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iNiR

Optimization

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These settings trade some looks for speed, battery or game performance. Turn on only what your machine needs.

Blur and glass

Section titled “Blur and glass”

In SettingsEffectsGlass:

  • Default blur backend picks how blur is drawn:
    • Style default keeps what your global style asks for.
    • Wallpaper glass blurs the wallpaper behind each surface.
    • Compositor blur lets Niri do the blur.
    • Off removes it.
  • Allow compositor blur appears on Niri 26.04 or newer. Shapes Niri cannot blur fall back to the shell’s own blur.
  • SettingsEffectsAreas sets the backend for Bars, Dock, Panels and popups, Islands and Ricelin and Desktop widgets. Each one can Inherit the default or use any of the four backends.

Waffle SettingsEffects has the same options. In iRiS, iRiS SettingsWindowsGlass behind apps sets the blur behind apps and iRiS SettingsWallpaperBehind windows the wallpaper’s.

Motion and power

Section titled “Motion and power”

In SettingsEffectsMotion:

  • Reduce animations turns off the shell’s animations.
  • Low power effects is the same switch as iRiS SettingsHomePerformanceLow power. In iRiS it turns glass, blur and heavy wallpaper effects off everywhere.
  • Notify when a restart would free memory watches the shell’s memory use and tells you when a restart would free some. It is off by default.

Waffle has both in Waffle SettingsEffectsMotion and power.

Animated wallpapers

Section titled “Animated wallpapers”

Video and GIF wallpapers cost more than still ones. In SettingsWallpaperScreens:

  • Enable animated wallpapers (videos/GIFs). When it is off, the wallpaper shows a still image instead.
  • Pause animated wallpapers on battery.
  • Blur animated wallpapers (videos/GIFs). Blurring them costs more.

Waffle: Waffle SettingsBackgroundWallpaper Effects. iRiS: Animate on the desktop in iRiS SettingsWallpaperLive wallpapers.

Game Mode

Section titled “Game Mode”

Game Mode starts by itself when an app goes fullscreen, if Automatically enable Game Mode when apps go fullscreen is on. In SettingsQuickGame mode, pick what it turns off:

  • Turn off UI animations when Game Mode is active
  • Turn off blur and shadows when Game Mode is active
  • Disable audio visualizers: stops Cava and hides the visualizers.
  • Turn off compositor animations when Game Mode is active
  • Stop discover-overlay while Game Mode is active. It only appears when discover-overlay is installed.
  • Minimal mode: makes panels transparent and hides backgrounds.
  • Suppress notifications: hides notification popups.

Waffle SettingsGeneralGame Mode has most of the same switches. In iRiS, they are under iRiS SettingsGaming & FullscreenGame mode.

Audio spectrum

Section titled “Audio spectrum”

The bar spectrum only draws while audio plays. In SettingsBarAudio spectrum:

  • Primary only (the default) draws it on the primary monitor.
  • All monitors draws it on every monitor.

These options are greyed out unless the bar uses the Pill appearance, set in SettingsBarShape & position.