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Waxed Display Server

Hardware Cursor

Done

Mouse cursor rendered on a hardware plane

Category: Input
Version: v1.0.0
Status: Done

Hardware Cursor

Cursor rendered on a DRM cursor plane for zero-latency movement. Plugins can take over rendering for custom cursor effects when needed.

Why Hardware Cursor?

Software cursors require:

  • Compositing on every cursor movement
  • GPU rendering overhead
  • Latency between input and display

Hardware cursors use a dedicated display plane:

  • Zero latency - Direct scanout, no rendering
  • Always smooth - Unaffected by GPU load
  • Lower power - No GPU work for cursor updates

Features

  • Hardware cursor plane assignment
  • Standard cursor shapes
  • Smooth cursor movement
  • Multi-monitor support
  • Plugin takeover API for custom cursors

Plugin Custom Cursors

Plugins handle cursor theming through the cursor provider API. For example, the LEF plugin uses HyprCursor for cursor themes.