Dark & Glass Modes (#264)
Improvements
- A massive improvement in the rendering performance of the dark-mode feature by using GPU (graphic card) hardware acceleration.
Before this version, GPU acceleration was possible only for NVIDIA GPUs, and now the renderer was rewritten to take advantage of Direct2D API by using filters implemented by standard GPU drivers. The NVIDIA CUDA acceleration option was deleted and replaced with an optimized code that uses acceleration anyway. (#264) - The “Filter Images” option (which allows you to exclude images from color inversion/glass) was improved:
2.1. The accuracy of the detection algorithm improved a lot, and the difference is noticed more in non-4 K displays
2.2. The speed of the “Filter Images” option improved by implementing logic to automatically disable the additional processing (of image detection) when we know that the window frame is unlikely to contain any images. The additional algorithm for this task (evaluate if the frame may contain images) is hardware accelerated by the GPU using Direct2D filters.
2.3. memory usage is optimized by automatically cleaning extra buffers that are unnecessary when we know that the window does not contain images. - The algorithm to determine if the window is bright/dark was optimized and rewritten by using Direct2D acceleration.
- Battery usage & rendering speed optimization by:
4.1. Suspending the re-render process of any window fully covered by other windows. If the window is not minimized, but you still can’t see it because it is entirely behind the windows above, the renderer of this window will be suspended. This will reduce a lot of CPU/Power usage and improve rendering speed in case of enabling these effects for multiple windows simultaneously.
4.2. Stopping the renderer capture & processing threads and freeing all buffers memory in case the window is minimized or in a different virtual desktop. In these cases, the renderer processes for such windows will not consume any resources until the window returns from minimized state/ visible in the current virtual desktop
Bugfixes
- Fixed: when having multiple monitors and each monitor has different DPI scaling – the dark/glass modes were not rendered correctly (#9)
- When combining dark mode with the always-on-top mode, the border around the window was not visible because it was created behind the dark frame.
- When closing windows in dark mode, an empty frame is left on the screen that cannot be moved or closed (#257)
- Partially fixed (the issue is not with any window..): Window position in the maximized state when dark mode is on (#256)
- Improve stability on Windows 10
- Fixed bug in the NVIDIA GPU CUDA acceleration of the Glass feature due to an issue that the code compiled with Cuda toolkit 11.8, which does not support old GPUs, and this option is now enabled by default.
- Fixed input delay lags that may happen when any of these effects are enabled
- Fixed in v5.19.1: Issue that the filter images option did not apply after enabling/disabling it (needed to re-enable the dark-mode effect for the change to take effect)
Changes
- The sliders of the Glass effect (smart transparency) were simplified to Opacity, Blur Level, Images, Texts, Filter Images (checkbox), and the effect will render any text in bright with dark background
- The default settings of the Glass effect changed, and now the blur filter is disabled by default (because the performance has never been good when it is enabled)
Other improvements
None
Other bugfixes
- [Toolbar] When the “Integrate with the minimize button” option is enabled, and the DPI scaling is not 100%, in some cases, the edge of the toolbar is placed after the edge of the monitor.
- [Toolbar] Fixed UI bugs in a few toolbar themes when the windows theme is in light mode
- Fixed bug that sometimes the app fails to parse the settings, and as a result, it removes them (so all settings, including activation deleted)
- Fixed the issue that, in some cases, the Microsoft Store version may crash when changing activation settings.
- Fixed a few English strings (for example: stop using the word “Shrink” and instead always use “PiP”)
- Fixed bug with wizard pages that their settings did not update when returned back to them
- [Anchors feature] Improve stability (fix the potential error)
- Fixed some UI bugs
Other changes
- Few minor changes in the general tab
- Toolbar Settings: The settings page reorganized
