Shadows vs adwaita shadows

[darkblaze69]

Couple issues regarding shadows.

• when a window is not in focus it's shadowless.
• the shadow is too contrast, radius too small. The adwaita shadow looks more diffused and more radius.

If it's not actionable feel free to close the issue ))

[joshas]

Something strange is going on with those shadows, I assume we are going for "new" Adwaita theme, one new GTK4 applications are using? Let's do some visual inspection and compare some applications for reference. I am using Fedora Linux 39, with Wayland session. First, GNOME Calculator 45.0.2 on dark background:

And white background:

Window state is active.

When window is deactivated, whole window fades, but shadow stays the same:

Now, for my personal biggest annoyance, KeepassXC 2.7.6:

On dark background shadow is offset by several pixels, doesn't have border radius and even glows for some reason.
Inactive window fades a bit, as it should, but shadow disappears:

And finally, KeepassXC menus and modal window (About) have no shadows at all, nor expected round borders, although menu margins are added:

I would asume modal window should have not only shadow, but some window decorations too:

I apologize for a long rant, and appreciate all work that was done to make Qt applications look well integrated on GNOME desktop environment. I understand, that there are probably lots of limitations from Qt side, and from application itself, e.g. what widgets they are using. But still, I would be very interested in helping to improve QAdvaitaDecorations, so Qt applications could look identical to GTK4 ones, as much as possible.

[bertini97]

@joshas If you want a quick and easy fix for the shadows, building QAdwaitaDecorations is really easy, and you just need to modify ceShadowsWidth to something slightly more (or less). I remember obtaining good results with it.

Also, it seems to be tied with the ceWindowBorderWidth, which has some other problems, like making it so when the window is maximized, a 1px slice of the desktop is visible. To magnify this effect, try setting it to 10 and then maximizing a window.

[LSeelig]

I use the rounded window corners GNOME extension, which also makes them more inline with libadwaita and replaces the shadows. You will need to make a custom entry for each QT app and change the clip padding to 2.0, and this will technically cut into the border (but it will look much cleaner than 1.0, which improperly stacks the border.

[bertini97]

@joshas just a heads up to #67.

[razzeee]

Would a PR increasing the shadow radius be accepted?

It causes a lot of frustration on the end of flathub. See this for e.g. flathub/flathub#6642 (comment)

[grulja]

Would a PR increasing the shadow radius be accepted?

It causes a lot of frustration on the end of flathub. See this for e.g. flathub/flathub#6642 (comment)

I'm not sure I understand your problem looking at your screenshots.

[razzeee]

Would a PR increasing the shadow radius be accepted?
It causes a lot of frustration on the end of flathub. See this for e.g. flathub/flathub#6642 (comment)

I'm not sure I understand your problem looking at your screenshots.

Basically, the shadow/trasparency around the image is too small. Adwaita in my screenshot from Add Water uses more padding to all sides.

[grulja]

Well, increasing the radius is not easy the way how the shadows are implemented, ideally it would be completely rewritten and I have no idea of a better solution.

[razzeee]

Well, increasing the radius is not easy the way how the shadows are implemented, ideally it would be completely rewritten and I have no idea of a better solution.

Not sure I follow. You're saying that adwaita isn't using linear shadows, but we're here?

[grulja]

Well, increasing the radius is not easy the way how the shadows are implemented, ideally it would be completely rewritten and I have no idea of a better solution.

Not sure I follow. You're saying that adwaita isn't using linear shadows, but we're here?

If you increase the size of the shadows here https://github.com/FedoraQt/QAdwaitaDecorations/blob/main/src/qadwaitadecorations.cpp#L51, the shadows will become ugly, it's not easily adjustable how one would like it to be.

[razzeee]

Well, increasing the radius is not easy the way how the shadows are implemented, ideally it would be completely rewritten and I have no idea of a better solution.

Not sure I follow. You're saying that adwaita isn't using linear shadows, but we're here?

If you increase the size of the shadows here main/src/qadwaitadecorations.cpp#L51, the shadows will become ugly, it's not easily adjustable how one would like it to be.

Gotcha, hoped that would have been the case :/
Kinda was expecting us having to split the border size for x and y axis, but that it fundamentally doesn't work is a problem.

[razzeee]

Well, increasing the radius is not easy the way how the shadows are implemented, ideally it would be completely rewritten and I have no idea of a better solution.

Not sure I follow. You're saying that adwaita isn't using linear shadows, but we're here?

If you increase the size of the shadows here main/src/qadwaitadecorations.cpp#L51, the shadows will become ugly, it's not easily adjustable how one would like it to be.

so, would reaching out to some qt/kde people be helpful?

I don't know since when, but I don't have shadows anymore.