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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: 0 (off) ~ 127 (max brightness)

Brightness Example

When uploaded on the Thumby hardware, this example will cycle through the full range of the brightness variable values, 0-127. 

import thumby

brightness = 0
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 = 0