Is it possible to use alpha channel on vivoactive 5?

4835486 15 days ago

I recently switched to a Vivoactive 5 from Fitbit and I've been interested in messing around with creating watch faces. I can see that the device doesn't support "setFill" or "setBlendMode" based on the documentation. I've tried using "setColor" color to a semi-transparent color, but that doesn't seem to work. Here's part of my test code:

dc.drawText(centerX, centerY, Graphics.FONT_LARGE, "0123456789", Graphics.TEXT_JUSTIFY_CENTER | Graphics.TEXT_JUSTIFY_VCENTER);

// dc.setColor(Graphics.createColor(128, 0, 0, 0), IMAGE_COLOR_GREY);

dc.setFill(Graphics.createColor(128, 0, 0, 0));

dc.fillRectangle(centerX - 20, centerY - 2, 40, 40);

This works as I would like on the Venu3 emulator, putting a small semi-transparent box over the numbers. This fails on Vivoactive 5 due to unsupported "setFill" function. Based on a conversation I saw elsewhere in the forums, I had previously tried the "setColor" call that is commented out. While that executes on both device emulators, it is completely opaque on both devices.

Is there any way to due semi-transparent graphics on a Vivoactive 5?

Thanks!

Craig

Top Replies

4835486 12 days ago in reply to FlowState +1

That's interesting. I missed that configuration in the JSON file. The part that I saw that made me think it should work is that alphaBlendingSupport is set to true. It seems like those two values are…

All Replies

0 FlowState 13 days ago

According to vivoactive5\compiler.json in the device library (installed by the SDK manager *), enhancedGraphicSupport is false (**), which supposedly means that Vivoactive 5 does not have a GPU, unlike many other devices in the current generation. That's probably why setting the alpha channel doesn't work (and why setFill/setBlendMode are unavailable.)

(*) On Windows, the device library is at: %APPDATA%\Garmin\ConnectIQ\Devices

(**) In general, if enhancedGraphicSupport is false (or not present) in compiler.json, the device doesn't have a GPU, whereas if it's true, the device does have a GPU. There *may* be one or two weird cases where enhancedGraphicSupport is not present but the device actually has a GPU, but in this case, the GPU-related features won't be available to CIQ in any case.

0 4835486 12 days ago in reply to FlowState

That's interesting. I missed that configuration in the JSON file. The part that I saw that made me think it should work is that alphaBlendingSupport is set to true. It seems like those two values are at odds with each other.

0 FlowState 12 days ago in reply to 4835486

Ah, interesting, I didn't see the alphaBlendingSupport field haha.

0 4835486 11 days ago in reply to FlowState

Do the Garmin folks check these forums? It would be interesting to better understand the meaning of those two flags.

0 FlowState 11 days ago in reply to 4835486

Sometimes Garmin ppl will post here, but I wouldn't expect a response in general.

You could always try filing a bug report on the apparent inconsistency. Hopefully someone will reply with a clarification.

0 4835486 3 days ago in reply to FlowState

I've been meaning to come back to this. Where would I go to submit a bug report?

0 flocsy🤠 3 days ago in reply to 4835486

forums.garmin.com/.../bug-reports