[SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

Archdove · 2013-04-12 19:45:17

Hi

My problem is not a problem in particular. I just want to ask the masses if they have the same experiences as i do.

So. For me using Awesome WM it seems impossible to have both, compositing and videos without tearing. I've tried with different compositing managers and even without one, but the only thing solving the issue is disabling composite for Xort.

Is there anyone using Awesome WM with activated compositioning, who can watch videos without tearing? If yes: Which graphics card is used?

Window Managers which do not suffer from tearing seem to be:
- Compiz
- Gnome3
- Others?

ps. Any suggestions for solving this for Nvidia cards are much appreciated.

Last edited by Archdove (2013-04-13 23:06:22)

DSpider · 2013-04-12 20:10:06

Yeah... Same goes for Openbox/Fluxbox, Xfce, E17, etc. They all have tearing during videos, because Xorg has this limitation. Well, actually XRendr does (or was it "XRandR"? I forget). Wayland doesn't have this limitation, but a lot of applications don't support Wayland (yet).

Basically, with Xorg, you need an OpenGL WM, and "Gnome3" is not a WM; you probably mean Mutter. There's also KWin (KDE).

Last edited by DSpider (2013-04-12 20:11:06)

z1lt0id · 2013-04-13 05:59:10

I was able to solve all tearing issues with compositing under the Awesome WM using a Nvidia GTX 670 last night. Which I was amazed at. I installed the compton-git from Aur and inputted the following:

compton --backend glx --paint-on-overlay --vsync opengl-swc

Archdove · 2013-04-13 06:46:41

Hey z1lt0id that sounds interesting. I will try this next week and give some feedback here.b

koshak · 2013-04-13 09:40:11

I confirm z1lt0id's words. Using the same setup. Just share my own string from .xinitrc:

compton -bfzcCG --backend glx --vsync opengl-swc --paint-on-overlay -D5 -r6 -l-8 -t-8

Using this on both PC with nvidia 9500gt and latest nvidia drivers and on a laptop with old gm965 and xf86-video-intel

z1lt0id · 2013-04-13 13:48:54

koshak wrote:

I confirm z1lt0id's words. Using the same setup. Just share my own string from .xinitrc:
compton -bfzcCG --backend glx --vsync opengl-swc --paint-on-overlay -D5 -r6 -l-8 -t-8
Using this on both PC with nvidia 9500gt and latest nvidia drivers and on a laptop with old gm965 and xf86-video-intel

Glad it worked for you to koshak

ewaller · 2013-04-13 16:08:29

The funny part about this thread -- when I read the title, I thought 'tearless' meant how to do it without crying

ooo · 2013-04-13 16:13:05

compton(-git) works amazingly well! Just got the glx backend working just as fast as xrender with latest git, with absolultely no tearing!
Even if the opengl backend isn't working for you, you can make it almost tear-free with --vsync drm.

here are my settings for reference. I think --glx-no-stencil and --glx-no-rebind-pixmap were the crucial settings for me (using open source radeon driver)

compton -c -r4 -l-6 -t-4 -z -b \
 -G -C -e0.85 \
 -f -D30 -I0.45 -O0.45 \
 --paint-on-overlay --unredir-if-possible \
 --backend glx --glx-no-stencil --glx-no-rebind-pixmap

Last edited by ooo (2013-04-14 16:45:14)

WorMzy · 2013-04-13 16:16:24

^ Always a worry when using a onion-based compositor. Fortunately compton uses potatoes for this purpose.

koshak · 2013-04-13 20:46:34

Onion comes out of the box for almost all linux distros. And only few projects, like compiz and compton (maybe there are some more, like infinality, but it's the matter of taste...) seem to replace it with potatoes

cfr · 2013-04-13 22:28:24

Maybe some of this could go in the wiki?

karabaja4 · 2013-04-13 22:39:10

Thanks for the tip on compton. It is really awesome, rock solid and does exactly what it is supposed to.

Archdove · 2013-04-14 16:20:13

ewaller wrote:

The funny part about this thread -- when I read the title, I thought 'tearless' meant how to do it without crying

It is funny because thats basically what you get out of this thread :-)

This has to go to the wiki somewhere. Up until now it was just impossible to google a solution.

Thanks guys. Great work!

koshak · 2013-04-15 09:08:24

Thank chjj https://github.com/chjj/compton

kokoko3k · 2013-04-16 18:18:16

compton -c -r8 -l-12 -t-8  -b  -G  -f -D30 -I0.45 -O0.45  --paint-on-overlay --unredir-if-possible  --backend glx --glx-no-stencil --glx-no-rebind-pixmap

Intel 945gm, no ~/.drirc
Firefox never scrolled so smoothly with compositing enabled!

