Develop Reference

Android SurfaceView with drawBitmap(Matrix) leaves blinking ghost image

To preface, I'm probably going to work with Views instead of SurfaceView given this weird interaction, but my curiosity is getting the better of me and I want to know what's going on.
So I have a matrix class variable. I run matrix.setTranslate() once, and every other frame I say matrix.setTranslate(). After this I call canvas.drawBitmap(, matrix, null). After 100 frames, I stop drawing the bitmap.
Here's the code:
public void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
super.onDraw(canvas);
// matrix = new Matrix(); //Doesn't matter if I add this.
// matrix.reset(); //This doesn't matter either.
if (!once) {
matrix.setTranslate(100, 100);
} else {
matrix.setTranslate(800,800);
}
once = true;
if (++timer < 100) {
canvas.drawBitmap(ball, matrix, null);
}
}
What I expect to happen: Three possibilities.
Only the bottom right bitmap is visible since the entire screen was invalidated
Both bitmaps are visible because SurfaceView was smart with the dirty rectangle
Nothing is shown because nothing was drawn.
What actually happens: The top left bitmap blinks, bottom right bitmap displays solidly.
I'm pretty sure I have all of my bases covered:
All class variables are properly set in the constructor.
SurfaceView.onDraw() is called every 33 millis in its own thread.
Thread calls lockCanvas, then onDraw, then unlockCanvasAndPost
So, what's going on here? And bonus question, do these ghost images consume any extra resources and how can I clear them?
Rest of the code, mostly boilerplate:
public class FullscreenActivity extends Activity {
GameSurface ball;
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
ball = new GameSurface(this);
setContentView(ball);
}
}
class GameSurface extends SurfaceView implements SurfaceHolder.Callback {
GameThread thread;
boolean once = false;
Bitmap ball;
Matrix matrix;
int timer = 0;
public GameSurface(Context context) {
super(context);
ball = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(),R.drawable.football);
matrix = new Matrix();
getHolder().addCallback(this);
setFocusable(true);
}
#Override
public void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
super.onDraw(canvas);
// matrix = new Matrix(); //Doesn't matter if I add this.
// matrix.reset(); //This doesn't matter either.
if (!once) {
matrix.setTranslate(100, 100);
} else {
matrix.setTranslate(800,800);
}
//matrix.postRotate(timer); //For even more weirdness...
once = true;
if (++timer < 100) {
canvas.drawBitmap(ball, matrix, null);
}
}
#Override
public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder holder, int format, int width, int height) {
}
#Override
public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder holder) {
thread = new GameThread(getHolder(), this);
thread.setRunning(true);
thread.start();
}
#Override
public void surfaceDestroyed(SurfaceHolder holder) {
}
class GameThread extends Thread {
private SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder;
private GameSurface gameView;
private boolean run = false;
public GameThread(SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder, GameSurface gameView) {
this.surfaceHolder = surfaceHolder;
this.gameView = gameView;
}
public void setRunning(boolean run) {
this.run = run;
}
#Override
public void run() {
Canvas c;
while (run) {
c = null;
try {
Thread.sleep(33);
}
catch(InterruptedException e) {}
try {
c = surfaceHolder.lockCanvas();
synchronized (surfaceHolder) {
gameView.onDraw(c);
}
} finally {
if (c != null) {
surfaceHolder.unlockCanvasAndPost(c);
}
}
}
}
}
}

