How to transform the app_server code to use compositing | Haiku Project

Semi-transparent window parts can be done with BDirectWindow and special visible region calculation. No per-window compositing is needed.

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Canā€™t a BBitmap be used as mask for the shape of the window? That would be similar to how arbitrary shapes are achieved on X.

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I believe that was dockbert. I recall using it on r5.

True. There is an X terminal program that does transparency without compositor. Urxvt I think? It does this by taking a snapshot of the portion of the screen that it occupies, and renders that into its own frame. Pretty slick and lightweight. Works great in environments where you donā€™t drag windows around, like a tiling window manager, as the background snapshot would move with the window until it redraws upon placement.

Yes, there is just no easy to use API to do it. Itā€™s not really a matter of complex implementation, just exposing it to apps in a convenient way.

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