kwin/COMPOSITE_TODO

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This file lists TODO items for the compositing code.
See file COMPOSITE_HOWTO for setting up kwin_composite.
See file HACKING for details on developing KWin, including building
the kwin_composite branch.
See effects/howto.* for a HOWTO on writting effects.
See documentation in source (mainly in scene.cpp) for description
of the design of the compositing framework.
TODO
=================================
* = not done, will be either done by me, or should be at least discussed first with me
+ = not done, I don't plan on doing it that soon
- in other words, these should be the best ones for you if you want to help
! = like +, but they should be relatively simple
- in other words, these should be the best if you want to get started with the code
/ = work in progress
? = should it be done?
% = should be probably done later, during cleanups and preparations for being stable
KDE 4.0 TODO
=================================
- animations
- need to be faster (300ms at most)
- global setting?
/ configure dialog
- dump kompmgr settings
? - some simple basic settings in the Translucency config tab
- generic options
? - when enabling compositing, have a confirmation msgbox with 10-sec delay
as with resolution changes: if you don't click ok before timeout then
fall back to non-composited mode.
- shortcut configuration
- configurable per effect (in the options dialog)
- handle selecting mode
/ opengl vs xrender option
- tfp vs shm should not be needed
- different handling of differeng gfx cards
- check that nvidia/ati/intel work and add specific hacks if needed
- the same about driver versions
- default effects and their settings
- effects (to do)
- add configuration options (dialogs)
- add generic support to use effect only for certain window types [Seli]
- split effects to groups (eyecandy, accessibility, whatever)
- login effect, e.g. fade to desktop
- logout effect [Seli]
- effect for windows demanding attention
- rays? ripples?
- explosion
? - use for forcible killing (add support to windowClosed())
- diminactive
* - needs grouping for unmanaged windows [Seli]
- trailfocus (windows keep getting darker over time)
* - inactive window notification (when it stops responding) [Seli]
- shadow
- xrender mode
- needs to follow the window shape
- make transparent
- make windows that are moved/resized by the user slightly transparent
- hide all testing, demo etc. effects in final builds
- presentwindows
- should show window icon, title (like boxswitch)
- boxswitch
- should share some features (next/previous, etc.) with presentwindows
? - duplicate code or try to share it?
- desktopgrid
- should preserve aspect ratio (as an option?)
- taskbar thumbnail [Seli]
- define protocol (with _KDE prefix for now?)
- add support to taskbar
- rollup animation when shading/unshading window [Seli]
- also use it for comboboxes
- select a region to zoom
- needs mouse to be warped
- fix inclusion of config-X11.h in installed headers [Seli]
- IHV database - set config settings according to card/driver
? - some sort of performance slider
? - undirect fullscreen windows
- fix shading
- window-specific rules need to apply to unmanaged windows as well (where applicable)
- some window-specific rules also related to compositing
- opacity
? generic dbus scripting support
/ check effects' dependencies when loading [rivo]
/ correct ordering for effects [rivo]
would be nice if isn't too strict
/ vertex redesign [Seli]
- handling of window pixmaps for unmapped windows [Seli]
- strict binding
- shm mode needs support for more data formats than GL_BGRA
? __GL_YIELD=NOTHING
- check what works with XRender
- more notification functions for effects
- documentation
- disable application effects when kwin can provide them, e.g. shadow/transparency
- since API won't be stable, a version check for modules is needed
General TODO
=================================
? alpha clear hack
- some decorations have parts transparent, probably because they don't expect
to have an alpha channel
- should be probably simply fixed in the decorations
- if not feasible, code that makes non-alpha windows opaque (SceneOpenGL::Window::prepareRenderStates())
could be used to also ignore alpha channel of the decoration
? wait for decoration repaints
- it is sometimes visible that the window contents are painted first and the decoration
only afterwards with a small delay
? - this has been already greatly improved by r632378, so it's maybe not worth it anymore
- maybe posted paint events need to be processed immediatelly, or maybe the compositing
code should not update the window until the decoration is finished painting
? Expose events for overlay window - is it necessary to track it, like with root window?
