I've made a 2D tile-based game with DOM/Javascript. For each level, the map data is loaded and parsed, then lots of tiles ( elements) are drawn onto a larger "map" element. The map is inside of a container that hides overflow, so I can move the map element around by positioning it absolutely. Works a treat on desktop browsers, and my iPad 2.

My problem is that performance is really bad on iPad 1. The performance hit is directly related to all the tile elements in my map, because when I remove or reduce the number of tiles drawn, performance improves. Optimizing my collision detection loop has no effect.

My first thought was to batch groups of tiles into containers, then hide/show them based on proximity to the player, however this still causes a huge hiccup when the player moves and a new group of tiles is displayed (offscreen). Actually removing the out-of-sight elements from the DOM, then re-adding them as necessary is no faster.

Anyone know of any tips that might speed up DOM performance here? My map is 1920 x 1920 pixels, so as far as I know should be within the WebKit texture limit on iOS 5/iPad. The map is being moved with CSS3 transforms, and I've picked all the other obvious low-hanging fruit.