Android SurfaceView canvas drawing with a thread

I am experimenting with drawing on a canvas using a thread to create a simple game engine but I'm having some weird issues I cannot explain.
The purpose of this "game" is to draw a circle every second on the canvas.
This works, but not the way I want it to work, it seems the app is switching between two canvasses and adding a circle to each canvas so you get a switch between two canvasses every second with the same number of circles but in a different place on the canvas.
I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I'm not that familiar with Treadding, has it something to do with how many cores my android device has or something like that?
My code is shown below, so I just use a launchthread which uses a layoutfile that links to the animationthread which starts a thread and draws a circle on the canvas every second.
(You can ignore the touchevent, it isn't uses yet).
The project exists out of a main launchthread:
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
}
}
which uses this layout file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<FrameLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent">
<com.androidtesting.AnimationView
android:id="#+id/aview"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"/>
</FrameLayout>
And my Surfaceview class with an inner Thread class:
class AnimationView extends SurfaceView implements SurfaceHolder.Callback {
private boolean touched = false;
private float touched_x, touched_y = 0;
private Paint paint;
private Canvas c;
private Random random;
private AnimationThread thread;
public AnimationView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
super(context, attrs);
SurfaceHolder holder = getHolder();
holder.addCallback(this);
thread = new AnimationThread(holder);
}
class AnimationThread extends Thread {
private boolean mRun;
private SurfaceHolder mSurfaceHolder;
public AnimationThread(SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder) {
mSurfaceHolder = surfaceHolder;
paint = new Paint();
paint.setARGB(255,255,255,255);
paint.setTextSize(32);
}
#Override
public void run() {
while (mRun) {
c = null;
try {
c = mSurfaceHolder.lockCanvas(null);
synchronized (mSurfaceHolder) {
doDraw(c);
sleep(1000);
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}finally {
if (c != null) {
mSurfaceHolder.unlockCanvasAndPost(c);
}
}
}
}
private void doDraw(Canvas canvas) {
//clear the canvas
//canvas.drawColor(Color.BLACK);
random = new Random();
int w = canvas.getWidth();
int h = canvas.getHeight();
int x = random.nextInt(w-50);
int y = random.nextInt(h-50);
int r = random.nextInt(255);
int g = random.nextInt(255);
int b = random.nextInt(255);
int size = 20;
canvas.drawCircle(x,y,size,paint);
canvas.restore();
}
public void setRunning(boolean b) {
mRun = b;
}
}
public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder holder, int format, int width, int height) {
}
#Override
public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent event) {
touched_x = event.getX();
touched_y = event.getY();
int action = event.getAction();
switch(action){
case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN:
touched = true;
break;
case MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE:
touched = true;
break;
default:
touched = false;
break;
}
return true;
}
public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder holder) {
thread.setRunning(true);
thread.start();
}
public void surfaceDestroyed(SurfaceHolder holder) {
boolean retry = true;
thread.setRunning(false);
while (retry) {
try {
thread.join();
retry = false;
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
}
}
}

it seems the app is switching between two canvasses
Yes, this is how it works. It is called double buffering and you need to redraw all the frame each time:
The content of the Surface is never preserved between unlockCanvas() and lockCanvas(), for this reason, every pixel within the Surface area must be written.
So you need this line canvas.drawColor(Color.BLACK) to be uncommented in your code.
And you shouldn't call Thread.sleep(1000) while canvas is locked, it will cause starvation issue.

It sounds like you have this working, but I did just notice a small error that I should point out.
You called canvas.restore() without calling canvas.save() beforehand.
From the Android developer reference for Canvas: "It is an error to call restore() more times than save() was called."
I don't see any reason for you to call canvas.save() in your case, therefore you should remove the call to canvas.restore().

