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XtrmGmr99

Member

Registered: 2009-04-14

Posts: 128

KDE4 Panels and Windows covering them...

Hello,

Normally, I like to have my panel visible. I'm not one of those people who like to automatically hide them, or have windows cover them. I like to quickly look at what's open, etc...

Except when I play games. I play an online MMO called EVE Online. I'v e got it running well uner WINE (only a few minor things that I need to fix) and it runs great. However, I've had to incorporate several workarounds to get it to display properly since I use TwinView and I wanted to play the game on one monitor only. Here's is the command I use to play it:

wine explorer /desktop=Client1,1680x1050 "C:\Program Files\CCP\EVE\eve.exe"

This works well. I also use KWins awesome window-specific setings to remember additional window parameters, such as forcing Fullscreen off and No Borders on: see, I like running my game in a "window" but to have no borders so that looks like it's fullscreen. This has some benefits including flawless Alt+Tab (some games just don't like to do it) and being able to go quickly to different windows (like a browser to look something up).

However, this Windowed + No Border thing, while working flawlessly, has led to a sticky situation with my KDE panel. Like I said, I like my panels to always show unless I'm playing a game. When the game is in Windowed mode, the panel sits there at the bottom and sticks out like a sore thumb (not to mention getting in the way of in-game controls that the panel covers). I've been forced to auto-hide my panel until I can find a suitable workaround.

And thus to my question: Is there anyway to have specific windows (via KWins "window specific" settings or otherwise) force itself to override (or otherwise ignore) KDE's panels settings when it comes to visibility? There are very few windows that I ever want to cover the panel with, and all of them are for games.

Thanks for any help!

Last edited by XtrmGmr99 (2010-09-16 22:03:24)

Primoz

Member

From: Ljubljana-Slovena-EU

Registered: 2009-03-04

Posts: 688

Re: KDE4 Panels and Windows covering them...

Well there's an ugly option which you'll probably won't like, but still it's there .
Anyway make a (if you don't already have) a desktop file to start your game then add this before it:

kquitapp plasma-desktop&& env WINEPREFIX="/home/primoz/.wine" wine "C:\\path\to\your\game" && plasma-desktop&

As you can see it's an really ugly hack, but it rids you of all plasma problems...

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BurntSushi

Member

From: Massachusetts

Registered: 2009-06-28

Posts: 362

Website

Re: KDE4 Panels and Windows covering them...

Can you set the KWin window settings for the game to be always on top? That should make it cover the panel.

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XtrmGmr99

Member

Registered: 2009-04-14

Posts: 128

Re: KDE4 Panels and Windows covering them...

Well there's an ugly option which you'll probably won't like, but still it's there .
Anyway make a (if you don't already have) a desktop file to start your game then add this before it:

kquitapp plasma-desktop&& env WINEPREFIX="/home/primoz/.wine" wine "C:\\path\to\your\game" && plasma-desktop&

As you can see it's an really ugly hack, but it rids you of all plasma problems...

Oh dear lord, I don't want to quit plasma. lol. Way too messy, but at least you're thinking outside the box! =P

Can you set the KWin window settings for the game to be always on top? That should make it cover the panel.

I could, and it does work, but not that way I'd like because it keeps above EVERYTHING, not just the panel. Like I said above, I do other tasks while I play; browse the web, look stuff up, have a few terminals open, etc... and if the game window is set to always be on top then I can't have those other apps on the screen. Sure, I could use my second screen, but I usually have a webbrowser under the game window that I can quickly alt+tab to and pop up...

Maybe I'm just too picky. >_>

Zom

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2007-10-27

Posts: 430

Re: KDE4 Panels and Windows covering them...

Why not set a hotkey to mark the current window as "Always on top"?

Then you could just hit that key and alt+tab away to another window, then when you start playing again you could just hit the key again.

XtrmGmr99

Member

Registered: 2009-04-14

Posts: 128

Re: KDE4 Panels and Windows covering them...

Why not set a hotkey to mark the current window as "Always on top"?

Then you could just hit that key and alt+tab away to another window, then when you start playing again you could just hit the key again.

That... could work. Only problem is that I Alt+Tab fairly often and it might get in the way. I'll have to try this and see if it works well enough. Thanks for the idea!