Web and WebWorks Development

[razorek]

I have loaded my PlayBook application (with minimum modifications - just so i runs) to a Dev Alpha device and found that the app is terribly slow.

I thought it's got something to do with my app, so I built the bbUI 0.9.4 samples and deployed them to the Dev Alpha and unfortunatelly it's also very slow. A lot slower than on a PlayBook device.

How come? Do I have to set some special attribute in config.xml, or a pragma directive...? Is there a way to estimate the performance on the final BB10 device?

I was expecting the apps to run faster on the Dev Alpha, especially bbUI samples.

[chadtatro]

What specifically are you finding is slow?  Also, do you have the Dev Alpha A, or B?

[smartek]

I also think that it is quite slow, but you must remember that it is always told, that the devAlpha is not comparable to a BB10 Device.

An example where it is really slow which is not webWorks: when you open the settings and scroll arround, its not smouth. I have a DevAlpha A

[razorek]

I guess it's animations that are slower - or repaints in general. I will ivestigate more. I have a Dev Alpha A device.

I'm well aware that this is an Alpha device and a preview version of the OS. It probably has debug symbols complied & stuff. But the slowdown that I'm seeing in my application is huge. From approximately 25 FPS to approximately 2 FPS.

The slowdown in bbUI samples isn't that big, you can see for example by running the "Activity indicator" sample on PlayBook and on te Dev Alpha side by side. On the PlayBook the indicator moves super smooth (of course set bb10forplaybbok to true).

Chad: I you want I can send you a recording that shows the slowdown that I'm facing.

[smartek]

maybe you could upload it on youtube and share the link

I also would like to see it

[urbanglowcam]

I also noticed the same thing before. The BBUI 0.9.4 samples scroll more smoothly on the PlayBook than the Dev Alpha A. This is weird since I'd imagine the dev alpha's hardware is more powerful.

The only thing I can think of is that the PlayBook runs it at a lower 1024 x 600 unlike the dev alpha's higher 1280 x 768. But most of the samples are broken on the PlayBook. The Dev Alpha B clearly has superior hardware to the A since it runs it more smoothly.

I really appreciate the efforts put into BBUI, but it's unfortunate that webworks apps can't perform closer to the level of native/cascades apps. The other issue is that the responsiveness on clicks isn't always there. Sometimes it takes 3-4 taps before it registers.

The APPEARANCE is just like the BB10 ui, but the motion and responsiveness isn't 100% there yet. But I'm sure with the BB10 browser running with web technologies, it will continue to improve over time.

[razorek]

@urbanglowcam, some of the aspects that you highlighted are being fixed in bbUI - the scrolling is going to be done natively (or maybe it it already in the latest release) - see this video by Tim Neil.

and the clicks is a thing that the team is working on, see this other post

Although I'm not sure how fast this is going to be implemented since it took two and a half monts to get us to version 0.9.4 form 0.9.3.

Let's just hope that the most important issues will be fixed before January.

@smartek I'm not sure if I want to show my app performing poorly on BB 10 Alpha to everyone . But I might create a simple  sample projects that will highlight the slowdown. I just don't have enough time right now, but I'll try to make it as fast as I can.

[chadtatro]

FYI:  bbUI.js 0.94 is now live.  I would suggest trying out this new version as it works towards optimizing performance, especially in the native scrolling.

https://github.com/blackberry/bbUI.js

[urbanglowcam]

Right. Like I mentioned, I am talking about the new 0.9.4 and haven't seen a difference in the scrolling. I'd put the blame on the dev alpha A having inferior hardware. The dev B shows a higher FPS rate overall, and bbui is no exception. A friend tested the 0.9.4 samples on his dev B and said it didn't look much faster, though I may have sent him the wrong .bar for testing.

It's good to hear the clicking issue is being inspected. Like Razorek mentioned, it's not something I want to show off on my app when the performance looks more clunky than native.

I hope I don't sound unappreciative and understand there is so much you can do with web tech. The team is doing a great job. I think having a dev B would help out a lot for me. The dev A should be plenty to run webworks apps smoothly so I'm going to guess it's down to the bb10 os not being optimized for it. So I'm hoping come final hardware that our apps will run seamlessly next to native apps.

[cdelcol]

We've been working hard to improve the performance of WebWorks for the next release. i wish we could get a new version into your hands to try it but we just can't. Hang tight and keep a close eye for updates.