On Wed, 21 Jan 2026 20:15:16 GMT, Martin Fox <[email protected]> wrote:

> This PR enables translucent window backdrops for JavaFX stages on macOS and 
> Windows 11. Since we’re reliant on the operating system for these effects 
> (they typically require real-time blurring of the desktop) I needed to flesh 
> out a fairly complete prototype to sort out the API. I will start a 
> discussion about the API on the mailing list.
> 
> There’s a crude manual test for trying out the different backdrop materials.
> 
>       java @build/run.args -Djavafx.enablePreview=true 
> tests/manual/stage/BackdropTest.java
> 
> You’ll want to drag the windows around to avoid having them overlap each 
> other since they’re all created in the center of the screen. For windows 
> without title bars you can click anywhere on the background to drag the 
> window except for TRANSPARENT stages on Windows which are a bit tricker to 
> get a hold of; try to click on a text label.
> 
> If you create an UNDECORATED stage on Windows the backdrop won’t be 
> translucent initially. This can be corrected by changing the stage’s color 
> scheme. This is an OS bug that I haven’t found a workaround for.
> 
> The changes on Windows 11 are minimal since we’re just invoking an OS feature 
> by calling DwmSetWindowAttribute. I did need to make two small changes to the 
> D3D9 Prism code to ensure that the swap chain and back buffer support an 
> alpha channel so JavaFX can composite its content on top of the backdrop. 
> This is the same way the old UNIFIED stage style worked before it became 
> unreliable (see [JDK-8154847](https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8154847)).
> 
> On macOS I moved the GlassHostView so it’s now a permanent part of the 
> NSWindow. For some time the host view has been a remnant left over from an 
> older approach to implementing fullscreen. Now it serves as a common parent 
> for the NSVisualEffectView that provides the backdrop and the GlassView3D 
> that contains the JavaFX content. Making it the permanent contentView of the 
> NSWindow simplifies some code.
> 
> To validate the API I did prototype this for Windows 10 (thanks @mstr2!). 
> Well, I prototyped this using DirectComposition so it should work on Win10 
> but I can't test Win10 myself. Using DirectComposition is much more involved 
> so I shelved that implementation for now but it does inform the API. It’s the 
> reason the backdrop needs to be specified before the Java window is shown and 
> the platform window created.

modules/javafx.graphics/src/main/java/javafx/stage/Stage.java line 584:

> 582:      */
> 583:     @SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
> 584:     public final void initBackdrop(StageBackdrop backdrop) {

This API has the potential to age poorly, as enums are tricky to evolve. For 
example, what if a future backdrop type is configurable with a parameter? This 
could be improved by having the enum implement a sealed interface, so we can 
later add other backdrop types that can't neatly fit into an enum.

I also wonder how graceful degradation works with this API. It might be useful 
to be able to model a request like: give me a glass backdrop with a set of 
parameters, and if the platform doesn't support that, give me a `TRANSIENT` 
backdrop, and if the platform doesn't support that, I just want an opaque 
backdrop.

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PR Review Comment: https://git.openjdk.org/jfx/pull/2048#discussion_r2714753524

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