New radar app for Droid

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jeff Vitale
  • Start date Start date
I finally decided to purchase this for my HTC Thunderbolt. While a bit slow, it seems to work well and will be very useful. Joe, I am looking forward to future updates on this product. Great job so far.

Some thunderbolts are really slow, others not so much evidently. You may wish to unselect some of the mapping info (maybe start with urban boundaries) to speed things up. I assume you're talking about slow panning. At any rate, I'm working on new techniques to speed things up.
 
For those of you who have the program...a few other tidbits.
Version 2.04 has been released fixing GPS/location issues whereby things stay on after closing the program. Also fixed a couple of force close errors that have popped up. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but if you go into preferences, under Web Resources, you can pick find a link to the WSR-88D Network status and a national mosaic radar image.

A very few users report a blank screen on occasion. This is caused by an out-of-memory condition on your device as Android limits apps to 16 of memory for variables, etc...not necessarily total memory. You may be able to clean things up by power cycling your device and trying again.

The best way to get support or just troubleshoot things is just to email me at [email protected] Access right to the one who wrote it!

Also, the Demo program (this time limited to Goodland, KS) is also available again for those that would like to just have a look at the program.
 
Just downloaded the pykl3 today for my new phone and love it! Very nice work Joe. As others have mentioned the gesture pad is awesome! Can't wait to use this out in the field.
 
Some thunderbolts are really slow, others not so much evidently. You may wish to unselect some of the mapping info (maybe start with urban boundaries) to speed things up. I assume you're talking about slow panning. At any rate, I'm working on new techniques to speed things up.

I can hardly use this program on my thunderbolt, it runs so slow. Just sliding the radar around is clunky and choppy and unusable. Same goes for zooming in and out. Any performance suggestions would be appreciated. It does this with most options shut off :-(
 
I can hardly use this program on my thunderbolt, it runs so slow. Just sliding the radar around is clunky and choppy and unusable. Same goes for zooming in and out. Any performance suggestions would be appreciated. It does this with most options shut off :-(

This appears to be an issue with some, but certainly not all Thunderbolts. There seems to be something particular to the device which makes it render OpenGL calls VERY slowly. It would be appreciated if Thunderbolt users who have slow performance email [email protected] with info about their phone's software version number and carrier. This may help discover a pattern. It's just not right that a old 2.1 device far outperforms the Thunderbolt.

Joe
 
This appears to be an issue with some, but certainly not all Thunderbolts. There seems to be something particular to the device which makes it render OpenGL calls VERY slowly. It would be appreciated if Thunderbolt users who have slow performance email [email protected] with info about their phone's software version number and carrier. This may help discover a pattern. It's just not right that a old 2.1 device far outperforms the Thunderbolt.

Joe

I thought the slowness of PYKL3 was just it's nature; I didn't know other phones weren't having this issue. I think I've commented before that increasing performance / speed is my #1 suggestion -- it a couple/few seconds to adjust the view when I try to pan on my Thunderbolt. This, in turn, actually makes it a bit difficult to pan the image since you don't really know where you've ended up until a couple of seconds have passed and the screen has updated.

As requested, I'll send you my info.

EDIT: Okay, if I turn off all of the GIS features, panning becomes very smooth / fast. I've also noticed that my GPS icon blinks MUCH faster with all the GIS features off.

EDIT 2: After testing further, panning is smooth when Interstates, urban areas, and/or cities are turned on. If States or Counties/Parishes are enabled, panning is choppy (particularly for counties/parishes). Knowing this, I'll have to leave the counties off the image since the choppy panning is quite annoying.
 
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Joe -- Are there plans to incorporate placefile-like features in PYKL3? I'm thinking of something like the capabilities of the GRx applications, where users can load various data files for display. If so, I could probably modify my Tornado Central GRx placefile scripts for the proper PYKL3 format. I know memory management is an issue, so perhaps it's not possible to make such an addition, though.
 
Interestingly, panning and zooming are rather snappy (and improved in v2 vs. the original release) on my underpowered HTC Aria.

The only issue I'm running into now is this: if I open PYKL once, use it, and then "quit" (necessary for those of us on limited data plans), it will *always* force-close the next time I try to open it. After force-closing on this initial second opening of the app, it will work properly on the next try.
 
This appears to be an issue with some, but certainly not all Thunderbolts. There seems to be something particular to the device which makes it render OpenGL calls VERY slowly. It would be appreciated if Thunderbolt users who have slow performance email [email protected] with info about their phone's software version number and carrier. This may help discover a pattern. It's just not right that a old 2.1 device far outperforms the Thunderbolt.

Joe

I did the software update just as soon as it came out last week, so this puts me on version Android 2.2.1. I have used Pykl on a Moto X and it is very smooth. I would think as beefy as the Thunderbolt is with ram and processor speed, it would run fine. There has to be some fix so that I can run some of the features. As Jeff said, it is impossible to pan or zoom in or out because of the delay. You have no idea where you are going to end up. I love the program, I just wish it would perform to a level that is was useful on the Thunderbolt.
 
Sure is...it's available via the Gesture Pad. In 2.03 and before the image would be centered on your current position. However, in 2.04 and later, it will be centered on whichever RDA is being viewed. You can choose between visible, infrared, or water vapor courtesy of your tax dollars at the Marshall Space Flight Center.

anyway you can make it pull directly into pyckl3? its obnoxious and inconvenient to have to use an internet browser on a phone to pull up a satellite image, should be someway to make it pull directly into pyckl3 and loop as well.
 
There should be - but that's why people hate programming for Android. I don't know Joe well - but I imagine he's the gray haired guy now ;)
 
anyway you can make it pull directly into pyckl3? its obnoxious and inconvenient to have to use an internet browser on a phone to pull up a satellite image, should be someway to make it pull directly into pyckl3 and loop as well.

Is it more the fact that you know it's a browser that bothers you? Put simply, it is the quickest way to get functionality at this time. I do have plans to bring some products within the program, but there are other priorities that I need to do first.
Joe
 
EDIT 2: After testing further, panning is smooth when Interstates, urban areas, and/or cities are turned on. If States or Counties/Parishes are enabled, panning is choppy (particularly for counties/parishes). Knowing this, I'll have to leave the counties off the image since the choppy panning is quite annoying.

The exact same code is used for the plotting of cities/urban areas, states, etc....just a different instance of the same class. Thus, it must be that the amount of data needed for the counties in your area must be bogging things down. The county data has been reduced (e.g. superfluous points removed) about as much as possible without severe distortion occurring. Try visiting LBB's RDA and with and without the counties and see if you notice much difference. It may just be that the glDrawArrays function is really slow on the TB for some reason. Be sure you have the latest software updates for your device. In poking around the web, there are hints that the TB has had some performance issues with graphics.
Joe
 
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