Watch Face Studio (WFS) is a graphic authoring software that allows you to create watch faces for the Put on OS smartwatch ecosystem, which incorporates Galaxy Watch4 and later gadgets. Watch faces can devour important battery energy when they’re consistently in use, so it is very important optimize your watch face’s efficiency.
This text presents some greatest practices for optimizing watch faces created in WFS by minimizing the on-pixel ratio (OPR). These practices apply particularly to look at faces with animations and pictures. The article additionally describes some common design ideas for optimizing battery use.
On-pixel ratio (OPR)
All the time-on show (AOD) mode, additionally referred to as ambient mode, is meant to make use of much less battery when the watch will not be actively in use. To measure its effectiveness, the on-pixel ratio expresses the share of display screen pixels with RGB values when the watch face is in AOD mode.
In WFS, if you wish to deploy your watch face to an precise machine or publish the watch face, you obtain a warning if the OPR to your challenge is larger than 15%.
Determine 1: OPR warning popup
Analyze on-pixel ratio in WFS
Watch Face Studio lets you test your challenge’s OPR as you develop your watch face. While you swap to the “All the time-On” view in WFS, the “Run” panel shows the OPR for the present challenge. In case your watch face makes use of conditional strains, you’ll be able to transfer their sliders to examine the OPR at particular values.
Determine 2: OPR evaluation in “Run” panel
For a extra detailed evaluation, click on the “Analyze” button. The AOD Analyzer software checks every watch face element and color-codes how a lot every element contributes to the OPR. Use the outcomes to enhance your watch face.
Determine 3: AOD Analyzer software
You possibly can entry the identical function within the “Preview Watch Face” window. Disable the “Present Gadget” choice and swap the preview to AOD mode. The present OPR and “Analyze” button seem beneath the preview picture.
Determine 4: OPR evaluation in Preview window
OPR discount methods
Designs with extra shade enhance the OPR as a result of they use extra lit pixels. You possibly can cut back the OPR by modifying the design for AOD mode:
- Use the “Analog clock” or “Digital clock” elements in your watch face. These elements will let you routinely disguise the seconds show in AOD mode.
Determine 5: Seconds hidden on analog clock in AOD mode
- Determine and conceal pixel-intensive elements. The next determine exhibits a watch face the place the background picture, date, and second hand are hidden in AOD mode. Hiding these elements reduces the OPR from 13.4% to 2.4%.
Determine 6: Parts hidden in AOD mode
- Implement a separate background picture for AOD mode. Background pictures are typically brilliant to attract consideration to elements on the watch face, however consequently use extra battery. You possibly can design a darker background picture to scale back the OPR.
Determine 7: Darker background picture in AOD mode
- Modify the textual content shade in AOD mode. As an example, white-colored textual content consumes extra battery energy than darker textual content.
Determine 8: Darker textual content in AOD mode
Extra optimization ideas
Along with decreasing the OPR of your watch face, you’ll be able to optimize its battery use within the following methods:
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Use static elements to attenuate the frequency of display screen updates.
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Decrease using gyro results, which might trigger frequent display screen updates because the person strikes their hand.
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Resize pictures to match the decision displayed on the display screen. For instance, if the watch’s display screen dimension is 450×450 pixels, the background picture file is ideally 450×450 pixels.
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Take away hidden or unused elements earlier than constructing the watch face package deal.
For extra info on watch face optimization, see Optimization ideas.
When you have questions on or need assistance with the data introduced on this article, you’ll be able to share your queries on the Samsung Builders Discussion board. You may also contact us instantly for extra specialised help by the Samsung Developer Assist Portal.