Crystal-GL

KDE 3.x Window Decorations

Source (link to git-repo or to original if based on someone elses unmodified work): Add the source-code for this project on opencode.net

0
5.0
Description:

Crystal-GL is the next generation of my crystal window decoration theme.
By using OpenGL to render itself, it simulates refraction and light mapping! Check out screenshots! NOW!

I name the deco HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL! Don't blame me, if it brakes your computer into two, if it crashes kde or makes it unusable. THIS IS BETA, NO WARRANTY.
If it breakes kwin, even on startup, remove your ~/.kde/share/config/kwinrc file, to reset the kwin settings to default.

WARNING: You need to have write access to the 3D acceleration device, if exists. I.e.: /dev/dri/* or /dev/nv*. Otherwise the deco or kcontrol may crash.

It looks very similar to crystal, but has more eye-candy and smooth animations.

* Grabs your wallpaper and simulates bended glass, little lighting. You are able to specify the ior. ;)
* Support for button themes. Feel free to swamp me with cool themes. :D The themes are the same than the ones in crystal.
Knifty button theme by Enso

Disadvantages:
* Needs a working GL subsystem!!! Don't blame me, if yours is broken!
* Be careful on nvidia systems, if under load, the gl subsystem may become *real* slow, so my deco.
* Needs KDE >=3.2 and QT>=3.2 to compile.
* May be slower than any other deco
* May be fat
* May make you drool, and you might forget to eat, sleep or even breath!


-- INSTALL -------------------------
Basic Installation (from the console):
- Step 1
$ ./configure
OR: $ ./configure --prefix=`kde-config --prefix`
- Step 2
$ make
- Step 3 (as root)
# make install

If configure fails, check that you have both the Qt and KDE development headers installed. If you used a previous version before, you need to restart kde to use the upgraded version.
------------------------------------


Please give some feedback or tell me some improvement suggestions.
I would be very happy about some packages, like for Mandrake, Debian, Suse, Redhat, etc! PLEASE DON'T POST PACKAGES AS NEW CONTENT, just notify me and mail it to me, and I'll host them.

PROVIDED PACKAGES MAY NOT BE UP2DATE! Check out versions number!

Thanks to bitwit for each others help with the GL-deco stuff!

Enjoy! :)

Check out crystal (non-gl) at:
http://kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=13969


Sascha Hlusiak
Last changelog:

15 years ago

* All packages up to date now

0.8.1:
* Made look antialiased caption damn good. Enabling this is RECOMMENDED now!
* Fixed menu button image bug
* Split up rendering process into four for each border. Maybe speed up or (most likely) speed down. :-/ Should fix nvidia-slowdown-bug on maximized windows.
* Added feature: "Scroll" through windows, by using the mouse wheel on the title bar, as well as an option in the configuration dialog to disable this immediately :>
* Improved config dialog a little


0.8.0:
* Added extreme slick "handpainted" button theme (thank you, Marco)
* Fixed some bugs, which almost drove me crazy on my notebook.
* Little speed up in the initialization
* Improved my "button-rendering-engine" a lot. Now button tinting uses GL, too.
* Added more options for button tinting.
* Added option to make the hover effect fade
* Added option to disable the transparency feature completely (don't dare!)
* Added information of direct rendering and glx version to the control center preview
* Got rid of some unneccessary code, probably put in a lot of more unneccessary code.
* Added a benchmark feature for my internal use (ctrl+alt+shift+RightButton on the title bar)


0.7.5:
* Added Knifty button theme (thanks to Enso)
* Fixed buttons
* Little code rearrangement, nothing visible

175 comments
Comments/Ratings

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lucher

16 years ago

Hi
I really like this one. But: Is there a way to configure the tint color and tint amount like in the original crystal (I have readability problems on dark backgrounds).

regards

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C

dralgebra

16 years ago

This deco simulates glass, and the glass is tintet in the color, defined in the color section of kcontrol for the titlebar. If this color is set to white, the deco is fully transparent, if it is black, it is black and fully opaque. So the brightnes controls the amount of transparency. And the color controls the color of the glass. Unfortunately there is no brighting effect for now, so the glass will always be darker, than the background image. Like real glass does.

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AntonioFasolato

16 years ago

I mean, I'm impressed! Good work!

On my SuSE 9.1 box it still crashes kwin sometimes (when I use mplayer!?), but it is an impressive work.

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powerpenguin

16 years ago

Very nice,
I have NEVER seen anything like this on the desktop.

I hope everyone who rates this poorly falls on a sharp spike.

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gnumdk

16 years ago

Will you maintain crystal? I don't need something using OpenGL, i don't need transparency, but i love crystal :)

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/gnumdk/ama1.2-1.png

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C

dralgebra

16 years ago

Of course I will maintain crystal, even more than crystal-gl, because crystal is rock-solid. As far as I can improve it, I will.

Crystal-GL has too many bugs and glitches, it crashes on my computer sometimes, too.

It hurts, when people use crystal without it's transparency feature, because I put so much effort in making it work. *g* But I don't mind, glad anyway that you like it.
But crystal (and crystal-gl) need more button themes, c'mon, artists. ;)

Crystal is the first choice. Not everyone has a working gl subsystem, even I don't. o_O

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bitwit

16 years ago

kwin still outputs 2 pages of...

free(): invalid pointer 0x8647848!
free(): invalid pointer 0x851d1d8!
free(): invalid pointer 0x864ab38!
free(): invalid pointer 0x81c2df8!
free(): invalid pointer 0x86ae388!
free(): invalid pointer 0x8554570!
free(): invalid pointer 0x81b8620!
free(): invalid pointer 0x857c3d8!
free(): invalid pointer 0x8563d48!
free(): invalid pointer 0x8583bf0!
free(): invalid pointer 0x81a4258!

