Enabling webgl in Mozilla browsers for improved fluidity while scrolling

[sparty411]

I came across this forum post on MSFN a while back, and thought I would share my findings here. The OP of the thread created a user.js that enables webgl, and disables some other useless garbage as well. After applying said user.js, scrolling is ENORMOUSLY smoother, and overall browser performance feels much snappier!

 

[z970]

After applying said prefs.js, scrolling is ENORMOUSLY smoother, and overall browser performance feels much snappier!

Compared to our tweaks?

Very interesting...

 

[sparty411]

Compared to our tweaks?

Very interesting...

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe any of the tweaks listed here include enabling webgl. At the very least, it should smooth out scrolling. Give it a try. It’s a user.js file, so it isn’t necessary to overwrite prefs.js. Just drop it in alongside prefs.js.

 

[eyoungren]

I think most of the tweaks I've made disabled webgl way back when because it was causing high CPU issues on websites. Cannot recall the exact issues, but if you're going to be using it just keep in mind that while scrolling may pick up, browsing and page loading may slow down.

Smooth scrolling is one of the first things I disable. Takes too much CPU. But that's just me. At least there's a solution for those who want this. Thanks!

 

[sparty411]

I think most of the tweaks I've made disabled webgl way back when because it was causing high CPU issues on websites. Cannot recall the exact issues, but if you're going to be using it just keep in mind that while scrolling may pick up, browsing and page loading may slow down.

Smooth scrolling is one of the first things I disable. Takes too much CPU. But that's just me. At least there's a solution for those who want this. Thanks!

I'm not really sure what to say, as I've found the complete opposite to be true. It seems to me that if the GPU is being leveraged to pick up some of the rendering load, CPU utilization would be lower. You are 100% on, as far as smooth scrolling goes. Disabling smooth scrolling alone makes a pretty big difference.

 

[XaPHER]

If you go to about:support in graphics category, what does it say?

Mozilla requires opengl 2 to at all support opengl(thus openGL gpu acceleration and WebGL) and tenfourfox is compiled against the 10.4 SDK, which for powerpc lacks opengl2 (but for intel supports it, shame apple). That effectively makes openGL disabled at compile-time and even running TFx on 10.5 won't make it support opengl. (report if about:support states otherwise)

Also, WebGL is a Javascript API for web content to render graphics, while the browser itself has direct access to opengl, in the case it supports it, anyway.

Haven't looked what the prefs patch does, but I doubt it's GPU acceleration that speeds things up.

 

[sparty411]

If you go to about:support in graphics category, what does it say?

Mozilla requires opengl 2 to at all support opengl(thus openGL gpu acceleration and WebGL) and tenfourfox is compiled against the 10.4 SDK, which for powerpc lacks opengl2 (but for intel supports it, shame apple). That effectively makes openGL disabled at compile-time and even running TFx on 10.5 won't make it support opengl. (report if about:support states otherwise)

Also, WebGL is a Javascript API for web content to render graphics, while the browser itself has direct access to opengl, in the case it supports it, anyway.

Haven't looked what the prefs patch does, but I doubt it's GPU acceleration that speeds things up.

Asynchronous Pan/Zoom    none
Device ID    0x4e56
GPU Accelerated Windows    0/1 Basic Blocked for your operating system version.
Supports Hardware H264 Decoding    No; Failed to create H264 decoder
Vendor ID    0x1002
WebGL Renderer    Blocked for your operating system version.
windowLayerManagerRemote    false
AzureCanvasBackend    quartz
AzureContentBackend    quartz
AzureFallbackCanvasBackend    none
AzureSkiaAccelerated    0

I've fiddled around a bit with webgl related prefs in about:config, and there is a noticeable difference between having some of them enabled vs disabled. Maybe it's just placebo, idk.

 

[sparty411]

Maybe someone here can test it, and tell me whether or not I’m imagining things

 

[z970]

During extensive analysis, I have noticed these preferences to be, as a whole, noticeably slower than ours.

However, I have also seen a benefit to merging portions of it with my default (our) prefs file. This has especially made itself apparent in image rendering and page loading.

So...there's a plus.

 

[sparty411]

During extensive analysis, I have noticed these preferences to be, as a whole, noticeably slower than ours.

However, I have also seen a benefit to merging portions of it with my default (our) prefs file. This has especially made itself apparent in image rendering and page loading.

So...there's a plus.

Can you share your prefs file?

 

[z970]

Can you share your prefs file?

Soon. It's still under contruction.