Animated Wallpaper?

[isochar]

I know there has to be a few progs out there that can accomplish this...

Here's one:

http://www.geisswerks.com/drempels/

Anyone know of any others?

[az]

Doesn't active desktop support it when you use an animated .GIF as background? (don't know actually, I've switched AD off )

AZ

[Paddy]

It does....If you are silly enough to keep it on

[Bursar]

What I'd really love to do (if I had the time and graphical ability) is to create a custom desktop done in Flash.

You should be able to do it by putting the Flash animation into an HTML page which you then set as your desltop.

You could then have handy hide away scroll bars for your various applications. Ofcourse, you'd need to change the Flash animation if you wanted to add/remove an application, but it'd look cool nonetheless.

[az]

...and would make your whole system damn slow (not to mention the instability from AD)

AZ

[xortam]

V

[az]

Just found this one over at PowerVR Revolution:

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<strong><font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#000000">Dreamrender</font> </strong></font>
<font color="#000000"><small>Posted Wednesday, May 9, 3:36AM by apc@ashleigh-paul.demon.co.uk</small>
</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><font face="Verdana" color="#000000" size="2">Interesting one this,

DreamRender is a plug in for windows that will use your 3D card to revolutionise your desktop with a display of Videos, WebCams, Textures, 3d scenes and music Visualisations. DreamRender will replace your desktop wallpaper with;
WebCams - You can choose to look live over Loch Ness or just sit back and people watch in Dublin - all this on your desktop (not in a silly little window full of Ads!)
Videos - Have your favourite videos play out in the background while you work - DreamRender can use both AVIs or MPEG files.
Textures - Choose your texture and then get it to pan with your music - choose that rotation or zoom level that suits you. You can even animate the palette for some really cool effects.
ScopePlus - Colourful swirling patterns generated from your music but controlled by you. There are just endless possibilities with this effect.
SlideShow - Got a series of pictures that you really like? Put them into a slideshow. Choose how often that you want to change the frame and, suddenly, your desktop is much more interesting.
DizzyBox - All this may be just too "flat" for you - so use DizzyBox to take any of the above surfaces and paper it to the inside of a cube - watch as it twists to your music.
Tunnel - Any of the above surfaces papered over the inside of a tunnel - you can choose how fast you go through it and how bendy it is - you can even choose the cross-section!
Advanced Mode - If you have a powerful 3d accelerator then DreamRender can run in advanced mode. This enables you to set your windows to be translucent so that you can see the effect through your application windows - this is the best way to use DreamRender.
Dream render has WinAmp support, but does not support Windows95 or WindowsNT <a href="http://www.3dfiles.com/utility/dreamrender.shtml">Go get it (2Mb)</a> </p></font></td></tr></table>
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The links should actually work, so go d/l it right from here if you want

The more I read about it, the more animated desktop background seems to be either a waste of resources (you just don't see it because windows are in front of it), or worse, detracting, or worse yet, both. And I bet it'd be the latter.

AZ

[EDIT: ECC]

[This message has been edited by az (edited 11 May 2001).]

[DentyCracker]

One of the few things I like about my ATi TV Wonder card is that if I minimise the TV app it becomes my wallpaper

[smanzo]

Have you looked at Stardock's DesktopX product? It can do quite a bit of what I think you're looking to do (Dynamic toolbars from a launcher, graphical effects to accompany same...)

There's a beta available (product is still in development) at

http://www.desktopx.net

The public beta is at version 0.75
The ObjectDesktop Network version is currently at 0.80b, preparing for a refresh of the public beta.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Bursar:
What I'd really love to do (if I had the time and graphical ability) is to create a custom desktop done in Flash.

You should be able to do it by putting the Flash animation into an HTML page which you then set as your desltop.

You could then have handy hide away scroll bars for your various applications. Ofcourse, you'd need to change the Flash animation if you wanted to add/remove an application, but it'd look cool nonetheless.</font>

[cbman]

But it would definately be a cool thing to show your friends (not to use it all the time though... that's bad )

------------------
Canadian... Hell Ya!!!

[Bursar]

Oh yeah, I'm not saying it was a 'good' idea, just a 'cool' idea.

I'm with the Active Desktop is pants brigade!

[az]

It's a cool idea, I'll admit that, yeah If AD wasn't so damn... IE it could actually be really cool to be able to customize your desktop using HTML and Flash

AZ