What is elevation doing in Android L?

Question

Today I developed my first Android L Apps, and read through the d.android.com/preview tips. They said that android:elevation would show me shadows. But look at this:

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/tvTest5"
    android:layout_width="50dp"
    android:layout_height="50dp"
    android:layout_below="@id/btnTest1"
    android:layout_toRightOf="@id/tvTest4"
    android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"
    android:background="#000000"
    android:elevation="50dp"/>

I don't see any shadow in my Emulator. Am I doing something wrong or is the Emulator buggy? I'm using Android Studio

im compiling with android L api 20 so i guess the newest. I updated everything — Niklas Siefke, Jul 03 '14 at 15:12
Try a lower value, like 5dp. Maybe you added a too big elevation, so the shadow is totally blurred out. Maybe also because you need to do more [stuff](https://developer.android.com/preview/material/views-shadows.html). — Sergi Juanola, Jul 03 '14 at 15:13
It is not the same - you should do both: compile with latest target (which you're already doing) and run app on emulator with Android L Preview installed. I assume that you're not doing that, since elevation of `50dp` should be pretty noticeable by itself. — Dmitry Zaytsev, Jul 03 '14 at 15:14
[link](http://www.pic-upload.de/view-23767145/AVDPreviewL.png.html) — Niklas Siefke, Jul 03 '14 at 15:23
haha :D [link](http://www.pic-upload.de/view-23767270/AVDPreviewLEmulator.png.html) — Niklas Siefke, Jul 03 '14 at 15:33
the right one :D when i click the button all of them change the color ;) — Niklas Siefke, Jul 03 '14 at 15:42
How about you'll create layout with a single `TextView` that you presented to us without any logic? — Dmitry Zaytsev, Jul 03 '14 at 15:44
What is the value of View.isHardwareAccelerated() on your TextView? Are you using host GPU / GPU emulation on your AVD? — alanv, Jul 05 '14 at 10:47
What worked for me is having a shape as the background. They probably still have issues with figuring out what the shadow shape should be with just colors. My guess. — yarian, Sep 02 '14 at 04:43
possible duplicate of [Android AppCompat 21 Elevation](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/26728570/android-appcompat-21-elevation) — Derk-Jan, Dec 24 '14 at 14:30

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 08 '14 at 09:42

1

I kinda solved it. The problem was the emulator. We now have ordered a Nexus 5 and flashed Android L. Now it works fine

answered Jul 08 '14 at 09:42

Niklas Siefke

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Amitabh · Answer 2 · 2014-07-04T23:36:30.663

0

You should see the elevation when you create two views with different z-index.

edited Jul 04 '14 at 23:36

answered Jul 04 '14 at 23:25

Amitabh

162
9

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 05 '14 at 19:29

0

You should watch the video talking about it:

Google I/O 2014 - Material science: Developing Android applications with material

They said there that elevation has weird issues if the Z value isn't different between views.

It starts at about 15:00 .

answered Jul 05 '14 at 19:29

android developer

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What is elevation doing in Android L?

3 Answers3