compiz team mailing list archive

[Paul Sladen <ubuntu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yougo: Unity (via Compiz) is rendering the interface in the same way
that a 3D video game work: people measure games in the number of Frames
Per Second (FPS) displayed.  For each new frame the interface gets wiped
and is redrawn from scratch, when this is done enough times per second
it appears smooth.

With OpenGL hardware GPU rendering it's possible to manage 60+ FPS per
second.  This is more complete FPS than the eyes can see, so the game,
or Unity interface looks super-smooth.  With OpenGL software rendering
it is only possible to get 1-2 FPS which makes the interface jerky,
unresponsive and uses up lots of battery and CPU.  Without efficient and
fast hardware OpenGL support it is better to swtich back to traditional
2D rendering (the GNOME Panel) which uses a different mechanism for
drawing to the screen, where only what has moved is updated, not the
whole screen.  Doing software 2D rendering means that many of the
effects that people have become used to are not possible.

-- 
compiz can't load plugins and won't run in VirtualBox
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/675307
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