drawRadialText on BufferedBitmaps?

Hello Friends,

I'm exploring the changes available in 6.2.0, and it seems that attempting to drawRadialText to the Dc of a BufferedBitmap fails silently.

In the code I've written, using the regular Dc paints the radial text as expected. (See below)

Switching over to the Dc retrieved from a BufferedBitmap (via bb.getDc()) causes the text not to appear.

Is this expected behavior, or did I not set up the BufferedBitmap correctly to work with radial text / scalable fonts?

I've reviewed this forum post and didn't find any relevant answers pertaining to using a BufferedBitmap:
https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/f/discussion/336765/bitmap-transformation

The documentation doesn't list any limitations. In fact, it suggests all methods on the ordinary Dc should work on buffered bitmaps, too:

"This returns a Dc class that has the same capabilities as the primary device Dc that is provided to the methods View.onLayout(), View.onUpdate(), and View.onPartialUpdate()."

I've tried a few variations in the createBufferedBitmap call and some other configurations for the

:alphaBlending=>Graphics.ALPHA_BLENDING_FULL -> Doesn't help

setBlendMode(Graphics.BLEND_MODE_ADDITIVE); -> Doesn't help

setAntiAlias(true); -> Doesn't help

Thanks!

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0 AndiLillich over 1 year ago

Hi,

var params = {
      :width => dc.getWidth(),
      :height => dc.getHeight(),
      :alphaBlending => Graphics.ALPHA_BLENDING_PARTIAL,
    };
    if (Toybox.Graphics has :createBufferedBitmap) {
      screenbuffer = Graphics.createBufferedBitmap(params).get();
    }

   Works with drawRadialText


   Best regards

0 pstoppani over 1 year ago in reply to AndiLillich

How did you figure this out??

The odd thing is that it works fine (without the alpha blending option) on PIM devices but for OLED, the alpha blending option is needed.

Bug?

0 jim_m_58 over 1 year ago in reply to pstoppani

Probably just a small change to your code

if you are on an AMOLED device, requiresBurnInProtection will be true. If on a MIP device, requiresBurnInProtection will be false.

Your code should already know this in a watch face

0 pstoppani over 1 year ago in reply to jim_m_58

Indeed. But not sure how that is relevant here??

0 jim_m_58 over 1 year ago in reply to pstoppani

You use a different set of parameters if it's AMOLED or MIP.

It's probably just a difference due to HW. You can report a bug and hope it's fixed in a few months, or spend a few minutes and do a workaround in your code

0 myaro 11 months ago in reply to pstoppani

I decided to file a bug report on this. Your upvotes would be appreciated, since this is a frustrating bug that prevents using BufferedBitmap with partial-transparency drawing and radial/angular text. Those two modern CIQ features are powerful, and it's problematic that they can't be used together on one BufferedBitmap, which is important for battery savings. (Therefore, jim_m_58's suggestion that this is just a workaround isn't quite right, since it's not a consequence-free workaround.)

Please upvote and comment here to increase visibility:
forums.garmin.com/.../drawradialtext-drawangledtext-fail-to-draw-to-bufferedbitmap-with-alpha_blending_full

0 pstoppani 11 months ago in reply to myaro

I have to say that between this and the bugs discussed elsewhere regarding the sim behavior, scalable fonts are a MESS!

0 myaro 11 months ago in reply to pstoppani

It seems a Garmin employee just confirmed this is a bug and reported it to engineering for fixing, so perhaps this could be resolved sooner rather than later?

Consider upvoting if you want to use angled / radial text, since upvotes may help them prioritize it during triage:

forums.garmin.com/.../drawradialtext-drawangledtext-fail-to-draw-to-bufferedbitmap-with-alpha_blending_full

0 myaro 11 months ago in reply to pstoppani

pstoppani said:
I have to say that between this and the bugs discussed elsewhere regarding the sim behavior, scalable fonts are a MESS!

Yeah, it's been four months since I originally posted this when the capability launched. I ran into this issue back then and figured it wasn't ready for primetime and I'd wait a few months. But it's just too compelling a feature not to want to use it. Angled/Radial text opens a world of possibilities.

Would you consider leaving a comment in the bug report just to show some more developer engagement on the issue? It sounds like they reproed the issue, confirmed it is a bug, and passed it to engineering, but I know that things like this could still languish if there's not enough community support to get it resolved.