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[APP] PDF Viewer update

I needed a PDF viewer for my own purposes, and the closest I could find was Maciej's PDF Viewer (=apv) app on the market. It was open source, and so I made a bunch of changes that I wanted or needed. Anyway, I now have a pre-release for version 0.3.0, which include a bunch of enhancements since Maciej's 0.2.9 release.
Here it is.
New features:
- speed optimizations
- page number display
- options including: full screen, reverse video, various tweaks, page with volume keys
- overhauled file selection: added icons for directories, added home directory option
- better font rendering

Now I posted pre-release 0.3.0 pre 2. Includes a monochrome feature to save memory and a zoom-to-width feature which I think people will find handy.

Sounds like you know what your doing. Not had a chance to test your app yet, but does it have the functionality to add bookmarks and highlight text?

Gonna try it out now, thanks!

No, there is no annotation, sorry. Just reading.

Its really nice with open source alternatives. Im gonna try it out.

I think i will love this. thanks bud

I haven't tried it yet but it would be great if you could add zoom to a fixed percentage
the reason I want that is some pdfs have huge fonts for the page numbering and while technically fit to width is working, there's still a fair amount of room on the sides. Obviously this should be sticky. A bonus would be it would remember the setting by filename

Works good, one option I'd love to get is fixed scrolling like with browsers

sark666 said:
I haven't tried it yet but it would be great if you could add zoom to a fixed percentage
the reason I want that is some pdfs have huge fonts for the page numbering and while technically fit to width is working, there's still a fair amount of room on the sides. Obviously this should be sticky. A bonus would be it would remember the setting by filename
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Zoom settings are indeed remembered by filename.
You can also adjust how much the zoom buttons zoom by. If you set that to 5% or 10%, you can do zoom-to-width and then press the zoom button once or twice.
Eventually, I'd like it to detect the real edges of the text.

moav said:
Works good, one option I'd love to get is fixed scrolling like with browsers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I couldn't figure out how to implement that. Moreover, I find it's poorly implemented in the browser--it locks much better on my device into horizontal movement than into vertical movement!
Instead, there is a "vertical scroll lock" option. This locks the scrolling to be only vertical, unless you make a serious (1/5 screen width) swipe left or right which temporarily unlocks horizontal scrolling.

I`ve just tested this app for half an hour with a bunch of PDFs littered in my Desire. This is without exaggeration the best pdf-viewer I´ve seen so far.
Very useful:
- zooming in steps as little as 5% because most PDFs were made for monitors or printing and not smartphones
- inverting the screen for reading at night or low-light conditions. It also saves power on my screen to read white text with black background.
- and it´s FAST
What I miss:
- an option to forget about the layout of a PDF, so I can only get the pure text. This would be very useful for PDFs designed for magazines with a columned layout, which is a pain to read on a handheld computer.
Keep up the good work

germanhoss said:
I`ve just tested this app for half an hour with a bunch of PDFs littered in my Desire. This is without exaggeration the best pdf-viewer I´ve seen so far.
Very useful:
- zooming in steps as little as 5% because most PDFs were made for monitors or printing and not smartphones
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Remember, too, that if you set the 5% zoom option, you can still long-touch the zoom buttons for a 2X zoom.

arpruss said:
Remember, too, that if you set the 5% zoom option, you can still long-touch the zoom buttons for a 2X zoom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, haven´t noticed that - that´s quite useful.
Originally I thought of requesting a feature to remember the place where I closed the document because I´m used to open things in the ES explorer.
Then I stumbled through the built-in file explorer - feature implemented
Maybe an FAQ or a short manual would be useful ...

germanhoss said:
Wow, haven´t noticed that - that´s quite useful.
Originally I thought of requesting a feature to remember the place where I closed the document because I´m used to open things in the ES explorer.
Then I stumbled through the built-in file explorer - feature implemented
Maybe an FAQ or a short manual would be useful ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a wiki on the project page. You can add a FAQ.

