looking4awayout

UPDATE! I have done an extensive modification on both the 38 ESR and the 45 ESR versions of the UOC Patch and the Enforcer. This has allowed me to drastically reduce the filesize (the UOC Patch and the Enforcer now are only 4kb large!), as well as improving the overall responsiveness of the browsers. Please update and let me know how your machine works after applying them! The only version I haven't touched yet is the Macintosh version, as I do not have access to my Mac Mini right now. Once I have access to it, I will port the updates to that platform as well.

UPDATE! I have done some major reworks to the previous version, as I have found some bugs that for some reason I overlooked. I also have implemented some new entries in the UOC Enforcer. I have released the new version of the UOC Patch, N2H. Please test it, as I might do some changes in the meantime. The UOC Enforcer is now rquired in order to fully enjoy the optimizations introduced by the new version. So, do not forget to install both the UOC Patch and the Enforcer! An explanation on how to install the UOC Enforcer is written in the main post. Build number is N2H.

You should use the same plugins I use... They would make your life way easier.

@vipejc I am sorry to say this, but I will not take part in these tests, because as I already said, my system is not capable enough of running HTML5 videos in software rendering without lagging, spiking the CPU usage to 100% or slowing the system down to a crawl. For my setup, I use better alternatives which I already mentioned before. And unlike VP9 and OpenH264, they are actually hardware accelerated... If I had a working Radeon HD4670, I could have tried. But the only one I had caused Windows to freeze at the splash screen, and after a couple of reboots, the card no longer POSTs.

UPDATE! I have done some reworks on the UOC Patch, removing double entries and some other ones that were not applied by the patch. The default framerate has been increased to 240, as it makes scrolling smoother and the maximum amount of layers has been reduced to 6, which seems to be a good compromise between usability and performance. The fix for choppy scrolling with ATI cards has been implemented in the UOC Enforcer. Some of the entries that were formerly located in the core UOC Patch have been moved to the UOC Enforcer, that now is required in order to fully enjoy the optimizations introduced by the new version. So, do not forget to install both the UOC Patch and the Enforcer! An explanation on how to install the UOC Enforcer is written in the first post of this thread. Build number is N2G. The current version of the UOC Patch for Macintosh has been tested on an Intel based Mac Mini 1.1 running System 10.6.8 "Snow Leopard" and using Arctic Fox as a web browser, however it is currently untested on Power Macintosh computers. So, if you have a fast Power Macintosh system (can be either a Power Macintosh AIO G4/G5 or an iBook/ Powerbook G4), please test it and let me know how it runs with TenFourFox. G3 Macintoshes might apply, but I cannot assure how the Patch and the Enforcer would behave on such ancient setups (even though the latest version of the Patch + Enforcer has proven to work very well on a Celeron Mendocino system with 256MB of RAM, Windows 2000 + Extended Kernel and using the onboard Intel Extreme Graphics IGP of the i810 chipset.) None of the UOC Patch + Enforcer version have been tested on Firefox Quantum. Which is obvious, because if your system can run Firefox Quantum, it means you clearly don't need the UOC Patch and the Enforcer in order to make it run better. Plus, Quantum has many differences from the "classic" versions of Firefox and derivatives, and so, I won't support it. WARNING: In case you use @roytam1 K-Meleon Goanna as your main browser and you encounter rendering errors and artifacts when you scroll a webpage, open the UOC Enforcer (user.js, located in your K-Meleon Goanna profile folder) and set the following value "layers.enable-tiles" to False. As always, please update to the latest version, test the Patch and the Enforcer on as many old machines as possible, let me know the outcome. Happy RDDin'! EDIT: I have also removed the [Experimental] tag from the thread title, as the UOC Patch and the Enforcer have proven to be a solution to optimize Mozilla-based browsers for old machines. EDIT 2: I have added a little Paypal Donation button in the main post of this thread. Why? You will ask. "Looking4awayout is e-begging!!!111!!1!!!1!oneoneoneone" someone will say. Nope, I'm not e-begging, even though my financial situation is in dire straits. I've just put the donation button as a way for anyone to send me a little tip of appreciation for the efforts behind the development of the Patch, basically just a way to say thank you. Mind you, this doesn't mean that the UOC Patch will become a commercial product. Never! The Patch is and will be always free. It's just a way for someone to show some appreciation if they feel like. The button is there for anyone who wants to donate something, it's not yelling "DONATE ME" at people. Besides, I am happy to read about people who have improved the web performance of their old machines thanks to the Patch and the Enforcer. And I never thought it would have become so popular, back when I developed the first prototype of the patch for my Tualatin RDD. Which means, I must say a big "thank you" to everyone who downloads and uses the Patch and the Enforcer on their machine, and to MSFN for believing in me and my idea of breathing some life into obsolete hardware, which still works fine and does not deserve to be scrapped only because "it's old".

