Compton Compositing Window Manager Slows Down

[stqn]

I'm curious, what does the --shadow-exclude "! name~=''" -b do exactly?

It removes shadows from nameless windows, and thus there is no more a big black shadow on top of the currently selected window when I use alt-tab.

[bwat47]

I switched from Xfwm’s compositor to Compton two days ago and I’m very happy with it.
For what it’s worth here are the parameters I’m using:

compton -c -f -o 1.0 -I 0.1 -O 0.1 -C -i 0.95 -z --vsync opengl --unredir-if-possible --shadow-exclude "! name~=''" -b

I gained a very nice fade in/fade out effect, and of course no more tearing in VLC.

Same here, compton is a godsend for XFCE (and any other light desktop). Finally no more tearing in vidoes. I love that compton does not need to replace the window manager like compiz, so I still use all of XFCE's native window management, perfect integration. It performs great and seems extremely stable too.

I'm curious, what does the --shadow-exclude "! name~=''" -b do exactly?

Here's the setup I'm using at the moment: compton --backend glx --paint-on-overlay --glx-no-stencil --vsync opengl-swc --config ~/.compton.conf -b &

and for the config:

# Shadow
shadow = true; # Enabled client-side shadows on windows.
no-dock-shadow = true; # Avoid drawing shadows on dock/panel windows.
no-dnd-shadow = true; # Don't draw shadows on DND windows.
clear-shadow = true; # Zero the part of the shadow's mask behind the window (experimental).
shadow-radius = 7; # The blur radius for shadows. (default 12)
shadow-offset-x = -7; # The left offset for shadows. (default -15)
shadow-offset-y = -7; # The top offset for shadows. (default -15)
shadow-exclude = [ "n:e:Notification", "g:e:Synapse", "g:e:Conky", "class_g ?= 'Xfce4-notifyd'"];

# Fading
fading = true; # Fade windows during opacity changes.
fade-delta = 5; # The time between steps in a fade in milliseconds. (default 10).
fade-in-step = 0.03; # Opacity change between steps while fading in. (default 0.028).
fade-out-step = 0.03; # Opacity change between steps while fading out. (default 0.03).
# no-fading-openclose = true; # Fade windows in/out when opening/closing

# Window type settings
wintypes:
{
  tooltip = { fade = true; shadow = false; };
};

Only issue I've had so far is the dropdowns on the firefox toolbar (like the new download manager) look a but weird: http://i.imgur.com/9TWFuNH.png

[stqn]

I switched from Xfwm’s compositor to Compton two days ago and I’m very happy with it.
For what it’s worth here are the parameters I’m using:

compton -c -f -o 1.0 -I 0.1 -O 0.1 -C -i 0.95 -z --vsync opengl --unredir-if-possible --shadow-exclude "! name~=''" -b

I gained a very nice fade in/fade out effect, and of course no more tearing in VLC.

[h**2]

You could also use unagi:

http://unagi.mini-dweeb.org/

It is written in XCB...

[Rexilion]

Nice job, taking things out of context. That blog post was talking about the PPA, not the program itself.

I understand your point. Yet I don't agree. Besides, a PPA is never finished as you have to update it. But alas, you have a point (somewhat...).

Furthermore, what is to 'finish' at a PPA?

[cfeck]

Checking branches...

https://github.com/chjj/compton/commits/richardgv-dev

[not.sure]

Speaking of lightweight compositors, cairo-compmgr has much better performance and also supports a lot of effects (via plugins) like transparency, animations, window expo, etc. which actually work well in pure software rendering. Here's a quick demo in Unity 2D (all compositing done by cairo-compmgr, not metacity): http://youtu.be/pmvehTl_PYo

I also maintain a PPA with it: https://launchpad.net/~shnatsel/+archive/cairo-compmgr

That looks pretty neat! Thanks for mentioning it.

[Shnatsel]

Speaking of lightweight compositors, cairo-compmgr has much better performance and also supports a lot of effects (via plugins) like transparency, animations, window expo, etc. which actually work well in pure software rendering. Here's a quick demo in Unity 2D (all compositing done by cairo-compmgr, not metacity): http://youtu.be/pmvehTl_PYo

I also maintain a PPA with it: https://launchpad.net/~shnatsel/+archive/cairo-compmgr

[uid313]

He ought to write it in Xcb instead of Xlib.

[NeoBrain]

Kind of makes sense doesn't it??

Nice job, taking things out of context. That blog post was talking about the PPA, not the program itself.