Horizon DE 0.5.37-alpha - Release notes

Welcome to the release notes for Horizon DE 0.5.37! This update introduces major improvements to image handling, window compositing, screen recording features, and under-the-hood optimizations for a more refined desktop experience.

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🖥️ Experience Horizon

Horizon is not just a toolkit — it powers an entire desktop environment.

The best way to experience it today is through Austral OS, where Horizon drives the full system UI.

👉 Explore Austral OS

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🚀 New Features & Enhancements

🖼️ Graphics & UI Components

• Image Caching & Thumbnails: Implemented persistent image caching in GraphicsContext using file paths, added crop mode for images, and integrated a synchronous ThumbnailCache. Added thumbnail fallback logic and background polling for missing thumbnails in FileCoverFlowView.
• Compositor & Wayland Updates: Added WaylandWindow load event (now used by SystemMonitor for process initialization), optimized dirty widget tracking, and implemented default cursor support for menu components. Added dynamic updates for compositor animations via new configuration management utilities.
• Widget Enhancements: Added a unified submit event to TextBox components.

🎥 Capture Engine & Screen Recording

• Advanced Capture Support: Implemented screen recording delay and support for multi-output selection in the capture engine.
• Internationalization: Internationalized capture preferences and updated core file dialog strings.

🛠️ Bug Fixes & Refactoring

• Capture Interface: Cleaned up the CaptureWindow UI, adjusted widget dimensions, and fixed capture execution logic. Replaced VPanel with a generic Widget in the UI setup. Removed legacy window capture functionality in favor of display-specific output targeting.
• Event Handling: Replaced manual key press checks with a unified when_submit signal and updated video driver rendering logic.