Wallpaper Engine News

Steamworks unavailable Verification issue while updating Content file locked / Disk write error / Content encrypted

Hey all,

this patch implements an experimental backup Workshop system to deal with the periodic Workshop server outages on Valve's end.

I'm hoping that this update will mitigate the server outages that keep happening but at this time I cannot fathom how things will play out. Sooner or later Steam's servers will go offline again for a day and then I can observe whether their downtime will cause the usual confusion or if this solution will help a bit.


I'm now maintaining a limited copy of the various Workshop lists on my server:



Wallpaper Engine will fall back to this list when Steam's servers are unreachable again. After showing the usual error dialog once, you will see an alert that you are now browsing a backup instead of Steam:



So this is what the backup can do, it provides you with access to the global Workshop listings while Steam is broken. But there are a number of things it cannot do and will not be able to do for technical and legal reasons.

• It cannot subscribe/unsubscribe.
  
• It cannot authenticate your Steam account.
  
• It cannot provide you with the actual wallpaper files to download.
  
• It cannot backup a list of your subscriptions if Steam fails to provide that (you have a local backup though).
  
• It cannot backup more than 50.000 items. This is a restriction Valve put on their systems.
  

The last times the outages happened, all of the above functions were still intact in Steam. Only access to the lists usually doesn't work - which is exactly what the backup server is meant to be able to provide now in such a situation.

So hopefully the next time Valve's servers break, you will be able to get a list from the backup server and then subscribe/download wallpapers from Steam in tandem, that is the idea anyway.

• The local wallpaper cache is now instantly loaded, then Steam's query merged on top. This should allow quicker access to subscribed wallpapers when opening the browser.
  
• The Workshop lists are now limited to 1000 pages because Steam doesn't allow access to more. This is why it had been showing the 'Limit exceeded' error when you tried to load the last page.
  
• Scenes can now use sliders and checkboxes in the browser (also via shader uniforms only for now).
  

Full changelog

• Fixed auto scrolling in editor being activated during wallpaper updates when it shouldn't.
  

• Added query fallback system with custom server.
  
• Added precision/step properties to sliders in project.json so you can enable fractions.
  
• Added instant loading of Workshop cache when opening the browser.
  

• Limited page count to 1000 due to internal limits in Steam.
  

Steamworks unavailable Verification issue while updating Content file locked / Disk write error / Content encrypted

Hey all,

This patch brings some improvements for advanced web wallpapers that have a lot of settings and allow importing custom images and videos. You can now share your own presets including all imported files on Workshop directly, which makes it really easy for everyone else to check out your setup.


Anyone who wishes to use a Workshop preset also needs to be subscribed to the dependent wallpaper - Wallpaper Engine will prompt you about this and subscribe the dependent wallpaper automatically:



When you unsubscribe the dependent wallpaper, Wallpaper Engine will also warn you that all Workshop presets will now be unsubscribed:




A preset can be published from the properties menu on the right. The property functions have been moved down to the bottom and web wallpapers now also have buttons to browse and publish presets:



The publish process is similar to publishing from the editor, the only difference is, that no project is created and saved this time. But you can still save and load presets locally on your PC right there in the browser like before.


You can browse all presets easily by either right clicking a web wallpaper and choosing 'browse presets' or using the button with the same label on the right next to the properties. The Workshop browser will now clearly show this and you can go back by clicking the 'X' next to the alert:



You can also use a new filter option to only browse presets for all web wallpapers:




Wallpapers in the playlist will now allow you to assign a preset to them by right clicking and then choosing a local preset you created from the list. Workshop presets are downloaded as genuine wallpapers so those will have a separate icon and you can add them to the playlist as well.




I am currently waiting for missing translations for some languages to be fully completed and then I am looking to remove the Early Access flag at the soonest possible time. The next feature that will be added is most likely the ability to publish and share single assets for scenes on the Workshop for other scene creators to use in their wallpapers. Think custom particles or image layers that can be imported easily from the Workshop.

That may happen right after leaving Early Access since creating a new trailer and updating the store page will take a good chunk of time away from development on any new features.