It's a great light app and it has some cool features which I miss on other apps. But my primary feature for PDF readers is smoothness.
It would be great if it would be working as smooth as Documents To Go (their PDF reader). By smooth I mean smooth rendering and scrolling. Also it won't hurt to have multitouch zooming.
I know it's easy to demand and hard to do but at least there are ideas what should be present in the next versions.

jankoboys6 said:
It's a great light app and it has some cool features which I miss on other apps. But my primary feature for PDF readers is smoothness.
It would be great if it would be working as smooth as Documents To Go (their PDF reader). By smooth I mean smooth rendering and scrolling.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's largely a matter of speed, and it's going to be hard to improve that, except by expending a lot of memory for caching and background rendering.
Also it won't hurt to have multitouch zooming.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, but it is a finicky feature to implement correctly and hence requires a multitouch device for debugging. I don't own one. Moreover, there are potential patent issues.

I've just posted 0.3.0 pre 13. This unfortunately has a new bookmark database, not compatible with previous versions, so people will lose their per-document settings. I am hoping this is the last such loss--the new format will make code maintenance easier and is easily upward expandable.
New features/fixes in pre 13:
- store horizontal offset in per-document settings
- better restore of zoom if orientation has changed
- fix round-off error which resulted in occasional horizontal one-pixel-width errors

I would also like to mention the color feature in your app is really great! Now I can read without hurting my eyes in the dark and it saves batter as well. Great feature indeed!
arpruss said:
That's largely a matter of speed, and it's going to be hard to improve that, except by expending a lot of memory for caching and background rendering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmmm what if you make the memory size for caching an option in the settings for users to choose their optimum size? Do you believe that this would make any speed improvements?
arpruss said:
I agree, but it is a finicky feature to implement correctly and hence requires a multitouch device for debugging. I don't own one. Moreover, there are potential patent issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see it's kind a hard/expensive to make this feature possible. Darn US laws on patents :-/ don't know if in EU is the same for Android apps but for C++ and other programming languages, there are no e-patents.
Keep on your great work!
PS: I'm using HTC Desire (CM7 rom)

jankoboys6 said:
I would also like to mention the color feature in your app is really great! Now I can read without hurting my eyes in the dark and it saves batter as well. Great feature indeed!
hmmm what if you make the memory size for caching an option in the settings for users to choose their optimum size? Do you believe that this would make any speed improvements?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe, but it would need a smarter pre-render queue than we currently have. I experimented with making one, but my attempts were buggy so I got rid of them.
Tell me which scrolling pattern you'd like to be faster? Currently the app (in render ahead mode) is optimized for ebook reading: you read a page, and while you read the page, the next one is rendered and shows up instantly when you flip pages (I generally do that with the volume-down key) or scroll vertically to it.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a bug somewhere, perhaps only on devices with larger screen resolutions (it works fine on my 854x480 Archos, but I am told that it doesn't work on a 1280x960 screen), which makes the next page not show up instantly.

240 dpi Contacts(Dialer), Touchwiz Calculator and S Planner (Request)

Anyone can try to mod Contacts(Dialer), Touchwiz Calculator and S Planner and even Wall Paper changer to work with 240 dpi or even less dpi on Note?

I second this...
Im using 3rd party dialer, but i wish i can have those native apps in the lower density.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA App

I would love it !!!

danilos2k said:
I would love it !!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I followed your advice given on Androidiani and 240 dpi are looking lovely.

danilos2k said:
I would love it !!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1

I would like to see this, too! Would be very nice!

i would love to have automn dialer ....have a look..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=19927125&postcount=6

i want this too, ive gone below 240 but 240 seems to be the sweetspot before the battery icon starts to blur. i also use 3rd party dialer i use angel dialer so i never see a problem. but it would be nice to have the native dialer work.

Does S Memo work for any of you when you use anything other than 320dpi? I get thick lines running across my notepad with anything other than 320.
edit: I just found the modded s-memo thread. Now all I need is the rest!

maybe a weird question, but why less dpi?
What changes are needed, just apps?

OpenMinded said:
maybe a weird question, but why less dpi?
What changes are needed, just apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you tell the phone that the screen has 240dpi instead of 320, then it starts drawing things smaller. For instance, 12pt fonts are used instead of 16pt, or the icons become 30x30 instead of 50x50.
As the phone uses the pixel density information to calculate how many pixels should a quarter-inch-wide icon should be, coding in a lower dpi value makes all the drawn elements smaller, giving you more room. This way, you can have smaller text and have more on our gargantuan screen.
Most apps deal with this change nicely, as there are devices out there that actually have 240dpi density. A number of apps (google market) need your pixel density to be one of the supported ones (180,240,320) and other arbitrary values break certain app updates. And some apps (mostly samsung-specific ones) have hard-coded scaling factors that break the app when you change your density setting.
All in all, decrease the density value => have everything rendered/drawn smaller => more screen real estate, the caveat being a small number of apps not supporting scaling at all.

awesome explanation, I 'hit the button' .
Thanks.
To be honest I am happy with the space and prefer the 'no hassle' approach .
So apps that do not support scaling would simply not be in fullscreen mode?

