Opera 12 snapshot now with DirectX HWA

[x-byte]

Finally!

HWA disabled by default, so you have to enable it in Opera:config

Here at Opera HQ, we're buckling down for the final push before the beta launch of Opera 12. Right now, Wahoo is getting more complete, with even more fun things to come as we get closer to launch. We have one of those fun things today, in fact. This new snapshot includes the first look at the DirectX backend. Most users on Vista and Windows 7 will by default use this backend instead of the OpenGL backend for performance and stability reasons, but be aware that currently WebGL support using the OpenGL backend is more complete than when using DirectX.

There's also another change in this snapshot. After careful consideration and extensive testing, we've decided to let users of Opera 12 opt-in to WebGL and hardware acceleration.

We're doing this for an important reason. We want to bring the first true hardware accelerated browser to market. This means using the graphics processor to boost rendering speeds not only for the pages themselves, but also the UI of the browser. It means making it an awesome experience for as many Opera desktop users as possible, whether they're on Windows XP, Linux or Lion.

But in some cases, our hardware accelerated speeds do not yet beat our incredibly optimized software backend, Vega. Shipping a feature that could actually be less effective at boosting speed is a big no-no, especially if its a final release that many people will use for day-to-day browsing.

Now, if you're reading this blog post, you're probably in the group of people who will want to turn on WebGL and hardware acceleration. You enable these features by setting both opera:config#UserPrefs|EnableHardwareAcceleration and opera:config#UserPrefs|EnableWebGL to 1, then saving and restarting Opera.

Try it in this release and see how you like it. We think it ensures that Opera 12 will be a great release for everyone, whether you are a browser expert or just discovering Opera for the first time.

As Wahoo is approaching a beta release, we're focusing on stability and fixing regressions. This build includes an important performance and stability fix for plugins on Windows, and should speed up scrolling with plugins significantly.

Known Issues

HTML5 Drag and Drop is work in progress. Things like dragging to and from external applications may not work. Some existing demo sites may not work fully

HTML5test.com could freeze or show other problems on Mac

OTW-8246 Opera 64-bit on Windows not supported on Google+

DSK-361109 Address dropdown not populated when searching page content with multiple words

CORE-45774 [Windows] [HWA] Border-color messes up background colour for element with border-radius with DirectX

DSK-357831 [Windows] [HWA] Negative letter spacing with DirectX on 64-bit builds

http://my.opera.com/...ion-in-opera-12

[ArialBlue]

Opera's OGL HWA in previous builds was atrocious and slowed things down immensely (instead of speeding it up) - I have no faith that they can deliver DX HWA which is any better.

[HawkMan]

I thought it was against the rules to post in threads for the sole purpose of trolling.

Anyway, good news, OGL has always been horrible, waiting for beta or RC myself though.

[x-byte]

waiting for beta or RC myself though.

Yea, I would recommend that. It's not really that stable, like most Opera builds.

[Denis W. Veteran]

It's about time. And not surprisingly, turning on the DirectX renderer will also turn on DirectWrite for the entire browser UI, minus menus.

edit: and it performs pretty well on integrated Intel graphics!

edit 2: but DirectWrite is still a bit slow. Oh well.

[Coolicer]

Yes! Finally! Took them long enough.

[ArialBlue]

So how much is actually accelerated? Text and layers? Or full blown D2D?

Also it is still slower than software, better than OGL though.

[psreloaded]

Great news...

[Wakers]

Great, does this mean the font rendering is going to go down the pan, like it did with Firefox and IE?

[~Johnny]

So how much is actually accelerated? Text and layers? Or full blown D2D?

Also it is still slower than software, better than OGL though.

On my machine it's faster than software with DirectX, in everything apart from scrolling with the mouse wheel. Dragging the scroll bar up & down with insane speed works perfectly fine though, so I'm not sure what's up with that :p

Opera say they want to be the "first true hardware accelerated browser", so I'm not sure how much is accelerated now, but they're planning on basically everything, including the UI and menus to be hardware accelerated (though a lot of the UI is already).

[ArialBlue]

I am pretty sure that IE10 is the "first true hardware accelerated browser" : Interface, Content, and Video HWA

[funkydude]

I am pretty sure that IE10 is the "first true hardware accelerated browser" : Interface, Content, and Video HWA

It is. But marketing will be marketing.

[HawkMan]

Except IE10 is still beta, so either could be first, depending on which releases a final version first.

[funkydude]

Except IE10 is still beta, so either could be first, depending on which releases a final version first.

