796183 - Updating/invalidation broken for plugins running OOP on OS X

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, defect)

Description

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

This started with today's mozilla-central nightly, and specifically with the patch for bug 795796 (http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/beee809b7ade).

To see it, load one of the Flash movies on the following page, and compare what you see with the performance in yesterday's mozilla-central nightly (or in earlier FF distros).  In today's nightly, both movies update much less often than they should.

http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/

I see this bug on OS X (10.7.5), but not in Windows XP.

This bug is spun off from bug 785667.

Comment 1

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

The bug happens whether or not HiDPI support is enabled.

To disable HiDPI support on a Retina display, set gfx.hidpi.enabled to '-1'.

Comment 2

[Markus Stange [:mstange]]

I think this is bug 795796, so it should be fixed in the next nightly.

Comment 3

[Markus Stange [:mstange]]

Oh, oops. It's a regression from that bug? Sorry.

Comment 5

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

This bug effects Flash and Silverlight, but not Java.  Flash and Silverlight use Core Animation, while Java uses Invalidating Core Animation.  I suspect that's the key here.

Here's an example of Java animation:
http://www.eskimo.com/support/java/demo/Animator/example1.html

Comment 6

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

To make updating work properly in (non invalidating) Core Animation mode, we use a timer to invalidate the plugin "window" every 20 ms:

http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/annotate/345a2a8ccb18/dom/plugins/ipc/PluginInstanceChild.cpp#l553
http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/annotate/345a2a8ccb18/dom/plugins/ipc/PluginInstanceChild.cpp#l460

I suspect the patch for bug 795796 is somehow preventing most of these invalidations from having effect.

(Yes, using a timer to do this is inefficient.  And for some time we've also had support for an Invalidating Core Animation mode, in which the plugin is responsible for calling NPN_InvalidateRect() whenever all/part of the plugin needs to be updated:  https://wiki.mozilla.org/NPAPI:InvalidatingCoreAnimation.  But Flash and Silverlight haven't yet moved to Invalidating Core Animation.)

Comment 7

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

Core Graphics plugins are also effected by this bug when they run OOP (because we "borrow" the Core Animation infrastructure (using a subclass of CALayer called CGBridgeLayer) to draw Core Animation plugins when they run out-of-process).

The only example of a Core Animation plugin that I'm aware of is my Debug Events Plugin from bug 441880, which doesn't do animation.  But I've heard there are others out there.

Comment 8

[Benoit Girard (:BenWa)]

(In reply to Steven Michaud from comment #6)
> But Flash and
> Silverlight haven't yet moved to Invalidating Core Animation.)

I don't know about Silverlight but flash certainly used ICA last time I checked

Comment 9

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

> The only example of a Core Animation plugin that I'm aware of is my Debug Events
> Plugin from bug 441880 ...

The only example of a Core *Graphics* plugin ...

Comment 10

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

> I don't know about Silverlight but flash certainly used ICA last time I checked

In my tests for bug 785667 (the latest run about a week ago) I saw Flash and Silverlight use (non-invaliding) Core Animation.

Comment 11

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

Let me try again, though (in case I made a mistake).

Comment 12

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

(Following up comment #5)

Still compiling my debugging patch.  But my hunch is falling apart in other ways:  Java plugins by default run in-process (which I'd forgotten).  But when I set Java to run out-of-process (by setting dom.ipc.plugins.java.enabled to true), it also fails to update properly.

I'll say more when I have a better hunch.

Comment 13

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

I was wrong about which plugins use Core Animation and Invalidating Core Animation.  I must have misremembered.

Flash does use Invalidating Core Animation.  The version I tested with (which I think is current) is 11.4.402.265.

Silverlight and Java use (non invalidating) Core Animation.

Comment 15

[Matt Woodrow (:mattwoodrow)]

Attachment: Invalidate the widget correctly on empty transactions with accelerated layers.

Thanks for looking into this Steven.

Comment 16

[Matt Woodrow (:mattwoodrow)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/e679d2e1d02d

Comment 18

[Simona Badau, Desktop QA]

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.7; rv:18.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/18.0 

Verified as fixed on Firefox 18 beta 2 - flash movies and Silverlight animations are properly updating.