"Buttery" Smooth true definition - AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717

Lots of people claim their roms as "buttery" smooth. Even the JB is referred to as Project Butter.
I am just a bit confused here. How is "butterness" of a rom measured? What are the metrics used other than the user's perception?
To me, it's like a person driving a new car saying "Wow this is fast" but when compared to his old car, everything else is the same (horsepower, 0-60, 1/4 mile, etc).
So my question is:
What is the basis of a rom being "buttery" smooth other than pure perception?
Is this something that is measured (such as benchmark, etc).
Please note that performance != butter.
Just because you have a HIGH benchmark result does not necessarily mean it's buttery smooth.
Is the "buttery" smooth definition belongs in the same category as the "butt dyno?"
thanks

---

Its like playing a PC game at 20 FPS and then upgrading your video card and now getting 60 FPS+
JB on my buddys nexus is the smoothest and most responsive experience I have had with a phone, and I say this as an iOS fanboy. I considered the iPhone 4/4S to be the smoothest experience I have had with a mobile device to date, closely followed by my iPad2.
JB on the note so far is disappointing compared to the nexus.

---

I think by buttery smooth they mean it runs very smooth....not it being actually buttery...and smoothness and speed are hand in hand...also if you disagree with the Devs make a better ROM than they can and run it yourself. Because we have some of the best DEVs around... All this thread is doing is somewhat insulting them and their hard work they do for FREE....it is pointless
This public service announcement brought to you by my SAMSUNG GNOTE I7I7 rocking ★The Collectives★ AOCP CP1
My thread of awesomeness(also my first thread):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=29570977
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}

---

Kflan22 said:
I think by buttery smooth they mean it runs very smooth....not it being actually vuttery...and smoothness and speed are hand in hand...also if you disagree with the Devs make a better ROM than they can and run it yourself. Because we have some of the best DEVs around... Alls this thread is doing is somewhat insulting them and their hard work they do for FREE....it is pointless
This public service announcement brought to you by my SAMSUNG GNOTE I7I7 rocking ★The Collectives★ AOCP CP1
My thread of awesomeness(also my first thread):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=29570977
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uhhhh. He didn't bash any ROM/dev. He asked how people define smoothness...? Only thing he was negative about was benchmarks, which is pretty justified.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2

---

Overall, I would define buttery smoothness as a higher and consistent frame rate for operations and animations within the UI. Whether it's the "zoom" animation you see when an app is opened, or the sliding between home pages in your launcher, or pulling down the notification drawer on top of an already graphically intensive process, in a buttery smooth experience, all of those operations and motions would feel and appear extremely fluid as though they are natural motions, rather than a skippy, stuttering arrangement of frames to create an animation. It's the difference between turning through the pages of a flip book slowly, and flipping through it quickly.
I'm actually kind of glad you started a thread like this because Project Butter in Jelly Bean is my most anticipated feature, however for some reason, while everyone else is cheering about how smooth it is, mine is very non-smooth, worse than ICS in CM9 (which I would consider an overall smooth experience). The ROM I've been using is h0tw1r3's CM10 ROM and not matter how I try installing it (wiping all data and system and Dalvik first, or trying to install over CM9), I am getting a sluggish and non-buttery smooth experience. I hope it's just a bug that can be fixed along the way and not my device but because so many people are having success with it, I can't help but to believe that it IS in fact my device. The developer does however mention that broken hardware acceleration in the ROM is a possible bug. I hope he's right!
If anyone has any insight and can help me, your assistance will certainly be worthy of a liberal donation!
---------- Post added at 12:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:34 PM ----------
jimmer411 said:
Its like playing a PC game at 20 FPS and then upgrading your video card and now getting 60 FPS+
JB on my buddys nexus is the smoothest and most responsive experience I have had with a phone, and I say this as an iOS fanboy. I considered the iPhone 4/4S to be the smoothest experience I have had with a mobile device to date, closely followed by my iPad2.
JB on the note so far is disappointing compared to the nexus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you say that JB on the Note is disappointing, is this because you have noticed the UI experience not to be smooth and very poor and laggy? Also, if you do find the experience to be poor, would you say that ICS on the Note seemed to perform better than JB does? I ask because I'm having this very same experience and am trying to make sure it's not just me.

