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Any reason to use NSViewAnimation over CoreAnimation techniques?

Answer 1

+4 A:

Generally you should move to Core Animation for 10.5+ code. NSViewAnimation is fairly primitive and doesn't make as efficient use of the hardware. I can't think of any advantages of staying with NSViewAnimation other than 10.4 compatibility.

Rob Napier 2009-09-15 00:06:25

Answer 2

+2 A:

There are some cases where Core Animation is not suitable. For example, you can't put a WebView in a layer-backed view without funky things happening.

Also, text fields in layer-backed views don't use subpixel anti-aliasing, which can be a deal breaker.

If you're not using layer-backed views then your example of just using the animatable property support is definitely easier than using NSAnimation.

Rob Keniger 2009-09-15 00:48:10

As I'm profoundly more experienced with UIKit and its animation techniques, what's the difference on the Mac between using Layer-backed views and simply just using the `animator` of a view?

jbrennan 2009-09-15 01:02:41

The animator proxy doesn't have anything to do with CoreAnimation. A non-layer-backed NSView supports it just about as well as layer-backed views do.

kperryua 2009-09-15 02:04:24

As a note, text fields in layer-backed views can use subpixel antialiasing. You need to set the text field's backgroundColor to an opaque color and set the drawsBackground property to YES. See here: http://www.cocoabuilder.com/archive/message/cocoa/2008/3/28/202581

Brad Larson 2009-09-15 02:36:30

Yes, I know that you can add a background to the NSTextField and it will look OK. But what I said still stands, you can't use an NSTextField on a layer-backed view in many situations without the text looking rubbish. If the background is an image or other custom drawing, you can't add a background and the only workaround to get the text looking decent is to use a CATextLayer instead.

Rob Keniger 2009-09-15 05:34:57

@kperryua, the original poster asked about Core Animation vs. NSViewAnimation. Layer-backed views are part of Core Animation, at least they are in my book, as is the animator proxy.

Rob Keniger 2009-09-15 05:38:14

@jbrennan you can use the animator proxy of a "normal" view without a problem. You might use layer-backed views for views containing controls that you need to animate with high performance, as animation of layer-backed views is offloaded to the GPU. This doesn't happen with non-layer-backed views animated using the animator proxy.

Rob Keniger 2009-09-15 05:40:57

@Rob: So if my view is layer-backed (because say I've got lots of subviews, thus they will become layer-backed as well), then the animation done through the proxy will be offloaded to the GPU? Are CAAnimations/Other CAThings just for when you want to do really advanced things?

jbrennan 2009-09-16 02:59:04

It depends what you're animating. If you're changing the content of the view then the GPU can't animate that as the bitmap for the layer needs to be calculated then re-copied to the GPU. If you're moving, rotating, changing alpha etc then this is definitely GPU-accelerated with layer-backed views.

Rob Keniger 2009-09-16 23:23:48

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Any reason to use NSViewAnimation over CoreAnimation techniques?

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