Vantage documentation

Video rendering

Linux WebKit video behavior depends on the GPU, compositor, drivers, GStreamer stack and whether Vantage is running on bare metal or a VM. Vantage therefore exposes an explicit rendering preference instead of pretending one path is universal.

Modes

Mode	Use
Compatibility	Conservative default for avoiding blank/flickering video on problematic stacks and VMs.
Accelerated	Try when the system graphics/WebKit stack behaves correctly and hardware acceleration is desired.

Persist a preference

vant settings video-rendering compatibility
vant settings video-rendering accelerated

The saved preference applies on the next launch because relevant WebKit configuration must be established during startup.

Override one launch

vant --compatibility-video-rendering https://example.com
vant --accelerated-video-rendering https://example.com

Diagnose methodically

When video is blank, flickering or unstable, compare the two Vantage modes before changing unrelated browser settings. Record GPU/driver, compositor/session type, WebKitGTK version and GStreamer package state so the result is reproducible.

pkg-config --modversion webkitgtk-6.0
echo "$XDG_SESSION_TYPE"
vainfo 2>/dev/null || true

Virtual machines

VM graphics acceleration frequently differs from the host and may make compatibility mode preferable. Benchmark browser correctness separately from GPU acceleration: a working page under compatibility mode is more useful than an unstable accelerated path.