OpenMinded said:
awesome explanation, I 'hit the button' .
Thanks.
To be honest I am happy with the space and prefer the 'no hassle' approach .
So apps that do not support scaling would simply not be in fullscreen mode?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would make sense for the unsupported apps to simply be smaller than fullscreen, and it certainly is the case with samsung's touchwiz dialer, where it sits close to the upper left and has unused room on the right and bottom (contact list, call log and favorites tabs of the phone app scale nicely though).
On the stock launcher (touchwiz, samsung, surprising?), the dock is still at the very bottom of the screen, but there is unused/unusable space between the dock and where your app icons sit. third-party launchers (I tried adw ex) have no problem dealing with scaling.
For the s-memo app, it gets funkier, as the background drawing part of the code seems to have some weird hard-coded scaling, and when you increase your density, the memo-drawing area both shrinks (like the dialer) and also has thick black horizontal lines on it. Looks like an aliasing effect.
So it depends on how the various bits and pieces of the UI elements are coded in each app. If they coded it with multiple densities and scales in mind, it works like a charm. If they ignored it, it depends on where the reference/anchor points of UI elements are, as things can all get scaled and shrunk towards the upper left, or some things may stay at the bottom while others shrink towards the top. If the coders dropped the ball completely (s-memo), things get very ugly.

Hope this thread won't be ignored... Looking forward to some kind fella who would probably get this working

stephenjason89 said:
Hope this thread won't be ignored... Looking forward to some kind fella who would probably get this working
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would be very, very nice!

up for this

ignored for a long time

KL7 and beyond dialer is especially dreadful at 240 dpi, since the call button is effectively hidden

I'm going to attempt to follow this tutorial myself:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=863519

crysalis786 said:
I'm going to attempt to follow this tutorial myself:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=863519
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please share if you have succeeded.
Many thanks!

[GUIDE] Increase android gaming performance (resolution change) (ROOT NEEDED)

Hello everybody, and before all, sory for my english
The main objetive of this thread is to provide a guide to increase performance on high density screen GPU bound devices, for example, the nexus 10.
The last year android devices start shiping with very high definition screens, but without the necesary GPU muscle to make them work good.
Since I was a PC gamer, I know the terrible impact of high definition on the gaming performance, and, on this screen size, this is a useless impact, since the extra resolution are practicaly unperceptible.
The past week I spend a lot of time trying to change my device's resolution (a nexus 7) and with kernel modding, it is posible, but don't are great since I only play 1/3 of the devices usage, and the 1280x800 resolution are great for chat, browsing (or posting on the forum ).
Finally I find a great program that allow me to temporary change the display resolution of my device, and with the free version I was allowed to change resolution to 720x450, and on gaming performance, that was a GREAT performance updrade, even, with the wuality sacrifice (and on a 7 inch display, this wasn't a great lose.
In order to do that, I need to disable soft keys, since they bug A LOT with the resolution change, and to use a custom launcher because the default launcher bug too (go launcher ex is my favourite and the only one I test).
So, I leave a guide on how to prepare your device to use this mod to increase gaming performance, and to provide help to everyone who want it.
First of all, you NEED to be rooted.
Now, start with the device preparing.
Wee need a soft keys replacement, I recomend this one, work great and are really simple to customize.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jun.ace.piecontrol
Now, you need to remove the soft keys in order to gain extra screen space and to protect yourself from potential bugs on the user interface.
To do that, you need to edit your build.prop with an editor or manually with a text editor and add this line.
qemu.hw.mainkeys=1
Now, on the next boot your device have the soft keys disabled.
To protect the status bar from being bugged, we need to change the lcd density of our display in order to allow a phone status bar (the phablet one bug on low resolution displays, and on tablets without sofkeys, we need a status bar.
To do that, we need to edit from the build.prop editor the "ro.sf.lcd_density" parameter and set it to something above 214 (nexus 7 have 213 and it enable the phablet interface, and on 214 it enable a full phone interface, but with small icons and more work space, you need to test and find the most usefull dpi for your device)
Now, we need to install the "magic app", and start testing resolutions and trying to find the most confortable for us, I have the paid version and use on the nexus 7 (16:10 or 8:5) 480x768 since it allow GREAT performance improvement and a good image quality for my screen size.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nomone.resolution_changer
One example of a game that work GREAT with this trick is N.O.V.A. 3, on the tegra 3 plataform it is almost inplayable, and with the trick, on my nexus 7, it looks like this.
So, start testing this, and post your results, configs and devices.
Help us resolving the screen resolution fragmentation on devices!
And mods, please, help the post with a good language correction XD
Edit: Changed the APK link, to a new one, the new app have onscreen buttons to fix the navbar problems, so, pie controls are no longer needed, I leave the link here onlfy for people to know another alternative, thx for NoMone Devs!

