Version: (using KDE KDE 4.0.0) Installed from: Ubuntu Packages OS: Linux I have an idea that I think will make things easier for some people and hopefully this is not hard to implement. I really like the compositing/desktop effects of KDE4. The only downside is that when I have these effects turned on, I lose about half of the framerate for my video card when I play 3D games. I know compositing with KDE4 may not be mature yet, but I have an idea to reach a cool middleground for people like me that play games and video, and suffer slowdown from compositing, but like the compositing too much to turn it off. In the properties window for an icon, perhaps there should be a tickbox that says something like "disable desktop effects while this program is running". The option would be in kmenuedit also. That way, it's not a burden for all the developers to choose what programs disable compositing and which ones don't, it's up to me, the user. If I find compositing is slowing down a program, I can just go into the icon properties window, and set it to disable desktop effects while the program is running. Then, when I launch the game/application, desktop effects turns off so all the video resources are freed up, and then when I close the game/application, desktop effects would return. I hope this idea makes sense.
I guess we can suspend compositing for fullscreen apps and/or provide a keyboard shortcut, but detecting which game is active is hard.
Hi Lubos! I agree, detecting which game would be very difficult, and suspending compositing for full screen apps would be EXTREMELY awesome! However, my idea was a bit more simple. When you create a desktop launcher icon, you can set different options such as "run as root" or "run as a different user". My idea was to have a new option when creating a desktop launcher that would be something like "disable compositing while this app is running". That way, it's up to the user which apps suspend compositing. However, your idea is outstanding and I'd like to see KDE4 suspend compositing for full screen apps, that would make me the happiest KDE fan on this planet!
Wouldn't it be possible, to add an option "Disable compositing effects for this program" to the "special window settings"? I mean the dialog, where you can set things like size, position etc.
No, special window settings wouldn't work, because that's hard to get to if a game is full screen, the launcher would make more sense.
There's a Plasmoid that accomplishes this: http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Toggle-Compositing?content=78299
That plasmoid doesn't accomplish what I'd like to see. I'd like KDE to switch off compositing automatically when a full screen app is running, or have a toggle switch on a desktop shortcut that you can use to make KDE know not to use compositing while particular apps are running. Jonathan Thomas wrote: [bugs.kde.org quoted mail]
*** Bug 160386 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 161140 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
At least it will be nice to have that checkbox for shortcuts, like Jeremy said, before somebody find out how to detect OpenGL and/or fullscreen app is running.
If you have some command that can be run by the command line, you can do this without too much trouble. Use kmenuedit to create a menu icon that runs that command, then right click on it and select "add to panel" or "desktop". What command would this be?
SVN commit 810031 by lunakl: Shortcut for temporarily suspending compositing. Useful when one wants to run something graphically intensive like a game or when compositing goes awry and one wants to see the checkbox that turns it off. FEATURE: 155581 M +13 -0 composite.cpp M +1 -0 kwinbindings.cpp M +2 -1 workspace.cpp M +2 -0 workspace.h WebSVN link: http://websvn.kde.org/?view=rev&revision=810031
Is there any chance to get it in KDE4.1? I'm finding this checkbox everytime i got my KDE updated, but it isnt anywhere...
There is no checkbox. There is a keyboard shortcut.
There should be a check box. That way you can set different applications to automatically do this.
I agree, there have to be a checkbox for kmenuedit and shortcuts, because without this it is "another manual switch".
I'm curious as to why this was marked as resolved. I am using KDE 4.1 and cannot find this feature anywhere. I did read a comment about there being a keyboard shortcut, but to me that doesn't solve it, since even Windows Vista turns off desktop effects automatically when necessary without you having to do anything.
Read comment #1 again then. I can mark this to be a duplicate of bug #165237 or mark it as WONTFIX if that helps you, but that doesn't really change anything.
@Jeremy: If you really need a checkbox, then open a new bug that requests that feature. Don't forget to link to that new bug from here so that interested parties will be able to find it.
Here is a wish for a checkbox to be placed in kmenuedit: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=170293