Splash screens and QML

Functional Programming in C++

Published by Ivan Čukić in the KDE development section, on 2 May 2011

If you were to pass by Sebas’ house these last few days of Tokamak 5, you’d see a window full of post-its that contained tasks that we plan to do (can be seen on Kevin’s blog).

Tokamak5 Logo

One of the post-its was 1/8 in size compared to the normal ones and it only said TSP, an abbreviation for ‘The Secret Project’. I didn’t want to tell anyone what I was doing until I see what comes out of it.

So, after meddling with Xlib, strange code-paths in kde-workspace I’m proud to present a new splash screen engine that can do QML.

Why this? The main reason is that creating new splash screens currently sucks - everything is prerendered and the theme authors don’t really have any control over the process. That is probably the main reason we still have basically the same splash screen as we did in KDE (SC) 3.x.

Currently under a GIT branch of kde-workspace, KSplashQML allows the theme creator to define the animations in a more pleasant manner, to adapt the animation to the screen size…

The theme is rather simple - black/white KDE logo with rotating gear that fades into the logo that can be seen in the screenshot. If you are wondering why the text says ‘Friday’, it is because we are recognizing the fantastic song made popular by our idol Rebecca.

Tokamak 5 is approaching the end - only Marco and I still linger around (and Sebas, naturally) - and that is going to end tomorrow around noon.

Ivan Čukić
@<a href="#comment-25491" rel="nofollow">sheytan</a>: Not really - I'm tired, and I don't want to install recording software on eee.
Ivan Čukić
@<a href="#comment-25493" rel="nofollow">hoe</a>: Yup, Tokamaks and other developer sprints usually produce a lot of planet posts. And in the last few months there were at least 3 sprints :)
@<a href="#comment-25494" rel="nofollow">Nece228</a>: You're lucky you don't know what it is about :) If you want to, search for it on youtube "Friday Rebecca Black". One of the worst songs in this century :]
.
Screencasts or it didn't happen, so it didn't happen.
André
How much resources do these fancy splash screens take? I mean: I splash screen is usually only needed for applications that take a long time to start. Personally, I rather see applications that just start quickly than ones that take the time to display a fancy splash screen. But exactly the applications that could benefit from improved performance, should not be bogged down with additional delays because the splash screen gets heavier to load and render.
André
Hmmm... I guess I misinterpreted the post. I guess the post was about KDE's splash screen, not application splash screens, right?
In that case: forget my comment above please!
Rezza
Wow, amazing. I was thinking about it for some time (but too lazy to actually implement it) fighting with current KSplashx theme. It's possible to do some amazing splashes with animations etc. but it's usually pain, requires pre-rendered animations, hacks...
Thanks, going to try it!
TheBlackCat
Excellent! How well does this play with multi-monitor setups? The current one is pretty unreliable with those. Will this be in 4.7, or later?
JMou
but what happened to raptor menu (or similar)?
hoe
It really seems that a lot of interesting stuff is happening in the KDE land - huge bump in the planetkde activity :p
This is definetly a nice addition, together with KDM-plasma this opens whole new level of customization to the KDE boot process. Truly appreciated! Can't wait to see what artist can make out of it.
Nece228
tell me, "If you are wondering why the text says ‘Friday’, it is because we are recognizing the fantastic song made popular by our idol Rebecca." what could that mean? some secret stuff right?
Ivan Čukić
@<a href="#comment-25499" rel="nofollow">André</a>: Yes it is about KDE 'boot' splash. The performance disadvantage is that it uses Qt instead of plain Xlib, but on the other hand, since it uses it also preloads it :)
@<a href="#comment-25500" rel="nofollow">Rezza</a>: Yes, that was the main reason I started making it - prerendering is a pain.
@<a href="#comment-25501" rel="nofollow">TheBlackCat</a>: I've not yet written the multimonitor part - simply because I didn't have a real computer to test it on.
It shouldn't be in 4.7, although it might. It is a soft freeze after all.
@<a href="#comment-25502" rel="nofollow">JMou</a>: And you're asking me this because?
sheytan
any screencast to see the animations? :)
sreich
@TheBlackCat
4.7 is feature frozen, so no. Far too late in the schedule.
Ivan Čukić
@<a href="#comment-25497" rel="nofollow">.</a>: fun fun fun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi00ykRg_5c
Links 4/5/2011: New PCLinuxOS Magazine, Firefox Fork, Linux Preinstalled on ARM | Techrights
[...] Splash screens and QML If you were to pass by Sebas’ house these last few days of Tokamak 5, you’d see a window full of post-its that contained tasks that we plan to do (can be seen on Kevin’s blog). [...]
TheBlackCat
Would something like this also work as a plasma wallpaper? Being able to specify animated, or even slightly interactive, wallpapers in QML would be really cool (although perhaps not feasible until libplasma2).
Ivan Čukić
@<a href="#comment-25513" rel="nofollow">TheBlackCat</a>: Yes. Since we got support for animated wallpapers, I wanted something that will allow easy creation of those - some scripting engine and similar.
Now we have it, it only needs a days work to implement - I hope I'll have that day before 4.8