Multi-threading in the same Canvas

Well, I'll try to explain exactly what I pretend:
I want to draw a bitmap in a canvas in random positions according to the coordinates of the screen on touch, and I want a message(text) to be displayed everytime the user touches the screen.
So, if a draw the text in the same thread than I do for the bitmap, it will appear and dissapear right after, and I want it to stay in the screen for a few seconds and the dissapear. My first idea was to use Thread.sleep(), but for that I have to create a thread only for the text, or I will mess with the Bitmap too.
I've been trying to use multithreading in the same canvas, but I don't know how. Can someone please explain to me...
That's some of the code i've got so far:
private void init() {
// CREATE SURFACEHOLDER AND ADD THIS CLASS AS HIS CALLBACK
enemyHolder = getHolder();
enemyHolder.addCallback(this);
scoreHolder = getHolder();
scoreHolder.addCallback(this);
hasSurface = false;
}
public void resume() {
if (surfaceViewThread == null) {
surfaceViewThread = new SurfaceViewThread(); // CREATE A NEW
// THREAD
if (hasSurface)
surfaceViewThread.start(); // START OUR THREAD
}
if (secondThread == null) {
secondThread = new SecondThread();
if (hasSurface)
secondThread.start();
}
}
public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder holder) {
hasSurface = true;
if (surfaceViewThread != null)
surfaceViewThread.start();
if (scoreShow == 1) {
if (secondThread != null)
secondThread.start();
}
}
// THREAD
private final class SurfaceViewThread extends Thread {
private boolean done;
SurfaceViewThread() {
super();
done = false;
}
#Override
public void run() {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
super.run();
SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder = enemyHolder;
while (!done) {
Canvas canvas = surfaceHolder.lockCanvas();
canvas.drawColor(Color.WHITE);
canvas.drawBitmap(enemy1, enemy1X, enemy1Y, null); // DRAW
// FIRST
// ENEMY
// SECOND THREAD
private final class SecondThread extends Thread {
private boolean done;
SecondThread() {
super();
done = false;
}
#Override
public void run() {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
super.run();
SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder = scoreHolder;
while (!done) {
Canvas canvas = surfaceHolder.lockCanvas();
Paint paint = new Paint();
paint.setColor(Color.BLACK);
canvas.drawText("xD", 50, 50, paint);
surfaceHolder.unlockCanvasAndPost(canvas);
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
scoreShow = 0;
}
}

Do you need to use a SurfaceView? It seems like a hard work way of doing things.
I've just done something similar by creating a custom view class and overriding the onDraw method. Then use canvas.save() and canvas.restore(). Here's the relevant bits of my onDraw.
#Override
public void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
canvas.save();
// scale the canvas
canvas.scale(scaleFactor, scaleFactor); //, mid.x, mid.y);
// and translate...
canvas.translate(translateX / scaleFactor, translateY / scaleFactor);
super.onDraw(canvas);
// draw the lights
for(Light light:lights){
if (light.isOn){
canvas.drawCircle(light.getX(),light.getY(), light.getDiameter() / scaleFactor,light.paint);
}
}
canvas.restore();
}
The lights are turned on and off by a separate thread back in the activity which has inflated the view. They stay on screen as long as they are on.
Cheers

Here's some incomplete pseudo code to do what you've described. There are plenty of good examples around for each of these elements to help you fill in the blanks.
public class MyCustomView extends View {
int touchPointX;
int touchPointY;
private String mText;
public MyCustomView(Context context) {
// do initialisation stuff
}
public setText(String text){
mText = text;
this.invalidate();
}
#Override
public void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
canvas.save();
super.onDraw(canvas);
canvas.drawBitmap(touchPointX, touchPointY, bitmap)
if (!mText.equals(""){
canvas.drawText(touchPointX, touchPointY + 10, mText)
}
canvas.restore();
}
}
public class MyActivity extends Activity implements OnTouchListener{
private Handler mHandler = new Handler();
private MyCustomView mCustomView;
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
mCustomView = (MyCustomView) findViewById(r.id.myCustomView);
}
#Override
public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent rawEvent) {
// get x and y of touch
mCustomview.touchPointX = x;
mCustomview.touchPointY = y;
mCustomView.setText("Screen touched");
// clear the text after 5 seconds
mHandler.postDelayed(clearText, 5000);
// redraw the view
mCustomView.invalidate();
}
private void clearText(){mCustomView.setText("");}
}

