Dear Skydemon team.
although I like your product very much, I have a bit of a problem with one point:
Building up the screen after manually moving it or changing the scale takes too much time.

- I am using SD version 3.6.4.20819
- Samsung Galaxy Tab-S with 2GB RAM (SM-T700), Android 5.02
- Two products installed: Skyguide (CH) and DFS (GE)
- Multiple AIPs installed (but is that influencing the speed? should not, as that is off-line pdf-information opened only on demand)

- I know that displaying terrain information requires a lot of time - I usually switch it off, as it takes about 10-12 seconds screen reproduction time.
- Weather information display is switched off
- it still takes 3-5 second to build up the full screen information after a manual move or scale change
- Ending all other application (apps) before opening SD does not really bring much of improvement

How could I best improve the speed of image build-up?

Thanks for helping responses. (Please don`t tell me to buy IOS products)
F.

There is a known issue on Android with specific devices and operating systems where the latest versions of SkyDemon are behaving very slowly. We have not yet been able to determine what has caused this. Please try installing the 3.6.2 version from our Android page on our website and let us know if SkyDemon then speeds up.

At the risk of engaging your wrath, I will point out that this sort of thing just doesn't happen on iOS and that iOS is by far the best platform on which to run SkyDemon.

Tim,
I gave version 3.6.2 a try at the following conditions:
a) Scale 1: 500k
b) Weather display = OFF
c) geopgraphy informaton displayed: all but trees; terrain information ON or OFF (see below)
d) all other apps terminated before opening SD

The difference in screen build-up time between SD versions (3.6.2 vs. newest) is about +1 second for the newest one - negligible.
In both versions additional terrain informaton requires the same additional time (about +5 seconds).
With terrain information: 7-9 seconds build up time; without terrain info about 3 seconds.
Loading approach charts LSZF or EDNY or EDDF: 11- 12 seconds

Falk

That sounds fairly slow, but not untypical for Android devices. Third-party PDF rendering varies hugely depending upon the complexity of the actual document. We recently "upgraded" one of our own Android devices from Android 4 to 5, and it was amazing how much everything on the device (not just SkyDemon) slowed down.

By contrast, a modern iOS device will very rarely take more than one second to render everything, including most third-party PDFs.

I also experience very poor draw performance on my Sony Z3 Tablet Compact which can take 10-12 seconds to re-draw even though I believe it has fast graphics hardware. I also use an iPadAir 2 which re-draws very fast as you describe. However, I think you should avoid statements like this : "iOS is by far the best platform on which to run SkyDemon" because it is misleading for in-flight use. This is because the iPad is barely readable in strong direct sunlight due to a reflective screen which barely makes 450 nits of brightness. In comparison dedicated units like those from Dynon make 1300 nits, which tells us a lot about how bright the display needs to be for some conditions. There are Android units around which are way brighter (like my Sony which hits over 600 nits and is readable in bright sunlight). Additionally, no Android unit I have used has ever overheated in flight. In contrast, if you expose an iPadAir2 to strong direct sunlight in the cockpit whilst running SD in NAV mode, it gets so hot that you can't hold it any more .. and then shuts down. To top this, it can't even tell you it's temperature so you cannot predict when that will happen. This behaviour is why 3rd party companies are making 'cooling' pads or mounts for iPad.

I fly an aircraft with a bubble style canopy and started with the iPad but had to abandon it because it's both unreliable and unreadable in flight. My conclusion is that SD on iOS works better for planning mode, and SD for Andoid is better when in-flight .. not because of the O/S but because of the hardware options on which we have to run it.

I couldn't agree more.

Over the last 2 years, I've converted around 10 Skydemon users to Android for the exact same reasons. We are all long distance travelers (flying across all Europe), and those guys were absolutely sick of seeing their iOS devices shutting down at the worst moment, due to the heat. I remember being in a plane where 2 iPads were out at the same time while I was using my rock solid Nexus 7.

So, possibly iOS is a better platform for a developper (or at least for some), but definitely not one you should push without prudence.

M

We make our recommendations based on our support burden. Android gives rise to far, far more problems than iOS does. Your average iOS user is at least 300% as delighted with their hardware purchase as your average Android user*. I'm not saying it doesn't have its place, mind you.


* anecdotally

I fly an aircraft with bubble style canopy too, and never ever had any problems reading my iPad's display or had my iPad (Air) shut down during flight.

I've been thinking about buying an Android device in the future for financial reasons, but decided to stay with iPad and iOS the other day after reading about all the problems Android users experience with their devices.

Eric

I originally bought the iPad because I wanted to use Jeppesen FliteDeck VFR, which has better ground detail than SD. However, after being disgusted by the iPad's poor outdoor performance I knew I had to go to android. Jeppesen doesnt support android so I switched to SD, and I really like it. The point is there are some of us that use SD primarily because it supports android, so it'd be a shame if the android version is being treated as just an afterthought or is actually a shoddy port of the iOS version.

We have posted a new beta of SkyDemon for Android on our beta page; if you are affected by a slowdown in versions since 3.6.3 please try it and let me know if there is any change.