...going to report this to kwin developers, there is something in compton (probably vsync related) they should look for

Thank you for this thread.

JohnnyWho · 2013-04-16 19:59:24

Also xfwm4, the xfce window manager works great with compositing enabled!

DSpider · 2013-04-16 20:08:02

The window manager may work "great" on its own, but this topic is about video tearing and you do get video tearing in Xfce with compositing enabled.

kokoko3k · 2013-04-17 08:35:05

If anybody want to track:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=318491

z1lt0id · 2013-04-17 08:54:26

DSpider wrote:

The window manager may work "great" on its own, but this topic is about video tearing and you do get video tearing in Xfce with compositing enabled.

But can't you use the Compton composite manger instead of the default one in XFCE?

brebs · 2013-04-17 11:53:06

z1lt0id wrote:

can't you use the Compton composite manger instead of the default one in XFCE?

Yes. I tried this a couple of days ago. Compton fixes the flickering top of screen in e.g. Descent2, also.

In case it's important, my xfwm4 is compiled with --disable-compositor

It was nice to try, but I'll stick with disabling Composite in xorg.conf, for an easy life.

z1lt0id · 2013-04-17 13:04:01

If you want the best absolute performance it is best to disable compositing anyway. For me with Awesome if I didn't enable I'd get tearing in everything.

hamelg · 2013-04-17 20:13:47

I use kde and mythtv. I solve that with a simple wrapper to launch mythtv :

#!/bin/bash

pidof /usr/bin/mythfrontend && exit 1
trap "qdbus org.kde.kwin /KWin org.kde.KWin.toggleCompositing" EXIT
qdbus org.kde.kwin /KWin org.kde.KWin.toggleCompositing
/usr/bin/mythfrontend "$@"

ooo · 2013-04-17 23:52:47

hamelg wrote:

I use kde and mythtv. I solve that with a simple wrapper to launch mythtv :

#!/bin/bash

pidof /usr/bin/mythfrontend && exit 1
trap "qdbus org.kde.kwin /KWin org.kde.KWin.toggleCompositing" EXIT
qdbus org.kde.kwin /KWin org.kde.KWin.toggleCompositing
/usr/bin/mythfrontend "$@"

I thought kwin already disables desktop effects when you enter fullscreen applications, or at least there should be option for that.

compton has this feature as well if you enable the --unredir-if-possible option.

z1lt0id · 2013-04-18 00:28:01

There is an option for Kwin to disable desktop effects on fullscreen applications but it can be problematic and doesn't always work. I always just disabled compositing effects before I load up said program to be safer. According to the compton manual --unredir-if-possible may cause flickering. I'm curious to try this out and see how it goes

kokoko3k · 2013-04-18 15:01:48

For me, unredirecting via kwin worked all the time.
@hamelg: in newer kde versions, you can use window rules to completely block compositing when kwin detects a particular window.
see: http://userbase.kde.org/KWin_Rules_Window_Attributes

@z1lt0id
As for compton --unredir-if-possible, it works too, and you'll get a flick everytime you go from unredirect to redirect, (eg: when you popup a menu while in fullscreen) --paint-on-overlay, makes the flickering less evident.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-04-12 19:45:17

[SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#2 2013-04-12 20:10:06

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#3 2013-04-13 05:59:10

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#4 2013-04-13 06:46:41

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#5 2013-04-13 09:40:11

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#6 2013-04-13 13:48:54

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#7 2013-04-13 16:08:29

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#8 2013-04-13 16:13:05

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#9 2013-04-13 16:16:24

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#10 2013-04-13 20:46:34

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#11 2013-04-13 22:28:24

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#12 2013-04-13 22:39:10

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#13 2013-04-14 16:20:13

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#14 2013-04-15 09:08:24

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#15 2013-04-16 18:18:16

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#16 2013-04-16 19:59:24

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#17 2013-04-16 20:08:02

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#18 2013-04-17 08:35:05

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#19 2013-04-17 08:54:26

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#20 2013-04-17 11:53:06

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#21 2013-04-17 13:04:01

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#22 2013-04-17 20:13:47

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#23 2013-04-17 23:52:47

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#24 2013-04-18 00:28:01

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

#25 2013-04-18 15:01:48

Re: [SOLVED] Tearless compositing.

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