Drawing shadow with Quartz is slow on iPhone & iPad. Another way? - iphone

I was pretty excited when I found out just how easy it is to add shadows to my UIViews on the iPhone/iPad.
Just add the framework in Xcode, add the import to the top of the file:
#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>
Then later:
self.contentView.layer.shadowRadius = 3.0;
self.contentView.layer.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(-2.0, -3.0);
self.contentView.layer.shadowOpacity = 0.5;
self.contentView.layer.shadowColor = [UIColor blackColor].CGColor;
While this does create a beautiful shadow in my app, it also lags it to death now when the view is shown... even when launched outside of the debugger. Is there something I'm forgetting or is this method just not practical for larger views?
For reference, I posted a screenshot here.

You should set the shadowPath property. It is how CoreGraphics is able to optimize shadows.
For example, if your view is an opaque rectangle:
self.contentView.layer.shadowPath = [UIBezierPath bezierPathWithRect:self.contentView.bounds].CGPath;

Thought I should make an answer because I didn't want this gem to get buried in the comments.
In addition to cobbal's answer above, which helped a lot, occulus also mentioned the following optimization for non-rectangular shadows, such as text shadows.
self.contentView.layer.shouldRasterize = YES;
// Fix visual degradation when rasterizing on high-density screens:
self.contentView.layer.rasterizationScale = [[UIScreen mainScreen] scale];

Related

CALayer - Shadow causes a performance hit?

So I am doing some custom animations on my navigationcontroller and the way it pushes and pops the viewControllers.
Everything runs smooth. As soon as I add the following code (In a subclass of UINavigationController), I face a huge performance hit. After adding a shadow all animations become very laggy. Is this expected or am I doing something wrong in the code?
// This code gets called once during NavigationController initialization.
[self.view setClipsToBounds:NO];
[self.view.layer setCornerRadius:5];
[self.view.layer setShadowOffset:CGSizeMake(0, 20)];
[self.view.layer setShadowColor:[[UIColor yellowColor] CGColor]];
[self.view.layer setShadowRadius:20.0];
[self.view.layer setShadowOpacity:1];
EDIT:
Changed my shadow radius to 1 and it's still slow
self.view.layer.shouldRasterize = YES;
self.view.layer.rasterizationScale = UIScreen.mainScreen.scale;
I was recently having some issues with slow CALayer shadows, and that simple line of code fixed up everything for me!
You should expect a slowdown from adding a shadow. A shadowRadius of 20 is very high and will be especially slow.
The other key to improve shadow rendering speed: set the shadowPath property. It can help dramatically.
Using shadowPath instead of shadowOffset.
theView.layer.shadowPath = [UIBezierPath bezierPathWithRect:theView.bounds].CGPath;
Check this post: iphone - Animation's performance is very poor when view's shadow is on
Yes, shadow's are very expensive (especially a shadow that big -- play with the radius and you'll notice it makes a huge difference in the degree of slowdown you experience). One way to improve performance is to render it once to a CGImageContext and just display that image instead of having the layer re-render the shadow every time it redraws (but this doesn't work if the shadow needs to animate or something).
Swift 5.3. add this code.
myView -> UIView, collectionViewCell or tableViewCell can be.
myview.layer.shadowPath = UIBezierPath(rect: cell.bounds).cgPath
myview.layer.shouldRasterize = true
myview.layer.rasterizationScale = UIScreen.main.scale
I'm coding app with "Neumorphism" style, so much shadow and app so laggy. But use this code below, app very smooth.
viewHasShadow.layer.shouldRasterize = true
viewHasShadow.layer.rasterizationScale = UIScreen.main.scale

Added a shadow to a UIImageView on a UITableView kills performance... why?

