Bug 25318

Summary:	Lag when typing when using Mesa with Opacity enabled in Compiz Fusion
Product:	Mesa	Reporter:	dman777 <coolio>
Component:	Mesa core	Assignee:	mesa-dev
Status:	RESOLVED NOTABUG	QA Contact:
Severity:	major
Priority:	high	CC:	coolio
Version:	git
Hardware:	x86 (IA32)
OS:	Linux (All)
Whiteboard:
i915 platform:		i915 features:

Description dman777 2009-11-27 10:47:28 UTC

Lag when typing when using Mesa with Opacity enabled in Compiz Fusion. System resources are fine. Everything runs smooth. The lag is isolated to only when typing with opacity enabled in Compiz Fusion. 

Hardware:
ATI Technologies Inc Radeon XPRESS 200M

Software Stack:
[I--] [  ] x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati-6.12.4 (0)
[I--] [  ] x11-libs/startup-notification-0.10 (0)
[I--] [  ] x11-libs/libX11-1.2.2 (0)[I--] [  ] x11-base/xorg-drivers-1.6 (0)
[I--] [  ] x11-base/xorg-server-1.6.3.901-r2 (0)
[I--] [  ] x11-base/xorg-x11-7.4-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ~] media-libs/mesa-9999 (0)
[I--] [  ] x11-apps/mesa-progs-7.5.1 (0)
[I--] [  ] x11-apps/xdriinfo-1.0.2 (0)
[I--] [  ] x11-base/xorg-drivers-1.6 (0)
[I--] [  ] x11-misc/driconf-0.9.1 (0)
[I--] [  ] x11-proto/dri2proto-2.1 (0)
[I--] [  ] x11-proto/xf86driproto-2.0.4 (0)
[I--] [ ~] x11-wm/compiz-fusion-0.8.4 (0)

System:
localhost slocate # uname -a
Linux localhost 2.6.30-gentoo-r4 #4 SMP Fri Aug 21 19:43:15 CDT 2009 i686 Mobile AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 2800+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

Comment 1 dman777 2009-11-27 10:49:42 UTC

This has been an existing problem for awhile, not just with the latest release. I did not find out untill recently that the problem resided with mesa and opacity in compiz fusion. Again, system resources are good. Problem with lag in typing is software related.

Comment 2 Michel Dänzer 2009-11-28 03:35:38 UTC

What exactly does 'opacity enabled' mean? Assuming it's about translucent windows, is the blur plugin enabled in compiz, or other plugins which may interact with translucency?

Comment 3 dman777 2009-11-28 04:17:16 UTC

(In reply to comment #2)
> What exactly does 'opacity enabled' mean? Assuming it's about translucent
> windows, is the blur plugin enabled in compiz, or other plugins which may
> interact with translucency?
> 

I have Window Decoration, Motion Blur, Woobly Windows, and 3d Windows enabled only for special effects. By Opactiy, I mean Desktop Cube->Transparent Cube->Opacity when not rotating. If with opacity enabled such as 11 percent, then the Wallpaper of the desktop is see-through. This is when lagging with typing occurs. It does not seem to matter at which opacity percentage I have to effect the degree of lagging, as long as it is less than 100%(opacity off). However, if I turn opacity off by placing it at 100%, then there is aboslutely no lag when I type.

Comment 4 Michel Dänzer 2009-11-28 05:56:08 UTC

Not sure this is really unexpected... Obviously a translucent cube creates a lot more work on screen updates for compiz and consequently the drivers and GPU.

Comment 5 Marek Olšák 2011-03-01 19:24:48 UTC

(In reply to comment #4)
> Not sure this is really unexpected... Obviously a translucent cube creates a
> lot more work on screen updates for compiz and consequently the drivers and
> GPU.

Right. The lag is always at least 1/fps seconds. I am closing this as it's not a bug.

Also feel free to try the r300 gallium3d driver with LLVM enabled, it's much faster.

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