New Firefox 4 Beta Has Direct2D GPU Acceleration

[Marcus Yam]

Put those graphics cores to good use!

New Firefox 4 Beta Has Direct2D GPU Acceleration : Read more

 

[apache_lives]

what next, physx?

 

[joytech22]

Soo.. where are the sites we can test this? the ones in the pictures above.

 

[unknown_13]

WOW this 5-th beta is great i downloaded and it's faster than chrome 6! Can't wait for the final release!

 

[nguyentruc85]

How about game online integrated within new version?

 

[Guest]

Porn online, it will revise porn industry!

 

[doped]

if this new api does integrate seamlessly with the linux kernel or the nv and ati drivers, then we can finally let that horrible flash go to hell! that is, if they can get their act together and chose a viable open video and sound codec.

 

[Guest]

Can we use this advance in description many problems
of physic, math...and education

 

[Guest]

Sweet, Crysis, coming to a browser near you!!!

 

[xyzionz]

The HTML5 audio really reminds me a lot about Winamp AVS, I wish is more or less the same coding with those, hehe so I can make some cool visual out of it

 

[Stifle]

Looks like this is the end of the desktop, Dang.

 

[nebun]

[citation][nom]apache_lives[/nom]what next, physx?[/citation]

why not? if i have the gpu power then why not

 

[nebun]

[citation][nom]stifle[/nom]Looks like this is the end of the desktop, Dang.[/citation]

buddy, desktops are here and will be here for many more centuries...just so you know. there is a very big demand for them since businesses use them all over the world

 

[Humans think]

Why NOT OpenGL, now they have to implement it almost from scratch for Mac and linux vesions...

 

[theuerkorn]

[citation][nom]Humans think[/nom]Why NOT OpenGL, now they have to implement it almost from scratch for Mac and linux vesions...[/citation]
I think one of the issues with Windows is that you a can't have both DX9 and OpenGL active with the same program and would have to turn off the AERO interface when using OpenGL. At least all my CAD programs do so for that reason.

 

[willgart]

[citation][nom]Humans think[/nom]Why NOT OpenGL, now they have to implement it almost from scratch for Mac and linux vesions...[/citation]
I'm not sure if the OpenGL API has 2D rendering acceleration.
I think OpenGL is for 3D rendering only like Direct3D.

 

[kelemvor4]

Didn't work well for me. Adblock+ said it was running, but I had ads everywhere. Browser ended up crashing after about 5 minutes. Guess that's why they call it a beta.

 

[Bolbi]

[citation][nom]kelemvor4[/nom]Didn't work well for me. Adblock+ said it was running, but I had ads everywhere. Browser ended up crashing after about 5 minutes. Guess that's why they call it a beta.[/citation]
Really? I haven't had a crash yet in 4.0b5, and my Adblock+ is working normally. (getting rid of the flash ads on Tom's... )

 

[Bolbi]

While the previous release supported Direct2D features in a secret setting, this latest beta release, available for download here, has it enabled by default.

It wasn't a "secret setting"; I've have D2D acceleration on since 4.0b2. The only thing 4.0b5 does with D2D acceleration is fix some bugs and turn it on by default.

 

[drakefyre]

I'm loving the Minefield Beta6-pre version. Tab Candy/Panorama is great too! It crashes every once in a while but hey, it's not the final product.

 

[geossj5]

[citation][nom]nebun[/nom]why not? if i have the gpu power then why not[/citation]

no.. the question is WHY
WHY would some1 need physics acceleration on a browser

 

[marraco]

[citation][nom]Humans think[/nom]Why NOT OpenGL, now they have to implement it almost from scratch for Mac and linux vesions...[/citation]
I heard rummors that Microsoft was funding DirectX on Firefox.

An attack on Apply.

 

[theuerkorn]

[citation][nom]willgart[/nom]I'm not sure if the OpenGL API has 2D rendering acceleration.I think OpenGL is for 3D rendering only like Direct3D.[/citation]
It most certainly does as some 2D graphics software uses OpenGL. In that case it's noticeable as it turns the Vista / Win7 interface back to Basic mode to turn off DX9 which is needed for AERO.

 

[spectrewind]

[citation][nom]doped[/nom]if this new api does integrate seamlessly with the linux kernel or the nv and ati drivers, then we can finally let that horrible flash go to hell! that is, if they can get their act together and chose a viable open video and sound codec.[/citation]

Unlikely. Can you name any alternate to vector motion graphics in a container, which is what .SWF originally started out as? Forget about using video for a moment, pretend Sorenson and h.264 do not exist.

This will likely serve as a platform to accelerate it further.

 

[mitch074]

OpenGL is not 3D only: it does 2D too, ever since OpenGL 1.0 as defined by Silicon Graphics years ago. However, some special memory management features only available in some DirectX 9 and all DirectX10+ graphics card are needed to perform some operations with proper performance - thus, why it took ages for Microsoft to create Direct2D (that has nothing to do with the outdated DirectDraw), and the need for at least OpenGL2.0 hardware.

And proper drivers.

Why no OpenGL support in Firefox for Windows? Answer: not all Windows have OpenGL drivers available...

Moreover, it's not exactly Firefox that added support for Direct2D: to be more specific, Mozilla worked heavily on the Cairo rendering library to add a Direct2D back-end. They are, also, working on adding OpenGL support to Cairo (added in the brand new Cairo 1.10), so maybe for a future revision of Firefox 4, we'll get OpenGL acceleration too...

Note that Cairo is also used by Webkit, so hardware acceleration may also appear soonish in Google Chrome and Apple Safari...