Wallpaper Caching somewm-only

This page explains how SomeWM caches wallpaper textures and why it matters for performance.

The Problem

A common configuration is to have different wallpapers per tag. When you switch tags, the wallpaper changes:

tag.connect_signal("property::selected", function(t)
    gears.wallpaper.maximized(tag_wallpapers[t.index], t.screen, true)
end)

Without caching, every tag switch triggers this expensive pipeline:

1. Load image from disk - Read file, decompress PNG/JPEG (~5ms)
2. Create cairo surface - Allocate memory, decode pixels (~2ms)
3. Scale to screen size - Cairo paint operation (~3ms)
4. Create GPU texture - Upload to wlroots scene buffer (~5ms)
5. Destroy old texture - Free previous wallpaper

Total: ~15-25ms per switch

At 60fps, a frame is 16.6ms. Wallpaper switching alone can cause dropped frames and visible lag.

X11 vs Wayland

X11 (AwesomeWM)

On X11, wallpapers are fast because of how the display server works:

App creates pixmap → X Server stores in VRAM → Switch = change property

The X Server keeps pixmaps in video memory. "Switching" wallpapers just changes which pixmap is displayed. No re-uploading, no re-decoding.

Wayland (SomeWM without caching)

Wayland compositors manage their own buffers:

Each switch: Load file → Decode → Create buffer → Upload to GPU → Destroy old

There's no persistent pixmap storage. Every wallpaper change re-does all the work.

The Solution: Scene Node Caching

SomeWM caches wallpapers at the GPU texture level:

First visit:  Load → Decode → Create scene node → Hide node
Cache hit:    Show cached node (toggle visibility)

Instead of destroying wallpaper textures, SomeWM keeps them in a cache and toggles their visibility:

// Cache miss: create new texture (~20ms)
scene_node = wlr_scene_buffer_create(layer, buffer);
wlr_scene_node_set_enabled(&scene_node->node, false);  // Hidden until shown

// Cache hit: just toggle visibility (~0.1ms)
wlr_scene_node_set_enabled(&old_node->node, false);    // Hide current
wlr_scene_node_set_enabled(&cached_node->node, true);  // Show cached

Performance Comparison

Operation	Without Cache	With Cache
First visit	~20ms	~20ms
Subsequent visits	~20ms	~0.1ms
Speedup	-	~200x

Short-Circuit at Lua Level

Caching GPU textures alone isn't enough. The Lua code still runs expensive operations:

-- gears.wallpaper.maximized does all this work:
function wallpaper.maximized(surf, s, ignore_aspect, offset)
    local geom, cr = wallpaper.prepare_context(s)  -- Create cairo context
    surf = surface.load_uncached(surf)              -- Load image from disk!
    -- ... scale, paint, etc.
    root._wallpaper(pattern)                        -- Finally call C
end

Even with C-side caching, Lua still loads and decodes the image every time.

SomeWM solves this by patching gears.wallpaper.maximized to check the cache first:

-- Patched version (simplified)
function wallpaper.maximized(surf, s, ...)
    if type(surf) == "string" and root.wallpaper_cache_show(surf) then
        return  -- Cache hit! Skip everything
    end
    -- Cache miss: fall through to original implementation
    return original_maximized(surf, s, ...)
end

On cache hit, we skip:

• File I/O
• Image decoding
• Cairo surface creation
• Scaling and painting
• Pattern creation

The entire Lua pipeline is bypassed.

Per-Screen Caching

Wallpapers are cached per-screen. The cache key is (path, screen_index), meaning the same image file can be cached separately for different screens with different positions and sizes. Each cached entry holds a GPU texture (a scene node) positioned at the screen's coordinates, so switching tags on screen 1 only toggles screen 1's wallpaper node, leaving screen 2's wallpaper untouched.

LRU Eviction

The cache holds up to 32 entries. When it is full, the least recently used wallpaper that is not currently displayed on any screen is evicted and its GPU texture destroyed. A wallpaper that is on screen somewhere is never evicted, so eviction can never blank a monitor.

Memory Considerations

Each cached wallpaper consumes GPU memory:

Memory = width × height × 4 bytes (ARGB32)

1920×1080 = 8,294,400 bytes ≈ 8 MB
3840×2160 = 33,177,600 bytes ≈ 32 MB

With 32 cached wallpapers (max cache size):

• 1080p: ~256 MB GPU memory
• 4K: ~1 GB GPU memory

A typical dual-monitor setup with 9 tags per screen = 18 cached wallpapers:

• 1080p: ~144 MB GPU memory
• 4K: ~576 MB GPU memory

This is typically acceptable for modern GPUs, but users with many 4K wallpapers should be mindful of memory usage.

Implementation Details

Monkey-Patching

SomeWM patches Lua modules at startup without modifying the sacred Lua files:

// In luaA_loadrc(), before loading rc.lua:
luaL_dostring(L,
    "local orig_require = require\n"
    "require = function(name)\n"
    "    local mod = orig_require(name)\n"
    "    if name == 'gears.wallpaper' then\n"
    "        -- Patch maximized to check cache first\n"
    "    end\n"
    "    return mod\n"
    "end\n"
);

This intercepts require('gears.wallpaper') and wraps the maximized function.

Cache Key

The filepath string is used as the cache key:

static wallpaper_cache_entry_t *wallpaper_cache_lookup(const char *path) {
    wallpaper_cache_entry_t *entry;
    wl_list_for_each(entry, &cache, link) {
        if (strcmp(entry->path, path) == 0)
            return entry;
    }
    return NULL;
}

This means:

• Same file path = cache hit
• Different path to same file = cache miss (no inode checking)
• Modified file = stale cache (no mtime checking)

For typical use cases (static wallpaper files), this is sufficient.

Limitations

Only maximized is Cached

Currently only gears.wallpaper.maximized() benefits from caching. Other functions are not patched:

• gears.wallpaper.centered() - Not cached
• gears.wallpaper.tiled() - Not cached
• gears.wallpaper.fit() - Not cached

File Paths Only

Caching requires a file path string as the cache key:

-- Cached
gears.wallpaper.maximized("/path/to/image.jpg", s, true)

-- NOT cached (no cache key)
gears.wallpaper.maximized(some_cairo_surface, s, true)

No Invalidation

The cache doesn't detect when files change on disk. If you modify a wallpaper file, you need to either:

1. Restart SomeWM
2. Call root.wallpaper_cache_clear() manually

See Also

• Wallpaper Caching Guide - Practical configuration
• Wayland vs X11 - Platform differences
• Scene Graph - How wlroots renders