# OpenGL Window Manager?



## overmind (Mar 9, 2010)

Hello,

I am curious about today's operating system GUIs why
is 3d features of a graphic card is not used
for displaying windows and all graphic elements of
the GUI. 

It would run a lot faster, the CPU would be free all the time
and the graphics would look nicer.

Why in year 2010 we don't have yet GUIs that run on
GPU? Well you might tell me we have but I think we're still
at a a begining.

Another question to you would be: do you know of any Window Manager 
(for Xorg) that runs on OpenGL ?


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## LateNiteTV (Mar 9, 2010)

isnt compiz opengl?


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## Oxyd (Mar 9, 2010)

KDE 4's kwin can also be made to use OpenGL compositing.


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## overmind (Mar 9, 2010)

When I've tried it was not stable for me.
I'll try it again.

But there are others, cleaner/simpler wm?


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## Oko (Mar 9, 2010)

overmind said:
			
		

> Hello,
> 
> I am curious about today's operating system GUIs why
> is 3d features of a graphic card is not used
> ...


I have no idea what are you talking about



			
				overmind said:
			
		

> Why in year 2010 we don't have yet GUIs that run on
> GPU?



GPUs are closed hardware. More over the CUDA doesn't have API i.e. the drivers have to be written for each OS separately. It is promising but very immature technology. GPUs do have
potential to revolutionize High Performance Computing.





			
				overmind said:
			
		

> Another question to you would be: do you know of any Window Manager
> (for Xorg) that runs on OpenGL ?


You do not know what are you talking about. Please do some reading before 
trolling.


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## overmind (Mar 10, 2010)

I was talking about OpenGL, being interested in a Window Manager that display windows using OpenGL, and was looking for something simpler than Compiz (which is too fancy for me, just wanted a simple OpenGL accelerated wm, that could use any graphic card 3d features.

I know about CUDA, PhysiX, AMD Open Physics. I've written some apps in OpenGL with glfw. 

Was not nice of accusing me of trolling I was just brainstorming?

I was thinking maybe in almost 20k apps in ports there are some interesing WM aps (that make use of 3d) I did not heard about.

Well I found on other topic yesterday that there is something that might have what I'm looking for.

And if I said why we don't have in 2010 GUIS that run on GPU I did not mean that all GUIs are bad and everything is wrong, just I was wondering if such app exist that make use of 3d using OpenGL.

If you saw Tekken 5 game on PlayStation 2, don't you wonder how such a great game is run on a 300 MHz with 32 MB of RAM, running from DVD ?


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## BuSerD (Mar 10, 2010)

Oko said:
			
		

> I have no idea what are you talking about
> 
> 
> 
> ...




WOW. Dude, I just finished empathizing with your stance on firewalls in another thread only to stumble across this useless post of rambling idiotic text. 

First, if you don't know what the op is talking about ask or don't reply. 

Second, there is more than just CUDA out in this space.

Third, the op is not the troll here, it's you. He has every freedom to ask this thought provoking question without being subjected to your blatant jackassery.


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## DutchDaemon (Mar 10, 2010)

Less coffee, less opinions, more on-topic discussions, more content. That's my motto for today. It's right next to the [Close Thread] button.


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## BuSerD (Mar 10, 2010)

Right you are. I am really interested in seeing where this goes.


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## overmind (Mar 10, 2010)

@BuSerD: Thanks,

I just find out about: sdl+directfb (on other thread). And that "There have been reports of using directfb with FreeBSD's framebuffer." (and not on top of Xorg).

I don't know if that is what I am looking for, but I'll do some research.

http://www.libsdl.org/index.php
http://www.directfb.org/index.php?path=Main/Screenshots&page=1


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## mdg583 (Mar 11, 2010)

overmind said:
			
		

> I was talking about OpenGL, being interested in a Window Manager that display windows using OpenGL, and was looking for something simpler than Compiz (which is too fancy for me, just wanted a simple OpenGL accelerated wm, that could use any graphic card 3d features.



Here is how I understand it:

- if you want really simple, I don't think opengl will speed anything up. Windows have to draw themselves both ways, either on screen or off-screen. Compositing with opengl allows you to do 'fancy' things as you map those windows to the screen, but it is an extra step and can't be any faster. Except for window decorations, and any other graphical stuff you write right in the wm - they would be faster. I think that's the idea of stuff like mutter - to have components of your desktop as plugins for the compositing manager, and then they are all drawn with the graphics card.
- using opengl to draw the contents of windows would (maybe?) make things faster. Creating an opengl-based toolkit, or putting graphics hardware code in the X-server so that all drawing is done with the graphics card, as much as possible.
- if you want a few graphics card-powered effects/features but not so much as compiz, I don't think there is anything much out there. (Kwin, compiz, beryl, cairo-compositing manager, mutter - but I am guessing most of them are  less stable than compiz).
- The other thing is, desiding how a gl-powered window manager would work is (in my opinion) really difficult. Designing for user interaction is tough.


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## richardpl (Mar 11, 2010)

Look there are two different things: AIGLX and Xgl.


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