Performance issues in latest PPAPI Flash Player releases?

Report · Mar 21, 2015

Hi there,

I've recently noticed some pretty serious performance issues in the latest versions of the PPAPI Flash Player in Chrome.

I'm using:

Windows 7 64-bit
Chrome Version 41.0.2272.101 m (64-bit)
Flash Player PPAPI Version: 17.0.0.134

I've noticed a large drop in performance recently when updating Chrome, I have been using Away3D 4.1 (using Stage3D) to create a series of Generative Art experiments, if you check out the one below I find that in Internet Explorer and Firefox (using the NPAPI version of the Flash Player) the FPS performance on my system is around 35-40 fps for me, but in Chrome's PPAPI player it drops drastically to around 6 or 7 fps.

I just recently updated my Chrome version so this is a recent change... around a few weeks ago this content was working fine in Chrome, around the same 35-40 fps I am getting in other browsers.

http://waroo.com/genart9s

Is anyone else out there seeing these performance issues with recent releases of Chrome's PPAPI Flash Player?

Report · Apr 20, 2015

Hi Quentin,

I can access that area, and I downloaded the chrome-win32.zip file and ran the chrome.exe as admin.

I get 29/30fps on the http://waroo.com/genart9s2/ ‌ test, however I can see the browser is just using the NPAPI plugin (C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\NPSWF32_17_0_0_134.dll) and not PPAPI version?

Cheers,

Greg

Report · Apr 21, 2015

Hey Greg,

Ok I wanted to ensure that the download was successful before I got you to do the next step which is to link this version of Chromium to the PPAPI build which is running on your M41 (might be M42 by now) build.

First we'll make a copy of your 'stable' Chrome PPAPI file and place it on the desktop

1. GoTo ' C:\Program Files (x86) \ Google \ Chrome \ Application \ 42.0.2311.90 (or whatever is the highest version # that you have in this folder) \ PepperFlash

2. Within the PepperFlash folder you'll see the "pepflashplayer.dll" file

3. Make a copy of this file and place it on your Desktop

Now we're going to force the 'chromium' version that you downloaded (per my instructions) to use that 'pepflashplayer.dll' file

1. Open the new chromium folder (unzipped) that I had you download the other day (the folder is titled 'chrome-win32' )

2. Find the 'chrome.exe' file but do not activate it

3. Right click on the folder to get the context menu

4. Choose 'Create Shortcut'

5. Place the shortcut out on the desktop

6. Next go to the "libpepflashplayer.dll" file on the desktop

7. Hover over the shortcut icon and right click to get the context menu

8. Choose 'Properties'

9. Find the "Location" line in the General tab.

10. Highlight the entire pathway and copy it to clipboard

11. Now goto the chrome.exe shortcut on the desktop

12. Hover over the shortcut icon and right click to get the context menu

13. Choose 'Properties'

14. You will see the "Target" line which shows the pathway of the shortcut to the executable

15. Click within this editable window and ensure that the cursor makes it to the end of the ' \chrome.exe ' line. The cursor will be blinking to the right of the final 'e'

16. Add the following text to this window " --ppapi-flash-path=" ensure that a space exists at the beginning of the first dash.

17. After the equal sign you will paste in the pathway (Location) for the libpepflashplayer.dll file (that which we copied to clipboard earlier)

18. Click the "Apply" button

19. Click the "Ok" button

20. Hover over the 'chrome.exe' shortcut icon and right click to get the context menu

21. Choose "run as administrator "

22. This will open the browser window and you can then attempt running your URL

Let me know how this goes. I hope the instructions are adequate.

Regards,

Quentin

Report · Apr 22, 2015

Hi Quentin,

Thanks for your reply, and your continued help with this... I followed the instructions to the letter, but unfortunately it didn't work for me.

I followed the step, went to the URL and got a broken plugin icon with "Couldn't load plugin", checking in chrome://plugins/ it did list a second detected Flash Player with the following details:

Adobe Flash Player (2 files) - Version: 11.2.999.999

Shockwave Flash 11.2 r999

Name:

Shockwave Flash

Description:

Shockwave Flash 11.2 r999

Version:

11.2.999.999

Location:

C:\Users\Greg\Desktop\PepperFlash

Type:

PPAPI (out-of-process)

Disable

MIME types:

application/x-shockwave-flash

Shockwave Flash

.swf

application/futuresplash

FutureSplash Player

.spl

Which has a weird version number and only shows the folder location, whereas the NPAPI one also has the dll in the path.

Not sure what else to try? Perhaps the browser or the plugin isn't 64bit? I copied the PPAPI dll from a 64bit Chrome (release build: 42.0.2311.90).

Did you also see ignatev_me's message/update just after mine? Looks like he may be on to something with that Stage3D performance related bug?

Cheers,

Greg

Report · Apr 22, 2015

Hey Greg,

I suspect it isn't finding the "pepflashplayer.dll" file that you have on your desktop. The pathway has to be exact when you do the redirection within the shortcut target box.

Can you send me screen shots of your desktop showing the properties windows for both the "pepflashplayer.dll" and the "chrome.exe-Shortcut" icons on your desktop.

Thank you.

With respect to the Stage3D bug: yes one of my colleagues who is helping me with your issue is also investigating that bug to see if there is a correlation.

