Sunshine Global High Refresh Rate Enabler

Overview

Sunshine Global High Refresh Rate Enabler (authored by Everything by the sun) is an operating system tuning module engineered to eliminate vendor-imposed refresh rate throttling.

Modern smartphones advertise 120Hz or 144Hz display panels, yet manufacturer software frequently limits refresh rates to 60Hz in critical applications—such as web browsers, video streaming apps (YouTube, Netflix), maps, and camera viewfinders. Sunshine Rate bypasses these software policies, delivering uncompromising smoothness across the entire operating system.

Technical Architecture & How It Works

The module operates by interacting directly with the Android SurfaceFlinger and display HAL:

1. Display Mode Discovery

During boot initialization, the background service queries the display driver for available hardware mode IDs:

# Query hardware display configurations
dumpsys display | grep -E "mSupportedModes|mDefaultModeId"

2. Global Policy Override

The daemon issues commands to the Android window manager and settings database, locking peak and minimum refresh rates to the panel’s maximum capacity:

settings put system min_refresh_rate 120.0
settings put system peak_refresh_rate 120.0
settings put global user_refresh_rate 120

By continuously evaluating the state of sys.boot_completed and device thermal events, it ensures that aggressive OEM power-saving daemons cannot reset the display back to 60Hz.

Troubleshooting & Verification

• Real-Time FPS Verification: Enable Show refresh rate under Developer options to monitor your screen’s actual refresh rate in real time.
• Game Compatibility: Some games enforce hardcoded 60 FPS caps within their game engine; for these titles, pair with a frame rate unlocker or vendor performance module.