Here are some wallpapers that are very suitable for presets, check them out and share your own setup on Workshop!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=786782443
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1081733658
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=812677029
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=893418273


Full changelog

• Added Workshop support for presets.
  
• Added preset overrides in playlist.
  
• Added localization for Workshop publish steps.
  
• Added nicer search text reset button.
  
• Added preset Workshop browser options and tags.
  
• Added new property controls to bottom of propery list.
  

• Fixed random time seed for playlists.
  
• Fixed no anim warning showing on templates.
  
• Fixed particle system crash when child system uses box emitter and is requested to stop emitting.
  

• Made Steam error show up when query is expected to return
• something* yet Steam returns nothing at all and says everything is ok, while in reality Steam's servers are yet again in meltdown mode.
  
• Reordered Workshop query lists based on Steam preference.
  
• Made wallpapers unpause when user changes the wallpaper.
  
• More obvious file missing error for users who move the files around after installation.
  

Steamworks unavailable Verification issue while updating Content file locked / Disk write error / Content encrypted

Hey all,

This patch adds support for global hotkeys and basic wallpaper profiles.


You can assign hotkeys to a number of playback and general functions or to switch to specific wallpapers and playlists. Most hotkeys are configured in the settings window:



Every hotkey needs to use one or multile modifier keys (Ctrl, Alt, Shift) and a usual key in combination to work.



To assign hotkeys to specific wallpapers, playlists or profiles, you need to right click a wallpaper in the browser or save a playlist/profile with a hotkey:






If you have multiple monitors, you can now save and load the entire wallpaper configuration to a 'profile' in the monitor menu:



Then they can be restored from there, via a hotkey or also via the tray menu:



You can now also choose to disable the application warning per downloaded wallpaper in the dialog that pops up every time an application wallpaper is chosen:



Full changelog

• Added hotkey system.
  
• Added hotkeys for existing playback/window/general features.
  
• Added user hotkeys to select wallpapers/playlists/profiles.
  
• Added icon hide/show via hotkey.
  
• Added audio recordiing on/off via hotkey.
  
• Added layout profiles save/load to monitor menu.
  
• Added checkbox to disable application warning per wallpaper.
  

• Improved crash message text if it's not possible to easily figure out which application caused the crash.
  
• Fixed video framework not falling back to LAV if MF had an error twice.
  
• Fixed crash when a corrupted material file could not be read from drive.
  

• Changed playlist to advance even if the window is kept open except for the time of day mode, because that is impossible. Leaving the window open is still a bad idea because the window is more expensive to display than the wallpapers themselves. To make Steam track hours after launching, use the start parameter -steamtrackhours in Steam instead.
  

Steamworks unavailable Verification issue while updating Content file locked / Disk write error / Content encrypted

Hey all,

This update adds a number of playlist features like a 'time of day' mode and fixes a few general issues.


You can now assign wallpapers to a specific time, change the playlist mode to 'time of day' to get started.



By default, all wallpapers will be mapped equally across the day, but you can drag the start or end of an interval to lock them to a specific time, then an orange bar will appear and show you the time it's locked to.



You can also add the same wallpaper to a playlist multiple times now and specify a custom time interval for the timer as well:




All saved playlists are available from the tray menu now for instant access. They will be applied to all monitors if you have multiple.



If you're using the 'stop' playback option and a playlist, it should now fall back to the previously selected wallpaper instead of always picking a new one every time.


Since weeks now, a faulty Steam update causes Steam to freeze when Workshop downloads complete while Wallpaper Engine's browser is open. I am aware of this and so is Valve. Only Valve can fix this. This problem is inside Steam.

Full changelog

• Added notice about how Steam deletes files after unsub with a delay.
  
• Added support for custom playlist time.
  
• Made it possible to freeze playlist and only manually advance it.
  
• Added saved playlists item to tray menu.
  
• Added Windows networkthrottlekey to setup because MS won't fix Windows any time soon.
  
• Added NPOT support to particle shader.
  
• Added playlist time of day option.
  
• Made it possible to have the same wallpaper multiple times in a playlist.
  

• Fixed focus pause all not saving.
  
