Performance on Edge browser for Stretch and Bounce screens

[KatieWoe]

Test device:
Dell Laptop
Operating System:
Win 10
Browser:
Edge
Problem description:
For phetsims/qa#220. Seems to be the same issue as phetsims/masses-and-springs#312.
The performance when dragging a mass, ruler, or slider on the stretch or bounce screen is poor. The mass trails noticeably behind the mouse. Making the window smaller improves or fixes the issue.
Steps to reproduce:

1. Make window as large as possible
2. Go to first screen
3. Use mouse to quickly drag a mass or ruler across the screen.

Screenshots:

Troubleshooting information (do not edit):

Name: ‪Masses and Springs: Basics‬
URL: https://phet-dev.colorado.edu/html/masses-and-springs-basics/1.0.0-dev.11/phet/masses-and-springs-basics_en_phet.html
Version: 1.0.0-dev.11 2018-11-12 16:16:41 UTC
Features missing: touch
Flags: pixelRatioScaling
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/64.0.3282.140 Safari/537.36 Edge/17.17134
Language: en-US
Window: 1536x756
Pixel Ratio: 2.5/1
WebGL: WebGL 1.0
GLSL: WebGL GLSL ES 1.0
Vendor: Microsoft (Microsoft Edge)
Vertex: attribs: 16 varying: 30 uniform: 4096
Texture: size: 16384 imageUnits: 16 (vertex: 16, combined: 32)
Max viewport: 32767x32767
OES_texture_float: true
Dependencies JSON: {"assert":{"sha":"928741cf","branch":"master"},"axon":{"sha":"036865d6","branch":"master"},"brand":{"sha":"1fd6682e","branch":"master"},"chipper":{"sha":"9e1987e6","branch":"master"},"dot":{"sha":"bbbd8526","branch":"master"},"griddle":{"sha":"f64a7cf0","branch":"master"},"joist":{"sha":"11f7cf47","branch":"master"},"kite":{"sha":"b0fc6c9c","branch":"master"},"masses-and-springs":{"sha":"0ab4798a","branch":"master"},"masses-and-springs-basics":{"sha":"90423db0","branch":"master"},"phet-core":{"sha":"714b088a","branch":"master"},"phet-io":{"sha":"3acf45ca","branch":"master"},"phet-io-wrapper-classroom-activity":{"sha":"5dea7f54","branch":"master"},"phet-io-wrapper-hookes-law-energy":{"sha":"b42eaef7","branch":"master"},"phet-io-wrapper-lab-book":{"sha":"b884e9c1","branch":"master"},"phet-io-wrappers":{"sha":"e90822f4","branch":"master"},"phetcommon":{"sha":"869b2561","branch":"master"},"query-string-machine":{"sha":"06ed6276","branch":"master"},"scenery":{"sha":"3fbe7bbb","branch":"master"},"scenery-phet":{"sha":"76baf536","branch":"master"},"sherpa":{"sha":"2cd50500","branch":"master"},"sun":{"sha":"bc8424bb","branch":"master"},"tambo":{"sha":"ad355580","branch":"master"},"tandem":{"sha":"93822898","branch":"master"},"twixt":{"sha":"11a0c804","branch":"master"}}

[arouinfar]

@ariel-phet decided to defer this issue while MAS was in RC testing, noting:

Marking as deferred. This sim will surely be revisited at some point and we can look more deeply at that time

@ariel-phet should this still be deferred, or should @Denz1994 revisit for MASB/MAS redeploy?

[ariel-phet]

@Denz1994 @arouinfar I am still not seeing this as a "major" issue. Considering JO is on vacation currently, and most people need to consult with him for performance improvements, I would just press ahead.

However, I do think learning to troubleshoot performance issues is a useful experience, so I am going to mark this as low priority and leave assigned to Denzell.

@Denz1994 this issue should NOT block publication of MAS:B but would be worthy of investigation and your learning as time allows.

[Denz1994]

I think we can get away with reducing the amount of pointsPerLoop for each coil in the spring. I reduced it by 12 points per coil, so that should reduce the amount of numberOfCoilPoints that need to be calculated when the xScaleProperty changes.

The drawback is the springs may look negligibly more rigid. Can you confirm that this is acceptable @arouinfar?

[Denz1994]

Note: Above change should only affect oscillating masses.

[arouinfar]

@Denz1994 the oscillating springs in dev.11 and master look equally smooth to me!

[Denz1994]

Great, I'll take a similar approach to the massNodes and reassign for comparison.

[Denz1994]

MassNodes have been optimitzed in phetsims/masses-and-springs@6c3904f as a part of phetsims/masses-and-springs#312. It is good to note that the same bahavior is in this sim, but I'll defer to the same conclusion in phetsims/masses-and-springs#312 (comment).