---

All the jb roms are in beta stages that's the only reason its not as smooth as the nexus but we have awesome devs and they will work out the kinks
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app

---

mikedarula said:
All the jb roms are in beta stages that's the only reason its not as smooth as the nexus but we have awesome devs and they will work out the kinks
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, I don't by any means desire to belittle the hard work of the developers. I can't believe that they released a Jelly Bean ROM this quickly with the stability that this one has. And I'm fully aware that this is alpha/beta. The reason I have a concern though is that everyone else that using the same alpha/beta software is claiming that it's the smoothest experience they've ever had and my experience is poorer than ICS. Do you see my issue?

---

You will know what buttery smooth is when you experience it.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note I717 using xda app-developers app

---

Eric-1987 said:
You will know what buttery smooth is when you experience it.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note I717 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha good way of putting it.

---

Eric-1987 said:
You will know what buttery smooth is when you experience it.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note I717 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was your experience with JB buttery smooth or did it seem worse than ICS to you?

---

I'm using the skyrocket port on my t989 with darkside kernel and its butter
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app

---

skinsfanbdh said:
I'm using the skyrocket port on my t989 with darkside kernel and its butter
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Us Note users (SGH-i717) don't have the Darkside kernel nor the S2 port so I can't get the same results as you. I know the CM10 ROM we have available is only in alpha stage but it seems like everyone aside from me and a select few others are getting buttery smoothness with it. I'm not sure what the deal is since we all have the same device and have used the EXACT same process to flash the ROM. Frustrating...

---

thair7391 said:
Was your experience with JB buttery smooth or did it seem worse than ICS to you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first releases of jb was slower but the most recent ones are better than ics.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note I717 using xda app-developers app

---

thair7391 said:
Overall, I would define buttery smoothness as a higher and consistent frame rate for operations and animations within the UI. Whether it's the "zoom" animation you see when an app is opened, or the sliding between home pages in your launcher, or pulling down the notification drawer on top of an already graphically intensive process, in a buttery smooth experience, all of those operations and motions would feel and appear extremely fluid as though they are natural motions, rather than a skippy, stuttering arrangement of frames to create an animation. It's the difference between turning through the pages of a flip book slowly, and flipping through it quickly.
I'm actually kind of glad you started a thread like this because Project Butter in Jelly Bean is my most anticipated feature, however for some reason, while everyone else is cheering about how smooth it is, mine is very non-smooth, worse than ICS in CM9 (which I would consider an overall smooth experience). The ROM I've been using is h0tw1r3's CM10 ROM and not matter how I try installing it (wiping all data and system and Dalvik first, or trying to install over CM9), I am getting a sluggish and non-buttery smooth experience. I hope it's just a bug that can be fixed along the way and not my device but because so many people are having success with it, I can't help but to believe that it IS in fact my device. The developer does however mention that broken hardware acceleration in the ROM is a possible bug. I hope he's right!
If anyone has any insight and can help me, your assistance will certainly be worthy of a liberal donation!
---------- Post added at 12:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:34 PM ----------
When you say that JB on the Note is disappointing, is this because you have noticed the UI experience not to be smooth and very poor and laggy? Also, if you do find the experience to be poor, would you say that ICS on the Note seemed to perform better than JB does? I ask because I'm having this very same experience and am trying to make sure it's not just me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My experience with JB on the note is the same as yours, its sluggish and choppy compared to ICS or CM9. One thing that I noticed is that I have the same experiences in CM9 and ICS if I use any of h0tw1re's kernels. I have to OC to 1.8ghz and even then I usually end up reloading a backup within an hour out of frustration.