Just peeking in, I do remember that HTML5 videos do work if I enable the OpenH264 plugin in Firefox 45 ESR SSE. However, I don't know if Primetime works. On the other hand, I tend to avoid using those on my system, because they bring the CPU usage up to the sky as my video card does not accelerate those videos, so, at least for YouTube, I use YT 2 Player in tandem with Greasemonkey + Viewtube, so I can watch the videos in VLC with actual hardware acceleration. I don't have more powerful SSE only CPUs than the overclocked 1.4Ghz Tualatin I use daily. I used to have a video card that could theoretically accelerate those videos natively, an ATI Radeon HD4670, but I never got the system boot to Windows with that card installed, and after a couple of reboots it stopped POSTing without giving any other sign of life.

Do you have another HDD to test? Usually this kind of problem is caused by a faulty buffer in the hard drive. If you have replaced it with another old HDD, I do not exclude it might be faulty as well.

I have tested the files and on my system, the rendering errors persist if I enable tiled compositing. On the other hand, if I enable asynchronous pan and zoom, K-Meleon doesn't crash, but this happens: The scrollbars get hidden by the website, in fact when I scroll the page and I reach the end, the bars appear. As soon as I scroll back to the beginning, the bars get hidden. No rendering errors if asynchronous pan and zoom is enabled, in this case.

Yep, I use Windowblinds 5.1. Runs great. I can test the builds for you if you want to import the commits. Maybe it could also be the chance to fix the broken async.pan-zoom feature in those two browsers as well. (when I enable it, the scrollbars disappear, rendering me unable to scroll. Does not happen on FF45 ESR SSE and SeaMonkey).

UPDATE: New, experimental versions of the UOC Patch and the respective Enforcers are compiled and ready. I have not shared them publicly yet because I need beta testers. This time I have done more extensive changes, mostly in the Enforcer files, so I would need someone who can test the patches and report eventual issues. I have already reported to roytam1 the glitches in K-Meleon Goanna and New Moon 27 (in a lesser way) when tiled compositing is enabled, but I don't know if there might be issues with other machines. So if anybody wants to test the patches with all the browsers (SSE and SSE2 ones), including the Macintosh version (preferably someone who owns both a PowerPC and an Intel Macintosh), please let me know.

Hi @roytam1 , I have to report a bug that I have stumbled upon in K-Meleon Goanna. Whenever I set this option: layers.enable-tiles to true, in order to enable full hardware acceleration with the X1950 Pro, I get the following issue: Whenever I scroll the window, I get garbled graphics, black or white squares or garbled text. It goes away as soon as I scroll away or if I hover the mouse cursor on the affected area, but reappears shortly after. It also happens with New Moon 27, in a lesser way. It does not happen in Firefox 45 ESR SSE and SeaMonkey, for some reason.

Makes me wonder if it could be possible to port the Sync system to Roytam1's browsers, if it's not implemented. That would be useful for people like you who use that feature.

Why do you keep using Firefox 51? You can use @roytam1's Serpent or New Moon 28 which are more updated, support the most recent security protocols, and won't break websites as they are supported and updated. Since your computer has an SSE2 capable CPU, it should be able to run these browsers and perhaps, solving the compatibility issues that you are having with certain sites. Regarding user agents, I use an add-on called UAControl. It lets you change the user agent per website, so if you visit a website that goes bonkers with your browser because it runs on an old version/old OS, just change the user agent to a compatible one, and it will be changed automatically on the fly, whenever you visit that site. I use Firefox 45 ESR SSE (as I have a Pentium III CPU, and so SSE only), don't have incompability issues yet (although sometimes ReCAPTCHA says I need to upgrade, but I'm going to wait for the next release of FF45 ESR SSE), but when it comes to certain sites that force me to use another user agent in order to display them correctly, I just use UAControl and call it a day. These are my two cents, of course. In my opinion, try to give a go at those two browsers, see if they satisfy your needs.

