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Topics - Gammalerik

#1
Troubles & Questions / Observation - frame rates
April 26, 2014, 11:48:47
An observation regarding framerates. Sorry if this has been discussed before but I could not find it.

A short while ago I retired my trusty old Samsung S2 that has a quite poor resolution of 480x800. My new phone is a much stronger HTC One with a full HD screen. The HTC One runs circles around the S2 without breaking a sweat. Usually...

The thing is that I only use rasterized maps since they are far superior detailed compared to vector based concerning topographics. And after having upgraded from a 480x800 screen to a 1080x1920 screen, I now have to scale the maps 150-200% to be able to read them. This kills the framerate badly. I will estimate that the framerate is around 10ish when scrolling. I understand that scaling is a nescessary evil on rasterized maps however.
-All in all, my Galaxy S2 kills the much beefier HTC One in terms of Locus performance.

-Could some major redesign of the graphics engine save the day? ( CPU-->GPU )
-Tweaking of SQLite?

I think that this will be a big issue as more and more people make the transit to full HD. I see this issue partly on my Nexus 7 too (ver 2013 - 720p)
#2
Recently I noticed from my battery stats page that Locus used over 80% of my battery. Worst of all, Locus was not even started and the phone was freshly rebooted with a full battery.

It turned out that having the proximity sensors active was the culprit. (The function to turn off the display by waving the hand in front of the phone). This service is always active on my HTC One regardless if Locus has been started or not.
#3
Other features / My thanks
July 20, 2013, 21:08:28
Recently I had an experience with Locus that really saved me big time. I was paddling in my kayak on a longer trip of ca 26 km. The major challenge was a crossing of 7,5km over open sea. The day started quite nice with calm weather and ok weather reports.
But... about 1/4 into the crossing things changed drastically. It started to fog up very quickly and soon my visibility was reduced to no more than 200m in all directions. The fog was so dense that I could not even determine where the sun was, the light was totally flat. North could be east for all I knew...

The sea was quite calm so I was determined to carry on. But soon after, I entered the currents from the fjord to my starboard as the tide rushed out of it. -Things started to get a bit hairy now and I still had half that crossing left. Now I had zero visibility AND a bumpy ride. This could have been a disaster had it not been for Locus and the "course bearing line". By banking approx 20 deg offset into the currents so that the course bearing line ended up onto the mainland on the other side I was able to compensate for the drift from the tide's strong currents. And then I mean 100% compensate too. My tracking showed a way travelled as straight as a ruler and I landed exactly where I intended!

My thanks. Had it not been for Locus and Maptweaker (high quality offline maps for my local area -had no cell coverage), I probably would have ended up in the North Sea somewhere. -Made it home for dinner and a lesson richer :)

[attachment=1:2pdhmvli]Screenshot_2013-07-20-20-12-27.png[/attachment:2pdhmvli]

[attachment=0:2pdhmvli]Screenshot_2013-07-20-20-10-00.png[/attachment:2pdhmvli]
#4
As the title says, could it be possible to have the function "Screen lock" put into the "quick switch"-choices? Or even better, to put this function along with the litte lock-icon at the right-most bottom? (see picture for suggestion, but with a lot bigger spacing than what I did in "Paint")

The screen lock is an extremely useful function when at sea and in rain to avoid input from a wet screen that messes around wildly with random results. At times catastrophically. Especially at sea when things go a bit rough, it would be priceless to have the ability to turn this quickly on with just a single key.

[attachment=0:afyhtq9x]Screenshot_2013-06-27-08-47-06.png[/attachment:afyhtq9x]
#5
Troubles & Questions / Time- and distance rings
August 27, 2012, 09:39:21
They do not seem to work from ver. 2.6
#6
Other features / Language in the Forum
March 30, 2012, 12:18:47
Hi

I find it quite troublesome that the forum has so many topics written in different languages. People are missing out on so much information, and are not able to join discussions with their valuable input.

I have no problem with different languages about topics directly concerning that particular country. There are dedicated forum sections for that. But when concerning general topics the network suffers from not being able to receive input. People today in 2012 are able to express themselves in English, are they not? I am from Norway myself, but if I were to post topics in Norwegian I must not expect much help either. I think the moderator should be more offensive in asking people to post in English in general forum sections.

-Please
#7
Troubles & Questions / Color of azimuth line
March 18, 2012, 18:02:17
Previously the "azimuth line" was red, but is now black which makes it impossible to see in night modus. I cannot find a setting for this, only for "guide line" Please make an option for this or just revert the azimuth line back to red?