i am planning to buy a 7 or 8" android with high resolution and was a bit worried about gaming performance because of the high resolution.. can you post a video of the performance gain plz?

Whoa! I might give this a go when I get home. Good Job.

i am interested for feedbacks in other heavy games like modern combat 4

this!
what android device and other mobile devices lacks.
there's no setting to set the resolution!
people out there always suggest me to change the dpi, but hell no!
"dpi" is not physical resolution, it just changing icon and other ui element to small or big.
this terms confuse many people.
they think DPI is the screen resolution.
and.... i just cannot understand the hype,
many vendors put high res 1080p on 5" device?
what the heck!? is it necessary?
what's next? ultra 4K res on 4" screen?
come on.. it's unnecesary and waste of battery.
gpu works hard to get the job done in that resolution. especially gaming.
thank you for sharing this trick for us.
google should consider to put resolution changer on the next android.
and android vendor should realize put hi-res on small screen is just plain dumb.
-----
Sent from Android device

i will try this thank you. . .:good:

It's hard to take a video without a camera, but to give youman example, on 500x800 asphalt 7 give me 60fps on the shangai track, with my 800x1280 default resolution, I have 20fps aprox with a lot of fluctutations, it's a great app, and with GMD hide buttons, is almost perfect.

Antara33 said:
It's hard to take a video without a camera, but to give youman example, on 500x800 asphalt 7 give me 60fps on the shangai track, with my 800x1280 default resolution, I have 20fps aprox with a lot of fluctutations, it's a great app, and with GMD hide buttons, is almost perfect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ah that indeed seems to be very nice! i have tried it on my htc desire not it does not work nothing changed

yeahman45 said:
ah that indeed seems to be very nice! i have tried it on my htc desire not it does not work nothing changed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, on the HTC Desire 480x800 display, you need to set it to something lower that it, for example, 360x600, it increase the gaming performance, this trick work great on high res display like the nexus 7 or nexus 10 displays for example, try to reduce the resoution to something that retain the original aspect ratio and be lower that 480x800, 360x600 or 240x400 make a grat change, but im not sure about image quality on this device...

Antara33 said:
Yes, on the HTC Desire 480x800 display, you need to set it to something lower that it, for example, 360x600, it increase the gaming performance, this trick work great on high res display like the nexus 7 or nexus 10 displays for example, try to reduce the resoution to something that retain the original aspect ratio and be lower that 480x800, 360x600 or 240x400 make a grat change, but im not sure about image quality on this device...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok thx i have tried to set it to 360x640 on the free version.. but nothing happens.. it just say "Display scaler free has been granted root superuser permissions" and nothing happens

Mh, maybe this is a device specific issue, have you posted a review or sended the autor an feedback email about it?

