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Vindictus flash ads on the main page

MechMantisMechMantis Registered User regular
edited December 2010 in H.Q. Reception Desk
These just kill my performance, especially when two of them show up on the page at the same time.

The plugin-container.exe process pegs at 50-60%, which is symptomatic of Flash taking one of my two cores and EATING IT ALIVE. It gets bad enough that I need to kill Firefox and restart it to do anything (basic browser buttons like "reload" and "back" take 20-30 seconds to register), hoping I don't get two Vindictus ads again.

For reference, running WinXP Pro with an Athlon64 X2 4600+ with two gig of RAM.

MechMantis on

Posts

  • Fred Savage Power GloveFred Savage Power Glove Registered User regular
    edited November 2010
    I'm sure there is some kind of Firefox extension that will either 1) selectively load all Flash content or 2) selective block certain Flash content.

    I went the "completely remove Flash from my system and never worry about it again" route, myself.

    Fred Savage Power Glove on
  • ÄlphämönkëyÄlphämönkëy Registered User regular
    edited November 2010
    Thanks for letting me know.

    Flash performance is such a wildcard, I often don't notice bad creatives until someone says something. I'll have a talk with the Vindictus creative team to see if we can reduce the CPU overhead.

    Älphämönkëy on
  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    edited November 2010
    I'm sure there is some kind of Firefox extension that will either 1) selectively load all Flash content or 2) selective block certain Flash content.

    It's NoScript you're thinking of. It allows you to block or allow assets on a page by each source. Problem in this case is that while the ad is made by the Vindictus people, it doesn't mean the ads are being loaded from their host - their ads are probably lumped in to load from the same place all the other PA ads are located.

    Henroid on
  • YamiNoSenshiYamiNoSenshi A point called Z In the complex planeRegistered User regular
    edited November 2010
    I'm sure there is some kind of Firefox extension that will either 1) selectively load all Flash content or 2) selective block certain Flash content.

    I went the "completely remove Flash from my system and never worry about it again" route, myself.

    Try Flashblock. It displays a little play button you have to click before flash plays, and you can specify a whitelist for sites as well.

    YamiNoSenshi on
  • MechMantisMechMantis Registered User regular
    edited December 2010
    Oh hey, another issue of "Double flash ads with a ton of effects killing my processor"

    This one's caused by two of the new Magic: The Gathering ads being played in both banner ad spots during their "Burn?" segment. Same hardware as before, so I have no idea what's up.

    Just one is a-okay, but when two of them show up and are playing the super-processor intensive section at the exact same time, it gets problematic.

    Maybe find some way to keep two of the same ad playing at the same time?

    MechMantis on
  • FyreWulffFyreWulff YouRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    edited December 2010
    Even one starts making Firefox go unresponsive.

    It almost looks as if they're generating the flames dynamically... they probably should convert it to a flv if they want to retain the effect.

    FyreWulff on
  • halkunhalkun Registered User regular
    edited December 2010
    I can confirm this. I only had one MTG Creative and the Fire is clunking out my Firefox too. (3.0.11 - It's what's available here at work)

    halkun on
  • ÄlphämönkëyÄlphämönkëy Registered User regular
    edited December 2010
    I've contacted the right people at WOTC. :wink:

    Älphämönkëy on
  • ÄlphämönkëyÄlphämönkëy Registered User regular
    edited December 2010
    As a follow up, the WOTC guys kindly pulled the Fire & Lightning campaign.

    Älphämönkëy on
  • halkunhalkun Registered User regular
    edited December 2010
    They didn't have to pull the creative, just tone it down.

    I'm hoping there was no sacking involved.

    halkun on
  • FyreWulffFyreWulff YouRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    edited December 2010
    In large corps like that, ad campaigns have to go through tons of managers and execs before they go Live. They'd have to send the revised ad through the chain again anyway.

    FyreWulff on
  • ÄlphämönkëyÄlphämönkëy Registered User regular
    edited December 2010
    They replaced it with a new one that involves poison. If you guys tell me that the poison animation has a similar effect I will cry.

    Älphämönkëy on
  • FyreWulffFyreWulff YouRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    edited December 2010
    I started freshing to try and get it and got the fire one again.

    edit: still not getting it, so I guess I have to wait until whatever CDN server I'm getting catches up.

    FyreWulff on
  • Sir PlatypusSir Platypus Registered User regular
    edited December 2010
    Getting the fire over here as well.

    Sir Platypus on
  • MechMantisMechMantis Registered User regular
    edited December 2010
    Getting fire STILL.

    Also I've noticed that all of their (WotC) ads have some kind of fire-like effect.

    The RedBox one has blue fire around the lich or whatever the crap that thing is, which also eats my CPU.

    And the other Magic one has only a small amount of green fire, but it still causes some minor slowdown.

    MechMantis on
  • japanjapan Registered User regular
    edited December 2010
    Just by way of confirmation, the one with the green fire causes both cores (2.1GHz Pentium Dual Core) of my laptop to hover around 70% utilisation on the CPU monitor thing in Ubuntu. I don't think I encountered any of the other ads (or didn't attribute any slowdown to the ads).

    The worst effect of this is a bit of slowdown in the ads themselves, but it's definitely weird.

    japan on
  • halkunhalkun Registered User regular
    edited December 2010
    Yea whoever wrote the "fire" library that everyone's aping for the ads needs to be shot.

    PROTIP:
    Don't use flash for hi-resolution particle effects.

    halkun on
  • SmokeStacksSmokeStacks Registered User regular
    edited December 2010
    Even better protip: use some form of ad blocking software and never see them again.

    SmokeStacks on
  • FyreWulffFyreWulff YouRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    edited December 2010
    Yes, because blocking them is what we're trying to do here instead of debug the problem for people that actually want to help the forums stay up by helping PA pay their bills.

    By the way, I am still getting the CPU chewing fire ad and can't get the new poison one to show up at all. Am I cached to hell or is there a direct link we can view?

    FyreWulff on
  • SmokeStacksSmokeStacks Registered User regular
    edited December 2010
    The ads paying bills consideration goes out the window when they crash my browser. You can debug all you like, the problem is fixed on my end.

    SmokeStacks on
  • ÄlphämönkëyÄlphämönkëy Registered User regular
    edited December 2010
    FyreWulff wrote: »
    By the way, I am still getting the CPU chewing fire ad and can't get the new poison one to show up at all. Am I cached to hell or is there a direct link we can view?

    It looks like it is back in the rotation. I'll send a few emails around.

    UPDATE: It is now pulled. The green particle effect ad still exists, but it seems to be less cpu intensive than the fire and lightning campaign.

    Älphämönkëy on
  • ÄlphämönkëyÄlphämönkëy Registered User regular
    edited December 2010
    The ads paying bills consideration goes out the window when they crash my browser. You can debug all you like, the problem is fixed on my end.

    I wouldn't advise this as a long term solution, but I'm glad your browser stopped crashing.

    Älphämönkëy on
  • MechMantisMechMantis Registered User regular
    edited December 2010
    When the Red Box ad (blue fire+lich) and the Where Will You Stand? ad (green fire) are on the screen at the same time, Firefox just dies.

    EDIT: Heck, even just the Where Will You Stand? ad adds horrible waits to scroll times.

    MechMantis on
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