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>The problem is SVG filters let you do some pretty cool compositing stuff This is true for every single DOM element, which can layer and obscure and filter and

>The problem is SVG filters let you do some pretty cool compositing stuff This is true for every single DOM element, which can layer and obscure and filter and be additive/subtractive and can have levels of translucency. This is not a novel problem with SVG, but it's one where the appropriate solution is a simple if (isComplexCase) { // do uglier, more processor intensive activities } else { // do things the short and simple way } The universe of possibilities on an artifact don't prescribe a baseline performance level unless you're actually using them. And just to be clear, I don't fault the browser makers at all regarding this (any of us can contribute to Chromium/Webkit/Firefox), as they are simply optimizing their efforts towards the things that yield the biggest return, and optimizing SVG just isn't that critical. Yet this leads to a circular situation where we endlessly hear that you shouldn't use SVG because performance suffers.

sambeau 13y ago
SVG has the added problem of not knowing what size/detail it needs to be rendered to - while the image has a size it never knows to what scale it's going to be drawn. If we could provide hints we'd be able to cache a bitmap and scale it without the need to redraw. Even better would be to do away with the bitmap altogether and draw them as triangles. I'd love to see some of the new vector map detail algorithms applied to SVG - the ones where you throw away any detail smaller than a pixel. Then we'd be able to zoom smoothly or (if the points need to be calculated and cached) progressively loading (and possibly streaming) detail.
- seanmcdirmid 13y ago
  I believe Loop and Blin have done a lot of work in this area. See for example, http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/cloop/LoopBlinn05.pdf http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/cloop/LoopBlin... If someone like Ben Constable is lurking in this thread, he'd be able to say more this; I am extremely ignorant about this problem.

sambeau 13y ago

SVG has the added problem of not knowing what size/detail it needs to be rendered to - while the image has a size it never knows to what scale it's going to be drawn. If we could provide hints we'd be able to cache a bitmap and scale it without the need to redraw. Even better would be to do away with the bitmap altogether and draw them as triangles. I'd love to see some of the new vector map detail algorithms applied to SVG - the ones where you throw away any detail smaller than a pixel. Then we'd be able to zoom smoothly or (if the points need to be calculated and cached) progressively loading (and possibly streaming) detail.

seanmcdirmid 13y ago
I believe Loop and Blin have done a lot of work in this area. See for example, http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/cloop/LoopBlinn05.pdf http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/cloop/LoopBlin... If someone like Ben Constable is lurking in this thread, he'd be able to say more this; I am extremely ignorant about this problem.