Using Google's MapView v2 in Live Wallpaper

Question

I have been trying to resolve this for a while now. I would like to use a MapView v2 with my Live wallpaper, so far my results are a black screen with a google logo on the bottom.

My manifest has required permissions:

and meta-data:

And I also tried changing hardware acceleration as suggested in some other MapView related questions:

android:hardwareAccelerated="false"

Also I can confirm that the maps Api key is indeed correct, since I have a MapFragment that renders properly (not in the wallaper service but in a test activity):

WallpaperService.Engine code:

private class ENGINE extends Engine implements OnMapReadyCallback, 
GoogleMap.SnapshotReadyCallback {

    private final String LOG_TAG =  ENGINE.class.getSimpleName();
    private int width = 0;
    private int height = 0;
    private SurfaceHolder holder;
    private boolean visible;
    private Bitmap bitmap;

    private final Handler handler = new Handler();
    private final Runnable drawRunner = new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            draw();
        }
    };

    MapView mapView;
    GoogleMap map;
    private static final int FPS = 5000;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder) {
        super.onCreate(surfaceHolder);
        this.holder = surfaceHolder;


        this.width = getDesiredMinimumWidth();
        this.height = getDesiredMinimumHeight();

        int margin = 100;
        Rect rect = new Rect();
        rect.set(margin, margin, width, height);


        mapView = new MapView(getApplicationContext());
        mapView.onCreate(new Bundle()); // could this be the problem?
        // since onCreate(null) has exact same result

        int widthSpec = View.MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(rect.width(), View.MeasureSpec.EXACTLY);
        int heightSpec = View.MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(rect.height(), View.MeasureSpec.EXACTLY);

        mapView.measure(widthSpec, heightSpec);
        mapView.layout(0, 0, rect.width(), rect.height());


        Log.d(LOG_TAG, "Width: " + mapView.getMeasuredWidth());
        Log.d(LOG_TAG, "Height: " + mapView.getMeasuredHeight());

        mapView.onResume();
        try {
            MapsInitializer.initialize(getApplicationContext());
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        mapView.getMapAsync(this);
    }

    public ENGINE() {
    }

    @Override
    public void onVisibilityChanged(boolean visible) {
        this.visible = visible;
        if (visible) {
            handler.post(drawRunner);
            mapView.onResume();
        } else {
            handler.removeCallbacks(drawRunner);
            mapView.onPause();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onDestroy() {
        super.onDestroy();
        mapView.onDestroy();
        handler.removeCallbacks(drawRunner);
    }

    private void draw() {
        final Canvas canvas = holder.lockCanvas();
        try {
            if (canvas != null) {
                if (mapView != null) {
                    mapView.draw(canvas);
                    Log.d(LOG_TAG, "Drawing Map view on the canvas");
                } else {
                    Paint paint = new Paint();
                    paint.setColor(getColor(R.color.colorAccent));
                    paint.setStyle(Paint.Style.FILL);
                    canvas.drawPaint(paint);
                }
            }
        } finally {
            if (canvas != null)
                holder.unlockCanvasAndPost(canvas);
        }

        handler.removeCallbacks(drawRunner);
        if (visible) {
            handler.postDelayed(drawRunner, FPS);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onSnapshotReady(Bitmap bitmap) {
        // never reaches here
        this.bitmap = bitmap;
        Log.d(LOG_TAG, "Bitmap ready");
    }

    @Override
    public void onMapReady(GoogleMap googleMap) {
        this.map = googleMap;

        //this.map.setMyLocationEnabled(true);

        this.map.getUiSettings().setZoomControlsEnabled(true);
        this.map.getUiSettings().setMyLocationButtonEnabled(true);
        this.map.getUiSettings().setCompassEnabled(true);
        this.map.getUiSettings().setRotateGesturesEnabled(false);
        this.map.getUiSettings().setZoomGesturesEnabled(false);

        Log.d(LOG_TAG, "Map is ready");


        double latitude = 56.875300;
        double longitude = -76.783658;


        LatLng marker = new LatLng(latitude, longitude);
        this.map.addMarker(new MarkerOptions().position(marker).title("Marker Title"));


        this.map.snapshot(this); 
        // I tried using map's snapshot to render it, however this callback never returns a value
    }

}

Logcat does not show any errors nor any hints on what might be the issue

07-14 10:26:39.213 3167-3167/removed.for.privacy I/Google Maps 
Android API: Google Play services package version: 11055440

07-14 10:26:39.398 3167-3195/removed.for.privacy D/OpenGLRenderer: 
endAllActiveAnimators on 0x75f689e800 (RippleDrawable) with handle 
0x75f65bede0

07-14 10:27:02.772 3167-3167/removed.for.privacy I/Google Maps 
Android API: Google Play services package version: 11055440

07-14 10:27:02.838 3167-3167/removed.for.privacy 
D/ENGINE : Width: 980

07-14 10:27:02.838 3167-3167/removed.for.privacy
D/ENGINE : Height: 1820

07-14 10:27:02.867 3167-3167/removed.for.privacy 
D/ENGINE : Map is ready

07-14 10:27:02.885 3167-3195/removed.for.privacy D/OpenGLRenderer: 
endAllActiveAnimators on 0x75f689ec00 (RippleDrawable) with handle 
0x75e6820020

07-14 10:27:02.900 3167-3167/removed.for.privacy 
D/ENGINE : Drawing Map view on the canvas

07-14 10:27:07.955 3167-3167/removed.for.privacy 
D/ENGINE : Drawing Map view on the canvas

I understand that WallpaperService is not designed to be used with regular UI elements, however it is possible to use them and I successfully did it with TextViews and such. Is it a limitation placed on the MapView purposefully and I am beating a dead horse? Thank you

Using Google's MapView v2 in Live Wallpaper

3 Answers