Compiz Fusion (previously CompComm) experience!

[djdoo]

Hi everybody!!
Today I set up compcomm on my suse 10.2...
And here are the results:
Installation was pretty easy with the repo in yast!!
I managed to run it but I had some difficulties...
Now to the subject: Comparing to original Beryl...

The good points: :D
- NO BLACK WINDOWS BUG!!! Unlike Beryl...(Very important!!!)
- Very stable
- Smoother
- Loads pretty well at KDE's startup
- Shutdown faster
- Wall Plugin and generally some new stuff
- Easier settings applet
- Fix the 4 desktop bug in KDE startup

The not that good points: :|
- I couldn't transparent the cube
- No magic zoom with the 3rd button
- No caps
- No emerald window decorator
- Cannot access the settings easily
- Settings are not applied immediatelly
- To apply settings you must restart compcomm and then everything gets comfused
- Looks more to compiz than to beryl :(

BUT VERY GOOD AND PROMISING WORK GUYS!!!! 8)
Just I would like it more like Beryl style...

Best Wishes

Jim

[Jupiter]

To set the caps open ccsm and go to
Desktop Cube --> Image Files --> imagefile.jpg
That will set a image on the top. No bottom yet.

For emerald. Make sure the Decorator plugin is enabled.
And define the decorator "emerald" in your
/home/user/.config/compiz-managerrc

Also i wrote a new FAQ for opacity settings here
viewtopic.php?f=51 (http://forums.opencompositing.org/viewtopic.php?f=51)

[djdoo]

To set the caps open ccsm and go to
Desktop Cube --> Image Files --> imagefile.jpg
That will set a image on the top. No bottom yet.

For emerald. Make sure the Decorator plugin is enabled.
And define the decorator "emerald" in your
/home/user/.config/compiz-managerrc

Also i wrote a new FAQ for opacity settings here
viewtopic.php?f=51 (http://forums.opencompositing.org/viewtopic.php?f=51)

JUP did you just saw what I said??
NO BLACK WINDOWS BUG!!! I don't BELIEVE it!!!!
I opened 50 windows of konsole none black!!
I will push it more though...

And thanks for the info about settings I think we have something BIG here!!!

[Jupiter]

No black window because of the AWESOME research you have done.
yeeeehaaaaa........LOL

[djdoo]

No black window because of the AWESOME research you have done.
yeeeehaaaaa........LOL

What do you mean because of my awesome research???
Explain me...
Also I pushed the PC to the limits! 101!! konsole windows opened NONE BLACK!!!

Jup I 'm REALLY HAPPY!!!!!! :D

[djdoo]

Jup I don't have this file /home/user/.config/compiz-managerrc!!
Should I create it??
And also when I'm trying to add an image to top face of cube I get a segmentation fault...

[Jupiter]

Jup I don't have this file /home/user/.config/compiz-managerrc!!
Should I create it??
And also when I'm trying to add an image to top face of cube I get a segmentation fault...

Your awesome research = all the work you did documenting the best work around to
the black window bug. All that research benefits a LOT of people.

Anwyway. Ok so you don't have this file. Here is how to get it. Download Kristian's
startup script. It's called compiz-manager. Get it here
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=206 (http://forums.opencompositing.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=206)

Once you have the script. I put mine in /usr/bin and made it executable.
The first time you execute it "compiz-manager &", it will create the file
/home/user/.config/compiz-managerrc
So then edit that file and, if needed change these settings
# Plugins
PLUGINS="ini" ### change the plugin to ccp

and set your decorator
# Decorator
DECORATOR="emerald"

then to start compcomm, execute
compiz-manager &

[djdoo]

Jup I'm getting this message:
compiz: decoration: property ignored because version is 20061011 and decoration plugin version is 20070319
and I don't have a window decorator althought compcomm is running
What can I do??

[djdoo]

Wait I think I found it!!!!
If you had Beryl previously installed then you don't get the 2 emerald packages cyberorg offers!!
You stay with the previous ones from beryl!!
And you get that mismatch...

So if you install CompComm first remove emerald beryl packages!

[Jupiter]

Wait I think I found it!!!!
If you had Beryl previously installed then you don't get the 2 emerald packages cyberorg offers!!
You stay with the previous ones from beryl!!
And you get that mismatch...

So if you install CompComm first remove emerald beryl packages!

You are correct my friend.

[djdoo]

Jup I'm bumbing my head at the wall here!!

All this time I was fighting with that compiz-manager to keep compiz alive but after opening a window or 2 it crashed all the time!!
I got emerald running but I couldn't hold compiz alive for more than a minute!!

I switched back to Beryl in order to write the new stuff!
If I don't use the manager compiz may crash but mostly doesn't...
Also when run a 3d game ( I tried Racer always a good tester) the cars are not responsive although I have a good frame rate!!
It reminds me when I ran Beryl in the early days just with "force AIGLX" option before I add "XGL binding" and fix the suggestion about black windows bug!!!

If these settings are applied silently in CompComm in order not to have the black bug please add "XGL binding" cause I found nowhere in compcomm's settings applet advanced options similar to these Beryl has!!

[djdoo]

News!!! News!!!
Good news!!

I made it!!! I have compcomm running great under my system with emerald!!! Also automatic at startup!!
No crashes anymore!!

