HTC Sense Image Quality Problem

[Guest bobhero]

As many people have noticed, Sense image quality seems very bad on many Omnia II roms when compared to how it looks on an HTC device. This is the first thing I noticed when coming from an HTC phone, and it really bugged me.

The first image below is from the Omnia II, and the second from an HTC device.

There is some information here about the "dithering" issue on 6.1 and 6.5 ROMs:

http://www.modaco.com/index.php?sho...t&p=1278014

I tried editing some Sense files to improve their quality, but only ended up with slightly better images since the above method does not apply to all image files contained within Sense.

mat9v informed me that certain newer 6.5.x builds have some feature that corrects this issue, and I have tried a 6.5.3.9 ROM with build 29007 and it does indeed fix the graphics in sense. However, not all 6.5.3 build's implement this fix. I tried 23152 and it does not fix the graphics.

EDIT: After further testing, it does NOT seem as thought the Windows Mobile build is responsible. See here:

http://www.modaco.com/index.php?s=&sho...t&p=1562496

If anyone has found other builds that fix the graphics in Sense, please post them here and I'll update the list. Thank you.

Tested Builds with confirmed Good image quality in Sense

29007 AKU5309

23137 AKU5309

Possible other builds that need to be tested (assuming AKU5309 is key) bold means confirmed:

EDIT: I have now tested 3 builds of AKU5309 which do not fix the image quality, so the fact that so far the only 2 known good builds are AKU5309 may just be a coincidence...

21681 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 3597 (Sept 16 2010. 15:43:53)

21682 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 3597 (Sept 16 2010. 15:43:53)

22042 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4918 (Aug 31 2010. 16:13:31)

22044 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4919 (Sept 12 2010. 15:44:58)

22045 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4920 (Sept 14 2010. 17:12:30)

22046 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4921 (Sept 26 2010. 17:16:11)

23136 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4167 (Aug 16 2010. 23:18:54)

23137 AKU5309 no date and info, but it is from Huashan 1.24 & 1.27 ROM

23138 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4169 (Aug 25 2010. 7:31:54)

23139 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4170 (Sept 9 2010. 15:55:32)

23690 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4594 (Aug 26 2010. 15:44:42)

23691 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4595 (Sept 5 2010. 15:46:41)

23694 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4597 (Sep 16 2010 15:44:41)

23696 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4598 (Sept 21 2010. 15:44:33)

23697 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4599 (Oct 24 2010. 15:44:24)

28240 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 5222 (Sept 7 2010. 19:06:45)

29002 SYS (0409,0419) and XIP. Build on August 17, 2010 16:35:34 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 6202.

29003 SYS (0409,0419) and XIP. Build on August 22, 2010 15:49:35 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 6203.

29004 SYS (0409,0419) and XIP. Build on August 31, 2010 15:49:12 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 6204.

29005 SYS (0409,0419) and XIP. Build on September 14, 2010 15:49:13 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 6205.

29007 SYS (0409,0419) and XIP. Build on September 23, 2010 15:48:35 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 6207.

Builds Tested and do NOT fix image quality

21680 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 3596 Sept 12 2010 15:43:53

23134 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4165 (August 5, 2010 14:46:44)

23135 AKU5309 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4166 (August 12, 2010 12:52:18)

23149 AKU5311 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4173 (September 23, 2010 15:54:05)

23150 AKU5312 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4174 (November 18, 2010 4:52:47 PM)

23152 AKU5312 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4175 (November 23, 2010 14:29:41)

23699 AKU5310 Windows CE: 5.2 Build 4600 (November 4, 2010 15:44:02)

Presumably all 6.5 and 6.1 builds also do not work.

Most of these builds can be found by searching here:

http://www.mobileunderground.info/showthread.php?t=444

or

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=650783

or

http://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=96620&st=400

Current I8000 ROMs that use a good build & include sense or m2d:

Energy Rom, with sense 2.5, 29007

http://www.modaco.com/content/i8000-omnia-...ium-cookie-2-0/

ESROM, with M2D, 23137

http://www.modaco.com/content/i8000-omnia-...rom-m2d-r1-jh2/

NOT TESTED, if anyone is using please let me know if you have good image quality on these ROMs:

kydkylin, with sense 2.5, 23135

http://www.modaco.com/content/i8000-omnia-...5-lite-english/

Edited January 16, 2011 by bobhero

[Guest mat9v]

Well, I'm testing almost 10 6.5 roms since they are most friendly for Sense. I'll post my results here as soon as possible.