Antara33 said:
Hello everybody, and before all, sory for my english
The main objetive of this thread is to provide a guide to increase performance on high density screen GPU bound devices, for example, the nexus 10.
The last year android devices start shiping with very high definition screens, but without the necesary GPU muscle to make them work good.
Since I was a PC gamer, I know the terrible impact of high definition on the gaming performance, and, on this screen size, this is a useless impact, since the extra resolution are practicaly unperceptible.
The past week I spend a lot of time trying to change my device's resolution (a nexus 7) and with kernel modding, it is posible, but don't are great since I only play 1/3 of the devices usage, and the 1280x800 resolution are great for chat, browsing (or posting on the forum ).
Finally I find a great program that allow me to temporary change the display resolution of my device, and with the free version I was allowed to change resolution to 720x450, and on gaming performance, that was a GREAT performance updrade, even, with the wuality sacrifice (and on a 7 inch display, this wasn't a great lose.
In order to do that, I need to disable soft keys, since they bug A LOT with the resolution change, and to use a custom launcher because the default launcher bug too (go launcher ex is my favourite and the only one I test).
So, I leave a guide on how to prepare your device to use this mod to increase gaming performance, and to provide help to everyone who want it.
First of all, you NEED to be rooted.
Now, start with the device preparing.
Wee need a soft keys replacement, I recomend this one, work great and are really simple to customize.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jun.ace.piecontrol
Now, you need to remove the soft keys in order to gain extra screen space and to protect yourself from potential bugs on the user interface.
To do that, you need to edit your build.prop with an editor or manually with a text editor and add this line.
qemu.hw.mainkeys=1
Now, on the next boot your device have the soft keys disabled.
To protect the status bar from being bugged, we need to change the lcd density of our display in order to allow a phone status bar (the phablet one bug on low resolution displays, and on tablets without sofkeys, we need a status bar.
To do that, we need to edit from the build.prop editor the "ro.sf.lcd_density" parameter and set it to something above 214 (nexus 7 have 213 and it enable the phablet interface, and on 214 it enable a full phone interface, but with small icons and more work space, you need to test and find the most usefull dpi for your device)
Now, we need to install the "magic app", and start testing resolutions and trying to find the most confortable for us, I have the paid version and use on the nexus 7 (16:10 or 8:5) 480x768 since it allow GREAT performance improvement and a good image quality for my screen size.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nexter.miniscalerfree
One example of a game that work GREAT with this trick is N.O.V.A. 3, on the tegra 3 plataform it is almost inplayable, and with the trick, on my nexus 7, it looks like this.
So, start testing this, and post your results, configs and devices.
Help us resolving the screen resolution fragmentation on devices!
And mods, please, help the post with a good language correction XD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey I bought the app and it works fine i tried most of the resolutions and even a custom one but it seems that no resolution lower than my physical one will go full screen i always get black borders do you get this too?

thanks a8 soc

I tried tweaking my resolution to a higher one yet nothing happens on my Alcatel OneTouch T10. Any fix on this?

Sory for the lazy responce, I have so much time working and other personal things I read on the store that the apk only make the new resolution use the full screen on 4.2+ so if you are on 4.1-, you have it with black borders, sory, but I cant do anything for this :/

is there any way after change resolution for fix buttom touch key(it doesnt work physical touch key)? or any idea where is touch key config file or something like that related in root?

THUNDERASS said:
is there any way after change resolution for fix buttom touch key(it doesnt work physical touch key)? or any idea where is touch key config file or something like that related in root?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know, I suppose, android mao this keys as a touchscreen surface or something like that, the most easybway is using gmd hide softkeys and with it, trigger a softkeys quick navbar and play with this, I am using Paranoidandroid right now and with the pie controls I fix all my problems, and on smanager I created 2 scripts to execute the commands to change resolution, one for the 500x800 for gaming and the other to 1280x800, the default resolution of the nexus 7.
Try it and leave me a comment with your experience.

Antara33 said:
I don't know, I suppose, android mao this keys as a touchscreen surface or something like that, the most easybway is using gmd hide softkeys and with it, trigger a softkeys quick navbar and play with this, I am using Paranoidandroid right now and with the pie controls I fix all my problems, and on smanager I created 2 scripts to execute the commands to change resolution, one for the 500x800 for gaming and the other to 1280x800, the default resolution of the nexus 7.
Try it and leave me a comment with your experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanls for your reply.i have mtk quad core 6589T 1.5 ghz device with powervr 544MP1 and 1 gb ram . My screen is 1080p. i think gpu cant handle this resolution sometimes occur wierd lag and some highend games cant playable.After change resolution to 720p and 320 dpi everything perfect games performance increase %80-100 even memory consumption decreasing.(100mb).i am using with pie control but i want to using continiusly 720p i think after change resulotion touch key coordinates change over screen size.if i found that responsible cfg file or something maybe i can handle this.i am still searching..

