[OnePlus 7 Pro ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other D] rav101:
Hi all,

I want to write a personal message (ie not on behalf of the developers who make this ROM) about:

1) how this ROM works and why I believe it is different to most other ROMs on the OP7Pro (and the OP6/T)

2) my view around the one-off donation / monthly subscription model used within Renovate ICE

What is Renovate ICE

The way the developers add features to this ROM is to:

1) Take system files from a newly released OOS base

2) Edit certain files (like system UI) working in smali code to allow the OS to behave in a different way.

3) Recompile the edited files

4) Add toggles in the RICE Tweaks app which has also been developed from the ground up to take advantage of their work in such a way that if you don't want to use them, you don't have to (rather than things being hard coded)

Last year when on the OP6, they combined their work into a magisk module to significantly reduce the size of the ROM to a much smaller package whilst still giving all of the benefits they were offering. At the time, they were the first to do this on a OnePlus phone and to my knowledge (I may well be wrong on this) were the first to do this anywhere. Funnily enough, soon after other ROMs adapted their model to follow suit but seemingly pitched this as them having the idea themselves when full Renovate Magisk ROMs were already available on XDA... As you will probably know by now, this also led to the extra benefits of being able to disable the ROM by simply unticking it in Magisk Manager and rebooting, something that was not previously so easily possible when flashing full roms in TWRP and helped when people want to take system updates.

This whole approach of editing system files in smali code is different to most of the other ROMs available for OnePlus phones in recent years. As I can see, those other ROMs have been a collection of scripts, build prop edits (in some cases, where the actual edits that are supposed to massively increase performance don't actually exist within Android source so are in fact doing nothing) and other peoples work (like bundling in modded apps such as YouTube Vanced and audio mods like V4A). Whilst this paragraph sounds overly negative, I take my hat off to these developers because they are able to do something I am not. By bundling in other works together, it adds massive convenience for us users who would otherwise have to do it ourselves and in many cases may not be able or knowledge to do it. However, in my opinion it is like comparing apples to oranges in terms of those ROMs to this.

Using a donation / subscription model

There have been a couple of people who have voiced their disgust that developers of Renovate ICE are charging for certain features. In particular, when certain features can be had for free using other methods (theming with Substratum or certain other tweaks using GravityBox with Xposed). Firstly, I would like to point out that the majority of the tweaks in this ROM can be had for free within this ROM already (ie donation/subscription is not required). There is no hard sell for donations and you can have a full experience of a custom ROM from the free version. Secondly, I believe using methods like GravityBox with its requirement of Xposed or Substratum is like using a battering ram to open an unlocked door and also adds potential security risks. You're more likely to brick your phone if you make wrong moves with tools like that. This has been especially true in the first weeks of using this device when a fully working TWRP wasn't available and the msmtools were still being hunted down to get you out of a bricked phone situation.

As I have already covered above, all the tweaks done in Renovate ICE are done from scratch and are specific to each OOS ROM base. This is not a copy paste of anyone else's work and is therefore specific and unique to each OOS version. Whilst the end goal might be same / similar looking features, the methods used between Renovate & options like GravityBox are not the same. Having said that, users have choice with Renovate ICE. For example, the developer has been working to make any theming options revertable to stock so if you do want to use this ROM with those kinds of methods then you're free to do so.

Lastly, there are tweaks in this ROM you simply won't find anywhere else. As an example, in the last couple of days with the latest release, there is a new feature where the phone will automatically lock if the phone is dropped. This feature utilises the sensors used for the camera when it is dropped (to retract the front camera) but has been re-purposed in this way. This feature was thought up by the developer several days prior and has now been implemented after testing. You won't find it anywhere else at this point in time because you can't get generic mods like GravityBox to do it for you.

I personally am happy with the original work the devs have done for this device and am happy to support them. If I wasn't I would move on to another ROM and would call it a day. It's just unfortunate that a few within this community seem to take it upon themselves to define the modding community (in their words) as a place where dev's should work for free and then users get to choose whether they are so inclined to donate. This approach supposes that devs should not have a choice as to how they distribute their work and feels like those certain users have an entitlement to the original work done by devs? I wholehearted disagree...