WatchKit start with different controllers? - watchkit

I'm designing my first Apple Watch app. I'd like the first scene displayed on the Apple Watch to be different depending on information in the iOS app. Can I call pushcontrollerwithname or presentControllerWithName inside the initial WatchKit controller's awakeWithContext once I determine the right controller to display? Will the user notice a delay or transition? Is there a better way do do what I want?

Yes, you can do this, one of our apps does this and is live in the app store.

Related

A-Frame: how to simulate tracked controllers when developing on desktop?

My HTC Vive is set up in a different room to my developer workstation. When developing for A-Frame, I understand I can: use my desktop monitor instead of a headset; use mouse dragging instead of motion controls; use WASD instead of room-scale tracking. However, what is the preferred way to simulate the tracked controllers?
For example, how can I move the cubes in this demo from my desktop: https://aframe.io/examples/showcase/tracked-controllers
This is not yet released, but we're working on tools to be able to record camera and controllers, output to a file, and then you can load it up any device and replay the camera and controller pose and events without needing a headset. Project is led by Diego:
https://github.com/dmarcos/aframe-motion-capture
http://swimminglessonsformodernlife.com/aframe-motion-capture/examples/
This will become the common way to develop for VR without having to enter and re-enter VR to test each code change, and to do it on the go

set picture in apple watchface programmatically

WatchOS 2 does not allow custom watch faces, but users may create a somewhat custom face by selecting a background picture. Is there a way to set that picture programmatically?
No, it's not possible, there is no API with access to Watch Faces.

Prevent Apple Watch from turning off the screen

I'm writing an extension for the Apple Watch which aim is to guide the user through a set of steps. I don't have the watch to test the extension but I need to be sure that the screen will remain always on until all the steps are completed.
Does anyone can tell me when Apple Watch display is turned off or if there any way to prevent the display from turning off (similar idleTimerDisabled from UIApplication in iOS)?
There is currently no way to programmatically prevent the display from being turned off. Otherwise, we can speculate that as long as the user is interacting with your app, the screen will remain on. Worst case, you'll receive a didDeactivate when the app is suspended and a willActivate when the user wakes it up to continue (assuming the Watch app isn't terminated in between).
As of watchOS 4 you can use this boolean to keep the display on, and this will rotate the UI when the arm is turned.
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/watchkit/wkextension/2868464-isautorotating
Consider HKWorkout.
it ensures that your app appears whenever the user checks their watch
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/healthkit/workouts_and_activity_rings
It seems when the system is using the mic, it forces the screen to stay on — I’ve noticed this even in third party apps that allow sending voice messages. Here is the view that the user sees when screen idling is disabled in this way:
Note that this is a third party app and the screen didn’t turn off even after 2 full minutes!

WatchKit Menu Items Not Displaying

I'm in Xcode 6.2 Beta 3 (Build 6C101), I've added a menu and two menu items to my Interface Controller, and created IBActions for both. I've given them titles and images, but when I run the app nothing displays.
I've read
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/General/Conceptual/WatchKitProgrammingGuide/Menus.html
and can't see anything about need to show menu items programatically - what am I missing?
You do not need to present the menu programmatically. The only thing you need to do is wire each button to IBActions in your Watch app extension.
The most likely issue is caching of the previous Watch app storyboard. Do a clean build and try again.
Finally, as you likely know WatchKit menus only display on a "force press". They cannot be used for the main interface of the Watch app. In the Simulator, a click and hold with the mouse will simulate a force press, and the animation will make it clear when you have done one, even in contexts where it doesn't do anything.
This was solution for me- Go to Hardware->Touch Pressure->Deep Press then try tap on watch simulator.
I have recently encountered this issue on a real device, although the menu was working as expected on the watch simulator. In my case, the problem was in SF Symbol that I've used as an image.
Everything was fixed after replacing it with an image from the assets catalogue.

Can we used the iOS technologies in apple watch app?

I want to create music app in which the watch extension app shows audio wave so my question is Can we used the iOS technologies like openGL in watch app?
You can't run any code on the watch. You can only run code in a Watch extension in your iOS app and update a relatively static UI on the watch. You could generate images in your extension for the audio wave, put them together into an animation and then update the UI with that.
It would be possible to pass some information from your iOS app to the Watch extension running on the phone, which could then update a pre-defined interface on the Watch app. However, if you are wanting to provide a real-time audio waveform, I think this could face major problems regarding latency.
Note that as Stephen Johnson states, you could only do this by rendering static images which would then be sent to the watch for display, or by having pre-installed images in your watch interface that you rapidly show or hide to give the impression of levels changing. The latter would be a much more promising approach from a latency approach, and given Apple give a demonstration of a circular progress indicator made up of 360 images, perhaps it would appear to animate smoothly even. However, the key question would be whether the peaks would appear on the Watch screen close enough to when they actually occurred in the music that the user would see them as being linked.
It might be possible to pre-process the audio and build in a delay to both the display of the peaks and the audio playback to manage the communication latency—but testing that would really only be possible once you had Watch hardware in your hand.

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