fix: improve autohide animation responsiveness#521
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Instead of rendering content with a client-side offset during autohide animations, request the compositor to move the surface by adjusting layer-shell margins. This delegates the animation movement to the compositor which may be able to optimize surface repositioning. Changes: - Add set_margin_with_offset() for animation-aware margin setting - Update TransitionToHidden/TransitionToVisible to set margins each frame - Remove render offset (anim_gap_translation) from render.rs - Remove anchor_gap from background and input region calculations in layout.rs
misterclayt0n
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Dec 15, 2025
Points to misterclayt0n/cosmic-panel@fix/autohide-animation-stutter which includes: - Improved event loop timing during animations - Immediate surface commits during margin animation - Exclusive zone optimization PR: pop-os/cosmic-panel#521
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I installed this fork locally and it seems to make it a bit smoother. Thanks! |
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would this fix this issue? pop-os/cosmic-epoch#2677 |
wash2
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Instead of rendering content with a client-side offset during autohide
animations, request the compositor to move the surface by adjusting
layer-shell margins. This delegates the animation movement to the
compositor which may be able to optimize surface repositioning.
We did use this method in the past, but I don't believe this kind of method will interact properly with overlap notify protocol
| /// `anchor_offset` is negative to push the panel off-screen (hiding), | ||
| /// and zero when fully visible. | ||
| /// | ||
| /// If `commit_immediately` is true, commits the surface right away without |
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Is this really necessary? I don't think we want to render without waiting for frame callbacks.
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Summary
This PR fixes stuttering in the panel autohide animation, especially noticeable at 60Hz refresh rates.
Problem
The autohide animation was dropping frames, causing visible stutter. Profiling revealed two issues:
Event loop timing: When the panel was hidden, the main loop used a 300ms dispatch timeout. The
prev_durbackoff variable could accumulate up to 100ms and carry into the animation, causing slow polling during transitions.Delayed surface commits: Margin changes during animation were batched with rendering and only committed when the next frame callback arrived, adding unnecessary latency.
Solution
Event loop timing (
xdg_shell_wrapper/mod.rs)TransitionToHidden/TransitionToVisible)Immediate commits during animation (
panel_space.rs)commit_immediatelyparameter toset_margin_with_offset()Exclusive zone optimization (
panel_space.rs)Profiling
The timing metrics were collected using Tracy (https://github.com/wolfpld/tracy) instrumentation temporarily added to cosmic-panel. The profiling code was used only for diagnosis and has not been included in this PR to keep the changes minimal and focused on the fix itself. However, if deemed appropriate, I have these tracy changes in my local machine, and I can upstream them as well in another PR.
Metrics
Demo
2025-12-15.18-26-41.mp4
Animation feels overall snappier.
Testing
Tested on 60Hz display with autohide panel. Animation feels smooth with no latency.