directfb.org

DirectFB

DirectFB is a thin library that provides hardware graphics acceleration, input device handling and abstraction, integrated windowing system with support for translucent windows and multiple display layers, not only on top of the Linux Framebuffer Device. It is a complete hardware abstraction layer with software fallbacks for every graphics operation that is not supported by the underlying hardware. DirectFB adds graphical power to embedded systems and sets a new standard for graphics under Linux.

2014-07-31 GTK+ 3.12 ported to DirectFB

This is the first release of the new GDK backend for GTK+3.12.
There's still a lot to do, but the backend is basically usable.

TODOs

cursor shape
frame time
resize flicker
real keymap support (using xkb still, only us layout, modifiers broken)
drag and drop
selection
begin move drag
begin resize drag
properties
stacking
set composited
sync rendering
simulate key/button
set decorations/functions
minimize/maximize
fullscreen
transients
geometry hints
hints

You can get the patch from the Libs download section or from git

dok

2014-07-28 DirectFB 1.7.5

One more update on stable branch. DirectFB 1.8 is also coming along finally.

dok

2014-06-15 DirectFB offline

Our apologies for any inconvenience caused by the recent server downtime due to some technical issue.

We hope this will not happen again anytime soon.

dok

2013-10-10 DirectFB 1.7.1

Small update, more to come in 1.8.0 shortly :)

Check the new roadmap documents in Presentations.

For detailed info click on the news title

dok

2013-08-30 ilixi 1.0.0 release is available

After almost a year and a half first major version of ilixi UI toolkit is finally out and it is already being used in various devices across the world.

We wish to thank DirectFB community and our commercial sponsors for their interest and support so far.

More information can be found here.

tarik

2013-07-15 linux-fusion 9.0.2

This release fixes compatibility with the linux 3.10 kernel.

As usual, this release is compatible with all DirectFB versions.

Please find it in the download section

andi

2013-07-11 DirectFB 1.7.0, linux-fusion 9.0.1 released

This is the first release for the DirectFB 1.7 series.
It includes major improvements and many bugfixes.

Please find in the download section the following releases:

DirectFB 1.7.0
linux-fusion 9.0.1
flux 1.4.3

Major new feature:

task-manager (must be enabled explicitly)

The task manager allows to automatically distribute rendering tasks over multiple cpu and/or gpu cores. There is an implementation for the generic (software) driver which can be configured with by setting software-cores= and task-manager options in the directfbrc.

Merged Projects

DirectFB-extra (missing bits)
SaWMan
FusionDale
FusionSound
DiVine
++dfb

New APIs

Add IDirectFBSurface::DumpRaw() to dump raw pixel data of a surface to a file
Add IDirectFBSurface::GetFrameTime() to receive the timestamp for the next frame to be rendered
Add IDirectFBSurface::SetFrameTimeConfig() to configure GetFrameTime()
Add IDirectFBVideoProvider::SetDestination() to change the destination surface and/or destination rectangle during playback

New System Module

drm/kms

New ImageProviders

WebP
tiff

Tons of bugfixes and performance improvements...

There will be more documentation about the task manager and other enhancements or changes soon.

For details on the release please refer to the NEWS and ChangeLog files in the corresponding download directories

dok

2013-01-18 DirectFB, SaWMan, FusionDale, DiVine, FusionSound updated to 1.6.3, linux-fusion 9.0.0 released

This is the latest maintainance release for the DirectFB 1.6 series. It includes many bugfixes and some improvements backported from the experimental DirectFB-1.7 branch.

Please find in the download section the following releases:

DirectFB 1.6.3
SaWMan 1.6.3
FusionDale 1.6.3
DiVine 1.6.3
FusionSound 1.6.3
linux-fusion 9.0.0

For details on the release please refer to the NEWS and ChangeLog files in the corresponding download directories

andi

2012-10-23 DirectFB Demo running on R-CarH1

We proudly present the latest DirectFB and ilixi developments in this new demo video.

This video runs on the R-CarH1 SoC and shows an automotive appliance with a status bar including output from the nagivation app, several web based apps, classic demos, ilixi based applications, and more...

The work on improvements, sample applications, integration, compositor development and optimisations has been sponsored by Renesas.

This was the first major activity carried out by the new DirectFB integrated media GmbH. If you are interested in collaboration or engagement in product development, please contact us at business@directfb.biz.

For technical information about this work, please see our presentation from ALS 2012.

dok

2012-10-07 First Raspberry PI binaries for Raspbian

There are Raspbian packages available at a very early and experimental stage, please see the README here.

Click on the news header for some benchmarking results

dok

2012-09-13 linux-fusion 8.10.4

This release fixes a bug with reference counting that can lead to a memory leak. We recommend you to upgrade.

As usual, this release is compatible with all DirectFB versions.

