Feature Request: "Edge Resistance"

[MementoMortes]

Describe the Feature

I would like to see a feature that lets me define some kind of resistance for screen edges between two monitors or even edges between two windows in form of a line or an area that virtually acts as a "force field" pushing back against mouse movement unless a certain speed/force threshold is crossed.

Why Would It Be Beneficial

To give a (hopefully relatable) example: On a two monitor setup when gaming, I have a game running on monitor one and additional apps, e.g. Discord on monitor two. Games tend to lock in the mouse on window activation, so any not so precise movement close to the edge e.g. in the Discord app, switching channels, reacting to messages, makes me overshoot the screens edge back into the game window which then takes over mouse input, requiring additional window navigation to get back to the other application.

Having some kind of resistance to prevent the mouse from crossing too easily over the screens edge might be a nice-to-have feature for people like me who are incapable of moving their mouse with pixel perfect precision (aka skill issue).

[ssareta]

So this feature already exists in a funny way pretty much exactly how you want it; you just need to add a physical gap between your monitors in the "position" attribute of monitorv2{}. Then, the mouse will only be able to travel between them if the mouse movement distance per input frame (i.e. mouse speed) is greater than whatever gap you defined.

In this way, you kind of get a speed based "force field"; if you move your mouse fast, you can enter the other display, and it will resist gentle bumps against screen edge. Increase the gap size to increase needed speed to cross the display boundary.

Example, where I start my second monitor at 60 pixels ahead of where my first monitor ends horizontally:

monitorv2 {
	output = DP-3
	mode = 3440x1440@175
	position = 0x0
...

monitorv2 {
	output = HEADLESS-2
	mode = 1860x1080@120
	position = 3460x0
...

[MementoMortes]

@ssareta Thanks for this interesting bit of knowledge, I'll give this a shot over the weekend!

Though while this kind of solves my specific scenario, it sounds more like a creative hack than an explicitly intended feature if I'm not mistaken. It also doesn't solve the issue if someone wants to do this on an application / window level.

I'd personally prefer an explicit, well defined and especially documented feature.

I do very much appreciate your response though!

[hachimagi]

So I guess this would ideally be both a workspace rule and a window rule which lets you specify the speed/distance needed to pass it? Would it make sense to have different values on each side?

I also want to note that adding a gap with the workaround above breaks move_window <direction> dispatcher.

[hachimagi]

@vaxerski 5 upvotes, would this be possible?

[vaxerski]

#16466