Wallpaper Engine

SeantheMan

Lads, get this !

Technically it's not a game...but it's on STEAM. It's about 4 or 5 euro...and it's amazing.

It creates a dynamic wallpaper for your desktop and is supported by STEAM Workshop, so there's 1000's to choose from.
They can be just repeating gifs in HD or clips from something etc

Some are ridiculous, some are hilarious, and some are amazing.

Some you'd obviously never have as a constant wallpaper...but are funny for 2-3 minutes. Other just completely change your desktop for the better. (You wouldn't wanna see the Transformers cartoon entrance theme over and over and over)

Honestly it is worth the money you pay.

I'll post some below to show you, mind these are from youtube...not my personal desktop...though they are ones I've tried and can confirm work as shown.

I should also add, once you run the Wallpaper Engine and select whichever wallpaper, you don't need to have the app/game running to keep the wallpaper on your desktop....it just stays there. I'm not sure how it works, but it does, and it's great, and I love it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrnZiBY5o2s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTEMsGbENlM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xJS3wAhsSw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zt3paakrNg

SolvableKnave

Seen this reviewed by Barnacules couple weeks ago. Looks very interesting.

How does it fair, do you find, on a dual screen set-up? (Barnacules has a beastly 4 screen (3 of which are 50inch 4k) set-up and he mentions a couple of hiccups)
Any issues?

SeantheMan

SolvableKnave wrote: »

Seen this reviewed by Barnacules couple weeks ago. Looks very interesting.

How does it fair, do you find, on a dual screen set-up? (Barnacules has a beastly 4 screen (3 of which are 50inch 4k) set-up and he mentions a couple of hiccups)
Any issues?

I've not tried on Dual screen, the only time I run any such setup is when I am 'extending' to my TV for playing movies or certain games from my computer.
I'll check tomorrow and report back.

But for just desktop purposes..and given the price and selection...it's well worth it.
Especially when you consider the price 'dynamic' themes go for on PS4...and half of them are useless static things.

SolvableKnave

Yeah, for a fiver I might just pick it up. That and just do it.

cherryghost

There's surely more headroom in processes used for this. Is it much?

SeantheMan

cherryghost wrote: »

There's surely more headroom in processes used for this. Is it much?

Someone did a decent analysis of process use in one of the STEAM review. It can also be set to Pause etc during games or full screen applications.
It's DEFINITELY worth the 4 euro Cherry.

have always hesitated to use live wallpaper applications since they used to be very performance-draining. When researching for perfomance-tests of "Wallpaper Engine" I didn't quite find a review that was useful for me so i decided to get the software and test it myself.
It should be noted that this review will ignore other apsects such as the content of the software.

Hardware Specs:

CPU...............................i5 6400 (no overclock with BCLK)
CPU cooler......................AIO watercooling loop from NZXT
GPU...............................GTX 980TI (MSI - no manual overclock)
RAM...............................16GB DDR4 (GSkill - 2133MHz - dual kit)
Motherboard.....................ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Ranger
SSD................................Samsung 850 Evo (Only for OS, Steam and apps on HDD)
OS..................................Windows 10 Professional

Test:

The software (run in non 64-bit mode) will be tested in two scenarios. Arsenal wallpaper will be used for all tests.

1) Hardware usage will be observed while the System sits idle for 10 minutes without any other applications running in the background. The tool for HW monitoring is "OpenHardwareMonitor". This testing scenario will be repeated for the wallpaper presets Low, Medium and High and a standard windows desktop background as reference.

CPU temperature
CPU load
GPU temperature
GPU load
GPU memory usage

Preset None Low Medium High
CPUTempAvg 21°C 20°C 20°C 20°C
CPUTempMin 18°C 18°C 18°C 18°C
CPUTempMax 25°C 22°C 22°C 23°C
CPULoadAvg 1% 3% 3% 3%
CPULoadMin 0.4% 0.4% 0.1% 0.4%
CPULoadMax 24% 10% 24% 24%
GPULoadAvg 0.1% 7% 10% 15%
GPULoadMin 0.1% 1% 1% 2%
GPULoadMax 5% 11% 16% 21%
GPUTempAvg 35°C 36°C 37°C 37°C
GPUTempMin 34°C 35°C 36°C 36°C
GPUTempMax 36°C 37°C 38°C 38°C
GPUMemoryUse 180MB 185MB 230MB 260MB

Furthermore the RAM usage has been tested, but did not show measureable differences!
Ram usage was always at about 2.2GB.

