How to force SurfaceView to occupy specific section othe screen

Question

I am trying to use SurfaceView. So I created a SurfaceView widget in the layout file as shown below in the code. The problem I have is how to set a weight to the SurfaceView? As shown below in the code I set :

android:layout_weight=".4"

but still the SurfaceView occupies the eintire screen, what i want is to make the SurfaceView occupies only 40% of the screen. I also refered to a post in this link SurfaceView in Layout but it does not show how to set the weight to the SurfaceView from the xml file.

Please let me know how to set weight to the SurfaceView from the xml file.

code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:id="@+id/activity_main"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
tools:context="com.example.surfaceview_00.MainActivity">

<SurfaceView
    android:id="@+id/mainActivity_surfaceView"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_weight=".4"/>
</RelativeLayout>

update:

I also tried the below code but still i got one SurfaceView that occupies the whole screen. I expected after running the below code is to have two SurfaceViews each occupies half of the screen, but i got only one

code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:id="@+id/activity_main"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
tools:context="com.example.surfaceview_00.MainActivity">

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:weightSum="2">

    <SurfaceView
        android:id="@+id/mainActivity_SurfaceView1"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1" />

    <SurfaceView
        android:id="@+id/mainActivity_SurfaceView2"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1"/>
</LinearLayout>

</RelativeLayout>

" but still i got one SurfaceView that occupies the whole screen. " How do you know there is only one SurfaceView? — Code-Apprentice, Nov 10 '16 at 15:54
@Code-Apprentice because i stated in the code iposted in the update section above. i have two surfaceview inside a linearlayout and each of them is assigned to layout_weoght=.5, and at run time i there is only one surfaceview appears and it occupies the whole screen — Amrmsmb, Nov 11 '16 at 06:52

malmling · Answer 1 · 2016-11-10T15:38:21.033

RelativeLayout does not support layout_weight. You need to use the LinearLayoutfor that.

Read more at https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/layout/linear.html

But basically change it to something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
      android:id="@+id/activity_main"
      android:layout_width="match_parent"
      android:orientation="vertical"
      android:layout_height="match_parent"
      android:weightSum="1">

         <SurfaceView
              android:id="@+id/mainActivity_surfaceView"
              android:layout_width="wrap_content"
              android:layout_height="wrap_content"
              android:layout_weight=".4"/>

</LinearLayout>

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 10 '16 at 15:28

1

android:layout_weight is only used by LinearLayout. Since you use RelativeLayout it is ignored.

answered Nov 10 '16 at 15:28

Code-Apprentice

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ok but how to force the SurfaceView to occupy specific portion of the screen, not the whole screen? – Amrmsmb Nov 10 '16 at 15:31
@user2121 What do you mean by "specific portion of the screen"? – Code-Apprentice Nov 10 '16 at 15:36
as i mentioned in my question, i want the SurfaceView to occupy, for example, 50% "the half of the screen" – Amrmsmb Nov 10 '16 at 15:37
@user2121 Do you mean half of the width, height, or area? The first two can be accomplished with LinearLayout. I don't know about the last one. – Code-Apprentice Nov 10 '16 at 15:39
@user2121 You can do one or the other with LinearLayout. – Code-Apprentice Nov 10 '16 at 15:44

Maxim Metelskiy · Answer 3 · 2016-11-10T18:27:31.490

0

SurfaceView doesn't belong to App's view hierarchy. It creates separate layer on the background, and position it depending on its size. All other views are displayed over SurfaceView. To do what you want you need to use TextureView.

edited Nov 10 '16 at 18:27

answered Nov 10 '16 at 18:04

Maxim Metelskiy

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@user2121 does the answer was helpfull? – Maxim Metelskiy Nov 14 '16 at 16:11

How to force SurfaceView to occupy specific section othe screen

3 Answers3