• Disabled wallpaper drag/drop unless mouse button 1 is used.
  
• Fixed playlist crashing when it's only containing invalid wallpapers.
  
• Fixed playlist changing wallpaper after stop was applied.
  
• Disabled shift/ctrl select on workshop tabs since it's not supported there.
  
• Disabled playlist update while browser is open so that the time of day playlists don't constantly revert the selected wallpaper.
  
• Fixed Workshop advertise blink not resetting as soon as it should.
  
• Fixed saved playlist settings also being modified when changing them live on a monitor.
  

• Added Razer Switchblade FPS detection since it's yet another hook that crashes everything.
  
• Disabled webm Workshop import because people kept uploading expensive videos and we get spammed with complaints about their CPU performance. There is just no hardware acceleration for this available so now it's gone until Google adds that. You can still use them locally of course, just not upload them.
  
• Improved mdmp crash message information about the countless hooks crashing WE.
  

Verification issue while updating STEAM: Content file locked / Disk write error / Content encrypted

Hey all,

this patch makes it possible to create custom wallpaper playback rules per application and adds more effects to the editor.


You can now define custom playback behavior for any specific application in various situations. These take priority over the automatic maximized/fullscreen/audio rules.



For example, if you want to use 'Stop' for fullscreen games, but not for your browser, you may add a rule for your browser to make Wallpaper Engine keep playing the wallpapers while your browser is fullscreen, but otherwise stop them while playing:



You can also register screen recording programs to ignore them in Wallpaper Engine's audio detection. This allows you for example to keep Nvidia Instant Replay enabled on the desktop but also let Wallpaper Engine properly mute automatically while other applications are playing audio:




The 2D editor has a new multi gizmo that combines position, rotation and size of an object into one and it's now possible to edit particle control points directly on the wallpaper:



Four new effects have been added as well:



Lightning discharge example: https://streamable.com/ofhq2

There is also a new 'playback rate' option on the right for each particle. This allows you to slow down the rate at which the entire particle is simulated just like in the wallpaper browser:




Each wallpaper that has parallax allows enabling and disabling the mouse parallax effect now:




The next big content patch will bring a number of playlist features, you can check them out on the roadmap already. This should include time based playlists, probably one of the most requested features right now.

Full changelog

• Added application rules.
  
• Added particle emitter option to only emit one particle max per frame.
  
• Made playlist automatically skip missing wallpapers instead of showing an empty screen.
  
• Added option to choose whether wallpapers should unpause during Aero Peek/alt tab.
  
• Added focus per monitor option as the new default pause for focus (to be consistent with everything else).
  
• Added more preset effects.
  
• Added playback rate particle instance option.
  
• Added control point gizmo and option to particle instances.
  
• Added a multi gizmo as a new default 2D gizmo.
  
• Added mouse parallax option to browser for wallpapers with mouse parallax.
  

• Fixed web wallpaper pseudo random generator not being seeded.
  
• Fixed sprite sheet frame multiplier not being normalized on dx9/ogl.
  
• Fixed scene wallpapers jumping in time when unpausing.
  
• Fixed property presets overwriting meta information of properties (i.e. breaks image loading).
  
• Fixed CEF shutdown freeze when any blocking Windows function is used at a similar time (i.e. editor preview visibility changes).
  
• Fixed pagination when text filter is used.
  
• Fixed partial translations resetting selected language when loaded too early with a workaround.
  
• Potentially fixed a wallpaper resize issue when size changes are triggered too quickly and Windows starts blocking.
  
• Fixed filter warning not showing up for approved/audio responsive.
  
• Fixed fade window not joining the desktop icons correctly on some multi monitor configurations.
  
• Fixed unsub on Workshop tabs also deselecting the wallpaper.
  
• Fixed sound with 'loop' option only playing one sound forever instead of all sounds that were added.
  

• Trying to update Boost Filesystem again without wreaking Havoc through exceptions.
  
• Changed tray icon to use the win7 icon on win10 because it is otherwise invisible in the task manager.
  
• Changed both Discover and Workshop tabs to show a popover since both are important and new users should see them.