setContentView() slow with map fragment

Question

I am working on an app that shows a google map (api v2) as a fragment. When the app loads it shows a blank white screen for a couple of seconds before showing the map. I have used log statements see where the delays is but I don't know why it's so slow.

Here is my onCreate:

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    Log.i(TAG, "onCreate Start -------------------------------");
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    Log.i(TAG, "onCreate 1 -------------------------------");
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    Log.i(TAG, "onCreate 2 -------------------------------");
    do_async_setup();
    Log.i(TAG, "onCreate 3 -------------------------------");
    prefs = getSharedPreferences(PREFS_NAME, 0);
    prefs_editor = prefs.edit();
    Log.i(TAG, "onCreate Finish -------------------------------"); 

And here is the output.

01-20 10:05:28.802: I/HeadsUp(19544): onCreate Start -------------------------------
01-20 10:05:28.802: I/HeadsUp(19544): onCreate 1 -------------------------------
01-20 10:05:30.396: I/HeadsUp(19544): onCreate 2 -------------------------------
01-20 10:05:30.396: I/HeadsUp(19544): onCreate 3 -------------------------------
01-20 10:05:30.403: I/HeadsUp(19544): onCreate Finish -------------------------------

You can see a 1.5 sec delay for setContentView. Here is my layout.

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity" >

<fragment xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        android:id="@+id/map"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        class="com.google.android.gms.maps.SupportMapFragment"/>

</RelativeLayout>

It's simply looks bad, like the app has frozen when loading. How can I either speed this up or hide the delay?

thanks,

Rebbecarebbecca

Use Traceview to figure out specifically where your problem is. – Rodl

@Rodl , if I am reading it corectly it tells me what the logs told me. setContentView is using approx 44% of the 'time' for the onCreate method. Incl Real Time says 3211.060 which I assume are milliseconds? Also, it's ActionBarSherlockNative.setContentView() could that be why it's so slow loading the xml etc? Stepping down through the longest running child methods I get to LayoutInflater.createViewFromTag and and a few more steps SupportMapFragment.onCreateView() still at 1998ms and then into some more google gms code. So it looks like google map fragment. does that seem right? – Rebbecarebbecca

Well, the most likely culprit would be the map, so I suppose it is not surprising. That being said, it also suggests that you are possibly just stuck. What sort of hardware are you running this on? – Rodl

@Rodl It's running on a galaxy nexus phone. I think you are right. There is a similar delay with goggles map app on the same device. I had looked at covering it with a splash dialog, but it does not get shown until after the delay so thats pointless, and I dont want a splash screen any way. Also its faster when not debugging. – Rebbecarebbecca

@CommonsWare: i am not sure. But is it possible because of the internet connection speed ? – Sapindaceous

It is likely the map content has been previously cached. If it's a fresh run with no cache and no network connection, the map will remain blank until connected (when it will be able to d/l the map contents). I think my answer is more likely the explanation to the question. – Hickox

I noticed in the final (non-debug) build, the delay is far smaller: maybe ~200ms vs. 2000ms+ in debug. This is acceptable (just). But it would be nice to eliminate it, is there a way to pre-instantiate the activity in the background perhaps, or at least get the MapFragment / GLSurfaceView to initialise fully beforehand? – Rowden

@JarrodSmith Did you ever find a way? My delay is almost 2000ms even in non-debug. – Sourdough

@mattblang No I didn't explore the pre-instantiation idea very far, but to me it looked like it would only help if you went through a complete fragment transaction / setContentView() cycle. – Rowden

Answer 1

This is a drawback of using a GLSurfaceView such as the new maps v2 in Android. The delay is caused by the initialisation of the GLSurfaceView. See here http://code.google.com/p/gmaps-api-issues/issues/detail?id=4639 for a brief explanation near post #5 from a Googler and a snippet to help this problem (a little). Please star the issue to increase its priority.

Hickox

Thanks, that confirms it for me. – Rebbecarebbecca

Answer 2

I've found that this can be pretty slow if you have a debugging session connected, but is usually a more acceptable speed when you don't. If it runs faster with the USB cable disconnected, that's probably why.

Olive