From 6th to 10th of September 2024, part of the Kdenlive Team was in Germany to attend the annual KDE convention Akademy and used that opportunity of being together at the same location to have a sprint. It was good to meet face to face and to sit down and tackle some issues together. One of the topic discussed was improving our communication towards users, so here is a much needed update on the status of our fundraiser! This post should have been published a few months earlier but there were so much things happening around Kdenlive that it was hard to follow, so sorry for the delay!

It’s been a bit more than 2 years since we launched our very successful fundraiser. This allowed us to fund some much wanted features, and as a side goal, allowed me to spend more time on Kdenlive. Thanks to your donations, I will be able to dedicate two days per week to Kdenlive instead of one. Note that this only sponsors part of my work as I spend much more time to Kdenlive, but hopefully this will relieve some stress and I will have a healthier weekly rhythm.

During this time, there were around 1,900 commits to the Kdenlive repository, meaning about 3.8 commits per day! We didn’t take that much vacation, did we? Also worth noting is that we handled the port to Qt6 during that time, which was a big task and took a lot of effort.

So now for the status of the fundraiser, here is what has been done so far and what is left. All major things were implemented in the 24.12 release so that we can move on to our next goals soon.

Timeline Nesting

merged in 23.04

This was by far the biggest update since 2019, and can now be enjoyed by all (we recommend using the upcoming 24.12.2 version for the best experience). What remains for this task is to do some code cleanup that will be done in the 24.12 cycle. On a side note, the feature was merged too early and caused some annoying instabilities that are now solved. And I promise we are working to improve our development processes.

Improving the effects workflow

Several changes were made to improve the user experience and make our effects more powerful.

Group effects

merged in 24.05

Ability to control the parameters affecting all effects within the group.

Built-in effects

merged in 24.12

The effects panel gives direct access to effect parameters, allowing to quickly and easily adjust them.

More Easing Modes

merged in 24.02

In addition to the existing easing modes (linear, smooth, and constant), we’ve added several new options like: Cubic In/Out, Exponential In/Out, Circular In/Out, Elastic In/Out, and Bounce In/Out for transitions and effects.

Transform effect improvements

The Transform effect now has a monitor grid to easily align clips – merged in 24.12

Added ability to directly select clips from the monitor overlay – merged in 24.08

Redesigned effects interface

merged in 24.12

The Effect Stack redesign enhances usability with clearer organization of keyframeable and non-keyframeable parameters, improved layout consistency, more compact and clean.

Help button

merged in 24.12

Added a contextual help button in the effect / transition stack which redirects to the effect’s documentation on our fantastic documentation website.

Performance boost

Performance improvements is an always running task, but among some of the recent changes you will find:

• Spacer tool boost – merged in 24.05, the Spacer tool that was previously very laggy when moving more than 10 clips was optimized to allow almost instant move
• Improve speed for audio or video only rendering – merged in 24.08, a small improvement in the way the rendering is passed to MLT means slightly faster render times for the timeline preview
• Improve support for hardware encoders – cleanup and improve the detection of the GPU used for timeline preview and proxy clips – merged in 23.08
• Optimize parts of the timeline qml code – merged in 24.05, we now better handle out of view items

But wait, there’s more!

Thanks to your support we managed to achieve more than planned. We worked in improving our automated testing as well as hired third party developers for extra features.

Regression Testing

One thing we wanted for a long time was a way to automatically check for rendering regressions. We are now entering the final phase of this automated tests and it will soon be run automatically. Hopefully this will make future releases more stable and avoid some of the issues we had in the last years!

Audio Waveform Upgrade

merged for 25.04

The next major release of Kdenlive brings a 300% performance boost for generating audio thumbnails, along with higher-resolution waveforms for greater precision and a refactored sampling method that accurately renders the audio signal. This work was done by Étienne Paul André, check out the in depth details about thew work done here.

OpenTimelineIO Integration

expected in 25.08

Darby Jonhston is working on implementing a native C++ OpenTimelineIO integration to allow importing and exporting project files to/from other applications implementing this open standard. This has many advantages over the currently existing but very broken Python adapter based OTIO integration.

Export features:

• Export a timeline with multiple tracks and clips. (working)
• Support for markers and guides. (working)
• Support for transitions. (not started)

Import features:

• Import a timeline with multiple tracks and clips. (working)
• Support for markers and guides. (working)
• Support for transitions. (not started)

What’s next

During our sprint in Germany, we also updated our roadmap so that it better reflects the current status of our development and goals. We have something big planned for this year so stay tuned.

On behalf of the team, we would like to thank you all for your support that helps make Kdenlive better every day!

Jasem Mutlaq

• Added dome slit visualization on sky map. Specify the Dome Measurement parameters in the INDI Dome driver to see a live dome slit overlay in the Sky Map.

