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Garmin MIP / AMOLED Palette

DaveBrillhart
10 days ago

I got fed up with the palette rendering on my MIP device. So I created a field to display all 64 fixed HEX values in a grid on all Garmin devices.

I have an EDGE 1050 AMOLED and a Forerunner 955 8-bit MIP.

The EDGE 1050 looks the same in the simulator, using the device snapshot feature, and to the human eye with a moderate backlight.

HOWEVER, while FR955's device snapshot looks the same as the simulator, it doesn't look the same to the human eye. I took a photo of the field's output and adjusted the photo so that this photo looks the same as it does in real life.

Disclaimer - I understand that different MIP devices render colors differently, so my FR955's display might not look the same as your Instinct or D2 or Venu.

Anyway, this might help some of you trying to pick contrasting colors that work well on an actual MIP display. For example, I need a nice light -vs- dark Orange. I can't use the simulator or a snapshot taken by the FR955... I need to pick from the photograph.

I sorted the HEX codes into color categories. Here is a table that shows which HEX value is rendered in the data field's grid positions. Grays, Blues, Greens, Purples, Reds, Yellows.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1h1FF_-jGhttxPTIl7FJHenJtREbh57LzgM3Ts9gGbuQ/edit?usp=sharing

Here is the field, once it is approved, in the next couple days, which will render these 64 HEX codes on every CIQ device.

https://apps.garmin.com/apps/ff11a00c-b563-45d5-9cff-c9feff6b5f5e

  • 8 days ago in reply to flocsy🤠

    Nothing is perfect. 

  • 8 days ago in reply to dpawlyk

    Indeed. Nothing new under the Sun Slight smile

  • 8 days ago in reply to flocsy🤠
    flocsy🤠 said:
    It's not easy to mount an edge in a way that it is the right angle to your eyes (big enough fonts),

    You can't really orient it at 45'.

    flocsy🤠 said:
    Flatter sometimes reflects the sun and you don't see anything,

    But being flat doesn't work?

    ============

    45' is also less aerodynamic. While that's a minor thing, it still suggests the devices are meant to be mounted more flat.

  • 7 days ago in reply to flowstate

    Quickly made a simply version (5305.ScreenyLight.zip) to play around with (Windows 64 bit) - it takes the full simulator window and creates an overlay.

    Use the mouse to change the light mode type and move the intensity slider. To quit the program click on the "X" or press Alt+F4.

       

  • 7 days ago in reply to PUFFOLINO

    This is great, thank you for your efforts!

  • 7 days ago in reply to flowstate

    No problem, I should update the font editor as well but this will take (much) more time. The screeny tool won't get an update, because it had to be tuned every time a new SDK has been available. Actually I write my monkey c programs with the Programmer's Notepad and a 'simple' batch file...

    ...but back to the topic: I've added some simple features to the program above to have a little bit more comfort:

    Keyboard shortcuts
    Escape - quit program (same as Alt+F4)
    M - change light mode
    A - auto update on/off (recalls the simulator screen 2 times a second)
    D - dis/enable the filter

    Presets
    Keys 1 to 9 load a saved setting preset (holding the control key) saves the actual setting as a preset
    The actual setting will be saved/restored when quitting/starting the program

    Mouse
    Is used to change the actual filter settings
    The overlay window can be dragged around (allows side by side view)

  • 4 days ago in reply to mcinner1

    Exactly - A helpful data field to show the 64 colors rendered on a MIP display to select the subset of colors you may want to use in developing your CIQ app. My actual photo of my FR955 shows the limitations. Some devices like the Fenix 5x MIP render some colors differently, esp REDs so if possible get some samples of different MIP devices. I updated my app to flip between two color maps using the LAP button.

  • 4 days ago in reply to flowstate

    Actually a well designed simulator should attempt to emulate the dull colors we see on a MIP display when we run our apps against a MIP device profile - just translate to different HEX values - quantized to a set of 64 colors that render with less vibrant hues.. Same with the tones we hear from the simulator. I get that that would be harder to do and take more time. Many CIQ developers know not to trust the color or tone or even the font placement represented by the simulator.

  • 4 days ago in reply to DaveBrillhart

    I would also love that, but I don't blame Garmin for not going down this rabbit hole, because even if they nailed the color transformation on one monitor, it would look slightly different on another... 

  • 4 days ago in reply to flocsy🤠

    Speaking of getting the simulator closer to reality, it would've been really nice if the simulator had a mode which makes the device on screen look the same size as the real device. (This is something I mentioned years ago, but I didn't expect it to happen then, either.)

    As it is, in the sim, an AMOLED watch looks twice the size of its MIP cousins, because of the pixel density difference.

    The iOS simulator is great at this - not only can you resize the device freely, there are also 3 size presets: physical size (this is *automatically* calibrated), point accurate, and pixel accurate. (Obviously point accurate wouldn't apply to CIQ, since CIQ generally uses pixels for graphics units.)