overdrawReduceTest

In this project I aimed to reduce the unnecessary re-drawing of certain sections of our screen, thus improving the overall performance of the app.

What is Overdraw:

Overdraw occurs when your app draws the same pixel more than once within the same frame. read more about it here.

Here are some samples of howmuch a single line of code can effect redraws:

with overdraw

without overdraw

What the colors mean?

• Blue: Overdrawn 1 time
• Green: Overdrawn 2 times
• Pink: Overdrawn 3 times
• Red: Overdrawn 4 or more times
• Original: No Overdraw

Where to improve?

This single line of code written on onCreate can make the difference shown in the images.

window.setBackgroundDrawable(null)

Basically setting the background to null will make the window be opaque thus making less pixels render every time.

How to check for overdraw?

Tap on the buildnumber for 7 times and unlock the developer options. Inside the developer options, you will find an setting named:
Debug GPU overdraw -> Show overdraw areas.

Author

Mihir Shah
If you know more ways to optimize overdraw, please feel free to contribute!