THUNDERASS said:
Thanls for your reply.i have mtk quad core 6589T 1.5 ghz device with powervr 544MP1 and 1 gb ram . My screen is 1080p. i think gpu cant handle this resolution sometimes occur wierd lag and some highend games cant playable.After change resolution to 720p and 320 dpi everything perfect games performance increase %80-100 even memory consumption decreasing.(100mb).i am using with pie control but i want to using continiusly 720p i think after change resulotion touch key coordinates change over screen size.if i found that responsible cfg file or something maybe i can handle this.i am still searching..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, the way to go is sticking with default res for everything except gaming, as I say, I have two scripts on 2 widgets on my main screen, one with the commands
su
wm size 500x800
And the other with the commands
su
wm size reset
on jely bean 4.3 this commands set the override resolution of the screen.
on android 4.2.x the wm have to be replaced with am.
The app launch this terminal commands and override our resolution, but since I cant buy the app because of credit card and legal issues on argentina, I made my own scripts with smanager and swidgets . Quick on the fly change, and "letz rack!"

i am using this fantastic program on my thl w8s to scale resolution from 1080p to 720p during games and the speedup is fantastic...i set tasker to autolaunch the app when i click on the game icon, and once finished the game just click on fixes/reset resolution to bring everything back to 1080p . this program is great and the only one i have found...let's hope the developer doesn't abandon it and keeps making it better....and with a better integration in tasker maybe

[GAME][4.0+] Shape Rotate

Hi guys
I am a software engineering student, eager xda reader and in my (little) free time i like to mess around with my android phone. So i developed a little game over the last half year. It's called Shape Rotate.
I wanted to do a simple but new game, not another flappy bird clone. So finally i put the first version online in the playstore yesterday, here is a short description:
In my game you always see two equal shapes, in random rotations. Your task is to rotate the outer shape so that it is equally aligned to the inner one - once they are aligned equally tap the screen anywhere to get the next one. That sounds easy, but since time is not on your side (you gain some extra time every time you get the two shapes aligned identically) it gets really tricky once the shapes are not that obvious any more. The goal is to survive as long as you can.
It would be really great if you check it out, i would really appreciate feedback (or, even better: positive reviews )
Here is the playstore link: Shape Rotate in google play
It is of course free (no in-app purchases or what-so-ever), and i plan to add a lot more different shapes in the future! I attached some screenshots of the app, and i also added a demo video in the playstore description.

Great game. Has great potential to be a time waster. There does seem to be some lag between the shape changes that can prematurely end your game. Get that timing down and you've hit a home run.
As for some suggestions to add. Maybe have levels to unlock similar to an angry birds setup. In level one hand similar shapes with minimal colors, next thing to unlock, add another shape or two with an additional color. Thus making each level progressively harder.

ph37rd said:
Great game. Has great potential to be a time waster. There does seem to be some lag between the shape changes that can prematurely end your game. Get that timing down and you've hit a home run.
As for some suggestions to add. Maybe have levels to unlock similar to an angry birds setup. In level one hand similar shapes with minimal colors, next thing to unlock, add another shape or two with an additional color. Thus making each level progressively harder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thx for your feedback! Regarding the lags, may i ask which device you are using?
I tested it on several devices from an I9000 to my Nexus 4. The only lag i found was that on older devices it takes some time to start the game, but once it displays the first shape i haven't found any lag :s
Yes i already thought about such a thing - creating different "shape packages" and unlocking them time after time. That is definitely a good suggestion for the future and i will soon start working on this. This now is just a first version where i wanted to check out how the game mechanics work and how people react to it.

Varjo said:
Thx for your feedback! Regarding the lags, may i ask which device you are using?
I tested it on several devices from an I9000 to my Nexus 4. The only lag i found was that on older devices it takes some time to start the game, but once it displays the first shape i haven't found any lag :s
Yes i already thought about such a thing - creating different "shape packages" and unlocking them time after time. That is definitely a good suggestion for the future and i will soon start working on this. This now is just a first version where i wanted to check out how the game mechanics work and how people react to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running on an N4 with KK 4.4.4 and hellscore b47, most kernel settings default.
To be sure I'm understood, I solve one shape and before the transition to the next set of shapes, there is a noticeable pause.

