Silverlight 2 and Google Chrome

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LOTS OF UPDATES: Read down to see more info.

I just installed the Google Chrome browser and to no one's surprise, it doesn't support Silverlight 2. Not sure why it doesn't work since it supports WebKit. What I find most interesting is that it thinks its rendering it. It may be Google's Plug-in/Process model that is breaking it.

To see what I mean, visit my http://www.silverlight-tour.com site. On that site, I test to see if the plugin can load and show a non-Silverlight version of the map when Silverlight isn't supported. When it is supported, I show the Silverlight app. When you follow the link you'll see that the Silverlight 2 app is taking space, just not loading. So the Silverlight.js script thinks its supported and tries to load it. Hopefully we'll hear more about this soon. Keep tuned and i'll let you know what I find out.

UPDATE: Google's Task Manager definitely shows that Silverlight 2 is loaded in a separate process, but interestingly the page with Silverlight is getting odd info in the Task Manager (e.g. no memory):

Silverlight 2 in Google Chrome
Another UPDATE:

Flash doesn't seem to work either:

 

After re-running the Flash installer it now works.  Must have had a heads up to a fix that was required.

UPDATE: Instead of not working, Silverlight 2 its just sorta working. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Comments:

Flash works, you just need to re-run the installer after Chrome is installed.

Cogburn (Posted Tuesday, September 02, 2008 )

Yeah, it's sorta working with my SL2 stuff as well. It seems to render, but the interaction is terrible.

Page Brooks (Posted Tuesday, September 02, 2008 )

Same problem here. It kinda works, but performance is horrible and interaction is very flacky.

Morten (Posted Tuesday, September 02, 2008 )

Yeah for this to be useful I need Silverlight to work.

JR (Posted Tuesday, September 02, 2008 )

Did you try both Silverlight v1.0 and v2b2 ?

Brian (Posted Tuesday, September 02, 2008 )

It only updates the display if focus leaves and reenters the browser tab. For example if you are viewing a interactive chart with a hover over pop up it only gets displayed once you exit focus from the chrome tab or enter focus on the tab.

JR (Posted Tuesday, September 02, 2008 )

If you resize the browser then you'll see your interaction. For some reason any events aren't being rendered immediately - could this be related to the new Javascript engine that Google have developed

Carl (Posted Tuesday, September 02, 2008 )

It seems to get frozen when I just want to see the official Silverlight Show Case, besides the whole browser gets frozen, not only a particular tab.

Mike Borozdin (Posted Tuesday, September 02, 2008 )

ping back from Samiq Bits [http://bits.samiq.net]

[... Since, along the Webcast they showcased YouTube working happily in Chrome, I knew what to expect, although I also found out that there has been people not that lucky...]

from "Silverlight and Flash running on Google Chrome"

Samiq (Posted Tuesday, September 02, 2008 )

Besides a few microsoft sites, I haven't come across any others that use Silverlight yet. Obviously Silverlight support would be way down on their list of priorities.

Bill (Posted Wednesday, September 03, 2008 )

Bro, you can't probably because it's in another physical process. Unless it can talk cross-process, we are screwed.

Joe (Posted Wednesday, September 03, 2008 )

It works in full screen mode.

User (Posted Wednesday, September 03, 2008 )

I seems to 'forget' to update the main thread of the tab once the page is loaded.. the apps are running alright, its just that they're not updating.. Only if you loose focus and then get focus again it updates 1 frame (try alternate clicking on the main window and the address bar)

Matthijs

Matthijs Tempels (Posted Wednesday, September 03, 2008 )

Flash wasn't working yesterday and today it is. weird.

Matt (Posted Wednesday, September 03, 2008 )

Yeah, the plugin support is a bit wonky right now. No official Silverlight support for it yet. I'll let you know if I hear otherwise.

Shawn Wildermuth (Posted Wednesday, September 03, 2008 )

I tried Chrome late last night and Flash was working just fine - no need to re-run any installer. Note that without an adblock plugin, that was a BAD THING. :) I did hear from a Flash/JS guru that communication between Flash and JS doesn't work in Chrome, which breaks his app.

Tom (Posted Wednesday, September 03, 2008 )

despite the rumors, i'm finding Chrome's speed to be inconsistent; it seems to alternate between going lightning fast and then hanging for no apparent reason...

media kingdom (Posted Wednesday, September 03, 2008 )

I can verify the problem with updates only occuring on loss of focus (SL2b2). I have posted this to Silverlight forums: http://silverlight.net/forums/t/24133.aspx

Chris B. (Posted Thursday, September 04, 2008 )

Relax Folks, Google Chrome still in beta well actually I see it as a preview version but all your isues will be gone on the RC's.

Alpha (Posted Thursday, September 04, 2008 )

Also for the record, You can get the source code of the browser to see how Chrome works, it is very clean and organized, it is great that Google Chrome is OpenSource. Freedom Rocks!, Hurray Google and OpenSource World!.

Alpha (Posted Thursday, September 04, 2008 )

Has Google ever released anything as RC? They even still ist Gmail as beta.

Jon (Posted Thursday, September 04, 2008 )

silverlight 2 beta 2 appears to work when running full screen

fatboy (Posted Friday, September 05, 2008 )

I installed Chrome at the very first day of its release.
My first test with Silverlight application (Beta 2) but it fails.
It actually rendered the SL application but certainly not working correctly.
fatboy is right its working fine with full screen mode check http://kenwatts.blogspot.com/2008/08/digital-logic-simulator-in-silverlight.html

amyo (Posted Sunday, September 07, 2008 )

Strangely, I can view Silverlight 2 in Chrome... but only for certain sites..

http://i36.tinypic.com/214xmk4.jpg

Murali (Posted Monday, September 08, 2008 )

Solverlight is hardly working... well it hardly worked smoothly on any browser for me. Kept on getting popup errors. On the other hand, Flash ran instantly, I was surprised how come Flash already installed, then I figured it's using the shared plugins from Firefox?!

Either ways, the Flash player looks smooth on Google Chrome.

Isaac (Posted Monday, September 08, 2008 )

Try this : http://www.shinedraw.com/3d-illusion/flash-and-silverlight-3d-image-rotation/
You will see that Silverlight process is only run when you scroll or resize the window. I think they didn't hooked the "main" function of the process at the right place.

Gildas Vinsot (Posted Wednesday, September 10, 2008 )

you guys are using the nightly builds of Google chrome right? flash still jumps every once in a while but in build 20089ironic build #) silverlight is working perfect including flash and java without reinstalling... (i believe the official beta was 1609)

Beta Geek (Posted Thursday, September 11, 2008 )


 



 
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