A method of increasing a speed, and reducing a processor load, of determining whether more than a threshold amount of a target display element is visible on a physical display device communicationally coupled to a computing device performing the method, the physical display device having physically displayed thereon multiple visual display elements, the method comprising:
- generating, on the computing device, a two-dimensional array data structure having a quantity of rows and columns based on a graphical size of a target display element, the target display element being one of the multiple visual display elements that are physically displayed on the physical display device;
- initializing, on the computing device, the array data structure by storing a first binary value in each entry of the array data structure;
- traversing, on the computing device, a view hierarchy, comprising the multiple visual display elements, by separately evaluating, one-at-a-time, individual display elements of the view hierarchy in an ordered manner, the view hierarchy comprising both the target display element and multiple other display elements;
- for each individual display element of the view hierarchy that is separately evaluated as part of the traversing, identifying, if the individual display element being evaluated has a sibling relationship with either the target display element or a display element having a parent relationship with the target display element, an overlapped portion of the target display element that is not visually displayed on the physical display device because it is overlapped by the individual display element being evaluated and identify, if the individual display element being evaluated has the parent relationship with the target display element, a cut off portion of the target display element that is not visually displayed on the physical display device because it extends beyond one or more visual boundaries of the individual display element being evaluated and is, therefore, cut off by the individual display element being evaluated;
- changing, on the computing device, to a second binary value each entry in the array data structure corresponding to the identified overlapped portion or the identified cut off portion of the target display element;
- aggregating, on the computing device, the binary values stored in each entry of the array data structure;
- and
- determining, on the computing device, that the target display element is sufficiently visible if a comparison, between a quantity of entries in the array data structure that are set to the first binary value and a total quantity of entries in the array data structure, exceeds a threshold, the comparison being based on the aggregation;
- wherein a first display element has the parent relationship with a second display element if the first display element's boundaries delineate a threshold beyond which both the first display element and the second display element are not visually displayed on the physical display device;
- and
- wherein the first display element has the sibling relationship with the second display element if:
- the first display element and the second display element are both visually contained within a same parent display element and the first display element can visually overlap the second display element such that an overlapping portion of the first display element is visible in place of an overlapped portion of the second display element, the overlapped portion of the second display element being, therefore, not visible.