• Implemented generic DBus methods for KStars options
• Added SchedulerSleeping event
• Added mutex protection for multi-threaded resources
• Enhanced scheduler loading and settings management
• Improved filter manager operations
• Fixed video subframing. Up to 50x improvement in subframed video feeds.
• Fixed multiple profile editor issues
• Added VSCode development setup support

Hy Murveit

• Fixed DMS delta angle calculation
• Added mandatory settle to PAA
• Improved imaging planner stability

• Fixed pierside placeholder directory usage
• Added START_AT scheduler test
• Fixed Abell planetary nebula lookup
• Enhanced PAA adjustment estimation

Wolfgang Reissenberger

• Implemented video sequence capture. Preliminary support for capturing Video files as regular sequences in the Capture module. Great news for EAA.

• Fixed focus options
• Improved remote directory handling
• Fixed flats with wall position
• Enhanced filter wheel integration

John Evans

• Enabled focuser controls when camera disconnected
• Improved focus measure framing
• Fixed focus advisor code warnings
• Updated aberration inspector functionality

Toni Schriber

• Fixed overshooting cosine in CachingDms calculation
• Implemented calibration reuse after rotation. Guide calibration data can now be re-used between sessions after rotation.

Ben Cooksley

• Removed CMake trace/debug logs from CI runs

György Balló

• Set window icon

Oliver Kellogg

• Fixed typo in FITS Viewer configuration

Akarsh Simha

• Fixed right-click popup menu on deep stars

Technical Highlights

• Improved capture sequence stability: Set 5-minute timeout for transient operations (dome motion, mount parking/unparking, dust cap operations, focusing, filter wheel changes) to prevent indefinite sequence stalling.
• Improved mount rotation processing
• Enhanced scheduler loading mechanism
• Added mutex protection for multi-threaded resources
• Improved capture operation timeout handling

A new Craft cache has just been published. The update is already available for KDE's CD, CI (Windows/Android) will follow in the next days.

Please note that this only applies to the Qt6 cache. The Qt5 cache is in LTS mode since April 2024 and does not recieve major updates anymore. We highly recommend to port your Qt5 app packaged by Craft to Qt6 as soon as possible!

Changes (highlights)

General

We added CI for flake8, isort and black with the help of tox (which makes it easy to run them locally too) to all Craft repositories. To be able to do so we did a lot of best pratice cleanup beforehand like eg. removing star imports.

Craft Core

• Drop support for MSVC 2017
• Introduced a CraftBool helper. This allows handy things like self.subinfo.options.dynamic.withMyLib.asOnOff instead of 'ON' if self.subinfo.options.dynamic.withMyLib else 'OFF'
• Fix: let the Meson build system respect the buildStatic option
• Handle --enable-static --enable-shared in AutoToolsPackageBase instead of in every single blueprint
• Python packages (Linux and Windows MSVC; macOS is work in progress):
  • Build them ourself instead of using the pre-build binaries from pypi.org
  • Use proper staging
  • Allow to deploy/package them
• Properly set Craft env when branch is switched (eg. with Craft Master in CI)

Blueprints

• libjpeg-turbo 3.0.3
• Multiple fixes for build of shared vs. static libs
• libvpx 1.15.0
• Add minGW 14.2 (not the default yet!)
• 7z 24.09
• KShimgen 0.6.1
• linuxdeploy-plugin-qt 2.0.0-alpha-1-20250119
• qtkeychain 0.15.0

About KDE Craft

KDE Craft is an open source meta-build system and package manager. It manages dependencies and builds libraries and applications from source on Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD and Android.

Learn more on https://community.kde.org/Craft or join the Matrix room #kde-craft:kde.org

The Linux App Summit is a project we KDE created, together with GNOME and some other parties. We wanted a physical space where to discuss our platform to different stakeholders.

We have seen lots of progress since 2019. From a KDE perspective, we see our flatpaks and snaps. This adoption brings all sorts of users to our software that otherwise wouldn’t have been able to.

From the other side of the equation, linux distros have been evolving like ever. We have seen a myriad of distributions using technologies that we would have never dreamed of. And we can find them both on consumer and development devices. Even KDE Linux and GNOME OS are looking into tightening the other end of that software distribution loop.

Now, it’s time to take things even further.

This year we will have LAS 2025 in Tirana. Consider participating in LAS 2025! How you ask?

• Join us! It’s free to attend and, dare I say, we are lovely people.
• Send a talk! You can come and talk us about how you are helping linux apps be a reality or what kind of problems you found with your app and how you solved them. Here you can find some more ideas.
• Sponsor! Does your organisation take part in the linux ecosystem? Take part in it!

You can follow LAS updates on the Attendees chat or here @LAS@floss.social on Mastodon.

Hey Qt!

tldr; save the date for our QtCS25, May 7-8 in Munich.
Stay tuned for more information.