I have a UITableView that has three UIImageView views per cell, with three cell displaying on the view at one time (for a total of nine UIImageView views). Think of it as a bookshelf. Sometimes I can have as many as 500 books.
I've added shadow to the UIImageView with code that is this:
UIImageView *itemImageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(25, 7, 65, 75)];
itemImageView.contentMode = UIViewContentModeScaleAspectFit;
itemImageView.tag = 6;
itemImageView.layer.shadowColor = [UIColor blackColor].CGColor;
itemImageView.layer.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(3, -1);
itemImageView.layer.shadowOpacity = 0.7;
itemImageView.layer.shadowRadius = 3.0;
itemImageView.clipsToBounds = NO;
[cell.contentView addSubview:itemImageView];
When I add the shadow code, as seen above, scrolling performance is just totally killed and becomes choppy. Each image has a different Rect so the shadow has to be created for each item as it scrolls. Anyone have any tips on how to add shadows to my images on a UITableView without having this issue?
You may see a performance improvement if you add
itemImageView.layer.shadowPath =
[UIBezierPath bezierPathWithRect:itemImageView.layer.bounds].CGPath;
But in general, layer operations like this will kill performance in a table view. I experienced exactly the same issue, and we just eliminated the shadow effect. It wasn't worth it.
You should review the WWDC videos on CoreAnimation best practices. You can request that the rasterized copy of the shadow be cached in memory. Cocoa is definitely fast enough to render these shadows on the fly without falling back to a pre-rendered image.
Example:
itemImageView.layer.shouldRasterize = YES;
Also I up-voted the answer regarding UIBezierPath. This is also mentioned in the best practices, but setting the shadow path of a CALayer is a huge performance boost. You can also create some interesting special effects by manipulating the shadow path.
Shadows are expensive and will kill your performance.
A better approach is to render the shadowed image in the background, cache/save it and display it on the view when its ready.
Edit: You way wish to look at Core Graphics / CGImage routines. Specifically CGContextSetShadowWithColor will draw you a shadow.
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/GraphicsImaging/Reference/CGContext/Reference/reference.html
I have the same problem with adding shadow to labels inside a tableviewcell. I tried to layout the elements inside cellForRowAtIndexPath when the cell will be created:
if(cell == nil){
//layout cell
These optimized the scrolling a little bit, but its quite choppy.
For optimizing your pictures quality you should add also the rasterizationScale if you activated "shouldRasterize":
aLabel.layer.shouldRasterize = YES;
aLabel.layer.rasterizationScale = [[UIScreen mainScreen] scale];
Maybe somebody has some ideas how to optimize the code to get the normal iOS scrolling. thx
Do you activate reusing? If not, the cells will redone each time the view changes (e.g., during scrolling). That would eat a lot of performance for sure.
Check out my same question here: App running slowly because of UIImageViews
I would use this code:
imageView.layer.masksToBounds = NO;
UIBezierPath *path = [UIBezierPath imageView.bounds];
imageView.layer.shadowPath = path.CGPath;

How do I make rounded corners on app screen?

As some of you may have noticed, most (if not all) of system apps show the screen with rounded corners. I mean, the four corners of the device screen look rounded.
However, most of third party apps don't (the corners are 90º), but I've seen some that do, as Facebook messenger. Many others have this effect but only on the splash screen (which may be only a modification to the default.png image file)
Is there a property to achieve this effect?
If you want the rounded corners over the ENTIRE app, and not have to explicitly recreate them with every different View Controller you want, call it in AppDelegate: (didFinishLaunching method)
[self.window.layer setCornerRadius:20.0];
[self.window.layer setMasksToBounds:YES];
self.window.layer.opaque = NO;
Don't forget to:
#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>
This way is better because it creates the animation on the WINDOW, and not the VIEW. So you can design the rest of the UI with 90˚ corners, and they'll automatically be rounded. It's much easier calling it once.
It also may be better for performance to rasterize the layer, especially if it lags:
[self.window.layer setShouldRasterize:YES];
[self.window.layer setRasterizationScale:[UIScreen mainScreen].scale];
The above will force the animation/graphic change to "act like an image" without making the UI too heavy. Performance will improve, and rasterize according to Retina or Non-Retina Screens. (This is the [UIScreen] call, as ".scale" returns 2.0 for retina, and 1.0 for non-retina. Very, very simple.
Hope this helped! Tick if so and I'll come back and see! :)
Following will round the corners of a view. You can put it in viewDidLoad:
#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>
view.layer.cornerRadius = 7;
// Import QuartzCore.h at the top of the file
#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>
self.view.layer.backgroundColor = [UIColor orangeColor].CGColor;
self.view.layer.cornerRadius = 20.0;
self.view.layer.frame = CGRectInset(self.view.layer.frame, 20, 20);
Check out the Introduction to CALayers Tutorial. You will get good start up.
#PsycoDad: This addition to #cocotouch's answer fixed the top part of the screen
CGFloat statusBarHeight = [UIApplication sharedApplication].statusBarFrame.size.height;
CGRect screenBounds = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds];
self.window.layer.frame = self.window.layer.bounds =
CGRectMake(0,
statusBarHeight,
screenBounds.size.width,
screenBounds.size.height - statusBarHeight);

