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General Graphics

Constants

Use these screen dimension constants in place of the actual pixel dimensions of the screen to remove magic numbers from your code:

thumby.display.width | number of pixels that define the screen width

  • type: int
  • value: 72

thumby.display.height | number of pixels that define the screen height

  • type: int
  • value: 40

Update Display

thumby.display.update() | updates screen at frames-per-second (FPS) specified by

thumby.display.setFPS(...). This function will block updates to maintain the set FPS setting. Default frame rate 0 (non-limited). Returns None

Frame Per Second (FPS)

thumby.display.setFPS(FPS) | sets the max FPS used by thumby.display.update(). Returns None, all parameters required.

  • FPS
    • type: float
    • values: 0 ~ integer max

Games are considered playable at above 20 fps, but 30 fps is generally accepted as a standard minimum with 60 fps as the ideal frame rate for responsiveness and fluidity of animation.

Keep in mind - depending on how many Sprites or animations you build into your game and how efficiently you program these components - your frame rate may suffer and be less than what you set as the FPS. 

import thumby

thumby.display.setFPS(60)

while(True):
    # Rest of program....

Fill Screen Color

thumby.display.fill(color) | fills entire screen with color. Returns None

  • color
    • type: int
    • values: 0 or 1 -- where 0 is black or an unlit pixel, and 1 is white or a lit pixel

Note: where color is mentioned in the Thumby API docs, color refers to 0 being a black (unlit) pixel, and the value 1 refers to a white (lit) pixel.

Fill Screen Example

Using this example, the hardware or emulator display will alternate between a white or black screen every second.

import thumby

thumby.display.setFPS(1) # 1 frame per second

while(True):
    thumby.display.fill(1) # fill screen with white pixels
    thumby.display.update()

    thumby.display.fill(0) # fill screen with empty (black) pixels
    thumby.display.update()

Screen Brightness

thumby.display.brightness(brightness) | sets screen to brightness value. Returns None, all parameters required.

  • brightness
    • type: int
    • values: 1 (lowest brightness) ~ 127 (max brightness)

Note: The brightness values in the settings menu for Low, Mid, Hi are 1, 28, 127, respectively.

Brightness Example

When uploaded on the Thumby hardware, this example will cycle through the full range of the brightness variable values, 1-127. 

import thumby

brightness = 1
thumby.display.setFPS(30)
thumby.display.fill(1) # fill screen with white pixels

while(True):
    thumby.display.brightness(brightness)
    thumby.display.update()
    brightness += 1
    if brightness >= 127:
        brightness = 1
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