web: Add background tick mode to keep player running in hidden tabs by robinmiau · Pull Request #23395 · ruffle-rs/ruffle

robinmiau · 2026-04-05T15:47:20Z

Related to #7289
Related to #10527

Previously, when a tab was hidden, the requestAnimationFrame loop would stop, halting game logic and audio. This adds a background tick mode that replaces the RAF loop with a Web Worker-based tick loop when the tab becomes hidden, keeping the player running.

When the tab becomes visible again, the background worker is terminated, the normal RAF loop is restarted, and the AudioContext is explicitly resumed since browsers may auto-suspend it in background tabs.

New configuration option

A new backgroundExecutionMode config option controls background playback behavior:

Value	Behavior
`"mainThread"`	Uses the Web Worker tick loop when the tab is hidden
`"none"`	Disables background execution entirely (default)

Example usage:

window.RufflePlayer.config = {
  "backgroundExecutionMode": "mainThread"
};

Notes

The visibilitychange listener no longer passes an explicit false as the third argument, since that is the default and every other listener in the file omits it.
Tested in the latest version of Chrome, where it ran reliably and smoothly in the background.

kjarosh · 2026-04-05T17:42:54Z

Note that we still support Firefox 94 and Safari 14.1 which do not support locks. We can either drop support for older versions or handle the missing API.

kjarosh · 2026-04-05T17:49:08Z

It would be really nice to have that covered by tests, it's a pretty important piece of code.

kjarosh · 2026-04-12T07:10:57Z

+                if (mode === BackgroundExecutionMode.MainThread) {
+                    this.instance.enable_background_tick_mode();
+                    if (this.lastActivePlayingState) {
+                        this.startBackgroundTick();


It's probably worth handling the situation where we fail to create a worker here and fall back to pausing the movie.

kjarosh

LGTM, I'll do some tests and I think we'll be ready to merge this

Pandalusion · 2026-04-18T10:57:00Z

Tested this on Habbo Flash Client , which normally disconnects after around 50 seconds when minimised or in the background. It doesn't disconnect and continues pinging websockify, no disconnections even after several hours

Refactor tab visibility handling to support background tick mode.

Removed lastActivePlayingState variable and related logic.

Removed redundant information about pausing behavior when tab visibility changes.

Add BackgroundExecutionMode enum to define tab behavior.

Added comments to clarify the purpose of the backgroundWorker and intervalMs.

Co-authored-by: Kamil Jarosz <kjarosh256@gmail.com>

Clarify comments regarding intervalMs and code injection risk.

kjarosh · 2026-04-20T08:11:19Z

Thank you!

@robinmiau

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kjarosh added A-web Area: Web & Extensions newsworthy T-compat Type: Compatibility with Flash Player labels Apr 5, 2026

kjarosh reviewed Apr 5, 2026

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Comment thread web/packages/core/src/internal/player/inner.tsx Outdated

kjarosh added the squash-on-merge Marks a PR to be squashed before merging. label Apr 6, 2026

kjarosh reviewed Apr 10, 2026

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kjarosh reviewed Apr 13, 2026

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kjarosh reviewed Apr 14, 2026

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Comment thread web/packages/core/src/internal/player/inner.tsx Outdated

kjarosh approved these changes Apr 14, 2026

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robinmiau and others added 16 commits April 20, 2026 10:04

Implement background tick mode

3bca116

Implement background tick for tab visibility changes

426cfd7

Refactor tab visibility handling to support background tick mode.

Fix formatting

8c3f0c0

Skip background tick for paused instances on tab hide

dc246b2

Remove lastActivePlayingState from player logic

34e6557

Removed lastActivePlayingState variable and related logic.

Simplify visibility change event listener documentation

80377fd

Removed redundant information about pausing behavior when tab visibility changes.

Introduce BackgroundExecutionMode for tab visibility handling

497456e

Add BackgroundExecutionMode enum to define tab behavior.

Add backgroundExecutionMode to default config

fa1d6d4

Refactor background execution handling in player

167cfd9

Fix formatting

6643c5b

Refactor background tick management with Web Worker

a3bc3d4

Update documentation for tick_for_background method

ada3bbf

Add background execution mode options to extension

4cea185

Fall back to pause if the worker fails

82c6abe

Enhance comments for background worker and tick interval

79c03ec

Added comments to clarify the purpose of the backgroundWorker and intervalMs.

Update web/packages/extension/assets/options.html

cadcb42

Co-authored-by: Kamil Jarosz <kjarosh256@gmail.com>

robinmiau added 2 commits April 20, 2026 10:04

Add background execution mode settings to messages.json

87c4ce0

Update comments for startBackgroundTick method

007d9b2

Clarify comments regarding intervalMs and code injection risk.

kjarosh force-pushed the robinmiau-patch-4 branch from e29224e to 007d9b2 Compare April 20, 2026 08:04

kjarosh enabled auto-merge (squash) April 20, 2026 08:07

kjarosh merged commit 008064f into ruffle-rs:master Apr 20, 2026
26 checks passed

kjarosh removed the squash-on-merge Marks a PR to be squashed before merging. label May 4, 2026

torokati44 mentioned this pull request May 18, 2026

Can it be made so ruffle work on picture in picture? #20272

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web: Add background tick mode to keep player running in hidden tabs#23395

web: Add background tick mode to keep player running in hidden tabs#23395
kjarosh merged 18 commits into
ruffle-rs:masterfrom
robinmiau:robinmiau-patch-4

robinmiau commented Apr 5, 2026 •

edited by kjarosh

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robinmiau commented Apr 5, 2026 • edited by kjarosh Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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New configuration option

Notes

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robinmiau commented Apr 5, 2026 •

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