Blurry UIView with CATransform3D only on RETINA

I'm displaying a UIView with a UILabel on it and this view&label become blurry as soon as it gets to these lines code:
CATransform3D transform = CATransform3DIdentity;
transform.m34 = (1.0/-500);
view.layer.transform = transform;
Throughout the App I use CA3DRotations and other stuff and this never happened before.
Also, I set the frame of the view and the label only using integers! So it's not a half-pixel problem or something like that, I know that that causes most blurry problems, but not mine!
On the simulator it's not blurry, iPad is not blurry, iPhone3GS is not blurry. Only on an iPhone4 with Retina display it becomes blurry. Even before I do any 3D rotations! Does anybody have a clue before I go insane?
Alright, I've found a solution.
After using a hundred different lines of code using layer properties, such as layer gravity or magnification and tons of other solutions I suddenly stumbled by accident on the following 2 lines:
self.layer.shouldRasterize = TRUE;
self.layer.rasterizationScale = [[UIScreen mainScreen] scale];
This is the solution! For everyone in the future, is your view blurry on retina displays? Use this!
Have you set the contentsScale for the layer to match [UIScreen mainScreen]. scale? Try it.
It's possible your views are 'between pixels' (eg. center is [12.5, 10]). Try rounding their location and see if that helps.
If your final landing position is intended to be flat/untransformed, simply setting the transform to CATransform3D identity will also fix the problem. Depending on how things are animated, setting a final position for one of the 3D transforms to 0.0 can still introduce rounding errors and give a fuzzy appearance.

Preview rounded image in iphone

can anyone tell me how can I create an image preview inside a customized cell with the aspect of the ones loaded in the mms'.
I've been trying to do it by changing values in IB and I haven't been able to.
Thanks a lot!
(source: iphonehelp.in)
Thanks for the three answers.
Doing
cell3.imageView.layer.masksToBounds = YES;
cell3.imageView.layer.cornerRadius = 16;
cell3.imageView.layer.borderColor = [UIColor lightGrayColor].CGColor;
cell3.imageView.layer.borderWidth = 1.0;
I was able to do part of what I want. However, I still can't put that "glow" look on the image. Does anybody now which property should I control?
Thanks a lot (and thanks again).
Sure. Add the QuartzCore framework to your project, then:
#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>
// ...
cell.imageView.layer.masksToBounds = YES;
cell.imageView.layer.cornerRadius = 4;
Note that the cornerRadius property is only available in OS 3.0 and later; if you're supporting an older version (which you probably don't have to be), you'll need to do some Core Graphics work.
will creating an image in an image editor and then setting it as the cell's background not work?
This might be useful for you
http://cocoawithlove.com/2009/04/easy-custom-uitableview-drawing.html
If your image is in an image view and you're targeting OS 3.0+, you can set imageView.layer.cornerRadius.