Xfce Forum

fackamato

Member

Registered: 2009-03-01

Posts: 4

Tweak the composite manager?

Hi,

4.6 is a very sleek, I like it. However, the compositing could be tweaked a lot. In which file are the compositing settings stored? I'd like to (if possible) turn on vsync and force the hz/fps to 60. If I don't do this with compiz fusion, I get compositing which is not smooth, which is very annoying. The same thing happens with xfce 4.6's composite manager because (I'm guessing here) it doesn't use vsync and the hz is set to something other than 60 (I guess it gets its information from xrandr, which with nvidia drivers doesn't report the true value all the time (i.e. 50 instead of 60 etc)). Anyone?

Thanks,

Matt

s0ulslack

Member

From: Idaho

Registered: 2005-12-25

Posts: 291

Re: Tweak the composite manager?

Settings-> Settings Editor (xfce4-settings-editor). You'll wanna browse xfwm4-> general.  There are several things you can tweak there related to compositing.

fackamato

Member

Registered: 2009-03-01

Posts: 4

Re: Tweak the composite manager?

Settings-> Settings Editor (xfce4-settings-editor). You'll wanna browse xfwm4-> general.  There are several things you can tweak there related to compositing.

Seems there are almost no settings other than opacity changes... too bad

s0ulslack

Member

From: Idaho

Registered: 2005-12-25

Posts: 291

Re: Tweak the composite manager?

You didn't look very hard, did you? Lets see...

shadow_delta_width
shadow_delta_height
shadow_delta_x
shadow_delta_y

There are several others, I'm not digging through the hole list for you

fackamato

Member

Registered: 2009-03-01

Posts: 4

Re: Tweak the composite manager?

You didn't look very hard, did you? Lets see...

shadow_delta_width
shadow_delta_height
shadow_delta_x
shadow_delta_y

There are several others, I'm not digging through the hole list for you

However, none related to my original question which will enhance the xfce composite experience. Oh well.

s0ulslack

Member

From: Idaho

Registered: 2005-12-25

Posts: 291

Re: Tweak the composite manager?

Not related? Technically, the shadowing makes use of the composite extension.  You need to be more specific in your questions, opacity, shadowing etc

fackamato

Member

Registered: 2009-03-01

Posts: 4

Re: Tweak the composite manager?

I'd like to (if possible) turn on vsync and force the hz/fps to 60. If I don't do this with compiz fusion, I get compositing which is not smooth, which is very annoying. The same thing happens with xfce 4.6's composite manager because (I'm guessing here) it doesn't use vsync and the hz is set to something other than 60 (I guess it gets its information from xrandr, which with nvidia drivers doesn't report the true value all the time (i.e. 50 instead of 60 etc)).

crimesaucer

Member

Registered: 2007-05-21

Posts: 103

Re: Tweak the composite manager?

Hi,

4.6 is a very sleek, I like it. However, the compositing could be tweaked a lot. In which file are the compositing settings stored? I'd like to (if possible) turn on vsync and force the hz/fps to 60. If I don't do this with compiz fusion, I get compositing which is not smooth, which is very annoying. The same thing happens with xfce 4.6's composite manager because (I'm guessing here) it doesn't use vsync and the hz is set to something other than 60 (I guess it gets its information from xrandr, which with nvidia drivers doesn't report the true value all the time (i.e. 50 instead of 60 etc)). Anyone?

Thanks,

Matt

I would also like to learn if I can change some settings in a configuration file to use 60 Hz display refresh rate instead of 50 Hz.

My Nvidia is set to 60 Hz, and I have Sync to VBlank in every setting. I get a strange 'choppy-ness' when using xfwm4 compositing. For example, when I maximize a window or when I move a window it seems to have a bit of a weird effect on the xfwm4 window frame, and the gtk theme.

crimesaucer

Member

Registered: 2007-05-21

Posts: 103

Re: Tweak the composite manager?

Just to update after a day of researching this..... I'm currently looking into the xrandr command to see If I can change the --rate to get 60 Hz similar to the way compiz has an adjustable Display Refresh Rate in the ccsm:

ccsm-->--General Options-->--Display Settings-->--Refresh Rate-->--50Hz default and adjustable (I had mine set to 60Hz just like my NVIDIA X Server Settings drop down menu had the same setting for the Refresh Rate of 60Hz for my 1440x900 screen).

Anyway, I'm currently reading the maunal page for xrandr:

man xrandr

That's what I'm doing right now. I'm going to research this a bit before I try anything, but this seems like the place to adjust these settings..... I just don't want to mess anything up by doing something that I'm not totally sure about..... so I'm going to keep reading up on this some more.

EDIT: after reading up on this some more it seems that refresh won't really matter for me with a Laptop screen. Maybe I'm wrong.....

Wapush

Member

Registered: 2006-12-14

Posts: 140

Re: Tweak the composite manager?

For your refresh rate problem, this is caused by the nvidia driver who uses its own implementation of DualHead support called TwinView or DynamicTwinView. This feature (The guy from nvidia say that this is not a bug but a feature and that it's a problem with XRandR who missing features...  :?), so this feature is enabled by default and cause XRandR and desktop environments like Xfce and Gnome to show the wrong refresh rate although they use the good one.

If you want that XRandR and Xfce show the correct refresh rate, you can disable DynamicTwinView by adding in the "Device" section of your xorg.conf:

Option "DynamicTwinView" "false"

But on the other hand, by disabling the DynamicTwinView you will no longer be able to change the display settings with the nvidia utility (nvidia-settings).

---

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Thunar on identi.ca

crimesaucer

Member

Registered: 2007-05-21

Posts: 103

Re: Tweak the composite manager?

For your refresh rate problem, this is caused by the nvidia driver who uses its own implementation of DualHead support called TwinView or DynamicTwinView. This feature (The guy from nvidia say that this is not a bug but a feature and that it's a problem with XRandR who missing features...  :?), so this feature is enabled by default and cause XRandR and desktop environments like Xfce and Gnome to show the wrong refresh rate although they use the good one.

If you want that XRandR and Xfce show the correct refresh rate, you can disable DynamicTwinView by adding in the "Device" section of your xorg.conf:

Option "DynamicTwinView" "false"

But on the other hand, by disabling the DynamicTwinView you will no longer be able to change the display settings with the nvidia utility (nvidia-settings).

Thanks I'll give a try and let you know if it helps with my choppy windows, I get this when moving windows quickly:

crimesaucer

Member

Registered: 2007-05-21

Posts: 103

Re: Tweak the composite manager?

Adding that to my xorg.conf did fix my refresh rate to what it says in the NVIDIA settings manager:

..... but this still doesn't fix my choppy xfwm4 window decorations. Oh well.

Von_Kossa

Member

Registered: 2011-02-14

Posts: 24

Re: Tweak the composite manager?

"..... but this still doesn't fix my choppy xfwm4 window decorations. Oh well."

Hi!

Did you solve this problem in the end? And in that case, how?

I am in the exact same situation, tearing problems, 50hz, nvidia, not being able to set vsync and so on...

Last edited by Von_Kossa (2011-02-14 09:55:32)