The solution is simple: I removed the packages, then installed them again with cyberorg's automated procedure(excellent work!) Jupiter pointed me I just DID NOT run the following commands cyberorg said:
compiz - -replace ccp &

gtk-window-decorator - -replace & (if running gnome/xfce)

or

kde-window-decorator - -replace &

I just ran it with Kristian's(thanks man!) compiz-manager http://gitweb.opencompositing.org/?p=us ... er;hb=HEAD (http://gitweb.opencompositing.org/?p=users/kristian/compiz-scripts;a=blob_plain;f=manager/compiz-manager;hb=HEAD) from the first time and it worked!! :D
I copied it under /usr/bin folder as Jup told me and made a link to it in /home/****/.kde/Autostart folder in order to load it automatically when KDE starts, just like beryl-manager!!
Logout->Login and... 8)
Also now I get stable 3d performance in Racer exactly the same as with Beryl and my settings for BwB on it!!

Still NO Black Windows!!
Guys I'm really happy to have something really promising, stable, and to know that I helped a bit (with my work on getting rid of the black window bug in beryl) the new project!!! :D

Full Speed Folks!! Microsoft eats our dust!! :mrgreen:

Jim

[djdoo]

Guys write your experiences testing the project here!!!

Problems or suggestions!! :)

Give us your feedback in this thread or make one of your own if you like!! 8)

Jim

[djdoo]

I have news from the tests...

I figured out after some time that compcomm was starting without compiz-manager and was restarted with compiz-manager after some seconds.

This stuff was generating problems like not all the applets were shown in KDE's taskbar(for example kmix was running but no icon was shown). splash screen not working,not loading my settings, even crashes from the start.

So I did the following: I removed package containing the kde-window-decorator executable although the package manager reported that it was needed by the basic compiz-git package.

After that compcomm was starting only with compiz-manager and I had emerald not metacity decorator.

In the meantine I experienced crashes one after the other! I thought it was the previous stuff causing them but I was wrong...

After some research I done I found out that the crash came every time I opened a menu in KDE.
I had my menus transparent and with shadows...
I disabled transparency and the same... crashes!
I enabled transparency again and disabled the shadow effect and just like a miracle crashes dissappeared!! 8)
I don't have transcluency/shadowing on at my KDE settings as usual... but the only shadowing effect from KDE left caused crashes!!

So if you experience crashes check if disabling shadowing in KDE menus helps you!! It helped me...

[djdoo]

Some more news...

Today I changed something in compcomm's settings and something really WOW happened!!
I used to have about 28fps in racer game with compcomm as well with beryl too...
Guys somehow the 28fps became 42fps!!! 8O
I couldn't believe it!! I couldn't get such performance even without Composite!!

I must find the cause....!!

Also running compiz-manager when kde is starting is not such a good idea after all... Just make a link on your desktop and when KDE fully loads then hit the link and everything should be OK!

Maybe that's the cause for performance!!

I will investigate it more and I will tell you...!

[djdoo]

Everything goes well till now! 8-)
No crashes at all, performance very high either with direct or with indirect rendering!

But I have a problem with the workspaces in KDE...

If you load compiz-manager with previously 1 workspace you will get 1 again but the correct is 4!!
You must set workspaces to 2=8(for comcomm) and again to 1=4 in pager options to get the correct 4 ones!!

Can someone help about it??

[djdoo]

I have some news folks...

3 days ago I installed the new fusion packages for opensuse from cyberorg

All well but the compiz-git core version 070621 has problems with --loose-binding option!

With it I have almost 40% down of the previous 3d performance I had with 070510 and loose binding always...

If I remove it fps goes high again but 3d apps have big lagging although fps goes high but a bit less high than with 070510 compcomm...

Very strange...

But the new plugins Firepaint, Dodge. Cube reflection. Expo and Cube zoom out really kick asses!!!

Also the new settings applet is much better organized but documentation is missing at all...

So full speed! The vibes are really awesome folks! It needs just some work to do next... ;)

[shame]

My experience has been half and half really.
I've been compiling from git. I like some of the new features and it generally works well but there are still things I miss from beryl.
Also, I've noticed that everything is nice and smooth with an empty desktop but if I have just one window open, rotating and animations are jumpy and cpu spikes horribly at times.
I had none of this with beryl and on the whole, I would say I still prefer beryl at this stage.
But of course it's early days and the issues with jumpy animations were there with plain compiz also, before the merge and before beryl.

[djdoo]

Folks I have good news!!

All of you who have the problem with workspaces in KDE I mean the known one when start compiz-fusion you must change the workspaces number in pager from 4 (or anything else) to 1 in order to get 4 there with Fusion or Beryl previously...
Get the Fusion-icon crdlb made and your problem will be solved!!!

In a terminal type this: git clone git://anongit.opencompositing.org/users ... usion-icon (git://anongit.opencompositing.org/users/crdlb/fusion-icon)
cd ./fusion-icon && sudo make install

And if you face any problems find us in irc.freenode.net channel #compiz-fusion 8-)

[sunru]

djdoo,
When you say no blackwindow bug. Are you suggesting that those xorg options as a workaround for the blackwindow for beryl (that you let us know about) are not needed with compiz-fusion?
just unclear on that.
all the best.

[djdoo]

@sunru:

No my friend! I mean no bwb with just the xorg.conf and nv_reg options which I post in the exact thread!!

Read at the compiz fusion contributors->unofficial documentation->How to fix.... for more details!! ;)

[djdoo]

I HAVE NEWS!!!!
GREAT NEWS!!!

I found out why I had so low fps with 3d games in fullscreen!!!!!!

It wasn't the --loose-binding after all!!!

It was a setting in CCSM!!! Just one setting!!! One little box unchecked!!!

And the HEALER is..... Unredirect Fullscreen Windows!!!! 8-)

Magically FPS in RACER with my beloved BMW M1 went from stable 25 to wow 45 and frequently 50+!!! :o :o :o

I'm extremely HAPPY folks!!! :D :D :D

So if you face too low FPS in Fullscreen 3D Apps with Fusion just check this option in CCSM:
Unredirect Fullscreen Windows!!!! ;)