Firefox to Get Direct2D Rendering, Out of Process Plugins

[btarunr]

The most popular alternative to Internet Explorer, Firefox, may get an overhaul of its feature-set that could make its performance a lot more competitive with that of Google Chrome. Firefox may finally embrace out of process plugins, and a new rendering engine that makes use of Microsoft Direct2D, with which it can offload a big chunk of rendering to the GPU. While this may not speed up page load times for the bandwidth-constrained, it will certainly make the browser more responsive, especially as web-page complexity grows with new technologies such as HTML5.

As of now, the inclusion of GPU-accelerated rendering is only slated to be in the form of an alpha release, which could make it to a stable release around an year's time, and not part of Gecko's next release, version 1.9.3. A stable Firefox based on Gecko 1.9.3 will be released only by October. Developers hope that the next release of Gecko will be able to include GPU-accelerated rendering. The other major feature addition is out-of-process plugins. Not to be confused with multi-process rendering, out-of-process plugins feature runs plugins such as Adobe Flash, Adobe Acrobat, Sun Java, Microsoft Silverlight, etc., in processes separate from the browser's main process. So in case there is an erratic page element, it could be ended without crashing the entire browser. Developers aim to have a stable release with this feature by the end of this quarter on both Windows and Linux, with a Mac release a little later.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[digibucc]

that would be too cool. good find man

 

[Mussels]

sounds good to me

 

[btarunr]

I guess the Linux/Mac versions will use OpenGL.

 

[Mussels]

my question is, if they arent using DirectDraw/Direct2D at the moment, what the hell ARE they using?

 

[digibucc]

my question is, if they arent using DirectDraw/Direct2D at the moment, what the hell ARE they using?

windows GDI?

 

[Mussels]

windows GDI?

sudden CnC moment there.

makes sense i guess... that aspect of things isnt something i've bothered looking into before.

 

[digibucc]

sudden CnC moment there.

makes sense i guess... that aspect of things isnt something i've bothered looking into before.

lol me neither. I just recalled the graphic output options in VLC and windows GDI was one i always remembered.

 

[csendesmark]

2010 is the GPU accelerated browser's year?
Opera Chrome and Internet-suxxplorer are also developing GPU support.

Opera may get the best, because it will support Directx and OpenGL (needed for crossplatform support)

 

[mdm-adph]

I guess the Linux/Mac versions will use OpenGL.

If they bother supporting them at all.

 

[W1zzard]

i doubt it will make any significant difference on most pages. gdi is hardware accelerated too

 

[Trigger911]

This seems like a nice feature set to be added to browsers and html 5 seems cool... has everyone seen quake 2 playing on chrome or safari?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhMN0wlITLk

This might open the market up for stuff like that expensive OnLive Service that might be comming out but this could make it more cost effective but you would still have to supply your own hardware. I hope they don't use this stuff for the new breed of DRM tho.

 

[Delta6326]

well i don't see any "lag" in Firefox. So maybe there going to improve the response by like 2ms whooo

 

[digibucc]

well i don't see any "lag" in Firefox. So maybe there going to improve the response by like 2ms whooo

the point is it could allow for more advanced experiences inside a web browser. true gaming, better video, etc. that's the hope at least.

 

[PCpraiser100]

Well, then this year will be interesting with the Peacekeeper benchmarks.

 

[Trigger911]

the point is it could allow for more advanced experiences inside a web browser. true gaming, better video, etc. that's the hope at least.

This was the point I was trying to makeout

 

[cauby]

isn't IE9 trying to do the same thing?

 

[Mussels]

isn't IE9 trying to do the same thing?

of course. i'm sure it'll find a way to fuck up and be incompatible with the way everyone else dose it, at the same time.

 

[digibucc]

of course. i'm sure it'll find a way to fuck up and be incompatible with the way everyone else dose it, at the same time.

lol too true

 

[WarEagleAU]

That would be a lot better and I am thinking it may help with its memory leak.

 

[my_name_is_earl]

Heard that Chrome will fuze with Adobe flash so that there's no need to download a flash player.... I hope FF will do something like that too. IE9 has alot of catching up to do and it haven't release yet.

 

[Trigger911]

of course. i'm sure it'll find a way to fuck up and be incompatible with the way everyone else dose it, at the same time.

yea they had major influence with the way its scripted ...

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

Very nice, this would definitely make it more (in windows)

 

[lism]

Nice. I'd expect some rough testing with the current HTML and the way FF is building their pages. Otherwise we might get BSOD's out of a misformed HTML webpage lol.

 

[Trigger911]

Nice. I'd expect some rough testing with the current HTML and the way FF is building their pages. Otherwise we might get BSOD's out of a misformed HTML webpage lol.

imagine our GPU's getting caught in a loop and bsoding our systems .... hummmm I might have to make something like that for people I dislike hahaha