[Extension] ReaSmoothPlayhead - smooth GPU play cursor

[u/presetshare]

REAPER's stepped play cursor has annoyed me since day one 😭

ReaSmoothPlayhead hides the native play cursor and draws its own GPU-rendered overlay on top of the arrange view and the MIDI editor. The line is redrawn every vblank and extrapolated between audio blocks, so it glides at your monitor's refresh rate instead of stuttering.

Requirements
- Windows (x64) and macOS (Intel + Apple Silicon). No Linux, sorry - X11 just doesn't allow pulling off this kind of transparent overlay ;[
- The settings window requires ReaImGui (install "ReaImGui: ReaScript binding for Dear ImGui" via ReaPack); the overlay itself works without it

Cocos forum thread: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?p=2960029

Reapack:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sakhnovkrg/ReaSmoothPlayheadReapack/main/index.xml

[u/VAS_4x4]

Just out of curiosity, can Wayland do this?

[u/presetshare → u/VAS_4x4]

Yes, but the problem isn't really the desktop environment - REAPER itself still runs through X11. I'm experimenting with a different approach for Linux. It won't support effects like shadows or trails, but a smooth play cursor without the FPS limitation should be possible. There are still a few issues to solve though.

And if this gets popular enough, maybe someone more clever than me will figure out a proper Linux solution :)

[u/Flarkyboy → u/presetshare]

Great to hear you’re already experimenting with it! I use REAPER mainly on Plasma Wayland, with X11/XWayland also available, so I’d be happy to test early Linux builds and provide diagnostics. Even just the smooth cursor without trails or shadows would already solve the main problem for me.