Terminal text has weird glitchy box shadows around text even with all shadows disabled

[xyzshantaram]

Platform

Arch Linux x86_64 Kernel: 5.4.8-arch1-1

GPU, drivers, and screen setup

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Resolution: 1366x768 $ glxinfo -b 36

Environment

WM: Openbox

picom version

$ picom --diagnostics
Version: v7.5

Extensions:

• Shape: Yes
• XRandR: Yes
• Present: Present

Misc:

• Use Overlay: Yes
• Config file used: /home/sid/.config/picom.conf

Drivers:

NVIDIA proprietary drivers 440.44

Configuration:

backend = "glx";
glx-no-stencil = true;
glx-copy-from-front = false;
glx-no-rebind-pixmap = true;
use-damage = true;
shadow = false;
#no-dnd-shadow = true;
#no-dock-shadow = true;
shadow-radius = 5;
shadow-offset-x = -8;
shadow-offset-y = -2;
shadow-opacity = 0.33;

shadow-exclude = [ 
    "name *= 'Firefox'",
    "class_g = 'Conky'",
    "class_g = 'Kupfer'",
    "! name~=''",
    "name = 'Notification'",
    "name = 'Plank'",
    "name = 'Docky'",
    "name = 'xfce4-notifyd'",
    "name *= 'VLC'", 
    "name *= 'compton'", 
    "name *= 'Chromium'", 
    "name *= 'Chrome'", 
    "name *= 'wrapper-2.0'", 
    "class_g = 'Firefox' && argb", 
    "class_g = 'Conky'", 
    "class_g = 'Kupfer'", 
    "class_g = 'Synapse'", 
    "class_g ?= 'Notify-osd'", 
    "class_g ?= 'Cairo-dock'", 
    "class_g ?= 'Xfce4-notifyd'", 
    "class_g ?= 'Xfce4-power-manager'",
    "WM_CLASS@:s *?= 'Nautilus'",
    "_NET_WM_STATE@:32a *= '_NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN'",
    "n:e:Menu",
    "_GTK_FRAME_EXTENTS@:c",
    "class_g = 'URxvt' && focused"
];
shadow-ignore-shaped = false;
inactive-opacity = 0.95;
active-opacity = 1;
frame-opacity = 1;
inactive-opacity-override = false;
blur-background = true;
blur-background-frame = true;
blur-background-fixed = false;
blur-background-exclude = [
    "name *= 'Chromium'",
    "name *= 'Chrome'",
    "name *= 'Firefox'"
];

fading = true;
fade-delta = 4;
fade-in-step = 0.03;
fade-out-step = 0.03;
fade-exclude = [ ];

mark-wmwin-focused = true;
mark-ovredir-focused = true;
use-ewmh-active-win = true;
detect-rounded-corners = true;
detect-client-opacity = true;
refresh-rate = 0;
vsync = true;
sw-opti = false;
unredir-if-possible = true;
focus-exclude = [ ];
detect-transient = true;
detect-client-leader = true;
wintypes : 
    {
    tooltip = {
        fade = true;
        shadow = false;
        opacity = 0.85;
        focus = true;
    };
    menu = {
        shadow = false;
        fade = true;
    };
    dropdown_menu = {
        shadow = false;
        fade = true;
    };
    popup_menu =  {
        shadow = false;
    };
    utility =  {
        shadow = false;
    };

    unknown = {
        shadow = false;
    };
    dock = {
        shadow = false;
    };
    toolbar = {
        shadow = false;
    };
    splash = {
        shadow = false;
    };
    dialog = {
        shadow = false;
    };
    normal = {
        shadow = false;
    };
    notify = {
        shadow = false;
    };
    combo = {
        shadow = false;
    };
    dnd = {
        shadow = false;
    };

};
opacity-rule = [
    "80:class_g = 'discord' && focused",
    "80:class_g = 'URxvt' && focused",
    "80:class_g *?= 'xfce4-terminal' && focused",
    "80:class_i = 'nautilus' && focused",
    "80:name *= 'VSCodium' && focused",
    "80:WM_CLASS@:s *?= 'Nautilus' && focused"
];

Steps of reproduction

1. Open a terminal
2. type or highlight some text

Expected behavior

The flickering boxes shouldn't be visible

Current Behavior

Flickering dark boxes around lines of text that are updating (or in some cases even static text. I have a feeling they are shadows but I'm not sure. Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/JM7iKOv.png

[delet-this]

I have this same issue on Arch, i3-gaps, GTX 750 ti (proprietary nvidia drivers) and also on Intel HD 4000 using glx backend. Looks like it doesn't happen when blur is disabled.

[yshui]

This should've been fixed in the next branch, could you try it?

[delet-this]

Seems to still happen:

λ ./picom --diagnostics Version: vgit-e1d9e

Extensions:

• Shape: Yes
• XRandR: Yes
• Present: Present

Misc:

• Use Overlay: Yes
• Config file used: /home/kisak/.config/picom/picom.conf

Drivers (inaccurate):

NVIDIA

[xyzshantaram]

I just installed the next branch, and it still seems to happen although the intensity of shadows is very much lessened.

My environment / config is the exact same, except for updating the picom version to vgit-463bf.

[xyzshantaram]

OK, so, enabling the experimental backends seems to have fixed the problem completely for me! @delet-this Please confirm if this works for you and then devs can go ahead and close the issue.

Thanks.

[delet-this]

@shantaram3013 For me --experimental-backends didn't affect those artifacts, they were still there. But through trial and error I finally found that having use-damage = false; in my config got rid of them.

[xlucn]

Confirming that use-damage = false; works for me.