Use compiz with KDE

Netrunner Rolling Rolling 2016.01
1

Hi. I’m a new user coming from Manjaro, and I’ve been pleased with Netrunner so far. The implementation of KDE in Netrunner is much better than in Manjaro. I prefer KDE than other DEs because it looks better. The only problem I have with KDE is unless I use OpenGL 3.1 + EGL in the settings, I would get bad graphics performance and screen tearing. But the downside with using EGL is that I can no longer use desktop effects such as Wobbly windows and etc. It’s just not working. It does work in GLX mode in the cost of graphics performance. I would like to use Compiz alongside KDE. In the past, I have been using KDE + Compiz without any problems, but I don’t know if it does work now.

So, my question is, can I use compiz-manjaro with KDE? How can I enable it? Thanks!

2

I would not recommend using compiz anymore.
Kwin works ways better then compiz when it comes to plasma.
Currently there is no easy way to switch the window manager.

Which graphicscard and driver do you use?
In GLX mode did you tried the various different opengl options?

3

I have a GTX 970 and I use mhwd-nvidia 352.79-1 driver. Of course I did use different opengl options, and it seems that OpenGL 3.1 gives the best performance.

I also changed some settings in ~/.config/kwinrc because I have a 144 Hz monitor.

[Compositing]
MaxFPS=144
RefreshRate=144

Currently I have smooth animation when using GLX, but it does give me some tearing in certain applications, like Google Chrome especially when scrolling. I have no tearing when using EGL though. I also have SMplayer configured to play in 144 fps mode using vapoursynth-mvtools. EGL gives me the best playback experience, as there are no frame drops and video tearing. GLX mode however is the opposite, there are some frame drops here and there, lots of video artifacts occurs and tearing. Is this something to be expected when using KDE? If it is possible to use compiz, I would be happy to try it out.

4

Did you check the nvidia-settings tool? It might provide anti tearing options especially in its opengl settings sync to vblank and image settings.

5

“Sync to VBlank” is already enabled. I don’t think it is a problem with gpu drivers because EGL is working perfectly fine for me.

6

This is exactly why I think it has to do with the driver :slight_smile:
Did you try disabling it?

7

I just tried disabled it and it seems to make EGL slightly better and no improvement on GLX. I give a 4K video playback a spin on both modes with mvtools enabled (very CPU heavy), and it appears that I get less frames drops on EGL. GLX stays the same, no improvements whatsoever. 1080p 144 fps video playback still choppy, Chrome is still tearing and laggy. I find it funny though because there are no video tearing on EGL at all, I expect some tearing would occur with Vsync disabled.