NAME

X11::Protocol::Ext::DOUBLE_BUFFER - window off-screen double buffering

SYNOPSIS

 use X11::Protocol;
 $X = X11::Protocol->new;
 $X->init_extension('DOUBLE-BUFFER')
   or print "DOUBLE-BUFFER extension not available";

DESCRIPTION

The DOUBLE-BUFFER extension lets a program draw into an off-screen "back buffer" on a window and when ready swap it to the user-visible "front". A back buffer is a drawable with the same size, depth, visibility, etc as the window proper.

Drawing off-screen then swapping to visible is good for smooth frame by frame animations or if some drawing is complex or poorly implemented and has clears or overwriting which would flash if done directly to the window.

Off-screen drawing can also be implemented by a pixmap and copy into the window but the server might implement a back buffer more efficiently. In particular the back buffer only needs to be visible portions of a window so memory is not used for overlapped areas.

The server might support double buffering only on certain visuals. DbeGetVisualInfo() lists those which are supported, or just try to create a back buffer for a window and watch for an error reply.

See examples/dbe-swap.pl for a simple program drawing with double buffering.

REQUESTS

The following requests are made available with an init_extension() per "EXTENSIONS" in X11::Protocol.

    my $bool = $X->init_extension('DOUBLE-BUFFER');

"($server_major, $server_minor) = $X->DbeGetVersion ($client_major, $client_minor)"

Negotiate a protocol version with the server. $client_major and $client_minor is what the client would like, the returned $server_major and $server_minor is what the server will do, which might be less than requested (but not higher).

The code here supports 1.0 and automatically negotiates within init_extension() so direct use of DbeGetVersion() is not necessary.

"$X->DbeAllocateBackBufferName ($window, $buffer, $action_hint)"

Create $buffer (a new XID) as the back buffer on $window. $buffer is a drawable and can be used with all usual drawing operations.

    my $buffer = $X->new_rsrc;
    $X->DbeAllocateBackBufferName ($window, $buffer, 'Copied');

$action_hint is the most likely $action in later DbeSwapBuffers() requests (see below). But this is just a hint and doesn't restrict what can be done.

If $window is already double buffered then $buffer becomes another reference to that back buffer.

If $window is destroyed (DestroyWindow()) then $buffer continues to exist and should still be deallocated (below), but attempting to draw into it gives a "Resource" error reply.

"$X->DbeDellocateBackBufferName ($buffer)"

Deallocate $buffer and release that XID.

If multiple DbeAllocateBackBufferName() requests have been made on a window then all the other XIDs continue to refer to the window back buffer. The underlying buffer remains until all buffer XIDs for it are deallocated.

"$X->DbeSwapBuffers ($window1,$action1, $window2,$action2,...)"

Swap the front and back buffers on each given $window (XIDs). The back buffer becomes visible and what was the front becomes the back.

  $X->DbeSwapBuffers ($window1, 'Background',
                      $window2, 'Untouched');

Only the content is swapped, the XIDs are unchanged, so $window is still the visible window front and any $buffer XIDs to it are still the back.

The contents of each back buffer after swapping are controlled by the corresponding $action for each window (string type "DbeSwapAction"),

     $action        new back buffer contents
    ---------       --------------------------
    "Undefined"     undefined contents
    "Background"    cleared to the window background
    "Untouched"     left at current content (previous visible)
    "Copied"        content of the old back buffer (unchanged)

"Untouched" means the contents of the front buffer are swapped to the back buffer unchanged.

"Copied" is as if the back buffer content is copied to the front, making both now the same.

"$X->DbeBeginIdiom ()"

"$X->DbeEndIdiom ()"

Hint to the server that a sequence of swap and/or drawing operations between Begin and End might be done as an atomic combination for higher performance. If the server doesn't recognise the sequence then it runs it sequentially as normal.

If a DbeSwapBuffers() is in the idiom then it should be the first request, immediately following the Begin.