This is a good concept. There’s a lag also when rotating the outer shapes. Though this might be because of my slow samsung galaxy tab.
Overall, this is a good gameplay.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B48cqoutz8n3dDFnbTJvRm1XOVU/edit?usp=docslist_api
There should be an mp4 video to illustrate the lag.
Seems there may be an issue with the timer as well.

ph37rd said:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B48cqoutz8n3dDFnbTJvRm1XOVU/edit?usp=docslist_api
There should be an mp4 video to illustrate the lag.
Seems there may be an issue with the timer as well.
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Click to collapse
hm, well it could be that what you think is a lag is actually my poor description and/or implementation?
The playing mechanics should be: you rotate the outer shape so that it is correctly aligned. IF it is so, then you tap anywhere on the screen to "submit" it. if it is correct you get the next shapes.
(The reason why it cannot "auto submit" the moment it is correctly aligned is because then it would be trivial, you would just rotate it until it snaps in - thats why you need that extra "next shape please"-tap)
The possible rotation is actually split into 12 different angles, so there are 11 different angles with which shapes can appear.
The best way to control it is to drag with a finger on the border of the screen (or use two fingers as in normal rotation gestures). you have to drag the finger a bit until the shape snaps in to the next one.
so could it be that it's because i didn't explain the intended controls enough? If so, do you have any suggestions to improve that, or how to better explain the way to play it?
really really appreciating your feedback btw :good:

Varjo said:
hm, well it could be that what you think is a lag is actually my poor description and/or implementation?
The playing mechanics should be: you rotate the outer shape so that it is correctly aligned. IF it is so, then you tap anywhere on the screen to "submit" it. if it is correct you get the next shapes.
(The reason why it cannot "auto submit" the moment it is correctly aligned is because then it would be trivial, you would just rotate it until it snaps in - thats why you need that extra "next shape please"-tap)
The possible rotation is actually split into 12 different angles, so there are 11 different angles with which shapes can appear.
The best way to control it is to drag with a finger on the border of the screen (or use two fingers as in normal rotation gestures). you have to drag the finger a bit until the shape snaps in to the next one.
so could it be that it's because i didn't explain the intended controls enough? If so, do you have any suggestions to improve that, or how to better explain the way to play it?
really really appreciating your feedback btw :good:
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Click to collapse
I may not have read it if you wrote it. When initially testing something like this I go for intuitive. The extra tap isn't.
What about doing the the auto next based on a touch release. You know when the shape is being rotated, the screen is being touched. Can you detect when a finger is removed? There would be no more rotation and wouldn't allow just spinning randomly to get it to snap as you describe.
EDIT:
Looking it up it's called a touch event using MotionEvent class with ACTION_DOWN and ACTION_UP

ph37rd said:
What about doing the the auto next based on a touch release. You know when the shape is being rotated, the screen is being touched.
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That is actually a quite interesting suggestion! I tried it out, and it feels kind of nice. it also makes the game easier, maybe i have to reconsider the additional time gain... I created a debug build, would be nice if you would download and try it and tell me what you think ( you have to deinstall the appstore version first, since this one is signed with my local debug key)
It now checks the correct alignment each time you lift your finger from the screen.
Edit: i think that is a gamebreaker because it makes the game way to easy. you just have to swipe very quickly on the border, and due to the "auto" check you always get the alignment correct very quickly.
another version would be this one. here it is also checked on touchUp but if the alignment is wrong it jumps back in the initial state. that makes it even a bit harder, but also requires more focus and looking.
what do you think?

OK, going to leave this one up to you. I didn't catch a difference between the two in how they play. The first one appears to be snappier and jerky, as opposed to the second one being smoother and slower.
Either way, you nailed what I was saying. What do you think? I think this is far more intuitive. Now you just need to figure out the levels of difficulty.
The ultimate would be to have the shapes and colors auto generated with random attributes. You would not have to map anything out, the app would automagically create them.

Ok i found some issues that caused the touch input to be way to sensitive or way to unresponsive - that fixed i got some feedback that the overall control is way better now (especially on high res devices).
ph37rd said:
Either way, you nailed what I was saying. What do you think?
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I still like the idea, but it brings some new issues that i need to figure out. Once you got the current control mechanism people don't think to much about it - so i'm not quite sure if it is really that much benefit. I will test that out over the next iterations and try gathering more feedback (about the current control and about how much people think it's good/bad).
ph37rd said:
The ultimate would be to have the shapes and colors auto generated with random attributes. You would not have to map anything out, the app would automagically create them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is the second big point on my todo list. but i don't really know how to start.
The best way that comes to my mind is to define different "base shapes" that are then just colored randomly. but that again would require alot of different base shapes to keep up a good variety?
at the moment i add hand drawn shapes with each update (around 170 now and using .gif its not that of a size problem anymore)

Question Is there a easy way to change the color palette?

