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#opengl#x11#metaballs

3D desktop blobs effect

Nuclear's Hacks

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  • Linked in the descriptionjtsiomb/shapeblobs

Intermediate. Assumes working knowledge.

789 views10 years ago1 recommendation

Graphics and audioSystems programmingRenderingLinux

A demonstration of rendering 3D metaballs using OpenGL inside a shaped window that dynamically updates via the Xshape extension.

A silly graphics hack, rendering 3D metaballs with OpenGL in a shaped window, while continuously updating the window shape to match the shape of the metaballs. Source code: github.com/jtsiomb/shapeblobs Doesn't require compositing or anything fancy like that, just the plain old Xshape extension.

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1 person recommends this

What people say. Cited as a classic demonstration of using the X11 Xshape extension to create dynamically shaped top-level windows.

u/jtsiombin r/GraphicsProgramming • Recommends

On “How exactly do modern widget toolkits (GTK+, QT) draw widgets?”

…n issue with either way, but they do require support from the X server in the first case. That support is widely available however, and it's called the X shape extension. You can have even top-level windows with arbitrary shapes. And you can even change that shape on the fly. See my "shapeblobs" hack: https://github.com/jtsiomb/shapeblobs (video: link to this video Shadows of top-level windows are independent of GUI toolkit. They are handled by the desktop compositor if one is running. If one isn't running you generally can't have shadows (or at least semi-transparent fuzzy shadows) on top-level windows, because you can't have alpha blending with the rest of the desktop. Shadows on widgets within a…
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