EDIT: I am working on an experimental version of the UOC Patch that introduces several touch ups to the compositing routines and network buffer size, as I want to find out if I can enable tiled compositing even on NVidia cards. But in order to do this, I want to make sure my changes work the intended way and so, this means: I need beta testers! I need someone with an AGP GeForce 6 series and possibly, an SSE only CPU such as another Tualatin like mine or an Athlon XP. Early Pentium 4s can apply too as they are comparable in speed. But I need the testers to have Windows XP and New Moon 27, Firefox 45 ESR SSE and the other Roytam1's browsers. If anyone has a machine with the specs I need, please send me a DM.

The patch sets layers to -1 by default, so the maximum amount is decided per machine. If you experience issues in that way, you can set them to the amount your machine performs better with. As I already said in the first post, I encourage people to tailor the UOC Patch to their own needs, and I appreciate you are doing such with your computer. Obviously, keep in mind that the basic configuration of the patch is based on my own machine, a Pentium III Tualatin with an ATI Radeon X1950 Pro, so there might be some difference in how the patched browser performs on other machines. Also, some sites might break if you limit layers too much, so it is pretty much a YMMV situation. Check out if there are sites that might complain due to missing layers (frames that don't appear, buttons that don't click, things like that. Ebay seems to be particularly sensitive to that matter, sadly). They should be rare but if you stumble upon one, just increase them and you'll be good to go. EDIT: Out of curiosity, I wanted to try to limit layers on the Tualatin RDD. Interestingly, if I set the maximum layers to just one, I get worse performance. While if I set them to 2, it runs much faster. I will experiment to find out if there is a "sweet spot" in terms of performance. If not, I will revert them back to -1 and call it a day. If I have enough free time this Sunday I will also release the bugfixed Patch that removes the double autoscroll value, which I thank @grey_rat for reporting it.

Everything is working correctly, within the limits of the card. Forgot to say, about Viewtube... You need to install VLC and enable the "VLC Web Plugin" in Firefox in order to set Viewtube to VLC in Firefox. No need to do anything with the Windows Registry (I did not do that when I've installed the script).

That is quite surprising, considering ATI cards are notoriously poor at OpenGL. This makes me wonder if people with the 9000 series could use the Macintosh version of the UOC Patch to get an actual improvement in speed with such cards. About the Intel GMA, yeah, I have been surprised by how better things got after installing the patch, as usually that poor IGP struggles at almost everything. But I only had the opportunity to test the patch with an X3100 GMA, I haven't tested it on the older generations yet.

Awesome! What is the graphics card of your Power Macintosh? Did you use the Enforcer too? Today I've applied the Patch for the first time on a Vista-era laptop: an Acer Extensa 5230 with a Celeron 560 CPU, 1.5GB of RAM and the infamous Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (or Decelerator, as often nickname it) X3100, born with Windows Vista Basic but came with Windows 7 installed. The Patch made Firefox much more usable and scrolling was actually smooth, which is quite impressive considered the ultra low end architecture of the machine itself. Unfortunately the HDD was not in the best shape (the SMART reported several failures), so if it worked properly, it could've ran even better. I also got a slight improvement in hardware acceleration after enabling tiles. So apparently the trick reserved for ATI cards might also work with Intel IGPs, or at least it does on the GMA X3100.

I don't know if it's a placebo, but on my machine these options have made the browser faster and more responsive. But they can also come in handy for people who use the patch with Vista and 7 too. I've also installed the unofficial DirectX 10 patch for XP a couple of months ago and that has brought another slight increase in speed. But nothing substantial compared to an unpatched browser versus a patched one with the supported hardware.

