Please add onPartialUpdate() support for AMOLED devices

Since the first introduction of AMOLED devices we (the developers) are stuck to the restrictions of that display technology. Up to now the screen hardware did a great progress in all manner. I think it time to enable the possibility to render seconds in always on mode also for AMOLOD devices. Today we get this really great devices like the Fenix 8 AMOLED but get an AOD like of the first watch generations decades ago in the market.

What do you think about that?

...or is there already a solution to render small parts each second @ AMOLD displays?

eau_de_vie 7 months ago

I made an API feature request along the same lines - https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/i/bug-reports/request---specify-reason-for-watchui-view-onupdate-calls

The idea is to use onUpdate(), but tweak it to let the app know if the screen buffer is intact since the last update or needs a repaint.

FlowState 7 months ago in reply to eau_de_vie

eau_de_vie said:
I made an API feature request along the same lines - https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/i/bug-reports/request---specify-reason-for-watchui-view-onupdate-calls

The idea is to use onUpdate(), but tweak it to let the app know if the screen buffer is intact since the last update or needs a repaint.

This is a slightly different feature request, as OP wants to be able to update (part of) the screen once per second in low power mode (via onPartialUpdate()), and your feature request refers to onUpdate(), which is only called once per minute in low power mode. Furthermore, by its very nature onPartialUpdate() only allows updating a small part of the screen, whereas your request is asking for the ability to optimize onUpdate() by telling it which parts of the screen it needs to update.

I noticed the new Apple Watch Series 10 touts per-second watchface updates as a new feature, but it's said to be made possible due to a new AMOLED display which is more energy-efficient in low power mode.

My takeway is that the current restriction exists to save battery (as opposed to avoiding burn-in), which is something that most ppl guessed anyway, and that you'd probably need new hardware to implement this request (which is also something that was previously discussed.)

But at least the apple watch change demonstrates that this is a feature that is feasible to implement (even if it requires new hardware), and that at least apple's marketing and/or engineering teams have decided it's a feature that the public wants.

peterdedecker 7 months ago

Enabling onPartialUpdate would be great.

It would help the case file if there are native watch faces on the amoled device which do intra-minute updates to the screen (eg have seconds visible always) in order to prove that the amoled devices are capable.

eau_de_vie 7 months ago in reply to FlowState

FlowState said:
This is a slightly different feature request

Indeed it is. My bad.

Jacquers 6 months ago

What could be nice and useful as well would be the ability to brighten / dim certain areas of the screen instead of the entire screen being dim / bright.