Wallpaper Engine News

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

Hello all,

this update fixes a few issues and makes some minor improvements to the recent features that were added, none of the big next tasks are included yet. If you have Windows 7, some of the fixes require the update KB2533623 from 2011 to be installed in order to really work - but you most likely have it installed already.

Changelog

• Fixed grey wallpapers due to external DLLs overwriting the DLL directory (requires the Windows 7 update mentioned before).
  
• Fixed applied wallpaper not reloading if 'apply wallpaper' is continuously used in the editor.
  
• Fixed model textures failing to be referenced by the model correctly if they contain three or more slashes.
  
• Fixed new wallpaper drag & drop creation in editor failing when extension is written upper case.
  
• Reduced updater restart issues by allowing more time for a gentle shutdown to complete.
  

• Renamed 'video audio output' to 'audio output' and made it affect scene type wallpapers with audio too.
  
• Disabled scene audio post processing for analog recording devices.
  
• Tweaked scene audio post processing to be less erratic and separated frequencies more.
  
• Made audio options for pulse effect easier to set up and added audio response to shake effect.
  
• Added bounds and direction to shake effect, this may be useful to create some kind of eye blink animation now, if the source image allows for it this way.
  

* Verification issue while updating * STEAM: Content file locked / Disk write error / Content encrypted * NVIDIA stutter on video load (since 26.02.18) * Malwarebytes system freeze/browser crash

TL;DR
Scene audio playback + responsive effects, easier wallpaper creation, mute button in tray menu, easier particle editing, CEF updated, new wallpapers in store, report options adjusted to be more efficient

Hey all,

a new patch for Wallpaper Engine has been released that adds a number of new features. Creating wallpapers has become easier now, scenes have support for audio playback + audio responsiveness and a mute button has been added to the tray menu among other things.


Looping music and random sounds can now be added to scenes. There are buttons in the usual places to add sounds, but you can also drag a supported file (mp3, ogg, wav, flac) into the wallpaper.



I implemented SFML2 and mpg123 to accomplish this, it was possible thanks to the mp3 patents being revoked last year. And to accomodate for the license of mpg123, the code for this is open source and can be separately compiled: https://github.com/Biohazard90/wallpaper-engine-media-extensions

Several particle behaviors now have options to react to audio. That means for example particles could emit according to the sound level or apply different forces.

Random particle video example: https://streamable.com/9tvvs



The pulse image effect has also received an audio response option. This allows you to make the image pulse based on the same audio properties.


Particles have now received a second layer of controls that is easier to adjust, so there is now a way to change basic things without having to use the fullfledged particle editor.




The CEF version used by Wallpaper Engine has been updated to 3.3325.1750. I have tested dozens of web wallpapers and did not notice any errors myself, if you find anything, please let me know. It is inevitable that something might be affected, but Valve made it possible for me to fix existing uploads from other users now, that's a better option than ceasing to update the browser engine.


Two more wallpapers have been accepted to the store front:



There are tons of other great submissions, but so many of the uploads are copyright violations. I would like to accept more, specifically scene and web type wallpapers where I can see that no copyright is being violated or there is a way for me to ensure that.


The tray menu now has a mute button, which works for native videos and scene wallpapers. Sadly web and application wallpapers are not handled right now, much like the audio detector does not handle them yet.




The Workshop page now has a 'my favorites' and 'voted up' query. This will allow you to remember/track wallpapers you like without actually subscribing to them all. So for example, if you are having trouble with Steam's downloading, you could track wallpapers here and only subscribe to the ones you are actually using at the time.



The filter menu has also been changed to allow for selection of multiple resolutions/types etc.



And finally, the 'installed' tab now has pagination with 500 wallpapers per page. So if you have thousands of wallpapers, the performance of the menu should be better now, since not all wallpapers will be listed at once anymore.


I have made adjustments to the report system based on what kind of reports I've been getting. The 'content rating' category has been renamed to 'nudity/violence' and the 'offensive' category has been removed. This was to accomodate for the following big issues:

• Most reports in the default 'genre' category were random with comments like 'doesn't download'. I know, Steam's download system can be buggy, but this is only fixable by Valve, I cannot do anything with these kinds of reports and they were cluttering up the genre category.
  
• Many reported nudity content as 'offensive'. If these reports are split between two different categories, it makes it more difficult to process for me. The 'offensive' category is just too generic, most of the reports in there didn't belong there at all. So now I made the nudity report category easier to find and actual offensive wallpapers should be reported through the 'other' category - they are usually very easy to discern from the preview or title.

You can now create a new wallpaper by taking your base background file and Wallpaper Engine will figure out the rest. For 2D scenes, the image will also automatically be imported and a proper scheme color set. Web wallpapers now just have to select the base .html file, it can have any name, instead of a folder with an index.html. The wallpaper type selection was replaced with a single button, it's now automatic:




It's about time I remove the Early Access flag and I think some time (weeks?) after the next big Windows 10 update would be convenient, to ensure everything still works well on there. What I still want to implement for this beforehand:

• Mirror layout for multi-monitor (this is difficult to implement for all types of wallpapers and many have different expectations to how this works. I will have to experiment and release the best solution I can realize.)
  
• Workshop 'explore' tab (maybe): I want to use my own server alongside Steam's systems to pick users and collections and show their wallpapers in a thematic fashion.

