Bad DropShadow performance

[Kevin Rushforth]

Any effect has the potential for slowing down depending on the size if 
the node being rendered, since it is done as an image operation on the 
entire area (bounding box) covered by the Parent. Have you noticed 
whether DropShadow is worse than other effects, say, GaussianBlur? One 
other thing to note is that caching a Parent will have no effect if the 
children are animating, since it will need to be recreated each time.

-- Kevin


On 10/4/2018 11:32 AM, Dirk Lemmermann wrote:
> Yes, I also noticed that DropShadow causes severe performance degradation.
>
> Dirk
>
>> On 4 Oct 2018, at 13:10, Tom Schindl <tom.schindl at bestsolution.at> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Why does applying a DropShadow on a large region cause problem when
>> animating nodes contained in that region?
>>
>>> package fxbugs;
>>>
>>> import javafx.animation.ScaleTransition;
>>> import javafx.application.Application;
>>> import javafx.geometry.Insets;
>>> import javafx.scene.Node;
>>> import javafx.scene.Scene;
>>> import javafx.scene.control.Button;
>>> import javafx.scene.effect.BlurType;
>>> import javafx.scene.effect.DropShadow;
>>> import javafx.scene.layout.BorderPane;
>>> import javafx.scene.layout.GridPane;
>>> import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
>>> import javafx.stage.Stage;
>>> import javafx.util.Duration;
>>>
>>> public class DropShadowPerformance extends Application {
>>>
>>>     @Override
>>>     public void start(Stage primaryStage) throws Exception {
>>>         BorderPane p = new BorderPane();
>>>         p.setPadding(new Insets(30));
>>>
>>>         GridPane container = new GridPane();
>>>         container.setHgap(10);
>>>         container.setVgap(10);
>>>         container.setStyle("-fx-background-color: green; -fx-padding: 10;");
>>>         container.setEffect(new DropShadow(BlurType.GAUSSIAN, Color.rgb(0, 0, 0, 0.3), 10, 0.5, 0, 0));
>>>         for( int i = 0; i < 8; i++ ) {
>>>             for( int j = 0; j < 14; j++ ) {
>>>                 container.add(createButton(), i, j);
>>>             }
>>>         }
>>>         p.setCenter(container);
>>>
>>>         Scene s = new Scene(p, 800, 600);
>>>         primaryStage.setScene(s);
>>>         primaryStage.show();
>>>     }
>>>
>>>     private Node createButton() {
>>>         Button button = new Button("hello world");
>>>         button.hoverProperty().addListener((ob,ol,ne) -> {
>>>             ScaleTransition t = new ScaleTransition(Duration.millis(500), button);
>>>
>>>             if( ne ) {
>>>                 t.setFromX(1);
>>>                 t.setFromY(1);
>>>                 t.setToX(1.2);
>>>                 t.setToY(1.2);
>>>             } else {
>>>                 t.setFromX(1.2);
>>>                 t.setFromY(1.2);
>>>                 t.setToX(1);
>>>                 t.setToY(1);
>>>             }
>>>
>>>             t.play();
>>>         });
>>>         return button;
>>>     }
>>>
>>>     public static void main(String[] args) {
>>>         launch(args);
>>>     }
>>> }
>>
>> If you run the following application:
>> * Maximize the window
>> * Hover over a button (eg the one in the right lower corner)
>>
>> You'll notice that the animation is not smooth, setting cache flags on
>> the container does not improve the situation, nor does using a ONE_PASS_BOX.
>>
>> Removing the effect on the container node "fixes" the problem.
>>
>> This is on a MacBook Pro and Windows Surface both having a Intel Iris
>> Plus 650 graphics card.
>>
>> Tom
>>
>> -- 
>> Tom Schindl, CTO
>> BestSolution.at EDV Systemhaus GmbH
>> Eduard-Bodem-Gasse 5-7. A-6020 Innsbruck
>> Reg. Nr. FN 222302s am Firmenbuchgericht Innsbruck