Re: Composition [was Re: gnome-session proposal]

[Karl Lattimer <karl qdh org uk>]

On Thu, 2008-06-26 at 17:25 +0100, Iain * wrote:
> 2008/6/26 Mathias Hasselmann <mathias hasselmann gmx de>:
> > Am Donnerstag, den 26.06.2008, 15:28 +0100 schrieb Alexander Jones:
> >> Agreed, we need to move towards expecting Composited as default and
> >> Direct as a niche case, but this was just an example. :)
> >
> > Guess Metacity's compositor needs to become much faster first.
> > Activating its compositor introduces such a lag, that is isn't
> > fun anymore.
> 
> I'm assuming you've turned on the appropriate xorg configuration
> options to enable the correct acceleration
> and none of that helped? I forget what they are, but I'm sure someone
> will chime in.

ching

Section "Extensions"
	Option	    "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection


> If you are one of those people with a crap graphics card (or drivers)
> I have been working on getting a strange hybrid compositor working
> that I'm assuming should be much faster
> so that you can have simple compositing to give translucency without
> any stupid effects at all.
> Because really, the only essential feature of a compositor is
> translucency, everything else is just extra guff.
> (Ironically, its working perfectly except for translucent windows...)
> 
> But none of this is relevent to the gnome-session discussion, so we
> shall move it to a seperate thread.

Have you looked at xcompmgr? it might be a good starting point. I have
somewhere a hacked up version of xcompmgr which has some extra features.
Let me know if you'd like it.

And although you think translucency is the only useful feature, I think
window shadows are an essential addition also, as they provide some
depth to the window layering.

BR, 
 K