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December 18, 2008

CopyPixels and browser speed limits

Can it be true that Flash Player running in the Opera browser on Windows XP is more than 4 times faster than Safari on the Mac? It certainly looks like that and I need some help testing...

graffiti.jpg

I'm currently working on a project where I need to offset some bitmaps and I stumbled upon a very interesting speed difference among browsers. I'm shifting a bitmap along X and Y using the copyPixels function. This is apparently the fastest way to set an offset on bitmapData, but the browsers seems to have their own speed limitations? The difference between Safari on OSX and Opera on XP is downright scary...

The test file is set to play at 900 fps, so the results you are getting will be the maximum of what your browser is capable of. If you have the time write a comment with the results you are getting and I'll add it to the table below. Make sure you specify your CPU speed and that you don't have other software running that'll steal CPU time (such as Spotify). Here is the test file and for those in need of an image scrolling class, here's the AS3 class and the class to create the test as well. (The image is a neat graffiti I found just up the street from Bill's in Brighton).

PS: I know the Flash IDE can't be set to more than 120 fps, but in a Flex actionscript project you can set it to 999fps without any problem...

Browser OS CPU speed Player version Fps result
Firefox Mac OS 10.5.5 2 x 2,8 GHz Quadcore Xeon 10,0,12,36 54
  Mac OS 10.5.5 2 x 2,8 GHz Quadcore Xeon 9.0.124.0 55
  Mac OS 10.5.6 2,4 GHz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 60
  Mac OS 10.5.5 2,4 GHz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 34 (?)
  Mac OS 10.5.5 2.1 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 49
Safari Mac OS 10.5.5 2 x 2,8 GHz Quadcore Xeon 10,0,12,36 60
  Mac OS 10.5.5 2 x 2,8 GHz Quadcore Xeon 9.0.124.0 62
  Mac OS 10.5.6 2,4 GHz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 53
  Mac OS 10.5.5 2.1 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 43
Opera Mac OS 10.5.5 2 x 2,8 GHz Quadcore Xeon 10,0,12,36 19
  Mac OS 10.5.5 2 x 2,8 GHz Quadcore Xeon 9.0.124.0 14
Firefox Win XP 2 x 2,8 GHz Quadcore Xeon 10,0,12,36 133
  Vista Ultimate 3 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 130
  Vista 64bit 2.6 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 136
  Win XP 2.5 Ghz Quadcore Xeon 10,0,12,36 139
  Vista Ultimate 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 134
  Win XP 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,10 72
  Win XP (Parallels) 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 137
  Vista 64bit 2.0 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 136
  Win XP 1.8 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10.0.12.36 130
Chrome Vista Ultimate 3 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 120
  Vista 64bit 2.6 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 80
  Win XP 2.5 Ghz Quadcore Xeon 10,0,12,36 115
  Win XP 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,10 104
  Vista 64bit 2.0 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 80
Opera Win XP 2 x 2,8 GHz Quadcore Xeon 10,0,12,36 279 (!)
  Vista Ultimate 3 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 134
  Vista 64bit 2.6 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 166
  Win XP 2.5 Ghz Quadcore Xeon 10,0,12,36 240
  Win XP 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,10 180
  Vista 64bit 2.0 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 142
Safari Win XP 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,10 144
IE8 Win XP 2.5 Ghz Quadcore Xeon 10,0,12,36 63
IE7 Vista Ultimate 3 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 64
  Vista 64bit 2.6 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 65
  Vista 64bit 2.6 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 136
  Vista Ultimate 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 64
  Vista Ultimate 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo 9.0.115.0 64
  Vista 64bit 2.0 Ghz Core 2 Duo 10,0,12,36 65
IE6 Win XP 2 x 2,8 GHz Quadcore Xeon 10,0,12,36 63
Webkit Nokia N800 0.33 Ghz TI OMAP 2420 9.0.48.0 8 :-)
Webkit PS3 3.2 Ghz CELL 9.0.124.0 65

Posted by Jensa at 03:02 PM | | Comments (20) | TrackBacks (0)

December 11, 2008

Away3D doughnut?

Been working on the final Away3D primitives tutorial for Flashmag today. So what do you use a Torus for other than a Doughnut? Speaking of Doughnuts - anyone remember how The Swedish Chef made them?

dougnut.jpg

The tutorial should be finished soon. Hopefully this weekend.

Posted by Jensa at 06:08 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 02, 2008

ArgumentError: Error #2004: One of the parameters is invalid

Just figured that Flex will start throwing this error if you don't set the width and height your AIR application. It makes sense - an application needs to have a width and height, but for a second, I forgot that I was making an AIR app and not a Flex project.

Just thought I'd post it here in case others get the same problem. This error happens in Flex also, but for other reasons. It's a little annoying that these error messages are so useless when they could have said something like "Required parameter missing in MXML"...

Posted by Jensa at 11:26 PM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)