Wayfire Vertical Kube Plugin

A Wayfire plugin that displays workspace rows as vertical cubes, allowing navigation between workspace rows in a 3D cube interface.

Installation

Set --prefix to match your Wayfire installation path.

# For system-wide Wayfire installation
meson setup build --prefix=/usr

# Or for custom Wayfire installation
meson setup build --prefix=/opt/wayfire

# Build the plugin
meson compile -C build

# Install (requires sudo)
sudo meson install -C build

Configuration

1. Edit your ~/.config/wayfire.ini
2. Add vertical_kube to the plugins list in the [core] section:

[core]
plugins = ... vertical_kube

Important: Remove the default cube plugin if present to avoid conflicts.

3. Configure options in the [vertical_kube] section:

[vertical_kube]
# Bindings
activate = <alt> <ctrl> BTN_LEFT
rotate_left = <ctrl> <alt> KEY_LEFT
rotate_right = <ctrl> <alt> KEY_RIGHT
rotate_up = <ctrl> <alt> KEY_UP
rotate_down = <ctrl> <alt> KEY_DOWN

# Effects
deform = 1                    # 0=None, 1=Cylinder, 2=Star
light = true                  # Enable lighting effects

# Window Popout
enable_window_popout = true   # Show windows on larger cube above main cube
popout_scale = 1.20           # Scale factor (1.0-2.0)
popout_opacity = 1.0          # Opacity (0.0-1.0)

# Cube Caps
enable_caps = true            # Show top/bottom caps
cap_alpha = 0.8               # Cap transparency (0.0-1.0)
cap_color_top = 0.8 0.8 0.8 1.0
cap_color_bottom = 0.8 0.8 0.8 1.0
cap_texture_top =             # Optional texture file path
cap_texture_bottom =          # Optional texture file path

# Zoom and Animation
zoom = 0.1                    # Zoom out level (0.0 = no zoom)
initial_animation = 350ms     # Animation duration
speed_zoom = 0.07             # Zoom speed factor
speed_spin_horiz = 0.02       # Horizontal rotation speed
speed_spin_vert = 0.02        # Vertical rotation speed

# Background
background_mode = simple      # simple, skydome, or cubemap
background = 0.1 0.1 0.1 1.0  # Background color (simple mode)

# Skydome options
skydome_mirror = true
skydome_texture =             # Texture file path

# Cubemap options
cubemap_image =               # Image file path

4. Restart Wayfire

Usage

• Activate cube: Hold Alt+Ctrl and click left mouse button, then drag to rotate
• Rotate left/right: Ctrl+Alt+Left/Right arrow keys
• Move between workspace rows: Ctrl+Alt+Up/Down arrow keys
• Zoom: Mouse wheel while cube is active

Features

Deformation Modes

• None (0): Standard cube
• Cylinder (1): Cylindrical deformation
• Star (2): Star-shaped deformation

Window Popout Effect

Creates a larger cube showing only windows without background, floating above the main cube for better visibility.

Cube Caps

Top and bottom polygonal caps that match the number of workspace faces, with customizable colors and optional textures.

Background Modes

• Simple: Solid color background
• Skydome: Hemisphere texture background with optional mirroring
• Cubemap: Full 360° environment map

Uninstallation

sudo ninja -C build uninstall

Or manually remove:

sudo rm /opt/wayfire/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/wayfire/libvertical_kube.so
sudo rm /opt/wayfire/share/wayfire/metadata/vertical_kube.xml