diff options
| author | Kent Daleng <lolexplode@gmail.com> | 2025-03-15 16:42:05 +0100 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | GitHub <noreply@github.com> | 2025-03-15 15:42:05 +0000 |
| commit | 392fc27de110d3548095e465d5cb38bd8d5730ea (patch) | |
| tree | c465f8975db4e6f90c9f875cb6e7722af175901f /wiki/Development:-Redraw-Loop.md | |
| parent | 9e560e7e607638da4f47b6dfef5a83b18711f75d (diff) | |
| download | niri-392fc27de110d3548095e465d5cb38bd8d5730ea.tar.gz niri-392fc27de110d3548095e465d5cb38bd8d5730ea.tar.bz2 niri-392fc27de110d3548095e465d5cb38bd8d5730ea.zip | |
Use anchors on the wiki (#1266)
* wiki testing
* wiki updates
* use .md with anchors, revert sidebar
* bump wiki action
* add some more anchors, fix some language
* change links to be more descriptive by themselves
Diffstat (limited to 'wiki/Development:-Redraw-Loop.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | wiki/Development:-Redraw-Loop.md | 22 |
1 files changed, 22 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/wiki/Development:-Redraw-Loop.md b/wiki/Development:-Redraw-Loop.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7f3d1873 --- /dev/null +++ b/wiki/Development:-Redraw-Loop.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +On a TTY, only one frame can be submitted to an output at a time, and the compositor must wait until the output repaints (indicated by a VBlank) to be able to submit the next frame. +In niri we keep track of this via the `RedrawState` enum that you can find in an `OutputState`. + +Here's a diagram of state transitions for the `RedrawState` state machine: + +<picture> + <source media="(prefers-color-scheme: dark)" srcset="./img/RedrawState-dark.drawio.png"> + <img alt="RedrawState state transition diagram" src="./img/RedrawState-light.drawio.png"> +</picture> + +`Idle` is the default state, when the output does not need to be repainted. +Any operation that may cause the screen to update calls `queue_redraw()`, which moves the output to a `Queued` state. +Then, at the end of an event loop dispatch, niri calls `redraw()` for every `Queued` output. + +If the redraw causes damage (i.e. something on the output changed), we move into the `WaitingForVBlank` state, since we cannot redraw until we receive a VBlank event. +However, if there's no damage, we do not return to `Idle` right away. +Instead, we set a timer to fire roughly at when the next VBlank would occur, and transition to a `WaitingForEstimatedVBlank` state. + +This is necessary in order to throttle frame callbacks sent to applications to at most once per output refresh cycle. +Without this throttling, applications can start continuously redrawing without damage (for instance, if the application window is partially off-screen, and it is only the off-screen part that changes), and eating a lot of CPU in the process. + +Then, either the estimated VBlank timer completes, and we go back to `Idle`, or maybe we call `queue_redraw()` once more and try to redraw again. |
