Suggestions for adding an Advanced section in the Table of Contents: ------ Existing ------ Advanced tab On this tab you can select a Compositing type (OpenGL or XRender) and set some options for the selected type.
------ Proposed New ------ Advanced tab On this tab you can select a Compositing type (OpenGL or XRender) and set some options for the selected type. XRender is slower than OpenGL. It only uses 2d acceleration but is much more compatible and works with older graphics cards as well. Desktop Cube Animation (General Settings) cannot be activated when using XRender. OpenGL is the fastest solution as it uses your graphics card's 3d acceleration for rendering. OpenGL Options. Texture From Pixmap stores the texture directly in the graphics card's memory, and is usually the fastest option. Shared Memory stores the textures in X's shared memory, which resides in the system RAM and is usually much slower than the graphics card's memory, especially when there is a secondary video card. However, Shared Memory is always faster when you are working with an integrated video card because, lacking its own memory, the integrated video chipset uses shared memory. The graphic driver gives the system the illusion that it isn't using shared memory, but real video memory, and this illusion involves conversions that incur in additional performance penalties. Exception: if you have an integrated video chipset WITH MEMORY, "Shared Memory" will be slower. Fallback tries Texture from Pixmap first and Shared Memory if that does not work. Enable Direct Rendering passes the commands directly to the graphics card and bypasses the X server. This is much faster as it the commands have to be copied less, but can be more instable and less compatible. VSync (vertical synchronization) ensures that the pictures are drawn in sync to the vertical display updates. This can be more soothing to the eyes, but is a little slower than just drawing the frames any time the graphics card is ready to do so. adapted from: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:OOfV4PQ3DOIJ:linux-tipps.blogspot.com/2008/06/kde4-kwin-desktop-effects-howto.html+opengl+pixmap+vs+"shared+memory"&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Author of "The Sex of a Hippopotamus: A Unique History of Taxes and Accounting" at www.starkman.com/hippo Jay Starkman, CPA Voice: 404-636-1400 Fax:404-636-1130 1431 Stephens Drive e-mail: jay at starkman.com Atlanta, Georgia 30329 Internet: http://www.starkman.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------