Webrender is necessary to increase performance in hardware acceleration. Do not disable it. Hardware video decoding is for the cards that support it. Thanks for reporting the double autoscroll thing. I will fix it once I have enough time, something I don't in this period. :))) You can tweak the patch to suit your own needs, it is not set in stone. So if there are some settings that you want to change, feel free to edit them. Letting users to tweak the patch to suit it to their preferences is something I always encouraged since its inception. :) What does that plugin do, essentially? I don't use Media Player Classic, as the K-Lite Code Pack takes a toll on my Tualatin, but I'm curious. Does it send the video to MPC? Or downloads it and then plays it in MPC? I find the YT 2 Player plus Viewtube combination much more practical, as it lets me use the RDD more like a modern PC rather than a computer from 2001 with outdated hardware.

Thanks for providing the screenshots. From what we can see, the FX5200 successfully accelerates the browser in hardware, but does not accelerate WebGL, due to the driver version used. The situation is bleaker with the Radeon 9550, where the hardware acceleration does not work at all. I'm not surprised about the result, because those two graphics cards are too old to receive any benefit for the patch. For a Geforce FX, a 5600 is a better option since at least you have full hardware acceleration minus WebGL, which is not strictly essential. Concerning this, there might be a way to trick Firefox into enabling full hardware acceleration, which is done by spoofing the driver version. You have to create a batch file that lets you decide the driver version and eventually, the VID and PID of your graphics card, in order to let Firefox think it's using another driver version, or even another graphics card. You can find more info about that on Google. Unfortunately YMMV with that, as the spoofer might work with some cards (for example, it does on my old 6800GT and my current X1950 Pro, as I use driver versions that are officially blacklisted by Mozilla, but they are the fastest ones for the respective cards), but it might not work with others, or even cause the browser to crash altogether. About Youtube, as I said, you do not want to use the HTML5 player with those graphics cards, as it is already too taxing for the CPU, let alone for those poor cards, which do not have any kind of support for that feature. There is a way for you to watch YouTube in browser much like you do with a modern computer. First, you have to download this extension, Greasemonkey: https://legacycollector.org/firefox-addons/748/greasemonkey-3.9.xpi Then, you must download this script called ViewTube: http://sebaro.pro/viewtube/ Once you have downloaded it, installed and enabled it, you will have to configure VLC first, in order stream Youtube videos most likely at 360p or 480p (I used to watch videos at 480p and they ran fine on the 6800GT, I actually do not remember if I used 480p with the FX5600 though), then you have to enable the VLC plugin in Firefox, and in Viewtube, you need to set the option from the Viewtube list to "Low Definition MP4", then in the Auto dropdown menu, you must choose VLC, then click on the HD button and choose LD, and select the MD option and voila, you will be able to watch YouTube videos in browser even with a very old graphics card. YT 2 Player does the same thing: https://legacycollector.org/firefox-addons/550044/yt2p-1.2.1-signed.xpi The difference between Viewtube and YT 2 Player is that unlike the former, the latter just automatically opens VLC whenever you click on a Youtube link. But first you have to configure the add-on in order to point it to the location of your VLC installation. Remember to periodically update your Youtube.lua file, or else videos will not be played.

Use the UOC Patch. See if it makes any difference. The patch does a lot of changes in terms of hardware acceleration, you cannot compare it to those tweaks as the patch and the enforcer do more extensive changes. Also, with ATI cards don't forget to apply the tweaks to improve acceleration, mentioned in the main post. It might not work on the 9550, but on more recent cards, it does.

You don't want to use native YouTube in browser on an old machine with the UOC Patch. Use instead YT 2 Player to redirect YouTube videos to VLC, or if you want to watch YouTube videos in browser, install Greasemonkey with the Viewtube script, that will replace the HTML5 player with VLC. Both plugins are the way I watch YouTube on my Tualatin RDD. I started developing the UOC Patch when I had a GeForce FX5600 and ran okay. Do you have a GeForce FX to test with the patch? Or even an ATI card newer than a 9800 Pro, such as an X800 or an X1250? I'm curious to see how it performs with those cards.

To complete @VistaLover's post and as a proof, I will post a screenshot of the bookmarking feature working perfectly with Firefox 45 ESR SSE (latest build) on the RDD. The Netscape thingy and the custom icon are just edits done by me to "retroify" the look of XP further.

I have tried the UOC Patch on my Pentium M laptop (Asus A6000) with the latest update of Firefox 45 ESR SSE, clean profile and no extensions, and I'm not having any issue, sites bookmark just fine. Sorry for your issues, but I can safely rule the UOC Patch out as the culprit.