The Composite Manager Guide: How to Get Vista-ish Effects in (K)(X)Ubuntu.

**poofyhairguy** · December 13th, 2005

Originally Posted by codejunkie

i've got quick question every thing except .mov files plays fine in totem-xine every time i open a .mov file in totem-xine it crashes. would you know any workaround to get totem-xine to play .mov files, i've got to all the codecs and such installed but right now, but in order to play them i have to disable the composite extension and play them in mplayer any help would be appreicated.

Hmmm.....I do not have that problem. But I will say as a suggestion that the only other media player that works well with Xcompmgr is VLC. You can try VLC for those files.

**poofyhairguy** · December 13th, 2005

Originally Posted by pizzach

Wow. I just compiled and installed xcompmgr form cvs yesterday. I left my computer on all night and it didn't freeze (only with the shadows on.) In fact, It's been going most of today too. I wonder if it's a fluke. Still waiting for my first crash. I also hasn't crashed with me using mplayer which usually happens after a few movies.

I'm having same luck! Yay for near stable.

I just don't see the point in fading windows.

I think its pretty.

Mybe if I try to make the fade faster than default it'll grow on me.

I bet. Try gcompmgr.

Man, your new avatar confused me hairpoofguy. I didn't recognize you at first. Very nice though.

Thanks.

**scav** · December 14th, 2005

Originally Posted by maxtreiber

Me again

I was amazed of the idea to have only the current active window without opacity and all the others transparent because i use the "Select windows when mouse moves over them" option in the gnome Window Preferences.
Using this, i can work in one window and if i want to see whats behind in another, i just move the mouse over it and can look through it

anyways, i wrote a small C programm to do exactly this:

http://81.169.175.95/transd.c

compile and run with:

gcc transd.c -o transd -lX11 && while true; do ./transd; done

its very badly programmed (most of the code is stolen) and needs a lot of values tweaked, but please try it out and tell me what you think!

Have you been working more on this? The Idea is really good, only thing is the stability!

Would love a stable version,

Greetings

**fannymites** · December 16th, 2005

Does anyone know if it's possible to change the transparency level when using the transd program? It's a great little app but I have a dark wallpaper and the unfocused windows merge into it a little too much.

**RAOF** · December 16th, 2005

Here's a quick hack to allow you to pass the opacity fraction on the command line. Instead of running

Code:

while true; do ./transd; done

you would now run

Code:

while true; do ./transd 0.5; done

Warning: this hasn't actually been tested. This computer doesn't have the composite extension. But it should work.

**fannymites** · December 16th, 2005

Unfortunately, the transparency level seems to be the same no matter what number I put there.
But on the subject of transd, is there anyway to make it automatically on boot?
I've tried various things but can't get anything to work so far.

I reckon this could have a lot of potential.

**RAOF** · December 16th, 2005

Whoops! My bounds checking is awesome. Here's a version that should work

**poofyhairguy** · December 16th, 2005

Originally Posted by fannymites

Unfortunately, the transparency level seems to be the same no matter what number I put there.
But on the subject of transd, is there anyway to make it automatically on boot?
I've tried various things but can't get anything to work so far.

I reckon this could have a lot of potential.

This is the best trick I know:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/TIP_Xorg_X11_...cy#transset-df

**sethmahoney** · December 17th, 2005

Originally Posted by maxtreiber

Me again

I was amazed of the idea to have only the current active window without opacity and all the others transparent because i use the "Select windows when mouse moves over them" option in the gnome Window Preferences.
Using this, i can work in one window and if i want to see whats behind in another, i just move the mouse over it and can look through it

anyways, i wrote a small C programm to do exactly this:

http://81.169.175.95/transd.c

compile and run with:

gcc transd.c -o transd -lX11 && while true; do ./transd; done

its very badly programmed (most of the code is stolen) and needs a lot of values tweaked, but please try it out and tell me what you think!

I just installed the newer version of this, and it works like a charm. Its so great I almost wet myself.

EDIT: Two problems: First, for some reason it makes my desktop "transparent" like any other window (which means when it loses focus, all my icons and my wallpaper get a little darker); second, like the poster above, it would be nice to be able to start it when Gnome starts. Any ideas?

EDIT: There's a third problem: I can't stop flipping back and forth between windows just to see them go transparent!

**fannymites** · December 17th, 2005

It's working nicely for me too.
I don't get the transparent desktop problem though. Do you have nautilus set to show the desktop? I don't so that may be why.
Still haven't worked out how to make it work on start up yet.

I'm gonna have a go with that there transset-df, see what that's like.

So I got transset-df installed, it took me a while to work out what was what but I got there in the end. Very nice.