% paint throttling
- there's 5ms grace period per repaint to avoid overloading the system with just compositing
and not letting the system do anything else - check and evaluate
% support for new window types from the wm spec for compositing
- this will have to be done in Qt, kdecore and kwin
* handle properly stacking order of deleted windows for showing in effects
* handle properly deleted windows that reappear (windowReadded() function?)
/ consider using an extra class for representing deleted windows
- cleaning up Client/Unmanaged instances may still leave e.g. timers around if they're overlooked
- an extra class could copy some interesting data and "replace" the old instance
% during screensaving, do no let non-screensaver windows show above screensaver
- kdesktop_lock watches for such things and raises again, but there's a small gap
% nvidia drivers by default use fake refresh rates as a workaround for some X limitations
- see the DynamicTwinView section in nvidia README
- this makes KWin repaint at a different rate than it should
/ handling of window pixmap for unmapped windows
- currently it's kept around after a window is unmapped
* - but it's still discarded on e.g. resize - how to solve this?
* - perhaps there should be an option not to unmap windows in order to always have live thumbnails
* - another option could be to unmap but quickly map when a live thumbnail is needed
* cursorPos() does not work reliably now (not from e.g. timers, it needs events), so it's disabled
* window grouping is not implemented for unmanaged windows (used e.g. by DimInactive)
% clean up and sort out shortcuts so that they don't conflict and make sense
- also make configurable etc.
% installed headers currently include config.h files to find out about e.g. OpenGL
- this needs to be sorted out somehow, installed headers shouldn't do this
? hidden previews currently needs input shape extension, otherwise the window can possibly interfere
- not very likely though, so is this worth bothering at all?
+ hidden preview has two modes unimplemented
OpenGL TODO
=================================
/ Check/make it work with other gfx cards
% Xgl support
- should work
- in SceneGL::Texture::findTarget() there is a hack that makes KWin work with XGL
without requiring KWin to be built against the libGL version that Compiz is
built against
% - that may not be necessary somewhen later
- interesting observation: normally run glxgears performs somewhat poorly compared
to normal nvidia mode, changing glxgears to be override-redirect (i.e. no reparenting)
however makes glxgears to be even faster than without any compositing at all,
in this case however kwin's redrawing speed drops somewhat
% AIGLX support
- should work
+ - it needs indirect rendering, should be autodetected and disabled somehow
% - may require LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT set with older X.org
(http://lists.kde.org/?l=kwin&m=116439615124838&w=2)
(http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg/2006-December/020323.html)
/ GL_ARB_texture_rectangle vs GL_ARB_texture_non_power_of_two
% - works; bugs in tfp_mode with power_of_two textures
- ati (others?): power_of_two windows are drawn white unless non-tfp_mode
is forced in findTextureTarget()
+ strict binding
- there is code to support strict binding as required by AIGLX, but it's disabled, because
copy_buffer in bindTexture() ensures strict binding as a side-effect
- since copy_buffer hack should be removed in the future, strict binding will need to be enabled then
- http://lists.kde.org/?l=kwin&m=116363084129170&w=2
% bindTexture() optimize copied areas
- right now bindTexture() updates every damaged area and resets the window damage
- it might make things faster to update only areas that need to be repainted
and keep the rest damaged until needed
% clipping optimization
- like XRender code has paintTransformedScreen(), avoid painting parts that are
obscured (makes a difference with many windows open)
- http://lists.kde.org/?l=kwin&m=116585618111882&w=2
/ shm mode needs support for more data formats than GL_BGRA
- http://www.xfree86.org/current/glTexImage2D.3.html
- this now works for 16bpp, but maybe not 15bpp or less
- endian issues?