    # swap then clear back buffer to a GC stipple
    # no guarantee any server would actually optimize this!
    $X->DbeBeginIdiom;
    $X->DbeSwapBuffers ($window, 'Undefined');
    $X->PolyFillRectangle ($buffer, $gc, [0,0,$width,$height]);
    $X->DbeEndIdiom;

There doesn't need to be a swap in an idiom. For example a CopyArea() of some parts of the back buffer to the window might be in a Begin/End and might perhaps be optimized by the server.

    $X->DbeBeginIdiom;
    $X->CopyArea ($buffer, $window,  # from buffer to window
                  $gc, $x,$y,$width,$height, $dstx,$dsty);
    # more stuff ...
    $X->DbeEndIdiom;

The idea of idiom groupings is to have a flexible way to express combination operations, including things not yet imagined, rather than adding specific requests to the protocol. In principle the server can always optimize consecutive requests but that depends on them arriving at the server together. A DbeBeginIdiom() is like permission to the server to defer performing the requests and wait, if it wishes, to see if what follows can be combined.

"@infos = $X->DbeGetVisualInfo ($drawable1, $drawable2, ...)"

"@infos = $X->DbeGetVisualInfo ()"

For each $drawable, return a list of the visual IDs on that screen which support double-buffering.

    my ($info_aref_drawable1, $info_aref_drawable2)
      = $X->DbeGetVisualInfo ($drawable1, $drawable2);

If no drawables are given then return information about each screen on the server.

    my @list_of_info_aref = $X->DbeGetVisualInfo ();

Each returned value is an arrayref. Each arrayref contains a list of visual ID and visual data pairs,

    # each $info_aref is
    [ $visual_id1, [ $depth, $perflevel ],
      $visual_id2, [ $depth, $perflevel ],
      ...
    ]

$depth is the visual's depth the same as in the server info "$X->{'visuals'}->{$visual_id}->{'depth'}".

$perflevel is an integer indicating how good the performance of double buffering is on this visual. A higher value means higher performance, but the actual number has no meaning and in particular cannot be compared between different servers.

If enquiring about a single drawable's screen then use a list context like the following. The result in scalar context is unspecified as yet.

    my ($info_aref) = $X->DbeGetVisualInfo ($X->root);

The visual+perf are pairs so they can be put into a hash to check support for double buffering on a given visual,

    my %hash = @$info_aref;   # pairs $visualid => [$d,$p]
    if ($hash{$my_visual_id}) {
      print "double buffering is available on my_visual_id\n";
    }

If you've got a choice of equally suitable visuals for application display then the performance level might be compared to choose the best.

"List::Pairwise" has some grep and map functions for pair lists like the $info_aref.

See examples/dbe-info.pl for a simple program printing this info.

"$window = $X->DbeGetBackBufferAttributes ($buffer)"

Return the window (an integer XID) which $buffer is for. If its target window has been destroyed (DestroyWindow()) then the return is "None".

ENUM TYPES

The following types are available for "$X->interp()" and "$X->num()", after init_extension().

DbeSwapAction

    "Undefined"    0
    "Background"   1
    "Untouched"    2
    "Copied"       3

For example,

    my $num = $X->num("DbeSwapAction", "Background");
    # sets $num to 2

BUGS

In some XFree86 3.x servers there was a bug in DbeGetVisualInfo() where the reply length was miscalculated, being bytes instead of CARD32s, resulting in a length value bigger than the actual data sent. The symptom is the client hangs waiting for data the length says should follow but which never does.

This affects all client code, including the Xlib XdbeGetVisualInfo() as used for instance by the "xdpyinfo" program.

Is there a good way to notice the problem? Probably not beyond looking at the server name and version and either forbidding the request or doing something nasty to the way handle_input() reads as a workaround.

HOME PAGE

<http://user42.tuxfamily.org/x11-protocol-other/index.html>

LICENSE

X11-Protocol-Other is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any later version.

X11-Protocol-Other is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with X11-Protocol-Other. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.