android game - lock_layer timed out

Question

I'm developing a (scroll) game and i'm getting weird messages in LogCat:

• lock_layer() timed out but didn't appear to need to be locked and we recovered(..)
• lock_layer timed out (is the CPU pegged?)...
• executeScheduledBrodcasts() skipped, contention on the client. We'll try again later.

it looks like the rendering takes too long and causes the warning (i'm drawing ~ 50 images every frame), but is this the emulator fault? When i test it on a device (sony ericsson xperia x8), running 1.6, i don't see any lag or any performance drops (i get ~ 60fps). I get this warning only in android 1.6.

Should i ignore it? Could it cause the game to crash? Am i doing something horribly wrong or is it a bug?

Run code:

  while(running) {
    try {
       c = holder.lockCanvas(null);
       synchronized(holder) {
           // getElements - returns a Vector of elements to be drawn relative to camera
           elements = collection.getElements(cameraX,cameraY,cameraWidth,cameraHeight);
           for(int i =0 ; i < elements.size(); i++) {
              // draw the element according to camera
              c.drawBitmap(image,elements.get(i).x,elements.get(i).y);
           }
       }    

    } finally {
       holder.unloackCanvasAndPost(c);
    }

}

Answer 1

You have implemented a fixed time step with frame-skipping. Any devices that cannot run your game are below the minimum requirements.

You should find some users with older devices to test with, and see exactly how old of a system your game can actually run on. Once you are at that point, see if there is any optimization you can do to improve the speed.

Answer 2

The android emulator is much slower than the average modern device.

In a game I was making I easily reached 60fps on my Nx1, but on the emulator I was barely able to reach 15-25fps.

You're correct when you say that this error happens because rendering takes too long, and be warned that you might get the same problem on slower devices, or anyway devices that are running in background many apps while they run yours — so yes, you have to actually solve it.

As @AttackingHobo suggests, you have to implement a system which supports frameskipping.