Bug 229963

Summary: desktop effect animations choppy when another window is in the background
Product: [Plasma] kwin Reporter: S. Christian Collins <s_chriscollins>
Component: generalAssignee: KWin default assignee <kwin-bugs-null>
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE    
Severity: normal    
Priority: NOR    
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Ubuntu   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:

Description S. Christian Collins 2010-03-08 17:25:04 UTC
Version:            (using KDE 4.4.1)
OS:                Linux
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages

** Bug Description **
If an application is the sole window open on the screen, its animations are smooth (minimize, restore, fade-in and fade-out).  However, if another window is already open in the background, then the foreground's window's animations are noticeably choppier.

** Reproducing the bug **
1) Open two instances of Dolphin; we'll call them "Dolphin A" and "Dolphin B".
2) Resize Dolphin A to be around 50-60% horizontal and 50-60% vertical respective to the screen's width.
3) Maximize Dolphin B, and then minimize it.
4) Repeatedly minimize and restore Dolphin A (there should be no other windows showing on-screen).  Note how smooth the animation is.
5) Now, restore the maximized Dolphin B.
6) Repeatedly minimize and restore Dolphin A with Dolphin B sitting behind it on-screen.  On my system the minimize/restore animation of Dolphin A is noticeably more choppy.

** Enabled Compositing Effects **
For your reference, here are the effects that I have enabled: Invert, Zoom, Fade, Login, Logout, Minimize Animation, Shadow, Slide, Taskbar Thumbnails, Translucency, Dialog Parent, Dim Screen for Administrator Mode, Box Switch.

** /etc/X11/xorg.conf **
Section "Module"
    Load           "glx"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Configured Video Device"
    Driver         "nvidia"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Default Screen"
    Device         "Configured Video Device"
    Monitor        "Configured Monitor"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "NoLogo" "true"
    Option         "RenderAccel" "true"
    Option         "TwinView" "false"
    Option         "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "true"
    Option         "UseEvents" "false"
    Option         "TripleBuffer" "1"
    Option         "DamageEvents" "1"
    Option         "InitialPixmapPlacement" "2"
    Option         "BackingStore" "1"
    Option         "PixmapCacheSize" "70000"
    Option         "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "true"

    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes      "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       16
        Modes      "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       8
        Modes      "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

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

** My System **
Motherboard: MSI K9N SLI Platinum (nForce 570 SLI chipset)
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 4000+ (2.6 GHz)
RAM: 2GB DDR2
Video: Dell NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX w/ 256 MB RAM (PCI Express)
OS: Kubuntu 9.10 i386 (with KDE SC 4.4.1)
Linux Kernel: 2.6.31-9-rt
NVIDIA driver: 185.18.36
Screen Resolution: 1280 x 960
X.org: 7.4
Qt version: 4.6.1
Comment 1 Martin Flöser 2010-03-08 17:31:19 UTC
Can you please try a window decoration which does not use animations. For example Plastik.

(Personal note: since using the 195.x driver the issue is completely gone for me)
Comment 2 Thomas Lübking 2010-03-08 17:41:02 UTC
also ensure you're using "nvidia-settings -q InitialPixmapPlacement" "1", "2" is (really) 10 times slower in this regard...
Comment 3 S. Christian Collins 2010-03-08 18:44:52 UTC
Okay, changing InitialPixmapPlacement between 2, 1 and 0 had no effect, but using the Plastik window decoration solved the problem.  I'll have to test the new NVIDIA driver, but I won't do that until Kubuntu Lucid beta is released, at which point I'll begin beta testing Lucid with the new NVIDIA driver.
Comment 4 Martin Flöser 2010-03-08 20:29:51 UTC

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 226182 ***