Re: Timelapsed backgrounds

[Soeren Sandmann <sandmann daimi au dk>]

Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org> writes:

> > The idea is that the background gradually fades between a number of images
> > over the course of a day. One example would be a set of images taken at
> > the same location at different times of the day.
> 
> It would be rad if that fade could be used for background switching in other
> situations. For instance:
> 
>  * Whenever the gconf key changes, fade fairly quickly (it could be user
>    prompting, or it could be something else automating the change).

As Matthias said, the implementation is simple enough: Draw the images
to pixmaps, then use XRender to blend them.

I don't know if this will be fast enough though. In the best case
where both pixmaps end up in video memory and the hardware driver
supports accelerated blending, it definitely will be fast enough, but
in other cases performance will be somewhere between "a bit choppy"
and "I can see individual scanlines being drawn".

>  * Provide a way to have a set of backgrounds and fade between them at
>    regular intervals.
> 
> Stuff like that. Blingy, but cute. :-)

One of the nice things about the GnomeBG code is that things like
these can be implemented once and they will automatically show up in
nautilus and in the control center.

So, sure, this is possible. The XML format is intended to be extended
so that it can describe other kinds of backgrounds.


Soren