ClassCastException on custom SurfaceView

i've got a big problem since a few days:
When I try to bind the surfaceview on the layout and my custom surfaceview, i get a ClassCastException from my custom surfaceview.
here is my code:
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
waveform =(WaveFormView) findViewById(R.id.surfaceView1);
}
class WaveFormView extends SurfaceView implements SurfaceHolder.Callback {
public WaveFormView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
super(context, attrs);
getHolder().addCallback(this);
_dthread = new DrawingThread(getHolder(), this);
setFocusable(true);
paintP.setStyle(Paint.Style.STROKE);
paintP.setStrokeWidth(1);
paintP.setColor(Color.WHITE);
paintT.setStyle(Paint.Style.STROKE);
paintT.setStrokeWidth(1);
paintT.setColor(Color.WHITE);
}
#Override
public void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
canvas.drawColor(Color.BLACK);
for (int i=0;i<_athread.buffer.length-pas;i+=pas){
canvas.drawLine(i, 150-_athread.buffer[i], i+pas, 150-_athread.buffer[i+pas], paintP);
}
canvas.drawText("FPS: " + String.valueOf(FPS), 0, 10, paintT);
//canvas.drawText("tmp: " + tmp, 0, 20, paintT);
}
#Override
public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder holder, int format, int width, int height) {
}
#Override
public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder holder) {
_dthread.setRunning(true);
_dthread.start();
}
#Override
public void surfaceDestroyed(SurfaceHolder holder) {
// simply copied from sample application LunarLander:
// we have to tell thread to shut down & wait for it to finish, or else
// it might touch the Surface after we return and explode
boolean retry = true;
_dthread.setRunning(false);
while (retry) {
try {
_dthread.join();
retry = false;
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// we will try it again and again...
}
}
}
}
class DrawingThread extends Thread {
private SurfaceHolder _surfaceHolder;
private WaveFormView _waveformview;
private boolean _run = false;
public DrawingThread(SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder, WaveFormView waveformview) {
_surfaceHolder = surfaceHolder;
_waveformview = waveformview;
}
public void setRunning(boolean run) {
_run = run;
}
public SurfaceHolder getSurfaceHolder() {
return _surfaceHolder;
}
#Override
public void run() {
Canvas c;
long startMs=System.currentTimeMillis();
int frameCounter=0;
while (_run) {
c = null;
frameCounter++;
if (System.currentTimeMillis()-startMs>1000){
startMs = System.currentTimeMillis();
FPS = frameCounter;
frameCounter=0;
}
try {
c = _surfaceHolder.lockCanvas(null);
synchronized (_surfaceHolder) {
_waveformview.onDraw(c);
}
} finally {
// do this in a finally so that if an exception is thrown
// during the above, we don't leave the Surface in an
// inconsistent state
if (c != null) {
_surfaceHolder.unlockCanvasAndPost(c);
}
}
}
}
}
When I replace:
setContentView(R.layout.main);
with this:
setContentView(new WaveFormView (this));
...it works perfectly !
But, I need to have buttons besides.
here is the layout:
<LinearLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="match_parent">
<LinearLayout android:layout_weight="1" android:padding="0dip" android:layout_height="match_parent" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:orientation="vertical" android:id="#+id/content">
<TextView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="#+id/tvdebug" android:text="Debug" android:layout_width="wrap_content"></TextView>
<SurfaceView android:id="#+id/surfaceView1" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_width="fill_parent"></SurfaceView>
</LinearLayout>
If someone have the solution it would me a lot !

Maybe R.id.surfaceView1 is not declared as WaveFormView but as SurfaceView? Try declare it specifically, otherwise this is illegal casting indeed.
WaveFormView is a SurfaceView, but a SurfaceView is not necessarily a WaveFormView.
You can use your own view in the layout xml, by specifying the class name (<path.to.WaveFormView instead of <SurfaceView...)
For example:
<view class = "com.mypath.WaveFormView"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:id="#+id/surfaceView1"
android:layout_above="#id/auto_scrollview"
/>
OR
<com.mypath.WaveFormView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:id="#+id/surfaceView1"
android:layout_above="#id/auto_scrollview"
/>
If this class is an inner class, as seemed from your question, then use:
<com.mypath.OUTERCLASSNAME$WaveFormView
EDIT
Since this class is needed to be shown from outside your class, and be loaded not from instance but statically, you need to public static to its declaration, e.g.:
public static class WaveFormView extends SurfaceView implements SurfaceHolder.Callback