Project Description

In SoK 2025, I will be working on adding Pallanguzhi, a traditional Indian Mancala variant, into the Mankala Engine. Collaborating with Srisharan V S, my focus includes two key goals:

1. Developing a computerized opponent to enhance player engagement and ensure a seamless gameplay experience.
2. Creating a Text-Based User Interface (TUI) for gameplay.

What I Did This Week

The first step in my journey was setting up the Mankala Engine repository. I forked the repository to my local system, successfully built it, and resolved some warnings during the build process. Afterward, I delved into the codebase, analyzing the existing algorithms and understanding how they work for other Mancala variants.

Research on Implementing a Computerized Opponent

To create a robust computerized opponent for Pallanguzhi, I began researching potential algorithms that could best fit the game mechanics. Here are the three techniques I explored.

1. Reinforcement Learning

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is an exciting approach where an agent learns optimal strategies by interacting with the environment and improving over time. For Pallanguzhi, RL could enable the computerized opponent to adapt and improve its gameplay dynamically. However, as I am new to RL, implementing and training models for this variant will take some time and effort. Despite its challenges, RL remains a promising option for advanced gameplay enhancement.

2. Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS)

MCTS is a powerful algorithm widely used for decision-making in games. It works by simulating potential moves to build a decision tree and then selecting the best move based on statistical evaluation. For Pallanguzhi, MCTS could efficiently explore the vast game state space and make informed decisions. By carefully tuning the number of simulations and exploration parameters, this algorithm can provide a balanced and competitive computerized opponent.

3. Alpha-Beta Pruning with Iterative Deepening

Alpha-Beta Pruning with Iterative Deepening is a highly effective technique for optimizing decision trees by eliminating unnecessary branches. This method is already implemented in the Mancala Engine for other variants and has proven its efficiency. Leveraging this existing implementation for Pallanguzhi will allow us to quickly develop a working version of the game with a competent computerized opponent.

Conclusion for Now

The immediate plan is to integrate the Pallanguzhi variant into the existing Alpha-Beta Pruning implementation. This ensures we have a functional version of the game ready for any further work. Once the TUI implementation is complete, I plan to revisit Reinforcement Learning for Pallanguzhi. Working with RL models and training them is a learning-intensive process, and I am excited to gain experience in this area. Even if RL proves too challenging, we will still have a polished Pallanguzhi variant running on the existing algorithm.

What’s Next

Next week, I will work on adding the longer version of Pallanguzhi, which consists of multiple rounds, while Srisharan V S focuses on completing the shorter version. Together, we aim to make significant progress toward integrating and refining this traditional game within the Mankala Engine.

Stay tuned for updates!

What I am working on?

My project focuses on enhancing the GUI and adding Player vs. Player (PvP) multiplayer functionality to a Mancala game.

Mancala is a popular board game played worldwide. The proposed plan is to use Kirigami for improving the GUI and making the application cross-platform. Multiplayer functionality will be integrated using XMPP. The game will operate over a communication channel established by XMPP over UDP. The updated game board will be reflected graphically using data binding. The XMPP server being used is Prosody.

Work done so far

Setting up the prosody locally

Setting up Prosody is fairly straightforward. I installed it from Fedora’s official repository using the command:

sudo dnf install prosody

Alternatively, Prosody can be built and installed from its source code available on GitHub.

Configuring prosody

Prosody’s configuration is contained in a single file: prosody.cfg.lua. On Linux distributions, this file is typically located at /etc/prosody/prosody.cfg.lua..

For now the clients are connected over same LAN using the virtual host @mancala.local as the domain id.

The image above illustrates how to edit your virtual host configuration.

The next step is to configure a chat room, which is done similarly to the virtual host configuration.

Both configurations require an SSL certificate to secure the communication channel.

After completing these steps, we restart and check the status of Prosody using the following commands:

sudo systemctl restart prosody
sudo systemctl status prosody

If everything is configured correctly, the state will be “active.” You can verify this by checking the log file using: sudo tail -f /var/log/prosody/prosody.log we can check the log file. If configured successfully, the output will resemble this:

Adding users and communicating via a XMPP client

The plan is to allow users to either use their existing Jabber ID or create a new one through our server. For testing purposes, I manually added users to the server using the following command:

sudo prosodyctl adduser <username@domain_name>

After executing the command, you will be prompted to set a password for the user.

For communication, I used the Pidgin client.

As shown in the image above, I have added two users, user11 and user12.

To test communication, I sent a message from user11 to user12 by addressing it to user12@mancala.local. Below are the results:

Since I used the Pidgin client on the same device, both user tabs appear in the interface. The screenshots confirm that I successfully established a user-to-user communication channel over LAN.

What’s next

For the next week, I plan to:

• Implement in-band registration.
• Enable communication over the internet.
• Develop the logic for the game invitation system.

Qt in 2024
2024 was another outstanding year for Qt, filled with exciting milestones and achievements! Highlights of the year include the Qt 6.7 and Qt 6.8 releases, Qt Creator 15 release, and the Qt Contributor Summit.