% with current nvidia glXCreatePixmap in tfp mode fails with pixmaps 32x32 and smaller
/ vertices list (and possibly more things) should not be part of SceneOpenGL::Window
- otherwise drawWindow() used for thumbnails would use them too
- they should be probably part of WindowPaintData
% __GL_YIELD=NOTHING for NVidia reportedly improves perceived performance
- it needs to be set somehow (http://lists.kde.org/?l=kwin&m=117794153720348&w=2)
XRender TODO
==============================
+ SceneXrender::Window::performPaint() doesn't use saturation
+ SceneXrender::Window::performPaint() doesn't use brightness
+ SceneXrender::paintTransformedScreen() doesn't handle properly extending of painted area
in window's pre-paint - see the transformedShape() comment
Effects framework TODO
==============================
* more notification functions for effects are needed
- currently there are only very few notification functions (windowAdded, windowActivated,...)
! - window state changes
? more
/ shadows
+ - right now is only a rectangle, probably needs some shape support
+ - right now is only a flat black color, probably should be improved
/ support for grabbing input
- during some more complicated effects, input (at least mouse) should be disabled,
because currently there is no way to do input redirection
* PAINT_DISABLED turning off from effects needs some improvement
- a window may have painting disabled for various reasons and their numbers may increase
over time
- so e.g. an effect showing minimized windows cannot simply turn off DISABLED
for minimized windows, because it may be disabled also for other reasons
- there should be some utility function that will be called by the effect
with arguments saying which disabled windows it wants enabled
+ EffectWindow should be completely opaque when kept as the only API for effects
- no inlines, etc.
+ API for tabbox for effects should be cleaned up
* check Scene::updateTimeDiff() - should the time be 0 or 1?
% post calls are probably not necessary by now (http://lists.kde.org/?t=117770818100003&r=1&w=2)
% consider using http://lists.kde.org/?l=kwin&m=118094888517415&w=2 for notification functions
% API cleanups and making sure it will stay backwards compatible
? - should we try at all for 4.0? it will be probably still too "unstable" at that point
Effects TODO
===============================
+ adapt the kcontrol module used by Kompmgr
- in kcmkwin/kwinoptions
! - uses ~/.xcompmgr, convert to use normal KConfig
? - I don't think these effects should be plugins or anything like that,
probably simply write to kwinrc and use the Option class in KWin
/ implements all effects Kompmgr could do
/ - shadows
+ - tab Effects
+ - fade between changes
- will need notification about opacity changes
- not sure if this is doable for other opacity changes then the ones
initiated by the user or by the application
+ minimize/shade effects
- to replace the ones from KWin core
/ - minimizing
- check support for it and the avoid_animation flag
+ - shading
- shading will probably need special support
/ zoom effect
- enlarge a portion of the screen
+ logout effect
* - should be triggered by ksmserver somehow
+ effects to replace widget effects (the ones in the Effects tab in "kcmshell style")
+ - needs support for new window types from the current draft of the EWMH WM spec
+ - needs patching Qt, netwm* classes in kdecore
/ showfps effect
- for debugging, just shows transparent fps in some corner
- just painting the number in paintScreen() should do, with glPushMatrix() and glLoadIdentity()
to avoid all transformations
+ - needs bindPixmapToTexture() or something like that, for displaying the text
- should also detect kwin being idle - it probably should detect in pre-paint that the only
damage is its own area and avoid damaging for the next round in post-paint
+ debugpaint effect
- should show what is damaged during each repaint step
- probably just e.g. paint a red almost transparent area over damaged areas
- needs special care to avoid causing infinite loops by its own damage (i.e. it damages
part of screen to clear its own painting, that triggers itself again next repaint)
? other effects
+ virtual desktop change effects
+ - ... yes, you guessed it, the cube
/ - something that presents all virtual desktops as being in grid (as in pager)
and zooms out of the old one and into the new one
- or whatever
/ present windows
+ - option to show windows with relative sizes to each other
/ scalein
+ - should scale in from e.g. 80%, not 0%, to just "pop up"
+ effect for drawing attention to windows demanding attention
* DimInactive flickers when switching between windows (temporarily no window becomes active)
+ generic class for shader effects
- focus effect (windows waves a little when it gets focus)