Skip to content

iconGrid: Eliminate JavaScript for painting/picking [performance]

Daniel van Vugt requested to merge vanvugt/gnome-shell:paint-icon-grid-natively into master

The only reason for vfunc_paint and vfunc_pick existing was to implement a culling optimization. Although that optimization actually made performance worse than none at all because it forced the painting and picking cycles to spend more time calling into JavaScript.

Turns out we don't have to choose between native code and culling though. Just reimplement the culling using native ClutterActor functions and we get the benefits of both.

Performance on an i7-7700:

Moving the cursor over the icon grid:
Before: 70% CPU, 5.5ms per frame
After : 60% CPU, 4.5ms per frame

Scrolling the icon grid:
Before: 60% CPU, 4.4ms per frame
After : 50% CPU, 3.3ms per frame

Helps with: #174 (closed)

Edited by Jeff Fortin

Merge request reports