Though I am not entirely sure, this could be a regression because if I am not mistaken this used not to be, or not as much.
- Launch your browser and go to the Mapillary web app.
- Place your browser window on one side of the screen and a CPU/process monitor on the other.
- Notice how the CPU, and on multi‑core systems at least one core, goes full blast just to render the Mapillary page.
Generally speaking, at first glance, this does not seem to be an issue on desktop systems. But, it is indeed a huge issue on battery powered devices. Note that the Mapillary web app can be and usually is embedded into other apps, like the Mapillary mobile apps or OsmAnd. So, this is something that is going to drain mobile users’ batteries no matter what you do in the mobile app to save power. For testing, you can make this issue more pronounced when you switch to software rendering.
My humble guess is that the web app’s WebGL canvas just mindlessly renders in a loop instead of rendering only on updates, like input events or timed events. The Mapillary web app is not an action game, where input versus display latency may be of concern. However, power on battery powered devices is a huge concern and this is where the web app is often used.
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