nglayout.initialpaint.delay Doesn't Seem to Affect Rendering

[JodyThornton]

I used to set this to a higher value in ESR 91 and before (eg. 3000 or 4000 ms), so that I could allow more of a page to download prior to rendering. Now as of ESR 102, something seems to have changed, and items on a page load straight away. Now on some sites, the setting is respected and works, but on other sites, the page starts rendering immediately, before it has completely downloaded.

I have tried defeating lazy load for images in about:config. No visible change though. I find when I load the top level page of a site, the browser waits to render the page as desired. Any other links on the page though load immediately. even when it's cached, there's a "flash" and the page loads. Before on ESR 91, the screen would switch seamlessly.

https://flyers.smartcanucks.ca is the best example of an "offending" site. When you click on one of the grocery store icons on the right, the current flyers images start displaying right away while they are downloading. If I have the nnglayout.initialpaint.delay set to 4000, I shouldn't see anything for two seconds. And upon cached readings, I shouldn't see a blink and a quick display. I should see the page show up as quickly as possible, without blinking.

Also try msfn.org/board. The first page may load as desired, but go to the forum sub topics. They blink and start painting right away.

Now for contrast, here are a couple of sites that renders EXACTLY the way I want it to. On first load, the page, and all of the links load only when they are fully downloaded (as long as it's within four seconds), and upon revisiting a cached paged, it loads almost immediately, and with no "blink" or "flash". The first page doesn't clear before the next one loads. The pages just seamlessly switch.

http://www.thekingshighway.ca/
https://ryanvm.net/forum/index.php

I know, they're older sites, but these show what my objective is a bit more clearly.

Thanks for everyone's help.

[JodyThornton]

Wow! I'm surprised no one has any information on this. I spoke to folks on the Firefox subreddit, but they seem stumped.
Anyway, I'll await some information. I'm hopeful there may be an about:config pref I can change.

[rebop]

Hi Jody,

Followed you posting in my thread on issues and lazy loading.

Best solution I have found is this addon. Just a handful of users worldwide biut sionce 102 I may not be able to live without it.
Worked fine at the defaulty 1500 ms. But I changes to 1000 and seems to be the sweetspot for me.

I experienced no issues with any of your links above. Will be curious to see what it does for you.

Https://Addons.Mozilla.Org/en-US/firefo ... uentially/

[JodyThornton]

It didn't quite address it. It does load the first page of a tab slower, but, the following links are loading as they download.
A very valiant attempt on your part though

[therube]

nglayout.initialpaint.delay Doesn't Seem to Affect Rendering

Confirmed.
No clue whether it is still expected to have an effect or if it might just be a "stale" pref?

[dickvl]

https://searchfox.org/mozilla-release/s ... l.cpp#1779

[JodyThornton]

https://searchfox.org/mozilla-release/s ... l.cpp#1779

Sorry to be dim-witted. What is that code exactly?

[JodyThornton]

I just want to bump this thread, only to understand what that link in SearchFox was. I see that the code made some references to the pref, but what did that link mean?

[siffemoz]

I just want to bump this thread, only to understand what that link in SearchFox was. I see that the code made some references to the pref, but what did that link mean?

No idea really, but I voted for your bug (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1783718).

[JodyThornton]

I just want to bump this thread, only to understand what that link in SearchFox was. I see that the code made some references to the pref, but what did that link mean?

No idea really, but I voted for your bug (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1783718).

Why thank you