v13: outline doesn't match windows borders

[efogdev]

Describe the bug
For some windows, there's an inconsistency between window borders and the extension outline.
The app is telegram-desktop.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Install Telegram
2. Enable window border in the extension settings

Screenshots

Information (please complete the following):

• Tiling Shell version: 13.0 (built from the v13.0 branch)
• GNOME version: 46.4

[domferr]

Hey @efogdev thank you for testing v13! I'm not happy how the current solution handles rounded borders tbh, they are basically hardcoded. The most I can do is to guess the radius. I'm working on scaling it based on the monitor's scaling factor.

The telegram app I'm using has different border radius than yours. Which scaling factor do you have set?

[efogdev]

It is 2x on the screenshot (I wonder if you mean fractional scaling)

[waffles-dev]

I get the radius being incorrect on some apps like Discord as above, but I get even worse borders on some other applications such as Chrome/Edge:

Gnome 42.9 Wayland (Pop 22.04)
v28 installed via extension manager

Update:
Dragging floating window from one monitor to another always seems to fix the border. But maximising/restoring breaks it

[efogdev]

@domferr do you believe there is some universal solution that can be applied to any window? AFAIK its not only the scaling factor that matters; windows itself may not have border radius at all.

[vinchatl]

@efogdev is right here, some application have a different corner radius (even at 100% scaling), some have a 0 radius (so, just a straight corner), and some have rounded corners on the top but straight corners on the bottom (Thunderbird, Firefox, VSCodium, etc.).
I remember reading somewhere that GNOME apps follow a convention for rounded corner with a certain radius, but the DE itself doesn't enforce anything on the windows, so it is up to the developper to choose how corners are managed.

[bsdson]

I've got similar issues sometimes when:

1. A window is tiled as half of the screen.
   (The outline looks okay when the window is not tiled)
2. The outline is much bigger than the actual window for Gnome Files.
   (similar to TastyWaffles' case)

[domferr]

Thank you guys for your feedback!
I agree with @vinchatl "GNOME apps follow a convention for rounded corner with a certain radius, but the DE itself doesn't enforce anything on the windows". This is definitely a big issue, since we cannot apply the same border radius to any window. To implement this I got inspiration from Forge and it seems to me they had the same issue as well. Hope to find a more reliable solution

[froqstar]

How do others like Hyprland solve this? Do they enforce square corners/fixed radius on window manager level?

Would really love color effects on the borders BTW 😜

[mikeolof]

I can add some data points to @TastyWaffles issue with the borders having an extended frame around the windows. This happens to me as well.

• Locking the computer (Super+L) and unlocking resets the borders to their expected positions, in addition to the mentioned dragging the window into another screen (and back again).
• The extended border popping up is inconsistent - mostly it happens when going from maximized, but it can also happen when opening a new app or window.

Applications I have had issues with include

• LibreWolf
• LibreOffice
• Draw.io
• VSCode
• Blackbox terminal
• Virtual Machine Manager (QEMU/KVM)

A small nitpick is that the border is rendered above window elements such as drop-down lists that extend outside the window extents. I'm unsure how that would be fixed though.

My setup is

• Tiling Shell 13.1
• Ubuntu 24.04.1 x64_64
• Gnome 46.0 on Wayland
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 7840U w/ Radeon 780M Graphics (16) @ 6.08 GHz
• GPU: AMD Phoenix1 [Integrated]

[waffles-dev]

Might also be able to look at how Pop!_OS handle it, both in 22.04 and on cosmic alpha. Their borders don't have the same issue, so there might be a way to access them in an "as rendered" manner?

[domferr]

Quick update: since version 14.1 of Tiling Shell you should now have correct borders, meaning that the issue with the borders having an extended frame around the windows is now fixed. I'm looking into solve the border radius issue as well! However, it seems to me that the rest of the world just accepted that this is not solvable...

Might also be able to look at how Pop!_OS handle it, both in 22.04 and on cosmic alpha. Their borders don't have the same issue, so there might be a way to access them in an "as rendered" manner?

Today I had the time to finally look into it. They provide a setting in the extension preferences. So you can choose which border radius you prefer.

[efogdev]

@domferr a quick (unrelated) question, is it expected that after updating to v15 I can't move windows between monitors with keyboard? I'll create a new issue if not. My monitor setup is the final boss for your extension lmao

[domferr]

@domferr a quick (unrelated) question, is it expected that after updating to v15 I can't move windows between monitors with keyboard? I'll create a new issue if not. My monitor setup is the final boss for your extension lmao

Hey @efogdev, I'm sorry, unfortunately I'm aware of that bug...I'm working to fix it soon! Thank you for reporting, I had the doubt nobody were noticing it ahahah 😄

My monitor setup is the final boss for your extension lmao

OMG I can confirm! 🤣

[domferr]

Despite the rest of the world abandoned the idea to work/fix the border radius problem, I wanted to provide a solution. I'm so proud to share this work with you! Now the borders' radius will be computed at runtime and are not going to be a fixed value anymore. Have a look!

How it works?

When a window gets created it is animated by the window manager. After the animation (approximately 180ms), Tiling Shell captures the pixels of the entire left border, excluding any padding or shadow. Then, starting from topmost pixel, Tiling Shell counts the number of progressively transparent pixels until we hit the first fully opaque one. This count determines the top-left border radius. Indeed, the top left border radius is the number of pixels from the top pixel to the first non transparent pixel!

This process is repeated from the bottommost pixel upwards to compute the bottom-left border radius.

The top-right border radius mirrors the top-left, and the bottom-right mirrors the bottom-left. This approach ensures that border radii dynamically adapt to the window’s actual design. Of course, if you have an extension or anything else who customize the border radius, this solution works as well!

How and when I can try it?

You can already test this out! Let me know what you think or share your feedback ❤️ Here it is!

• For GNOME 42, 43 and 44: GNOME.42-44.tilingshell@ferrarodomenico.com.zip
• For GNOME 45, 46 and 47: tilingshell@ferrarodomenico.com.zip

In this update the border now also adapts to the monitor scaling factor. However, this is still work in progress and I'm still working on handling some edge cases. I'm curious to know your opinion and your feedback! Thank you 🌟