Plasma 5 with Dolphin Transparent and 3D Dark Transparency on deektop Theme

A few friends asked me for instructions to create the transparent themes I am using now on Plasma 5 Kubuntu 18.10.
All the themes I use are available online, most through Discover.  The exception is Kvantum, which I detailed a couple of posts previously - and it can also be found by googling.

This post is step by step in pictures.  You could choose your own particular mix.

Please note my monitor is a 50 inch LED at 1680x1050, so my font size choice is 14pt :-)

Note DOLPHIN is set to 'Transparent' in the image Below

I selected a couple of GTK programs to use the Kvantum style - but it had little effect.

Oddly though, Openshot Video Editor picked up the full Kvantum theming including the transparent background area.

Dolphin File Manager Transparent Background and 3D Theme

23th March 2019
BRIX

I had another small win today with my Kubuntu 18 Desktop.  One of the nice features of the latest Plasma 5 is a blurring effect on translucency in window decorations, menus and panels etc.  My discovery of the Kvantum theme engine has taken this a whole lot further, as seen in yesterday's post, but there was still something missing.
For example I had managed to get the blur effect happening in Plasma 5 some time ago, but found I was getting strange artifacts and horrible display flickering whenever I was using GL 3 or GL 2 to drive the compositor using my inbuilt iNtel graphics on the BRIX.  Xrender was working perfectly for translucency or transparency, but blur needs to be rendered using GL.  I was at a loss.

Here is what Dolphin looks like with 3D buttons and translucency, using kvantum and Xrender compositing:

And this is how Dolphin looks like with 3D buttons and translucency, using kvantum and GL3.1 in compositing:

The blur effect makes it easier to read the text against any light colours in wallpaper (obviously not a worry with this view from my balcony).

After previously trying a failing to find a solution to the screen artifacts and tearing problems for ages, I finally had a reason to explore the various options in the compositor section of System Settings.  I even installed wayland - and that was a serious problem.

Here is what finally worked for me.

System Settings > Display and Monitors > Compositor

Then set the Tearing Prevention to 'Full Screen Repaints'.

Now I have a nice stable desktop again, with all my pretty effects working nicely and videos playing perfectly either Windowed or Full Screen.

I hope this helps anyone with Plasma 5 on a lower end system with an iNtel built in graphics adapter who is having trouble running compositing with GL 3 or 2.