Is there a easier way to change the color palette that affects the button colors and stuff besides randomly testing wallpapers to see what it chooses for you, that you can't seem to edit? Or is picking wallpapers and seeing what comes up the only way?

I use the high contrast theme on my N10+'s.
Then a custom icon pack and last set the wallpaper.
The Goodlock family of apps, Quickstar will give you control of the pull down screen colors.
Theme Park may be helpful although I avoid using it.

blackhawk said:
I use the high contrast theme on my N10+'s.
Then a custom icon pack and last set the wallpaper.
The Goodlock family of apps, Quickstar will give you control of the pull down screen colors.
Theme Park may be helpful although I avoid using it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My lockscreen wallpaper gave me buttons with a color I like so I'll keep that, I use a custom launcher and icon packs anyway, so it was just the pulldown and phone buttons that I wanted changed from default blue (cause my home wallpaper is red, so it recommended all these pink palettes and i was like nope, no pink buttons...)

ratchetrizzo said:
My lockscreen wallpaper gave me buttons with a color I like so I'll keep that, I use a custom launcher and icon packs anyway, so it was just the pulldown and phone buttons that I wanted changed from default blue (cause my home wallpaper is red, so it recommended all these pink palettes and i was like nope, no pink buttons...)
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Pink? Jeeesze... the SK's are a bit insane.
Just look at their graffiti
Custom launchers are generally not as capable, stable or efficient as the native one. A 3rd party launcher is one app that can boot loop a Samsung with little or no warning. Take any signs of instability or lagging seriously... been there, done that.

blackhawk said:
Pink? Jeeesze... the SK's are a bit insane.
Just look at their graffiti
Custom launchers are generally not as capable, stable or efficient as the native one. A 3rd party launcher is one app that can boot loop a Samsung with little or no warning. Take any signs of instability or lagging seriously... been there, done that.
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it just doesn't make sense why they offer you 4 color pallets when you change the wallpaper but wont let you ALTER *ANY* of them or change them anywhere in the settings.
Might as well lock it down to apple level lol

ratchetrizzo said:
it just doesn't make sense why they offer you 4 color pallets when you change the wallpaper but wont let you ALTER *ANY* of them or change them anywhere in the settings.
Might as well lock it down to apple level lol
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Samsung's been screwing up since the N10+ in many different ways some of them major.
Like abandoning the power user and the SD card slot.
Some beyond reasoning.
Samsung never recaptured the clean, thoughtful form factor of the N10+. Sticking the spen on the left was tarded. Samsung claimed that most hold the phone with their right hand. A world of lefties? Land of the giants? Damn they be inept... and haven't learned the definition of insanity as they keep repeating the same mistakes

blackhawk said:
Samsung's been screwing up since the N10+ in many different ways some of them major.
Like abandoning the power user and the SD card slot.
Some beyond reasoning.
Samsung never recaptured the clean, thoughtful form factor of the N10+. Sticking the spen on the left was tarded. Samsung claimed that most hold the phone with their right hand. A world of lefties? Land of the giants? Damn they be inept... and haven't learned the definition of insanity as they keep repeating the same mistakes
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Click to collapse
Ahh, I miss the days of the s3-6 where you could unlock the bootloader from the store and be happily on your way within a hour of purchase. now it's like the world, lock it down and do as they say

Download Samsung's Theme Park and you can change the colors yourself.
I use #Hex Installer. It requires some time and ADB computer knowledge to setup, but allows you to change any color element you want, even with full on themes.

Guyinlaca said:
Download Samsung's Theme Park and you can change the colors yourself.
I use #Hex Installer. It requires some time and ADB computer knowledge to setup, but allows you to change any color element you want, even with full on themes.
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Click to collapse
oh good, i'll check that out.

Guyinlaca said:
Download Samsung's Theme Park and you can change the colors yourself.
I use #Hex Installer. It requires some time and ADB computer knowledge to setup, but allows you to change any color element you want, even with full on themes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have read some comments about boot loops with hex installer and oneui4. have you had any problems? did you use wireless adb?

I've had no issues whatsoever. That said, I don't theme apps that regularly update.