Desktop Effects problem

[kuman]

Hi,

With Desktop Effects active, when I move my windows with my mouse, they have a sort of "bouncy" feel to them--they seem to have "momentum" and will move a bit further than I move my mouse.

With Desktop Effects off, this phenomenon does not occur, and my windows move WITH my mouse.

I would like to turn this behavior off in Desktop Effects, but I cannot tell which desktop effect is causing it. I have gone through all of the effects listed in the System Settings module for Desktop Effects but don't know which one it is.

What is causing this effect and how can I stop it?

[whatthefunk]

Hmm....maybe its Wobbly Windows?

[kuman]

Hmm....maybe its Wobbly Windows?

Hi whatthefunk -- no, Wobbly Windows is not checked in the Desktop Effects section of System Settings.

To be clear, the effect I am experiencing is not the windows being deformed while being moved (which is what Wobbly Windows does, I believe), but rather the MOVEMENT of the windows is sort of "bouncy"--that is, if I a grab a window with my mouse and move it to the left, the window moves leftward slightly slower than the mouse; when I stop moving the mouse, the window keeps moving left for a fraction of a second before coming to a halt. The same effect is observed with moving in all other directions as well.

[whatthefunk]

That sounds more like a computer lag than an effect. What are the specs of your machine?

[james147]

Sounds like wobbly windows to me as well... cannot think of another effect that does that.

What happens if you disable all the effect plugins but leave desktop effects enabled? What happens if you enable wobbly windows and then disable it?

[kuman]

That sounds more like a computer lag than an effect. What are the specs of your machine?

Hadn't thought of that--it is a distinct possibility. My machine is:

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5670 @ 1.80GHz, L2 Cache 2048KB
Memory: 2 gig

Since you pointed out that possibility, I checked by making some very SMALL windows--and the delayed movement effect is significantly less pronounced on the small windows than large ones. Which would tend to indicate that your prognosis is correct!

[james147]

Hadn't thought of that--it is a distinct possibility. My machine is:

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5670 @ 1.80GHz, L2 Cache 2048KB
Memory: 2 gig

Since you pointed out that possibility, I checked by making some very SMALL windows--and the delayed movement effect is significantly less pronounced on the small windows than large ones. Which would tend to indicate that your prognosis is correct!

More importantly, what graphics card and drivers are you using?

[kuman]

Thanks for the fast help, this was driving me batty--at lease now I know what's causing it. Marking thread as solved, hopefully the thread may help others in the future as well!

[james147]

Thanks for the fast help, this was driving me batty--at lease now I know what's causing it. Marking thread as solved, hopefully the thread may help others in the future as well!

I would not consider it solved, desktop effects should not make your computer that laggy unless you have a really really really old or no graphics card ^^. Or more likely, you are not using your graphics card to render the windows.

[kuman]

More importantly, what graphics card and drivers are you using?

Good point - the graphics card is

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Device 95c2 (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 30e9
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 47
Memory at 80000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
I/O ports at 7000 [size=256]
Memory at 98400000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Expansion ROM at 98420000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: radeon
Kernel modules: radeon

Its a laptop so upgrading it probably isn't in the cards.

[kuman]

I would not consider it solved, desktop effects should not make your computer that laggy unless you have a really really really old or no graphics card ^^. Or more likely, you are not using your graphics card to render the windows.

Marked it as unsolved at your suggestion. Can you advise -- do you think my graphics card (specs in the thread below) is the problem? How can I check if my system is configured to use my graphics card correctly or not?

[kuman]

I switched my "Compositing Type" from OpenGL to Xrender under System Settings/Desktop Effects/Advanced. This seems to reduced the lag I've been experiencing significantly, though not completely.

If anyone has any ideas on what else I might try to improve or analyze my Desktop Effects / graphics performance, I'd certainly be interested.

[Mr_Bumpy]

I switched my "Compositing Type" from OpenGL to Xrender under System Settings/Desktop Effects/Advanced. This seems to reduced the lag I've been experiencing significantly, though not completely.

If anyone has any ideas on what else I might try to improve or analyze my Desktop Effects / graphics performance, I'd certainly be interested.

Does disabling V-Sync help?

[saif32]

i think it just an effect regardless your graphic card...
the default setting of this effect is still horrible, it makes your windows like lagging than having an effect...
but if you set it right, it's effect will feel like woobbly...
i've prove that..
(sorry for bad english)

[dmeyer]

A conversation about eye candy and blur hasn't been blamed Something is wrong!!!

Jokes aside. I have an old laptop circ. 2005 model that runs into this issue. Also drove me crazy. I loved eye candy so what I do is:

Settings > Desktop Effects > General > Animation Speed > Very Fast or Instant
> Advanced > Composting type > OpenGL
> Qt Graphics System > Raster
> All effects > Blur > Off
> Wobbly Windows > Off
> Translucency > Off
> Application Appearance > Style > Applications > Widget Style > Oxygen
> Fine Tuning > Graphical Effects > Very High CPU + Appropriate resolution
> Workspace Appearance > Window Decorations > Oxygen

Disclaimer: This is probably a bit too specific a solution but its worked on countless older computers for me. There is no harm in trying it so give it a go.

Non-oxygen window decorations are known to sometimes cause lag when dragging windows around. The desktop effects can finicky with OpenGL on some systems but remember using XRender eats more CPU. The widget style is probably unimportant but it has made noticeable differences in the past for me. Those graphical effects I listed have been a pain before. Lastly sometimes animation speeds in KDE need a little tweaking.

Hope it helps and good luck.