2) This test will show the impact on gaming performance. Again, Arsenal wallpaper is used, this time on preset High. As there are different options to choose, which define how the wallpaper will react to an application being run in fullscreen (Keep Running, Stop, Pause) a benchmark will be done for every mode and as reference with a standard windows desktop background.
I chose the Benchmark Scene from Rainbow Six Siege with the graphics on ultra preset. Here are the results:

FPS in RB6-Benchmark

RB6S MinFPS AvgFPS MaxFPS
None 102 173 327
Stop 93 172 264
Pause 100 172 296
Keep Running 58 171 299

Conclusion:
As we have been able to see, there are slight differences in terms of hardware usage. I was surprised that the software did much better than expected, but the results may differ, considering community-made wallpapers may use more resources. The CPU temperature values may not be very reliable due to the CPU being watercooled thus these values are at the very low end of the scale.

Wallpaper Engine does also have an impact on gaming performance, which can be kept to a minimum using the "Pause" or "Stop" behaviour for fullscreen applications.

With a hardware config as "enthusiast" as mine, i doubt that there will be serious performance issues with this application, but if you are gaming on a much weaker rig, i recommend turning down the settings of the live wallpapers a bit.

At the end of the day, you will have to decide yourself wether you want to sacrifice resources for cool a$$ (a$$ can be taken literally) wallpapers or not.

I do not regret my 4 bucks on this software and will be using it from now on.

cherryghost

Thanks Sean, I eventually dug out something like that on Steam discussion. Think my 1070 is well up for it

And thanks for the gift!!

YouSavedMyLife

SeantheMan wrote: »

You wouldn't wanna see the Transformers cartoon entrance theme over and over and over

I think you are mistaken, who wouldn't want to listen to this all of the time, everytime

Unless you mean this...

...then you are also mistaken

Icyseanfitz

this just feels right on my desktop

:pac:

having great craic with this

dreamers75

Will this get knocked on the head when someone borrows a picture they dont own?

SeantheMan

Fair use ?
I guess they're gettin around it by providing the software and not infringing any copyright.
It's up to you to find the background...and that's located on STEAM Workshop.
So if anything STEAM workshop is at fault...but people have plagiarized countless things for countless games on the workshop.

cursai

I personally like the space ones. The Arkham knight themed ones.

And there's a really cool one with a killer soundtrack about robots that put on costumes and disguises themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf_qfX9cKsQ

RedXIV

Building first computer next week, might treat myself with this

Skerries

bought this a few weeks ago and have it on all my home machines with Witcher ones and have a Weyland Yutani one on my work pc

dreamers75

Got it there, its kinda cool in fairness.

Anyone have any recommended non anime ones post em

dreamers75

Got it there, its kinda cool in fairness.

Anyone have any recommended non anime ones post em

SeantheMan

The top rated nature ones are good..with the digital clocks.
I like the Dark Souls ones too.

There are also loads for films and bands that haven't been rated yet.

It's just a shame you can't filter out weeaboo nonsense

SolvableKnave

Got it last night myself.

Runs grand in 64bit dual monitor.

Just using a Diablo 3 Malthael one on both for the moment.

dreamers75

SeantheMan wrote: »

It's just a shame you can't filter out weeaboo nonsense

What?

Skerries

weeaboo's are westerners that are into all things Manga

SeantheMan

Skerries wrote: »

weeaboo's are westerners that are into all things Manga

Yeah, and the whole first few pages and recent or top rated submissions are just full on wallpapers for girls from some japanese animes.
You have to wade through it to find anything decent unfortunately.

I had to explain myself to my GF when she seen me scrolling through pages of them to start with.