How to enable visual effects (compiz) without disabling Unity?

Question

How can I install compiz fusion (or whatever it is called) to have visual effects like windows burning to ash on minimize , rotating (3d cube) workspaces etc ?

I was using compiz (ccsm) in 10.10, but it does not work in 12.04.

I tried a lot of things, which mostly involved removing the sidebar (Unity ?) but it caused even more problems.

It would be great if someone posts a "stable" way to have both Unity (sidebar) and visual effects.

Thanks in advance!

P.S. : It does not have to be compiz, if there are other alternatives which work well in 12.04

Solution

Compiz should work by default, you may just need to install a few extra packages:

sudo apt-get install compiz-plugins* compizconfig-settings-manager

The you can search for 'compiz' in dash, then you can open 'CompizConfig Settings Manager', and use it to change the settings to what you like

see also this question.

Comments

[nilsonneto]

Please check that you are indeed using Unity and not the fallback Unity 2D: askubuntu.com/questions/62001/am-i-using-unity-or-unity-2d - if ccsm is not working then maybe you are not actually using Unity

[jeff]

Thanks! I ran echo $DESKTOP_SESSION in the terminal and it echo'd ubuntu so I guess it is Unity 3D. Isn't Unity 3D the game development engine ? :S Anyway, if I'm using Unity 3D, should compiz work just fine ?

[It's Willem]

@halilpazarlama Unity 3d is a DE and a webgame engine. Also, you did install ccsm, right?