768398 - Regression: since Firefox 13.0.1 scroll is unusable - very very slow

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core :: Web Painting, defect)

Description

[x.redir]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0.1
Build ID: 20120614114901

Steps to reproduce:

I used the mousewheel to scroll webpages in Firefox 13.0.1


Actual results:

The page scrolls very very slowly. It is almost impossible to scroll unless I manually use the scrollbar.


Expected results:

The scrolling should be fluid like it is when using the scrollbar.

Comment 1

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

Does it work better if you disable smooth scrolling ?

Comment 2

[x.redir]

Haaaaaaa that was on purpose!!! I just found out about this new "feature" in the options... 

I think many users will get confused and think it's a bug rather than a feature, mainly because of the very slow responsiveness of the whole scrolling experience. Why don't you make it a more fluid experience like the one in Opera? 

Firefox's implementation of "smooth scrolling" is kind of very laggy and makes the browser feel really slow, while on other browsers (mainly Opera which enable smooth scrolling by default) the experience is much better and fluid. I think when we start scrolling, the scroll should start *instantly* at the highest speed – and slow down only at the end of the scrolling (not at the start). Because starting to scroll at a slow speed and accelerating only after makes you feel like the scrolling is not responding to the mouse wheel, and the overall experience feel very slow and not responsive to the mouse wheel at all...)

I think you should keep up on optimizing before enabling such feature by default for all users.
Sincerely,

Comment 3

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

Please post the graphic section of about:support. I want only know if you get a  slower as expected result due to old drivers.

Comment 4

[Ioana (away)]

WFM on:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:16.0) Gecko/16.0 Firefox/16.0 (20120703041519)

Did this happen to you with older Firefox versions? Can you please try to reproduce it in safe mode or with a clean profile?

If it reproduces with a clean profile, please disable smooth scrolling there and try to reproduce it without it. Thanks

Comment 5

[x.redir]

Hi,

Thanks all for the replies. I don't know how to post the graphic section of the about:support, a simple copy/past will do? (table spacing is lost when doing that).

After some tests on different computers, I assume this is not a bug but a new feature introduced in the last version of Firefox (Smooth scrolling). When disabling this feature (activated by default) then all is back to "normal" (or previous, inanimate scroll experience).

I believe the smooth scrolling could be improved, as it could be much, much faster, and more similar to the smooth scrolling experienced on other browsers. I think a good comparison point is Opera, as it was the first browser to activate smooth scrolling by default years ago, so they have reached a good level of mastering the scrolling animation. Also, Internet Explorer 9+ has adopted a similar scrolling animation as Opera with only one appearing difference which seems to be the distance scrolled for each mouse wheel step.

You can very simply compare Firefox and Opera by scrolling only one step with the mouse wheel: the distance scrolled looks similar, however while Opera seems to take 100ms to scroll the page from point A to point B, Firefox seems to tale 1000ms for the same scrolled distance.

Without smooth scrolling, all browsers take 0ms to scroll the page from point A to point B.

Comment 6

[Ioana (away)]

(In reply to x.redir from comment #5)
> Hi,
> 
> Thanks all for the replies. I don't know how to post the graphic section of
> the about:support, a simple copy/past will do? (table spacing is lost when
> doing that).

You could just take a screen shot of it and attach that to the bug. You can copy paste too, but then you should add some spaces there to make sure the information is readable.

> After some tests on different computers, I assume this is not a bug but a
> new feature introduced in the last version of Firefox (Smooth scrolling).
> When disabling this feature (activated by default) then all is back to
> "normal" (or previous, inanimate scroll experience).

This might still be a bug. The feature is about scrolling smooth, not slow :D.

> I believe the smooth scrolling could be improved, as it could be much, much
> faster, and more similar to the smooth scrolling experienced on other
> browsers. I think a good comparison point is Opera, as it was the first
> browser to activate smooth scrolling by default years ago, so they have
> reached a good level of mastering the scrolling animation. Also, Internet
> Explorer 9+ has adopted a similar scrolling animation as Opera with only one
> appearing difference which seems to be the distance scrolled for each mouse
> wheel step.
> 
> You can very simply compare Firefox and Opera by scrolling only one step
> with the mouse wheel: the distance scrolled looks similar, however while
> Opera seems to take 100ms to scroll the page from point A to point B,
> Firefox seems to tale 1000ms for the same scrolled distance.
> 
> Without smooth scrolling, all browsers take 0ms to scroll the page from
> point A to point B.

You can file enhancement requests for smooth scrolling if you want it to improve.

Comment 7

[Hani Yacoub, Desktop QA]

I couldn't manage to reproduce this issue. Since the bug was logged 10 years ago, most likely isn't reproducible anymore for the reporter also.
Closing this bug as resolved: Worksforme.