Skia has just been updated to match release branch. Please build and test!

[MrAlex94]

Hi everyone,

I've tested out a new way to keep Waterfox up to date with various projects.

This is quite a large change, and relates to anything canvas (including WebGL). Please test :-). Currently gfx/skia now matches the release branch of the Mozilla platform. I've done on my platform (macOS 10.13) and seems to work without issue.

Cheers!

[grahamperrin]

Thanks!

Two questions, maybe both are stupid but here goes …

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The two preferences gfx.canvas.azure.backends and gfx.content.azure.backends at about:config?filter=azure.backends – if a problem is found with either canvas or content, then would it be sane to experiment with cairo in lieu of skia for that one preference?

(I never heard of Skia before today … reading this issue alongside old (2016) https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/firefox-no-gpu-acceleration-since-50-0.59089/#post-338314.)

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If there's a choice of rendering back-ends (e.g. XRender | OpenGL 2.0 | OpenGL 3.1) for compositing, then should the updated Skia be tested against all back-ends?

[laniakea64]

So far so good in self build from 941b281 running on Xubuntu 18.04 64-bit. I play HTML5 games and haven't noticed any problems so far.

[Peacock365]

It‘s a great way to keep Waterfox up to date. No problems so far.

I must ask, however, is fixing all the issues mentioned in #538 still on your radar, @MrAlex94 ? I have gone to great lengths to find (hopefully) appropriate fixes for most issues...

[grahamperrin]

@Peacock365 if you must bump an issue, please do it in the issue (not in other issues). Thanks.

[jbeich]

Builds fine on FreeBSD 10.4 i386/11.1 amd64.

new way to keep Waterfox up to date with various projects.

Curiously, it exploded commit history.

$ git describe --tags edeb7e6627c40~1 --match 56.1.0
56.1.0-89-g2bb1a86e5dbd6

$ git describe --tags edeb7e6627c40 --match 56.1.0
56.1.0-111168-gedeb7e6627c40

[jbeich]

@grahamperrin, Skia m66 is part of freebsd/freebsd-ports@564a2bd3c851. Did you notice any stability/rendering regressions?

if a problem is found with either canvas or content, then would it be sane to experiment with cairo in lieu of skia for that one preference?

Correct but some places use compile-time checks instead e.g.,

https://github.com/MrAlex94/Waterfox/blob/941b28140102e33f968ad710548333aee9d1b618/image/RasterImage.cpp#L1344-L1345

If there's a choice of rendering back-ends (e.g. XRender | OpenGL 2.0 | OpenGL 3.1) for compositing, then should the updated Skia be tested against all back-ends?

• XRender is probably irrelevant: disabled due to unpredictable performance and interference with OpenGL
• Skia takes advantage of OpenGL compositing via gfx.canvas.azure.accelerated=true (aka SkiaGPU)

[grahamperrin]

Thanks Jan, thanks all.

I began testing 56.1.0.111172, built locally, around an hour ago.

(Poudriere is failing to fetch waterfox-56.1.0.111178, I'll ignore that for now, retry later.)

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In my 'everyday' Waterfox profile,

about:config?filter=gfx.xrender.enabled true

– I strayed from the default weeks ago, can't recall exactly when. I vaguely recall reading some of the reasons for it defaulting to false in Firefox, but I nearly always prefer XRender for desktop effects ‒

– because whenever I tried OpenGL 2.0 or 3.1, things felt too rough. So I figured, go for XRender in FirefoxWaterfox too.

Now, for Skia test purposes: will it help if I enable a version of OpenGL in System Settings, and make gfx.xrender.enabled false in Waterfox?

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In my lesser-used 'minimal everyday' profile,

about:config?filter=gfx.xrender.enabled false

– I had just one possible glitch. Maybe one tab blank after restoration by Session Boss, but the blankess was transient. An OWA log on dialogue. So far, not reproducible.

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Both profiles: multi-process disabled.

[grahamperrin@momh167-gjp4-hpelitebook8570p-freebsd] ~% sh
$ date ; uname -v
Mon 14 May 2018 15:16:32 BST
FreeBSD 12.0-CURRENT #2 r333587: Mon May 14 01:59:02 BST 2018     root@momh167-gjp4-hpelitebook8570p-freebsd:/usr/obj/usr/src/amd64.amd64/sys/GENERIC 
$ pkg info waterfox | grep Version
Version        : 56.1.0.111172

[grahamperrin]

Skia takes advantage of OpenGL compositing via gfx.canvas.azure.accelerated=true …

I found it false in my 'everyday' profile. No idea when, why or how that happened but now it's reset to its default true.

[grahamperrin]

… just one possible glitch. Maybe one tab blank after restoration by Session Boss, but the blankess was transient. An OWA log on dialogue. So far, not reproducible.

The symptom recurred a few hours ago, I paid closer attention. Simply sitting, watching and waiting for a short while (less than five seconds?) was enough for activity to visibly begin i.e. counter-clockwise spin of whatever it's called in the chrome of a tab.

From what I saw of both incidents: I don't think it's a bug.

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