I’ve only tested it on Windows 10, and it certainly won’t work on non-windows platforms
Here’s a video of it in action:
I’ve been working on this project for a little while now, and I think it’s ready enough if anybody else wants to check it out.
It works with modules which are c# scripts that have update/draw functions that are invoked when necessary. This basically means you can throw whatever you want onto your desktop’s background. These modules are the origin of any visuals rendered to the screen.
I’ve recently started a devblog and uploaded a post with a couple of screenshots demonstrating the usage of modules.
https://icecreamburglar.github.io/posts/introducing-wallapparatus/
I’d love some comments/criticism from anybody who cares to try it out!
EDIT: Link to repo, because apparently I didn’t add one of those here directly
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Wow it looks like very old idea since flash widgets on desktop since 2004/05. flash means AS2/3 like Screenweaver, mProjector or Zinc Studio 4.x can build to wallpapers.
I knew that. But I think it is really not good for performance of desktop - if you work than computer need get power. I think notebooks and laptops are very weak to video wallpaper. If you are travelling longer than laptop’s battery will be gone. How do you work?
Nobody said it was practical for laptops (personally, I run a desktop with plenty of resources to spare).
So far on my machine the cow gif takes < 250 MiB and the CPU runs at ~3-4% (including any debugging overhead).
Nobody said it was an original idea either.
Thanks for the feedback! 
1 Like
Hey an idea doesn’t have to be original, or even practical, to still want to make it. As long as you find it useful, learn something new, and are having a good time, power to ya!
I think it’s cool you got this rendering behind the desktop!
As a suggestion, it might be neat if you could set up your layers with transparent png objects, and then apply some animation over time to the layers. That way you could create neat live backgrounds using static images and your application instead of having to have/obtain a gif.
Either way, keep it up!
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Thanks!
Yeah, actually I plan on allowing all kinds of features via command-line arguments.
So that idea could be less hard-coded into the app and added either as a layer entirely (they’re csharp scripts in a ‘modules’ directory) or a simple script sending command-line commands.
Another layer I want to add is an AI vs AI pong game 
