# OpenAsar FAQ

### What is an asar?
An asar is a format for [Electron](https://electronjs.org), commonly used for the first part of apps as `app.asar`. Discord's `app.asar` includes various parts like:
- Updater
- Bootstrapping main part of the app
- Some crash and error reporting
- Splash screen

*OpenAsar* is an open-source alternative / rewrite / etc of Discord's `app.asar` which hopes to bring the various features outlined in the readme.

### Does OpenAsar support X mod?
Most likely, yes! OpenAsar is known to widely support BD, PC, GM, and others. It's very unlikely to cause any issues with your mods.

### This didn't speed up Discord that much for me?
If OpenAsar wasn't that much faster (in term of startup time) you likely already have a good PC. OpenAsar speeds up most for lower-end PCs, especially those without an SSD. You will likely still notice a subtle (~1.2x) difference.

### How does OpenAsar make the client "snappier" / more performant?
OpenAsar optimizes Chromium (the web engine / browser Discord uses) to help increase performance, mostly rendering, which looks like it helps makes most (~90%) people's clients looking noticeably snappier / faster generally. This is most noticeable with things like scrolling quickly, switching channels, and with various animations like tooltips for servers in the sidebar plus settings opening / closing.

### How is this so fast?
The main speed increase (default options) is mostly accidental / coincidental (not intended) as it is mostly a side effect of rewriting it.

### How is this so small?
Compared to Discord's original, OpenAsar is <2% of the size. This is because when rewriting we remove NPM dependencies with our own custom code for more performance and efficiency. These are replaced with custom polyfills (compatible replacements).

### What is Quickstart?
Quickstart "skips" a few Discord features like the splash screen and waiting for updates in favour of speed. It is currently experimental and not fully recommended for normal use.

### Is this 100% original?
No, and depends on your definition. By original if you mean all of this is rewritten, not containing any original Discord code - not yet but we hope for v2.0. If you mean original by design, etc. - no, as we have to follow Discord APIs to maintain compatibility.