I8000NXXJE2 6.5.0 21895 bad

JE4 6.5.0 21895 bad

JF5 6.5.0 21895 bad

JG5 6.5.0 21914 BAD

JH1 6.5.0 21895 BAD

JJ1 6.5.0 21916 BAD

JB3 6.5.0 21906 BAD

So far none of those 6.5.0 roms has the necessary fix :P

On the other hand I found that the Energy rom with GTX theme is so ...... white that the banding is simply not visible :D

Edited January 13, 2011 by mat9v

[Guest bobhero]

On the other hand I found that the Energy rom with GTX theme is so ...... white that the banding is simply not visible ;)

Yes but then with GTX and white screens you need to worry about 2 other problems, higher power consumption and also more wear on blue pixels leading to faster pixel burn out on AMOLED screens :)

[Guest mat9v]

Well, that's debatable. So long as you are not sitting all the time just watching Sense the screen is mostly turned off so no drain on battery or pixels, if you are using some app (aside from those GTX skinned) then it is independent of the skin if it uses a lot of white or not ;)

Daskalos rom you mentioned above has the same problems - BAD

Edited January 14, 2011 by mat9v

[Guest bobhero]

Daskalos rom you mentioned above has the same problems - BAD

You are right, I just tested it and it is bad, so not all AKU5309 is good... I am testing 23134 next.

Edit: 23134 no good either....so AKU5039 doesn't seem to be the only factor...

Edited January 14, 2011 by bobhero

[Guest Rapid81]

Here's some builds you can test. ;)

http://www.mobileunderground.info/showthread.php?t=444

[Guest bobhero]

I don't think the image quality is related to the windows mobile build any more. I have just tested Rapid's sense ROM with 29007 and it has the bad image problem.

I think the fault must lay with the the sense files that we are using. I noticed that NRG is just some sort of modified manila files on his, maybe that is why the image quality is less noticeable.

To the cookers, what is your source of sense 2018/2019? Are you using the files straight from the HTC LEO/OBOE OEMs? Are are there some modifciations needed to make them work on Omnia II?

[Guest mat9v]

Not really, the same problem is present in roms without Sense, just look at default start menu wallpaper at full brightness. I'm not a cook but I read somewhere there are compression types used to make Sense files smaller (CFC, LZX?) and maybe they are responsible for the banding effect. And it is exacerbated by dithering problems within system. MIght be interesting to see performance of the rom without compression (even if I had to pay for it with no place left in Main Storage - would Sense even fit in without compression?). If I read correctly CFC is used to compress images and is built into Ginkage library to accelerate Ogl.

Could some cook give us an answer? Or even cook us a rom without compression?

Thx ;)

BTW: I found an interesting info, if you disable clock back-flipping in Sense you can save few MB of precious ram while running Sense :). Will try myself how much memory is really saved...

Edited January 16, 2011 by mat9v

[Guest Rapid81]

We get the Sense from unmodified HTC OEMs. So, if the images are compressed, then it was compressed on the HTCs too.

[Guest darkworldzz]

i rmb NRG mentioning it.. something about dithering all the images separately which was done by RGD in all of his roms..(if you used the i8000 long enough, RGD was one of the first cooks for i8000)

Then i think NRG took the same approach but using a different dithering palette? but it seems to look better than RGD's roms..

[Guest bobhero]

apparently there was an older thread on this subject:

http://www.modaco.com/content/i8000-omnia-...radient-effect/

[Guest bobhero]

i rmb NRG mentioning it.. something about dithering all the images separately which was done by RGD in all of his roms..(if you used the i8000 long enough, RGD was one of the first cooks for i8000)

Then i think NRG took the same approach but using a different dithering palette? but it seems to look better than RGD's roms..

I have tried the RGD beta2 rom with sense, and while it still has some colour banding, it does look less noticeable than the current sense roms. Also, I found the weather animations to be smoother, maybe he was using a different version of graphics drivers than the cooks are currently using?