Coming soon to TFT_eSPI...

[Bodmer]

Anti-aliased graphics objects provide an improved appearance, especially on low resolution displays. To this end, new anti-aliased graphics functions are planned:

1. Wide line drawing with rounded ends and sub-pixel resolution (floating point end coordinates) - DONE
2. Circle outline and filled - FILLED DONE
3. Rounded rectangle outline and filled - FILLED DONE

The following video clip shows how the new anti-aliased line and circle drawing looks. The clock image is 127 pixels in diameter. Note how the clock hands appear to move smoothly with sub-pixel resolution. If you look at the minute hand you can see it creeping slowly across the low resolution pixel grid.

Link to video

New features added to v2.4.36

[Bodmer]

Support for the Raspberry Pi Pico is planned and will be implemented when the Arduino environment becomes available - DONE

I suspect the programmable I/O state machines, FIFOs and associated DMA engine should allow impressive performance, expecially with parallel displays - DONE

[Bodmer]

Support for the RP2040 with 8 bit parallel displays has been added. This uses the PIO to offload some tasks shuch as the setAddrWindow sequence and block fills of a single colour.

16 bit colour SPI displays can also optionally use the PIO.

When the PIO is used for the display interface, the build in touch library cannot be used and the display cannot be read.

Note: The PIO feature can ONLY be used with the Earle Philhower RP2040 Arduino board package.

The PIO provides a high performance, here is the graphicstest results for an 8 bit parallel display on an ILI9341 240x320 TFT:

Benchmark,                Time (microseconds)
Screen fill (5 times),    24629  (203.01 fps)
Text,                     5305
Lines,                    25295
Horiz/Vert Lines,         2183
Rectangles (outline),     1443
Rectangles (filled),      51111
Circles (filled),         8514
Circles (outline),        9277
Triangles (outline),      7222
Triangles (filled),       18778
Rounded rects (outline),  4458
Rounded rects (filled),   51768
Total = 209983us
Total = 0.2100s