---

I guess I'm one of the users on the other end of the spectrum. Cm10 is amazingly smooth! Most noticeably with recent apps and switching between apps, amongst other things. Seriously impressed so far. Night and day vs ICS.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note I717 using xda premium

---

jimmer411 said:
My experience with JB on the note is the same as yours, its sluggish and choppy compared to ICS or CM9. One thing that I noticed is that I have the same experiences in CM9 and ICS if I use any of h0tw1re's kernels. I have to OC to 1.8ghz and even then I usually end up reloading a backup within an hour out of frustration.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for letting me know!! I have received much criticism for posting about this issue in the h0tw1r3 CM10 thread because people think that my definition of smoothness is off. I realize that most Note users are having a good experience but there are definitely a few who aren't and its not related to user error! I'm using CM9 still because its much more smooth and responsive but I have no issue with h0tw1r3's kernel in CM9 as it's rubbing very well. Does using the custom kernel in CM9 cause it to perform like it does in CM10? Seriously bro, thank you so much for letting me know that you're having an issue too. Its great not to be alone. Even if it only takes the two of us, we WILL get buttery smoothness on our Notes!!
And again I reiterate, anyone who experiences the current CM10 build to have more lag than CM9, please post here to let us know! I'll keep everyone posted on my experiences or any more solutions or information that I encounter.

---

I just want to say that I have used h0tkernel for a few weeks now. I have used Black*STAR IV & V and FJ's UCLF6 b4 and both Roms running smooth with it. I'm sorry you didn't have the same experience I have. OC'd and running like movie theater popcorn.... Buttery.
To be fair tho I haven't tried the cm10 or the cm9 recently.... Best of luck to you bud! :thumbup:

---

goresick said:
I just want to say that I have used h0tkernel for a few weeks now. I have used Black*STAR IV & V and FJ's UCLF6 b4 and both Roms running smooth with it. I'm sorry you didn't have the same experience I have. OC'd and running like movie theater popcorn.... Buttery.
To be fair tho I haven't tried the cm10 or the cm9 recently.... Best of luck to you bud! :thumbup:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!! I have actually had excellent success with all of the ICS ROMs and CM9. They run like a dream even without the h0tkernel. My only problem begins when I'm on Jelly Bean (specifically being the current CM10 ROM we have). It would be much appreciated friend if you could report back here when you get a chance to try a Jelly Beam ROM and share your experiences. Project Butter is my most anticipated feature of Jelly bean. Its quite disheartening for it to be the one feature that doesn't work for me lol. Let's fix this issue together!
---------- Post added at 09:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:49 PM ----------
OhNoRoK said:
I guess I'm one of the users on the other end of the spectrum. Cm10 is amazingly smooth! Most noticeably with recent apps and switching between apps, amongst other things. Seriously impressed so far. Night and day vs ICS.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note I717 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope to be there soon bro! Unfortunately I must live in Alaska because my night and day experience is inverted! CM9 runs like a dream but CM10 feels like Gingerbread (bleeeehhhhhh).
---------- Post added at 09:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:52 PM ----------
Eric-1987 said:
The first releases of jb was slower but the most recent ones are better than ics.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note I717 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is h0tw1re's CM10 the only JB ROM you've tried or are there any others that I haven't found yet?? (Aside from Paranoid Android because I'm pretty certain that he's using h0tw1r3's version as a base)

---

I've only tried pa and aokp.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note I717 using xda app-developers app

---

I prefer not to compare a fully stable release build against an alpha build ...
With alpha ...you are lucky to get a "favorable " running experience.
JB is bleeding edge for this device, and to date , the note wasn't even designed for it. That being said , I know that JB will improve greatly and function well , but comparison for "buttery" operation can not be fairly made at this point .
But since the question of buttery was asked ....I'll answer like this..
Buttery is the point where no obvious improvement can be made, an no obvious error can be found ...I.E. stable ...
Speed etc ....is finite ....as many changes are made to these roms by endless users under endless conditions. And there is no way to determine a best , other than the stable base on a base device without modification. And even then ...the device variables exist from the factory...g