Please find it in the download section

andi

2012-07-25 linux-fusion 8.10.3

This release fixes two bugs which could lead to a kernel oops

Please find it in the download section

andi

2012-06-29 DirectFB 1.6.1, linux-fusion 8.10.2

This is the first maintainance release for the new DirectFB 1.6 series. It includes some bugfixes and many improvements to the (still experimental) android system and the gles2 driver. It also adds an always-indirect mode for the single application core, which uses a dispatcher thread and is needed for most systems using the gles2 gfxdriver.

Please find in the download section the following releases:

DirectFB 1.6.1
linux-fusion 8.10.2

The photo on the right shows the compositor with four applications, ALL running 2D accelerated at 60 fps (720p) on Broadcom 97425 SoC. Compositor output is synced to display. Total CPU load is only 22%!

For detailed info click on the news title

andi

2012-06-28 Compositor demo on Broadcom 97425

Check out the new video showing ilixi compositor running on Broadcom's 97425 SoC!

It's all 2D hardware accelerated and running at 1280x720 with DirectFB 1.6.0.

dok

2012-06-14 First release of DirectFB 1.6 series!

This is the long awaited first release of the DirectFB 1.6 series.

It has lots of Secure Fusion updates, performance/security improvements, Compositor support, better Mesa support and initial Android support.

Please find in the download section the following releases:

DirectFB 1.6.0
DirectFB-examples 1.6.0
SaWMan 1.6.0
FusionDale 1.6.0
FusionSound 1.6.0
linux-fusion 8.10.1
flux 1.4.1

For detailed info click on the news title

DirectFB

2012-05-25 DirectFB integrated media GmbH

We have signed the contract for our new company.

So DirectFB is represented and developed by a real company with employees now.

We have the majority in a joint venture with IGEL (Takanari Hayama).

That means we have someone with a lot of experience with his own company since 1998!

Visit our company web site which is still being filled with life...

dok

2012-05-23 DirectFB 1.4.17, linux-fusion 8.9.0, SaWMan 1.4.17, flux 1.3.0 release

This is a maintainance release for the DirectFB 1.4 series. It includes bugfixes and some performance improvements. There are also some secure fusion fixes, backported from the upcoming 1.6 releases.

Please find in the download section the following releases:

DirectFB 1.4.17
SaWMan 1.4.17
linux-fusion 8.9.0
flux 1.3.0

For detailed info click on the news title

andi

2012-05-17 1.6.0 prerelease demo

We managed to get the ilixi compositor demo running on Broadcom's 97425 SoC!

The framerate of all the applications and compositing is higher than in the software only video we have posted.

On this picture three applications are running plus compositor, the fourth application (gallery) is idle.

dok

2012-04-14 1.6.0 prerelease demo

Check out the demo video showing ilixi compositor and home screen with several applications!

Turn up your volume and please wait until the video has been prebuffered to achieve the best impression! (high bitrate, download)

The input events were generated by spooky (of DiVine) using this script and the C preprocessor (cpp).

This video is a live capture and has not been edited in any way!
Frames were dumped within DirectFB's X11 backend (using this patch) to tmpfs (RAM) with current timestamp, converted to fixed frame rate and encoded using ffmpeg including the brilliant Bach-Step audio track.

Look at the penguins running around 50Hz all the time even after starting all other applications!

Compositing is absolutely tearing free, applications run at the same maximum speed asynchrously synchronised with the compositor.

If you see tearing it's your video playback. Look at each frame in pause mode!

Up to ten DirectFB processes (plus spooky and bb) were running on an Intel Quad Core 3.4GHz CPU desktop (all software rendered) with 8GB of RAM to store the 4.6GB of PPM files.

You might think OK, this was running on a fast PC. Right, but it is all software rendered. So on an embedded device it should all be hardware accelerated and 1GHz CPU should be enough, even single core!

We will prove this by using Raspberry PI or other Broadcom hardware.

We've spent a lot of time to create this piece of art. The prerelease and demo images should be ready this month.

This demo runs accelerated on DirectFB supported embedded platforms. We will have it running on Mesa/DRM and Raspberry PI soon.

Feedback, ideas and help are very welcome.
Join us now!

dok

2012-04-01 Release date

The first prerelease of 1.6.0 will most likely be out by April 6th.

Update: This was no April Fool's Day joke, but after some last minute compositing enhancements we'll have it ready coming week!

dok

2012-03-23 DirectFB 1.4.16, linux-fusion 8.8.1, SaWMan 1.4.16, flux 1.2.0 release

This is a maintainance release for the DirectFB 1.4 series. It includes a lot of bugfixes and some performance improvements. There are also some secure fusion fixes, backported from the upcoming 1.6 releases.

Please find in the download section the following releases:

DirectFB 1.4.16
SaWMan 1.4.16
linux-fusion 8.8.1
flux 1.2.0

For detailed info click on the news title

andi

2012-02-12 Release schedule

The stabilization phase is still ongoing so that we expect the first release of DirectFB 1.6 in March.

dok

2012-01-11 XDirectFB

XDirectFB is back!

Thanks to Ville Syrjala for updating the port to xorg-server-1.11!

dok