Android Multiple SurfaceViews

I'm trying to work with 3 SurfaceViews on one screen, one on top half (BoardView), one on bottom half (StatusView), and the last one as an extra layer above the top half (TileView) (see main.xml).
I created a class MySurfaceView, which is extended by BoardView, StatusView and TileView.
I've got multiple problems with this.
Let me first give the code.
main.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:background="#color/main_background">
<com.niek.test.BoardView
android:id="#+id/boardview"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent" />
<FrameLayout
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_below="#+id/boardview">
<com.niek.test.StatusView
android:id="#+id/statusview"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:background="#F0931E"
android:layout_below="#+id/boardview" />
<com.niek.test.TileView
android:id="#+id/tileview"
android:layout_width="180dip"
android:layout_height="60dip"
android:layout_gravity="bottom"/>
</FrameLayout>
</RelativeLayout>
MainActivity.java:
package com.niek.test;
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
private Board board;
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
board = new Board();
BoardView boardView = (BoardView) findViewById(R.id.boardview);
boardView.setBoard(board);
StatusView statusView = (StatusView) findViewById(R.id.statusview);
statusView.setBoard(board);
}
}
MySurfaceView.java
package com.niek.test;
public class MySurfaceView extends SurfaceView implements SurfaceHolder.Callback {
protected DrawThread drawThread;
public MyView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
super(context, attrs);
getHolder().addCallback(this);
setFocusable(true);
drawThread = new DrawThread(getHolder());
}
#Override
public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder holder, int format, int width, int height) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
}
#Override
public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder holder) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
drawThread.setRunning(true);
drawThread.start();
}
#Override
public void surfaceDestroyed(SurfaceHolder holder) {
// we have to tell thread to shut down & wait for it to finish, or else
// it might touch the Surface after we return and explode
boolean retry = true;
drawThread.setRunning(false);
while (retry) {
try {
drawThread.join();
retry = false;
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// we will try it again and again...
}
}
}
protected class DrawThread extends Thread {
private SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder;
private boolean isRunning;
public DrawThread(SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder) {
this.surfaceHolder = surfaceHolder;
isRunning = false;
}
public void setRunning(boolean run) {
isRunning = run;
}
public void run() {
Canvas c;
while (isRunning) {
try {
Thread.sleep(100);
} catch (Exception e) {
// TODO: handle exception
}
c = null;
try {
c = surfaceHolder.lockCanvas(null);
synchronized (surfaceHolder) {
onDraw(c);
postInvalidate();
}
} finally {
// do this in a finally so that if an exception is thrown
// during the above, we don't leave the Surface in an
// inconsistent state
if (c != null) {
surfaceHolder.unlockCanvasAndPost(c);
}
}
}
}
}
}
These three classes extend MySurfaceView:
BoardView.java
package com.niek.test;
public class BoardView extends MySurfaceView {
private int squareSize, marginX, marginY;
private Board board;
Paint boardBorder;
public BoardView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
super(context, attrs);
board = null;
}
public void setBoard(Board board) {
this.board = board;
}
private void init(SurfaceHolder holder) {
Canvas canvas = null;
try {
canvas = holder.lockCanvas();
/* Initialize the board */
squareSize = canvas.getWidth() / Board.GRIDSIZE;
/* Size the view */
LayoutParams lp = getLayoutParams();
lp.height = (squareSize * Board.GRIDSIZE) + 4;
setLayoutParams(lp);
/* Place the board neatly in the center */
marginX = (canvas.getWidth() - (squareSize * Board.GRIDSIZE)) / 2;
marginY = 1;
} finally {
holder.unlockCanvasAndPost(canvas);
}
boardBorder = new Paint();
boardBorder.setColor(Color.RED);
boardBorder.setStyle(Style.STROKE);
}
#Override
public void onDraw(Canvas canvas) {
drawBoard(board, canvas);
}
#Override
public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder holder) {
init(holder);
super.surfaceCreated(holder);
}
private void drawBoard(Board board, Canvas canvas) {
synchronized (board) {
if (board != null) {
for (Square[] ys : board.getSquares()) {
for (Square xs : ys) {
xs.onDraw(canvas, squareSize, squareSize, marginX, marginY);
}
}
}
canvas.drawRect(marginX - 1, marginY - 1, marginX + squareSize * Board.GRIDSIZE + 1, marginY + squareSize * Board.GRIDSIZE + 1, boardBorder);
}
}
}
StatusView.java
package com.niek.test;
public class StatusView extends MySurfaceView {
private Board board;
private Paint textPaint;
public StatusView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
super(context, attrs);
board = null;
textPaint = new Paint();
textPaint.setColor(Color.BLACK);
textPaint.setTextSize(20);
textPaint.setTypeface(Typeface.DEFAULT_BOLD);
}
public void setBoard(Board board) {
this.board = board;
}
int tmp=0;
#Override
public void onDraw(Canvas c) {
if (board != null) {
c.drawText(tmp+"", 10, 20, textPaint);
tmp++;
System.out.println(tmp);
}
}
}
TileView.java
package com.niek.test;
public class TileView extends MySurfaceView {
public TileView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
super(context, attrs);
System.out.println(0);
}
int tmp =0;
#Override
public void onDraw(Canvas c) {
System.out.println(2);
Paint p= new Paint();
p.setColor(Color.RED);
c.drawColor(Color.RED);
c.drawText(tmp+"",10,10,p);
tmp++;
}
}
Now what are my problems?
First off, as you can see in MySurfaceView I've got this:
try {
c = surfaceHolder.lockCanvas(null);
synchronized (surfaceHolder) {
onDraw(c);
postInvalidate();
}
}
When I only use onDraw(c), only the BoardView gets drawn, the StatusView doesn't get drawn, but the tmp increments in the onDraw of StatusView are being executed.
When I only use postInvalidate(), same story, but only StatusView gets drawn, BoardView doesn't.
So that's why I use both methods, and both Views get drawn.
Then there's TileView, the System.out(2) is being shown in logcat, but the view doesn't get drawn. It is a black square instead of the red square I ask it to be in the onDraw method.
When I turn the screen off and then on again, the TileView does get drawn, and the tmp increments are shown.
Who can help me?
For clarity, I've created this based on this tutorial.

