Does 'Unredirect fullscreen Windows' option in compiz improve performance for video playback?

Question

I found this option in CCSM. It's unchecked by default. There's a tooltip explaining that it allows drawing on fullscreen windows to not be redirected to offscreen pixmaps.

Answer 1

This option causes drawing to occur directly on the screen rather than drawing off-screen and then copying the drawn content back onto the screen.

Thus, yes it can dramatically improve graphical performance.

However there can be a draw-back - on some graphics cards/monitors - using this option can result in dramatic flickering. Particularly - this flickering effect can occur on full-screen apps.

Thus - its work experimenting, but if you see flickering, its best not to use.

Remember using CCSM can break your desktop.

If you want to toggle this value, you can use:

gconftool-2 --set /apps/compizconfig-1/profiles/Default/plugins/composite/screen0/options/unredirect_fullscreen_windows --type bool 0

Change 0 for 1 to switch this option back-on.