Linux Update:
So, it looks like Linux (specifically X11) is just not going to be capable of handling the layering that’s in development for Mac/Windows. An MPV developer summed it up pretty well in a GHI. I did attempt to make the compositor composite child windows within a parent window but it didn’t work at all. The furthest I got was being able to make sections of the parent window transparent and not composite child windows at all.
If anyone does know X11 well and knows how to do this, let me know. From what I’ve seen/read, it seems like it just cannot be done.
So, Linux is going to continue rendering inside a frame buffer within Qt. However, it’s worth noting that Linux is in a vastly better position than other platforms because unlike other platforms Qt will use a threaded renderer there. Additionally I seem to have found a code path to kick off a render without requiring the main UI thread at all which means it shouldn’t suffer from stutter caused by contention on the UI thread (see my previous posts about details on this).
The Linux version now supports power control and disabling of the screensaver during playback so it is almost feature complete. The only outstanding piece missing is LIRC support which is likely to require an update to snapcraft itself before we can use LIRC. The code works but the socket isn’t accessible inside the snap. Accessing LIRC socket from a strictly confined snap? - snapd - snapcraft.io is a forum thread discussing this if anyone is curious.
With that caveat, all that remains is for the Linux versions to go through a QA cycle and it should be ready for release.
