped right in. I haven't ran Gingerbread in a long, long time—but from what I remember, it had some lag. Android, in fact, was known for this lag. You couldn't read an iOS vs Android debate without this lag being mentioned (at least when Gingerbread was the newest). And I had tried everything: every lag fix, every tweak, every ROM, every kernel, governer, scheduler, OCing, UVing—I tried it all. But I still remember there being lag.
Now I'm in the present. I've been running ICS since it was stable and, quite frankly, I don't notice that lag. I mean, yes, my phone does still lag—if I'm doing something processor intensive in the background—but not like my memories of Gingerbread. Back then, it would lag scrolling through my list of apps; it would lag doing menial UI rendering without anything running in the background. That simply does not happen anymore. Not in my experiences. Not with ICS.
Granted, as I did in Gingbread, I do in ICS—I've applied every fix, every tweak, and every possible software combination that I could get my hands on. I've tried every ROM, every kernel, every setting imaginable. And I do this because I've been thoroughly impressed by the community here at XDA. This device of ours is over 2 years old now. But the software progression does not stop. We move forward as if the hardware was built just yesterday. And I have to tell you, our phone is keeping up—it really is. My phone is faster than a lot of my peers, even with some of them having much newer hardware. And I honestly don't feel I could have said any of this if I had stayed far behind with Gingerbread.
Everyone wants a new phone. It's newer, better, faster. But what they don't realize is that software can fulfill a majority of their wants. It is a continuous improvement, however gradual it may be. To not want to upgrade your software is like not wanting to upgrade your phone. And let's be honest, who doesn't want a new phone—one that's newer, better, and faster—without ever having to buy one.
I do. And that's why I update my phone. But maybe that's just me.

[Q] GPU UI Rendering

Hello
Can someone kindly tell me what difference does enabling GPU UI rendering make? From the name I can understand that the UI will be rendered using the GPU and not the CPU. But what are the advantages/disadvantages of this? What changes can I expect upon enabling it? And how does it, if at all, affect battery life?
Thanks in advance =)

Most of the apps now use GPU rendering (app packages for ICS, etc). Some apps don't(old apps). Force GPU UI rendering switch forces those apps to use GPU.
Pro. much smoother UI in apps that don't enable GPU rendering by default.
Con. Some visual bug may appear on some apps.

and what about battery life?

gannjunior said:
and what about battery life?
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Theory 1; since the GPU is having some work right next to CPU it is an additional burden to battery to feed them both
Theory 2; Since they share the load they both can run at lower clocks so this means less voltage needed. Less voltage means less energy consumed.
So I guess there is no exact way to measure but nowadays most of the apps are already using that option default so it must be a good thing. At least the device does not have to run the CPU at max speed and heat up.

'Disable hardware overlays' what does this mean and should I enable it
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

mohnim said:
'Disable hardware overlays' what does this mean and should I enable it
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read this:
Without a hardware overlay every application that is displaying things on the screen will share video memory and will have to constantly check for collision and clipping to render a proper image, this can cost a lot of processing power. With a hardware overlay each application gets its own portion of video memory, getting rid of the need to check for collision and clipping.
Basically, using hardware overlays can reduce CPU usage by quite a bit
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Source: http://rootzwiki.com/topic/28977-disable-hardware-overlays/#entry778564

thanks for the explanation

gannjunior said:
thanks for the explanation
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Click to collapse
Not to be "that guy", but there's a button for that.