r/Ubuntu • u/YourHomieAstra • 1d ago

i built a physics-based smooth cursor extension for gnome.

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the idea started because screen recording apps like recordly don't support custom cursor effects on linux (not even post production). i originally built this just for beautiful screen recordings, but i liked how it felt so i modified it for daily use.

how it works:
wayland is strict. to get this working natively, the extension applies an invisible cursor theme to the system. the smooth pointer you see in the video is actually a highly-tuned mouse trail following hardware coordinates.

the wayland limitation: wayland strictly isolates client windows for security. when you hover over text, apps don't request an "i-beam" shape, they just pass an arbitrary pixel buffer to the compositor. because of this, the extension has no way to know when an app wants a text selector to fix this, i added a shrink and bounce effect.
when you click or drag over text, the cursor physically shrinks. it makes selecting text feel tactile without needing to know what the app is doing underneath.

mass, stiffness, sparks, and colors are all configurable.

repo: https://github.com/danMoksh/smooth-cursor

78 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

17

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

13

u/Bromlife 1d ago

Come on you know the answer to that question.

2

u/YourHomieAstra 1d ago

each and every line of this repo was written by glm5.3, every single line is read by me and committed only when i checkout the diff properly as written in the agents md of the repo.

-4

u/Emergency_Respond489 1d ago

why does it matter to u?

-2

u/KimTV 1d ago

How does this add any value to the post?

-1

u/Emergency_Respond489 1d ago

and does this do according to your braindead logic?

-2

u/logictable 1d ago

Y dus this madder 2U?

-4

u/Limp_Classroom_2645 1d ago

Why does it matter?

1

u/[deleted] 22h ago edited 8h ago

[deleted]

0

u/El-Paul 11h ago

oh man, how many lines of assembler code you "wrote"? none. compiler did it for you.

holly crap "I'm more developer than that guy" moment.

2

u/jmking 17h ago edited 14h ago

i built a physics-based smooth cursor extension for gnome.

...but why?

This is honestly annoying as hell to watch and is so distracting. You use this in screen recordings? I mean... if you want to distract your own audience with a cursor that flings and flops around, then more power to ya I guess?

EDIT: I re-read what I wrote and realized how bitchy it comes across as. The intended tone was playful and lightly teasing, not like... mad about it.

It's a silly effect. You know that, I know that. But I am genuinely curious what inspired you to make this (and it is annoying, lol).

1

u/YourHomieAstra 10h ago

answering the first part:
yeah it is actually quite popular on tech twt, one of the examples i quickly could find https://x.com/AnirudhIsOnline/status/2054214078927872142?s=20

second part:
you might notice that the screen rec above is a bit different it does not have so much rotation as my extension

i dont use rotations anym, i set the preset of the cursor to be on subtle and it does not jiggle now which i did specifically due to the fatigue

what inspired me to make this is genuinely just the screen recording demos i see on twt freq AND the cursor hijacking that is done by web devs on websites i wanted to know if i can do the same for gnome desktop

https://reddit.com/link/pfilykd/video/9t3l6sk0f3vh1/player

1

u/certifiednerdgirl 1d ago

kde version?

1

u/Memerenok 9h ago

goofy ass extension, i like it