This is all important for me when kayaking at night. Cannot see where I am going anymore :lol:
#8
Troubles & Questions / Samsung Tab 7.7
March 08, 2012, 12:04:35
Short question: Will Locus work just fine with a Samsung Tab 7.7 running Honeycomb or ICS? Do buttons scale up or stay small?
#9
Under review / "Big Button" profile (setting)
October 31, 2011, 12:30:37
As winter is closing in, people are getting their gloves on. (yes there are gloves that can operate touchscreens :) ) People who use GPS regularly know what to wear. In light of this I wondered if a "Bigger Button GUI" profile could be done so operating with gloves on will be a bit easier?

By the way, I recommend neoprene gloves (must be slightly wet) as well as these relatively cheap gloves with silver particles for outdoors people using Locus :idea:
//http://www.agloves.com/products/Agloves.html

Edit: I have a 4.3 inch display and it is juuust so I can operate the individual buttons without pressing the one next to it. I hit the right one about 75% of the time.
#10
Declined / Guide line - more display options
October 11, 2011, 21:19:44
It would be nice to be able to have another optional choice to display on the guide line in addition to "draw distance" and "draw azimuth". That would be "draw time to target".

I know that this choice is available in the "guide along path top panel", but this panel is not made available when guiding to a single point.
#11
Implemented / Presets for activities?
September 21, 2011, 09:59:52
This post is not so much a feature wish, but more of a question. Could it be wise to have presets for your chosen activity when starting a new track recording? The arguments here are accuracy versus battery consumption.

When driving a car you need the intervals between points to be very low to be able to record sharp turns accurately. I guess 1 sec is appropriate. Perhaps 4-5 seconds when bicycling. Running could be 7 seconds. Walking perhaps 10 seconds. At sea in a kayak or canoe, one tend to paddle in a straight line quite slowly. 60 seconds will do then. Just suggestions. The crucial bit here is to have the presets as low as possible so people do not feel their track is inaccurate. Also, the more activities to choose from the better so people can find their thing. Suggested activities:
  • Car trip (motorcycle)
  • Road bike (racing)
  • Mountain bike/commuting
  • Running
  • Walking
  • Hiking (more twists and turns than regular walking on a road)
  • Kayak/Canoe
  • Custom (Manual track intervals input)

Now it also depends on if the points recorded really DO add to battery consumption? Anyway, having these presets will eliminate some of the fiddling with options in settings, which for some people are a lot of. Me personally like 100s of settings, but it can sometimes be forgotten to tweak the interval before I start an activity.

There is no need to actually remove the "meter" and "second" interval setting from options, they can still serve as an override of the preset activity.
#12
Free chat / *off topic* waterproofing
September 19, 2011, 22:35:43
OK, so this thread is not quite about Locus, but nevertheless of some interest I guess. I was not quite sure where to put this thread, so "Discussion" was chosen.

We who use Locus are mainly outdoors people and are in the risk of getting our precious phone wet at some point. This thread is for sharing experiences of ways our phones are waterproofed. Points of interest are:

  • What brand of case/bag do you own?
  • Is it waterproof or water resistant?
  • How well can you operate the display when the case/bag is wet?
  • Is saltwater a problem for the capasitive properties?
  • Solid built?

Me myself has not gotten one yet, but I am thinking of buing one of these two linked below. Krusell is IP67-certified (1m depth for 30 minutes) and Aquabox is IP68-certified (6meters) They have a silicone membrane front and back.

Aquabox
SEaLABox
#13
Implemented / Icons that appear in android gallery
September 16, 2011, 10:45:34
I have a minor little tip for coming updates. All the tiny icons in Locus do appear in gallery, and an easy way to avoid this is to create a simple file which contains absolutely nothing. This file has to be called .nomedia and put in the folders that contains icons and/or pictures.

For those who would like to do this themselves, just search your phone for this file and copy-paste with your favorite explorer into the folders that appear in Locus. Your phone is littered with this file in other apps and games.
#14
Implemented / Waypoints edit by dragging
September 05, 2011, 21:23:20
Could it be possible to make the waypoints in a track editable by i.e hold-pressing them and dragging them to a new location? Just like in the Viewranger app? Very useful for plotting a route at sea when one can "drag-draw" tracks between obstacles in narrow straights by moving waypoints.

As it it now, it is a bit trial and error where one place waypoints when plotting course. Suddenly one notice that, say the line between waypoint two and three went straight over a submerged rock. By dragging waypoint two or three you can then keep clear.
#15
Implemented / Bearing
September 04, 2011, 15:24:40
First time poster

Great app. Use it a lot. Having recently bought a kayak, I see the need for having the bearing displayed as a line when in map view. When paddling out on the sea this saves a lot of effort and strength.

I see that the guide has bearing in numbers, and that one's course is also defined by the "gps-arrow" but this is too inaccurate when trying to paddle in a straight line. An extended line from one position to the edge of the screen (a la Navionics) would be most helpful

example of bearing (red line) displayed on the map:

[attachment=0:3o84uvjf]IMG_0011.PNG.768x1024.png[/attachment:3o84uvjf]