KCrash: Application 'kwin' crashing...

SuSE 9.1 KDE 3.3.2 Qt 3.3.3

hmmm... and no honorable mention.

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nuka

16 years ago

this is now officially my fav windeco, replacing regular crystal.

lol, im still using .7.0. and it hasnt crashed once. right now, i dragged the .7.1 folder over to the desktop so i can compile it and it crashed. i think its jealous.

now that its compiled, i like .7.1. but can you have an option to have the dark gradient start from top and go down? right now, you can see a line between the border and the titlebar. it doesn't look bery nice.

also, it would be cool if the button backgrounds nad the actualy symbols of the buttons(the -,+,x etc..) are different files. that way, we can have a black symbol on while button to improve readability(0r any colors we want).

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shadowrm

16 years ago

i second this! ;-) -- absolutly excellent work, a most befitting sequel to the ever so popular crystal-deco!! keep it coming!

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fuzziebio

16 years ago

Very well done. I love the way it refracts the bg image and the like.

Only prob it tends to die every now and again :(
Im gonna wait untill a future release untill I use it 100%.

BTW, thanks for the Mandrake RPM, very much appreciated.

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dralgebra

16 years ago

Please try the current source code and compile it your own. There is one known bug fixed and the mandrake rpm is not up to date.
Perhaps you might suffer from this one bug, but there are more than one, I promise. ;)

If you can be a bi more specific, when it dies, it would be very helpful.

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fuzziebio

16 years ago

At some random times, Kwin decides to die and then the crap hits the fan.
At one instance, it crashed after exiting Nautilus and ended up displaying the Gnome desktop somehow...

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nuka

16 years ago

i got rid of that damn ATI card.

im using my integrated nvidia geforce mx 440.

it sucks, true. but it WORKS.

this is the first time that i get hardware acceleration in linux.

time for me to ebay that POS 9600xt.

and christmas is coming, so 6600gt, MINE.

anyway, just wanted to say, this is cool. and its smooth. its actually faster than regular crystal.

i cant wait for more gl windecos. they=t3h awesome.

try doing THAT in windows. BAH.

crap, just realised my mouse wheel stopped working after editing XF86Config.

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Xanadu

16 years ago

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "imps/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
Option "ButtonNumber" "5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

EndSection

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permafrost91

16 years ago

What an awesome desktop you have .... say, what icon set are you using?

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dralgebra

16 years ago

Icons are from exquisite icon theme:
http://kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=14788

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GreatRedShark

16 years ago

this is a great idea!
would it be also possible to have this affect the windows below? so that when the titlebar is transparent, you can see the icons on the desktop, or the window below. now THAT would be damn cool!

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dralgebra

16 years ago

This would require the composite extension of xorg, and afaik it is not possible for a window decoration to access the windows below. This is part of the xcompmgr, which composes the windows together for displaying.

This is not possible for now, but let's see, what kde 4.0 will offer. :)

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nuka

16 years ago

this looks so cool.

and i cant use it.

DAMN ATI.

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dralgebra

16 years ago

It should work with the xfree opengl subsystem too, you don't need ATI hardware acceleration.
But with ATI drivers it could be hard to impossible. :-S

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nuka

16 years ago

no, i dont have ogl at all. even after i install the drivers nad get 2D acceleration, 3d doesn't work.

but youre on to somehting here, this is awesome.

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lordcrow

16 years ago

I got this error when i try to 'make' :

crystalclient.cc: In constructor `CrystalFactory::CrystalFactory()':
crystalclient.cc:76: error: `exit' undeclared (first use this function)
crystalclient.cc:76: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
for each function it appears in.)
make[2]: *** [crystalclient.lo] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/lord/Programas/crystalgl-0.7.0/client'
make[1]: *** [install-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/lord/Programas/crystalgl-0.7.0/client'
make: *** [install-recursive] Error 1


any ideas ?????

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C

dralgebra

16 years ago

Yeah, add a
#include

to the list of includes at the top of file client/crystalclient.cc

Sorry about that, fixed in next release...

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C

dralgebra

16 years ago

hups. Should be

#include <stdlib.h>

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bitwit

16 years ago

couldn't hold out any more I see.

Smooth with a capital "Smoo".

Absolutely awesome!

hard to top that one.

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15 years ago

* All packages up to date now

0.8.1:
* Made look antialiased caption damn good. Enabling this is RECOMMENDED now!
* Fixed menu button image bug
* Split up rendering process into four for each border. Maybe speed up or (most likely) speed down. :-/ Should fix nvidia-slowdown-bug on maximized windows.
* Added feature: "Scroll" through windows, by using the mouse wheel on the title bar, as well as an option in the configuration dialog to disable this immediately :>
* Improved config dialog a little


0.8.0:
* Added extreme slick "handpainted" button theme (thank you, Marco)
* Fixed some bugs, which almost drove me crazy on my notebook.
* Little speed up in the initialization
* Improved my "button-rendering-engine" a lot. Now button tinting uses GL, too.
* Added more options for button tinting.
* Added option to make the hover effect fade
* Added option to disable the transparency feature completely (don't dare!)
* Added information of direct rendering and glx version to the control center preview
* Got rid of some unneccessary code, probably put in a lot of more unneccessary code.
* Added a benchmark feature for my internal use (ctrl+alt+shift+RightButton on the title bar)


0.7.5:
* Added Knifty button theme (thanks to Enso)
* Fixed buttons
* Little code rearrangement, nothing visible

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0.8.1
updated Jan 26 2005
added Dec 19 2004
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