Enhanced zoom is laggy with Compiz 0.9*

[Jiri Grönroos]

Binary package hint: compiz

Some people (see bug 759298) are reporting Compiz feature "Enhanced Zoom Desktop" is laggy especially when moving mouse sideways. To me it's laggy no matter which way I move mouse.

Enhanced zoom used to work well in Maverick on Compiz 0.8 so this is probably bug in Compiz 0.9* or in GPU drivers.

The issue is fixed by lowering the mouse poll rate.

[Jiri Grönroos (jiri-gronroos)]

Package: compiz
Version: 1:0.9.4+bzr20110415-0ubuntu1

Package: unity
Version: 3.8.8-0ubuntu2

[Peter Christopher (peter-kristopher)]

I have also noticed this... using Nvidia binary driver here

I was using Lucid till three days ago. Enhanced zoom worked like a charm.. in fact it used to help 'show off' ubuntu to people. I've noticed that its become EXTREMELY slow on Natty Beta 2. This is a very important usability issue. Please help

[Jiri Grönroos (jiri-gronroos)]

After turning off "Sync to Vblank" from Compiz settings (CompizConfig Settings Manager -> OpenGl -> Sync to Vblank), Enhanced Zoom is somewhat usable and the whole desktop seems a lot more faster. I believe "Sync to Vblank" wasn't on by default in Maverick but in Natty it's on by default.

@ Peter, could you try turning off "Sync to Vblank"?

[Jiri Grönroos (jiri-gronroos)]

@ Peter

I created bug 763005 but it's for ATI/fglrx. You seem to have Nvidia. Anyways, can you test turning off "Sync to Vblank" and report back here? Thanks.

[Andreas Zeller (luxmedien)]

Hey everyone,

I am on nVidia, actually on a pretty powerful system (Q6600 + geForce 9800 GT). Had the exact same issues. Switched "sync to vblank" off, system is a lot more responsive when moving the mouse around when zoomed in.

I can confirm this behavior on an nVidia system. It's gotta be compiz.

Just a hint: I had sync to Vblank switched on on maverick before, I had those issues after the upgrade, amongst other annoying natty habits.

Andreas

[John Doe (gehkacken02)]

Same problem here with Nvidia binary drivers from the "Additional Drivers" utility.
Problem started right after the upgrade 10.10 --> 11.04.
Problem is not affected by switching VBlank on or off.
Only "Enhanced Desktop Zoom" is affected, regular (less useful) "Desktop Zoom" is not lagging.

[pberndt (phillip-berndt)]

Same problem here with NVidia prop. drivers. Worked fine in Maverick, laggs terribly in Natty. Disabling vblank synchronization does not resolve the problem.

(Strictly speaking, what lags is mouse movement. i.E. when I zoom in on a video and don't move the mouse, everything is fine.)

[pberndt (phillip-berndt)]

Never mind my above comment. Resetting the mouse polling interval to a reasonable interval (why did it even get changed when updating?!) resolved my problem.

[Sam Spilsbury (smspillaz)]

Polling the mouse too much is high on battery usage, that is why it is
low by default.

On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 7:53 PM, pberndt <email address hidden> wrote:
> Never mind my above comment. Resetting the mouse polling interval to a
> reasonable interval (why did it even get changed when updating?!)
> resolved my problem.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of compiz
> packagers, which is subscribed to compiz in Ubuntu.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/762693
>
> Title:
>  Enhanced zoom is laggy with Compiz 0.9.4
>
> _______________________________________________
> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~compiz
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--
Sam Spilsbury

[manny (estelar57)]

>Polling the mouse too much is high on battery usage, that is why it is
low by default.

actually i dont think that is a good excuse to keep it laggy and settings messed up.

users dont stay in a zoomed state all the time and when they are, they just move the mouse for a few seconds.

i think that the priority for users needing this is much higher than the 3 or 4 minutes drained from the battery.

Also us desktop users, why should we be treated as if we were using batteries?

i think the only excuse here is that you guys have had too many stuff to do and havent had the chance to roll an update for this yet. But i hope after the uds and when you guys start cleaning up the unused plugins and can better maintain the remaining ones.

Thanks.

[Andres J. Riofrio (andresjriofrio)]

That solves the problem.

Idk. I think the best solution for this would be to be able to lower the mouse polling interval for specific plugins (such as Enhanced Zoom) in a configurable fashion. To people familiar with Compiz: is mouse polling used often by other plugins? Does lowering the interval really make a difference in a battery drain? Is it possible to make the interval dynamic?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to look at all reported bugs in a timely manner. There have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time you reported the bug and your problem may have been fixed with some of the updates. Compiz, in particular, is in heavy development and this bug may have been fixed in the development version of Ubuntu (12.04) if not on your current version. If you are able, it would be of great help if you could confirm if the bug still exists by testing a livecd (available at ubuntu.com). When you test it and it is still an issue, kindly upload the updated logs by running apport-collect <bug #> and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue. If you are unable to test the development version, please let us know if you are able to reproduce this issue on Ubuntu 11.10.

Thank you for your help and patience.

[Andreas Zeller (luxmedien)]

Still there in 12.04 - switching sync to vBlank off still does the trick. Just so you know...

[hate_bugs_89 (oyv-soppelpost)]

How do you reduce the mouse poll rate,and how much should it be reduced to?

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

hate_bugs_89: You can find that settings in the compiz settings manager. The mouse polling plugin has configurable options.

Again, this will consume more CPU usage when zoomed in. If you are on a laptop I caution against lowering it. Furthermore, reducing it to an extremely low value could freak out compiz (I would never put it below five).

[Alex ARNAUD (alexarnaud)]

Hello all,

Are someone still able to reproduce it? I use Compiz everyday with ezoom since more than 1 year without a lag as described here.

Best regards.

[Léa GRIS (lea-gris)]

I don't have issue with e-Zoom features in Compiz since long. Currently on Ubuntu 17.04:
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=17.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=zesty
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 17.04"

I use and need this Compiz e-Zoom every moment using Ubuntu and really hope it will continue to be available in future versions. There is no good alternative as screen magnification for visually impaired. Compiz does it very smoothly with the best handling. All alternatives, including Gnome accessibility tools are way inferior and often backward.

Scribe it somewhere as important note: Please never remove Compiz eZoom, unless you can collect testimony from visually impaired users of Compiz eZoom, that there is an actual really feature equal or better replacement.