In real life, we know that IE10 came into existence before this version of Opera despite whatever developmental progress tag you wish to attribute to it, but alright.

[HawkMan]

It's irrelevant, they're both unfinished browsers. They're not released untill they are, most likely ie will be first anyway.

And if we are to include release of unfinished code, then opera would be first anyway.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Opera say they want to be the "first true hardware accelerated browser", so I'm not sure how much is accelerated now, but they're planning on basically everything, including the UI and menus to be hardware accelerated (though a lot of the UI is already).

Mozilla recently had to disable hardware acceleration in menus due to random driver issues (Like the drop shadows sticking around after the menu was closed.). I don't see much point in using HW accel for rendering a menu though, unless you want to throw something like WebGL rendering in there.

[~Johnny]

Mozilla recently had to disable hardware acceleration in menus due to random driver issues (Like the drop shadows sticking around after the menu was closed.). I don't see much point in using HW accel for rendering a menu though, unless you want to throw something like WebGL rendering in there.

*shrugs* I suppose if they have the code they might as well do it and get everything running on the same code. But on Windows at least, DirectWrite text rendering is faster than normal GDI+ text rendering, so there's at least some tiny benefits to be had somewhere.

[SharpGreen]

If you really want to be technical, the first fully HW accelerated browser (UI included) is Chrome for Android :p

Also I though IE9 just did HW acceleration for page content, instead of page content and UI.

[ViperAFK]

Opera's OGL HWA in previous builds was atrocious and slowed things down immensely (instead of speeding it up) - I have no faith that they can deliver DX HWA which is any better.

OGL drivers on windows are often poor/buggy, give it a chance. its also still in early testing... Firefox's hardware accel used to suck in development, so did chrome's.

[ArialBlue]

OGL drivers on windows are often poor/buggy, give it a chance. its also still in early testing... Firefox's hardware accel used to suck in development, so did chrome's.

Well the D3D10 HWA they added is slightly better. I still feel like they have the same issue as with OGL - it slows things down, not speeds them up for some reason.

Now it is less noticeable, but they should still keep HWA opt-in.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

*shrugs* I suppose if they have the code they might as well do it and get everything running on the same code. But on Windows at least, DirectWrite text rendering is faster than normal GDI+ text rendering, so there's at least some tiny benefits to be had somewhere.

It still uses DirectWrite/Direct2D, it just doesn't use Direct3D for showing it on the screen.

I'm still not sure what Opera means by saying they want to be the first to be fully hardware accelerated, does that mean they'll do Theora/WebM decoding on the GPU? (Compared to Firefox that decodes on the CPU, and does colour space conversion/scaling/painting on the GPU)

[x-byte]

, does that mean they'll do Theora/WebM decoding on the GPU? (Compared to Firefox that decodes on the CPU, and does colour space conversion/scaling/painting on the GPU)

Yes. The blog post says the following:

You enable these features by setting both opera:config#UserPrefs|EnableHardwareAcceleration and opera:config#UserPrefs|EnableWebGL to 1,

[ViperAFK]

Well the D3D10 HWA they added is slightly better. I still feel like they have the same issue as with OGL - it slows things down, not speeds them up for some reason.

Now it is less noticeable, but they should still keep HWA opt-in.

Did you use the FF4 alpha builds when they first started adding HWA? It was crap and slowed things down, because it was in early development ;)

But yeah, its a good thing its opt-in until its optimized further.

[ArialBlue]

It still uses DirectWrite/Direct2D, it just doesn't use Direct3D for showing it on the screen.

I'm still not sure what Opera means by saying they want to be the first to be fully hardware accelerated, does that mean they'll do Theora/WebM decoding on the GPU? (Compared to Firefox that decodes on the CPU, and does colour space conversion/scaling/painting on the GPU)

Yes. The blog post says the following:

That is impossible outside of CUDA / OpenCL. Then it is just very very unlikely / impractical and a massive amount of work.

Opera is just trolling, albeit, it would be nice if they added support for DXVA2.

[ViperAFK]

That is impossible outside of CUDA / OpenCL. Then it is just very very unlikely / impractical and a massive amount of work.

Opera is just trolling, albeit, it would be nice if they added support for DXVA2.

How are they trolling? The blog post does not specifically mention theora acceleration (or anything about video acceleration really) When they say "fully hardware accelerated", they are referring to that the UI of the browser should be accelerated as well, not just the web pages like other browsers do.