window decorator shadows

[Gene Caldwell]

Binary package hint: compiz-gnome

While I know some may believe that this is not a bug, but rather a configuration correction to a desktop effect, I do not. It is a change to an expected behavior that was working correctly, and now does not display correctly. Window shadows were working correctly up until 2 weeks ago, and then suddenly computer after computer started showing this problem. Shadows are not showing on all sides of a window. They are only showing on the right and bottom of a window. This behavior includes the shadows at the top menu bar as well as the bottom menu bar of the desktop. The problem is that the result of the unknown change is that part of the desktop looks like it has depth( a shadow) and part does not. So the top of my desktop has the shadow, but the bottom does not, and it looks like the upper half of my desktop has desktop effects turned on, and the bottom half of my desktop does not have desktop effects turned on. It has made 3D desktops look ridicules and I am forced to turn shadows off to have a consistent look for the desktop. another example is that when any window is opened in the middle of the screen, it has shadows only on 2 sides of the window. So 2 sides of the window look like they have depth, and the other 2 sides DO NOT have depth - it looks like shadows are both turned ON, and OFF for the same window. Technically a single source light source may be correct to give shadow effects, but in practice the initial Gutsy effect was much more functional. I consider this a bug because I can not find any way to restore the original functionality for shadows on ALL 4 sides of windows including a completely new install of Gutsy. And one last thought, I don't want a developer to say I can only have shadows on 2 sides of windows for my choice of window decorations, at least add add an option in the window decoration plugin that restores this behavior for those of us that want full decoration effects on the entire desktop, not just on 2 sides of windows.

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

This looks like a broken configuration. Try running the following:

gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/compiz

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

I have absolutely no clue what that is you want me to run.....I did however use the advanced compiz-desktop-effects application and select the reset to defaults option shown under preferences......it did indeed change everything back to fresh install defaults except this one thing with the drop shadows.....I have tried it on all the computers I have seen this issue on, and it just does not fix the problem.

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/compiz changed nothing.......ran as sudo, rebooted, no change.

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

What video hardware and drivers are you using?

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

that depends on which computer you want to know about, its happening on ALL my computers, though all computers have Nvidia cards in them. they are all fresh installs of gutsy, newer Nvidia cards and slightly older cards....Geforce fx 5500 through Geforce 7950 GT.

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

Alright, I've got the same hardware as you but don't have this problem. Are you using emerald? Uninstall the emerald package (if it's installed), reload compiz, and see if you still have this problem.

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

I should add that in each case, if I go to the window decorations plugin and set the shadow effects to extreme settings of radius an intensity, then i can get very dim shadows to display on the different sides of windows, which shows that they are working, they are simply suppressed or restricted so that intensity and radius are muted as much as possible to hide the shadows.

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

Now it sounds like the shadow offset in the decorator is off. For gtk-window-decorator (GNOME) this value is read from the compiz settings (if you've left compiz using gconf instead of switching to flat file) but with emerald and kde-window-decorator the option is stored elsewhere.

So, again, are you using emerald and does the problem go away if you uninstall it?

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

I don't have emerald, never did. I did try to get it installed on one computer but could not figure out why it would not work.....I should repeat, this problem started happening about two weeks ago, first on one computer, then another on, then on another one...its not like it happened on all my computers at once with an update, they just started happening one at a time over 2 weeks until now its like that on all my computers. these are all fresh installs, so I can't see that usage on my part has done damage. I'm trying to help, I'm not fighting, but the same behavior on a PIII 500 w/Geforce FX 5500, as well as PWS 530 w/Geforce 6800 GT OC, old card as well as newer card.

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

I did not change back end, what ever you guys set it to, it was not changed by me. "if you've left compiz using gconf instead of switching to flat file" yes, I left it the way you guys set it, and never tried to change it either.....

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

Alright, maybe I'm not understanding what you mean, can you attach a screenshot of what your shadows look like?

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

ok, yes, but I'm going to have to change colors and backgrounds to make it visible. give me a little bit to upload, should be easy, but its not... LOL

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

here ya go, the computer I am using right now has this problem - its a 32bit fresh install of Gutsy, however just to show that its not just this one computer, I went to another computer I have running that is 64 bit and it too has the very same problem, but I already said its on every computer I have....lol one screen shot has the shadow setting set to an extreme value just to show that shadows ARE there, but they are restricted as much as possible, the second screenshot shows a more normal setting though still more aggressive to show both an intense shadow, but yet an absence of the other shadows.

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

here is the second, its sharper and more illustrative...

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

What I am trying to show is that it looks like it has been designed to be that way because its perfect in the one source origin light source, however it did not function that way for the first 3 weeks. What I see is that there are NO 3D desktop effect shadows on the bottom half of my desk top, nor are there any 3D shadows on the top or left of the windows, it look like shadows are turned off for those areas described, this was not the case 3 weeks ago, nor was it the case when Gutsy was first released.

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

Alright, it looks like your Shadow Offset settings are _way_ off. Both X and Y should be set to 1 but you've got them at 5 on other machine and 12 on the other. Those are certainly not the default settings.

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

I set those offsets to make the issue more visible for the screen shot only ! However :

Alright, I'm not sure whats going on, yes, I see what you are talking about, I have reset the compiz defaults at least 10 times across several different machines and it did not correct the problem. However I have gone in and changed this default setting from 1 to 5 on all the machines to get a bigger shadow, thats what what I did when I first installed Gutsy, The setting of 5 was perfect for my taste one month ago and had no negative affects. I liked the shadows at the setting of 4 or 5 for both the X and Y. But as you pointed out, I played with it again and now the setting of 1 is the only setting that produces a shadow ALL the way around a window. it looks like anything other than 1 now makes the shadows disappear either for the X or Y axis when 4 weeks ago this was not the behavior. While I know that this may not be considered a bug at this point anymore, I am left puzzled as to why a setting of 5 worked for both X & Y for over a month, produced the results I wanted and now it does not, even worse, now I have now way to increase the shadow size to get an affect I want. Clearly setting this value back to the default value of 1 renders the shadows on all sides and now the value of 4 or 5 for an offset removes the shadow. grrr, this is changed behavior from 3 weeks ago, any setting other than 1 removes shadows now...and the other settings just do not produce the quality shadow I had until 2 weeks ago. you can consider this a non bug. As a test, I just installed Gutsy with out doing any updates at all after install, and tested the X/Y offset value and without any updates set the value to 5, 5 works better and renders a better shadow....IMO, but then did an update and the problem started again with this new value.......I can work with it, close this non-bug out.