You can have multiple SurfaceViewsin one layout. The "Multi-surface test" activity in Grafika has three.
The first post cited in #nonsleepr's answer was followed up 9 months later with this post by the same author, which mentioned the existence of SurfaceView#setZOrderMediaOverlay().
The key thing to understand is that SurfaceView is not a regular view. When your app comes to the foreground it gets a surface to draw on. Everything in your app's UI is rendered onto the app's surface by the app, and then that surface is composited with other surfaces (like the status bar and navigation bar) by the system compositor. When you create a SurfaceView, it's actually creating an entirely new surface that is composited by the system, not by your app.
You can control the Z-ordering (i.e. "depth") of the SurfaceView surface very loosely. There are four positions, from top to bottom:
SurfaceView + ZOrderOnTop
(app UI goes here)
SurfaceView + ZOrderMediaOverlay
SurfaceView (default)
If you have two SurfaceViews at the same depth, and they overlap, the results are undefined -- one will "win", but you can't control which.
The system compositor on modern devices is very efficient when you have N surfaces. At N+1 surfaces you hit a performance cliff. So while you can have three SurfaceViews, you're generally better off keeping the number down. The value of N varies from device to device.
Update: if you really want to understand how SurfaceView works, see the Android System-Level Graphics doc.

It looks like you are not supposed to create multiple SurfaceViews on one Layout.
According to this two posts written by Android framework engineer:
The way surface view is implemented is that a separate surface is created and Z-ordered behind its containing window, and transparent pixels drawn into the rectangle where the SurfaceView is so you can see the surface behind. We never intended to allow for multiple surface view.
and
you should effectively think of SurfaceView as an overlay you embed inside your window,
giving you an area in which you can directly draw independently of the normal view update system.
So, what you can do, is use one SurfaceView to draw all the graphics you want.

It sounds like the SurfaceViews are being drawn, but transparency is not enabled for whichever one is on top. In your MySurfaceView class in the surfaceCreated() method, make sure you are calling holder.setFormat(PixelFormat.TRANSPARENT);