I’m redesigning an analog gauge widget I made a while back, essentially wanting to give it smoother looks and touch interfaces.
Currently I have just three bitmaps, on for the frame of the gauge, on for the ticks and a base that covers 1/3 of the gauge located at the bottom. I use a canvas drawn line for the needle. This gauge works, but doesn’t have many of the features that I would like.
What I would like to do is have the ticks be dynamically drawn so it is possible to simulate a pinch based zoom. As the user zooms in the ticks drift apart until there is enough space for a new subset of tick to appear nested in between the larger farther apart ticks. As the user zooms out the tick begin compressing until the smallest tick are forced out become invisible (not drawn). The gauge will also need to register a slide (across the circumference of the gauge) touch to force the gauge to rotate.
The last time I tried to draw each line on a canvas for a gauge, it was incredibly slow was not readable because it flickered so horribly.
So I am wondering if anyone has any idea’s, source or tips on how to achieve this gauge. I have spent a good while googling compasses, clock and gauges that may have any or all of the features I want so I can see how others did it, but I can’t find anything.
Any help will be appreciated.
~Aedon
I found a fantastic tutorial not only on the gauge, but in genreral android features. Take a look.