Cheers,

Quentin

Report · Apr 22, 2015

Hi Quentin,

No problem, please see below:

Cheers,

Greg

Report · Apr 22, 2015

Thanks Greg.

I see the issue. You have directed only so far as the "PepperFlash" folder. You need to direct it all the way to the .dll file. So the last part of the "Target" box should read as follows

......\Desktop\PepperFlash\pepflashplayer.dll

Try that and let me know if it works.

Cheers,

Quentin

Report · Apr 23, 2015

Hi Quentin,

Unfortunately that didn't work, I've now got the path as: C:\Users\Greg\Desktop\PepperFlash\pepflashplayer.dll and get the same error/issue.

I have also tried surrounding the path in quotes and moving the dll to various locations (root of C:\ etc...) but with no difference.

Do you have a dll that is working? perhaps I could try different pepflashplayer.dll files and see if that is it? or failing that, is there a way to more closely integrate the plugin through config files, having it in the same folder as the exe or something else?

Cheers,

Greg

Report · Apr 23, 2015

Hey Greg,

Let's try this. I've attached a pepper file. Just drop it directly on your desktop. Don't put it in any type of folder.

Now open up the properties for your 'chrome.exe' shortcut.

Delete all the text in the target box and paste the following into the blank box (exclude the quotes):

"C:\Users\Greg\Desktop\chrome-win32\chrome.exe --ppapi-flash-path=C:\Users\Greg\Desktop\pepflashplayer.dll"

Let me know how this goes.

Cheers,

Quentin

Report · Apr 23, 2015

Hi Quentin,

Sorry I don't see an attached file?

Cheers,

Greg

Report · Apr 23, 2015

My bad....here it is

Report · Apr 28, 2015

Hi Quentin,

Sorry for the delay getting back to you, I've been away for a few days and only been on mobile.

Forgive me if I'm being careless and overlooking a particular feature of this message board, but it's not obvious where the attachment is in your message? I would expect it to be in the body or clearly signposted somewhere that is a file attached for download?

Cheers,

Greg

Report · Apr 28, 2015

Hi Greg,

Not a problem. I suspect that the board sees the attachment as a 'system file' thus will not allow it to post due to security issues. Can you provide me with an alternative email address which will allow me to send you the attachment. Thanks.

Cheers,

Quentin

Report · Apr 21, 2015

UPDATE: after some digging it seems like this bug partially responsible for slowdowns Bug#3934097 - Program3D.upload is bottleneck when using chrome PPAPI

I'm also seeing significant perfomance decrease on PPAPI flash player.

Any flash application that uses stage3d is stuttery and slow, switching to NPAPI plugin solves the problem.

As far as i remeber it affects all of the flash player version since major update ot 17.

I've atached my pc specs and chrome://gpu contents.

I have been developing a game using away3d and it is also affected by above issue, so

i have attached two Adobe Scout reports, one for PPAPI and one for NPAPI version of player running

same swf of my game, frame times for PPAPI are crazy high.

Windows 7 x64 with all updates installed

Google Chrome 42.0.2311.90 m

Flash Player 17.0.0.168 PPAPI

Flash Player 17.0.0.171 NPAPI

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5632042/specs/gpu.txt

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5632042/specs/speccy-specs.txt

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5632042/specs/ppapi-17.0.0.169.flm

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5632042/specs/npapi-17.0.0.171.flm

Report · Jul 21, 2015

Just updated to:

Chrome 44.0.2403.89 m (64-bit)

with Flash Player 18.0.0.2009

and I'm now getting much better performance, between 17 - 23fps

http://waroo.com/genart9s2/

Still not as as good as the NPAPI version of the Flash Player but it's definitely better.

If you guys did manage to do something or help Google with the latest builds then thank you

Cheers,

Greg

Report · Jul 21, 2015

That's great news, thanks for the update. We work closely with the Chrome team, and there have been performance fixes on both sides. I'd have to debug it to figure out who to attribute it to, but it's great to know that things are trending in the right direction. We'd definitely like to get to parity with NPAPI in terms of performance (there's frequently a trade-off between security and performance), and we'll continue to target opportunities for gains where they arise.

Thanks!

Report · Jul 30, 2015

Hello Greg and Jeromie,

Thanks for all effort these last months! (developing also a game with Flash Stage 3D and impacted by this major issue)

Maybe a good news that will need both your confirmation please:

Using now

Windows 7 64-bit
Chrome Version 44.0.2403.125 m (64-bit)
Flash Player PPAPI Version: 18.0.0.209

We have observed significant improvements !
If giving to IE & DirectX a performance score of 100, Chrome v44 give us now 95, while before upgrade, Chrome v43 was score only 65

GFleming‌

Using your benchmark GenArt

FPS is ~25 to 30

Ram 673 / 701 M

Poly : 11572

Compare to Chrome v43, I got feeling the stats are better (too bad I didn't take note before upgrade). Do you confirm too?

Jeromie Clark‌

Any clue by your side what could help for such improvement?

Cheers!
Jacques

Report · Jul 30, 2015

We're constantly working on the product and in collaboration with our partners in the browser space to make Flash better and more secure. We make hundreds of changes per release, plus all of the changes that happen around us in all of the browsers, who are simultaneously also making and shipping changes. While I could probably chase it down to a specific changelist or continuous Chrome build, the important part is that performance is significantly better for your application.

Performance issues in latest PPAPI Flash Player releases?

1 Correct answer