Split monitor into virtual outputs (copy from issue #3575)

[aDogCalledSpot]

Original issue link: #3575. Keeping this here as this was a highly upvoted issue so it makes sense to have it tracked.

Old discussion:

Description

swaywm/sway#1666 (comment).

The idea is that you can split an (ultrawide) monitor into multiple smaller virtual outputs.

Example: Instead of having a single 5440x1440 monitor, you could divide it into two 2560x1440 monitors or even a setup such as 1280x1440 + 2560x1440 + 1280x1440 monitor

This way you can switch between workspaces on different parts of the physical screen indepently of the rest of the screen.

If someone could give me some pointers, I would be happy to draft a PR for this.

gernotfeichter

I have the opposite requirement: One virtual output should span over two physical monitors. Would be awesome if the code could cover that scenario as well!

blueStruct

I have the opposite requirement: One virtual output should span over two physical monitors. Would be awesome if the code could cover that scenario as well!

As I recently checked again if sway or hyprland had implemented splitting a monitor (the feature > in this issue) since the last time I checked, I came across a hyprland plugin that seems to do
what you want:
https://github.com/levnikmyskin/hyprland-virtual-desktops

I found it on the hyprland awesome list:
https://github.com/hyprland-community/awesome-hyprland

Oh, and, of course, a solution that is generic enough to cover both scenarios would be awesome.

One solution I thought about was whether the fake outputs feature could already be used to split a monitor into multiple. https://wiki.hyprland.org/hyprland-wiki/pages/Configuring/Using-hyprctl/#output

Herbstluftwm is the only wm which has this feature, as far as I know.
https://herbstluftwm.org/tutorial.html#monitors

aDogCalledSpot

@vaxerski could you give a high-level overview of what would need to be done to support this, so that someone could maybe look into it a bit?

vaxerski

this is all but simple; hyprland is very much not made with this in mind.

adogcalledspot

Are there possible first steps that could be done in order to slowly move towards this? I dont expect this to be solved with a single PR.

vaxerski

none that I can think of. the entire thing is built on the assumption that there is strictly 1 monitor per 1 workspace

Rattlyy

Can second this, I own an ultrawide and I can't use it with hyprland.

ZackMitkin

An alternative is to use PBP mode, idk if there's any monitors that support 3 side by side PBP outputs though. I find it pretty clunky because the only way to center a window between 2 monitors is through floating.

I just use master layout with always_center_master, it works pretty well except I don't have control over resizing the non-master windows individually. I just got used to it.

tobh

I'm currently using XMonad with layoutScreens there to cycle through three configurations for my ultrawide (5120x1440):

• 3 virtual monitors with the middle one being the normal sized (2560x1440) and the side ones being half sized
• 2 virtual monitors with the same 2560x1440 resolution
• 1 big monitor using all available space

XMonad handles everything inside these virtual monitors as if they where real displays and it also uses the available resolution of each virtual monitor to select the best layout (e.g. the half sized displays have a master window on top and other windows below tiled and the full sized ones have the master on the left or right).

If hyprland could or does support something similar it would be great.

Edit:

Here is how this is configured in XMonad and something similar would be great:

[ layoutScreens 3 (ThreeColMid 1 (3/100) (1/2)), layoutScreens 2 (TwoPane 0.5 0.5), rescreen ]

endeavour

I don't know much about wayland but a quick glance through the docs suggests to me that this is something that should sit above the compositor and maps real wl_output devices (monitors) onto multiple virtual wl_outputs? That way it wouldn't be hyprland specific? Maybe someone more knowledgeable can confirm if this is possible.

marcSoda

I too am unable to switch to hyprland until this is supported. I have an ultrawide that I would like to split into 2 or 3 virtual displays. It would be great if hyprland could treat it as 3 separate displays. This is how you would do it in x11:

xrandr --setmonitor LeftSide 1280/340x1440/381+1920+0 none > /dev/null 2>&1
xrandr --setmonitor Center 2560/677x1440/381+3200+0 "$connected_monitor" > /dev/null 2>&1
xrandr --setmonitor RightSide 1280/340x1440/381+5760+0 none > /dev/null 2>&1

foodornt

Yes please, I usually split my monitor into two: half for notes and what I'm doing (an ADHD must) and the other half is my workspace.
I wish I could make the switch but this is essential if I want to maintain productivity

reversesh3ll

If someone could give me some pointers, I would be happy to draft a PR for this.

What information do you need to proceed with a PR? @aDogCalledSpot

aDogCalledSpot

I was hoping for a high level overview from someone who is more familiar with the codebase of what would need to be done.

I haven't worked on the code at all so I'm completely clueless as to what's necessary.

Right now though I wouldn't have the capacity to work on this anyway. Would still be good to have a rough outline anyway in case someone else wants to look into it (or if I find the time at some point).

vaxerski

making this work would require a pretty much from-the-ground-up rework of how window management works under hyprland and is not feasible (or planned) at the moment.

You can still write your own layout that would allow that, but a layout-agnostic method is not feasible atm.

ivanbalashov239

I think a good alternative approach would be a simple Wayland compositor
with a nested session with multiple screens emulated as windows

reversesh3ll

With the recent release of the wayland workspaces protocol (I'm unsure if hyprland will even use this protocol), but could this help us progress with this feature request? I believe it should remove some of the development complexity.

I'm dying to have this feature completed. Its the only thing holding me back from switching...

vaxerski

the wayland protocol is in no way related to this

[JuusoRanne]

I'm hoping for this as well, using hyprland with ultrawide is not as nice as it could be. I'm wondering if it would be easier to implement tiling regions? Let's say that master and first slave open in the middle with fixed size and then rest of the slaves can be opened where ever there is space left.

[vaxerski]

orientation center is essentially that I believe.

[JuusoRanne]

orientation center opens new windows in middle, but first window will open in full screen and second will split it in half. Currently I'm opening to two filler windows first and then kitty and browser to get them in the middle.

[aDogCalledSpot]

This would be sufficient for me. The only difference to virtualising the screens I can think of off the top of my head would be how this works with fullscreen, screen sharing, managing if you also have multiple physical screens, and switching workspaces independently on each "virtualized" screen. The independence of workspaces and fullscreen is probably the only case that will be most noticeable for most people interested in this feature and I don't think they're too big of a deal.

[boerta]

Being able to show multiple workspaces on a single screen (with independent switching) is exactly the killer feature I need to move from HerbstluftWM

[x0rzist]

I have the problem that I have Games that only work in 16:9, so I want the game on the left half of the monitor and some other windows on the other side. Splitting the monitor into to virtual ones would be the easiest solution. Or is there maybe a way to limit the area of an full screen game?

[Kylar514]

Just showing support for this feature. Would love having multiple workspaces, or regions per monitor, and ability to cycle between them. Imo tiling regions with workspaces in tiling regions would probably be better than building virtual monitors for wallpaper purposes. I haven't bought a ultrawide, but if this feature was released I probably would lol.