Difference between two settings in about:config?
I use hardware acceleration, and it works okay except for the looks that come with it on the fonts. They look jagged and "not so smooth" as they could be - and I have bad vision. I found out somewhere that they look smooth if I set either "layers.prefer-d3d9" or "gfx.direct2d.disabled" to true. How are these different if it could be explained in a simple way? The fonts look good with any of these set to "true", BUT it seems some performance is lost. Which one causes the biggest performance drop? And a second question; Is there a complete reference/documentation for all the settings in "about:config", I like a good read (and to explore settings), but it's hard when some entries have either been removed, and it's difficult to know when a new one is added... I like to know what is going on in Firefox, but finding up to date info isn't the easiest thing.
All Replies (3)
Hello,
when browser use hardware acceleration (use hardware acceleration when available in advanced panel of firefox) then, with.... simple words the browser use the computer hardware to perform functions faster(graphics card function in our matter).
the preference gfx.direct2d.disabled when it is false (the default) then that means that firefox "use hardware acceleration when available" you can check it in advanced panel. :-)
the layers.prefer-d3d9 when it is true (the default is false) means that, IF firefox hardware acceleration is enabled then and only firefox can utilize d3d9 layers acceleration(Windows have them). Better visibility, but for sure at a cost of performance (maybe that's why it is false by default). I think it is better for visibility of not so fast games. :-) If i was you, i leave it false.
note also that hardware acceleration exist in Intel, AMD/ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards.
Now the HARD one...... @a complete reference/documentation for all the settings in "about:config" not exist :(
only the next : http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries you can find a lot of entries inside the above article but not all of them. Also from time to time (version to version) new entries added in about:config.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox
thank you
ideato said
the preference gfx.direct2d.disabled when it is false (the default) then that means that firefox "use hardware acceleration when available" you can check it in advanced panel. :-) the layers.prefer-d3d9 when it is true (the default is false) means that, IF firefox hardware acceleration is enabled then and only firefox can utilize d3d9 layers acceleration(Windows have them). Better visibility, but for sure at a cost of performance (maybe that's why it is false by default). I think it is better for visibility of not so fast games. :-) If i was you, i leave it false.
I would very much like to leave it at default (false), for the best performance. But like I said, that makes some fonts look bad, at least in certain websites. I'm using MacType to get smoother fonts, and it does not affect Firefox if any of these settings are toggled to anything else but "default".
I guess my question is; can I utilize full hardware acceleration (use the GPU) as much as possible AND get smooth fonts? WITH acceleration most (or some of them) look jagged. Why can't it perform well AND look good at the same time? Is there any other settings I can experiment with? I guess this is rather technical after all.
ideato said
Now the HARD one...... @a complete reference/documentation for all the settings in "about:config" not exist :( only the next : http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries you can find a lot of entries inside the above article but not all of them. Also from time to time (version to version) new entries added in about:config. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox thank you
I'm sorry to hear there is no complete reference for about:config.
I've been looking for one since Firebird 1.0 or something, so it's been a few years. I'm aware of the one over at Mozillazine of course, that's a classic forum that has been around for a long time, and it sufficed back in the early days, but now entries seem to come and go, some become obsolete, but no "note" that tells you so.
That's why it would be handy with a reference/complete documentation for about:config, for us who like to tinker with Firefox.
Anyway, thanks for the quick reply.