There is still no visible progress on better support for models. The current Adobe FBX SDK is incompatible with Wallpaper Engine and I can't uproot the entire program to accomodate for this. To my knowledge they are working on a compatible version (VS2017) but there is no ETA on it. If any of you have an idea or experience with a good model importer I should check out, please let me know. For now I won't give any ETAs on this anymore until I really know for sure that I've found a basic working importer.

Full changelog

• Added new editor welcome dialog for easier wallpaper creation.
  
• Added optional system wallpaper fade killer to remove fade when logging in or from the slideshow.
  
• Added native image compression to reduce size on disk for large PNGs and JPEGs (does not affect memory use or performance since these compressions cannot be handled by graphics hardware anyway).
  
• Added pagination to installed tab for 500 wallpapers per page.
  
• Added sound playback to scenes with support for mp3, wav, ogg, flac.
  
• Added DirectX support detection to installer and a warning if requirements aren't met. (NOT a new requirement!!!! It's only a message.)
  
• Added scene particle instance controls for easier editing of basic properties.
  
• Added 'my favorites' and 'upvoted' Workshop queries.
  
• Added mute button to tray menu.
  
• Added more 'filtered' labels to make it more obvious that filters are active and not all wallpapers are shown.
  
• Added audio processing options to pulse image effect.
  
• Added audio processing options to several particle elements (emitters, initializers, operators).
  
• Added basic audio smoothing and normalization to scene audio processor.
  
• Updated CEF to version cef_binary_3.3325.1750.gaabe4c4_windows32_minimal.
  

• Fixed unreliable Media Foundation init/shutdown by only performing it on application shutdown now.
  
• Fixed crash in audio detector when it is reset.
  
• Fixed effect list overflowing visually.
  
• Fixed service running without environment block, causing web links to fail.
  
• Fixed maximized/fullscreen muting.
  
• Fixed mip map generation pixel artifacts.
  
• Fixed particle simulation crash due to missing alignment of a variable.
  
• Fixed Workshop pagination breaking when Steam returns bad data.
  

• Changed worker to clear desktop layer when 'stop' is used instead of leaving an undefined image behind (it was black or random for some).
  
• Replaced filter drop downs with checkboxes, so now it can be filtered by combination of any options.
  
• Made texture compiler apply color bleeding to deal with Photoshop's inconvenient png export of fully translucent pixels - reduced weird outlines in PNGs.
  
• Made Steam ticket request a refresh from Valve's servers if it was invalid during reports.
  
• Changed download icons to read 'Steam download', trying to make it even more obvious that Steam is responsible for how this works. Also added a question mark with a link to a guide on how to deal with Steam's download problems.
  
• Replaced default report category to 'other' and removed 'offensive' to try reduce all of the wrong reports.
  

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


By now I received ~100 reports but also a number of 'Steam ticket' errors. I have tried to fix this, but if this is still no good, I'll need to get in touch with Valve about it first.


Hey all,

This update will attempt to reduce the difficulty of browsing the Steam Workshop to find something you like. There is only one Workshop where everyone shares their creations, but with this many uploads, it becomes increasingly difficult to moderate using Steam's built-in tools and environment. Therefore I have built a new custom system to report and moderate the Workshop and a new filter system to handle suggestive content.


Everybody can now easily report items for the wrong genre, wrong content rating, violation of the rules and more. These reports can be more easily accepted from my end, allowing me to fix the genre or maturity rating directly. And if this brings any improvements, I can also create a bot to automate the system. This is where you can find the report buttons:



These are the new report categories with specialized options:




The rating system will make it possible to tag suggestive uploads to ignore them. By default they are not shown in the browser unless you enable the option. Of course all existing suggestive uploads need to be reported first in retrospect and properly tagged. I have derived the ratings by looking at other products on Steam. It goes without saying that I have no interest in setting a precedent by being more lenient than other community hubs or more restrictive than it is necessary.



Tagging something as 'Mature' although it is actually harmless won't get you into trouble, but tagging something obscene as 'Everyone' will have consequences. Please respect that there are different audiences, some who do want to see these things and some who do not. There is also a new genre tag for 'Sports' and a few new genres that are meant to further help filtering suggestive uploads that have been submitted already, including 'Girls', 'Guys'.


The entire window can be turned transparent now:



You can directly load playlists or add wallpapers by drag & drop (although still only each wallpaper once for now):

When creating new wallpapers, they will automatically show up in the browser without re-opening the window. The editor also has an 'apply wallpaper' button now which will open/control the browser and select the wallpaper from the editor:



I created a rough roadmap for pending features here for anyone who is interested. If this new report system and filtering brings improvements to the current situation, I can hopefully focus more on the app itself again.

There was also a problem with the shake effect having black screen flashes on Intel GPUs, due to improper driver optimizations by Intel. The shader now avoids running into this, but it needs to be re-imported into wallpapers. Simply adding the effect somewhere and removing it again will import the new files automatically and fix all existing shake effects in the wallpaper.


Full changelog

• Added in-app report system.
  
• Added content rating filter system.
  
• Added tags: Sports, Girls, Guys.
  
• Made playlist menu always show up so you can load and add more easily, added drag & drop.
  
• Added apply wallpaper button to browser.
  
• Made browser dynamically detect newly created wallpapers and show them without restart.
  
• Added opacity setting to browser.
  
• Added Steam cleanup that deletes empty folders when the browser is opened, after Steam connected and only if there are no active downloads.
  
• Added filter count to browser if any filter is active to make it more obvious that a filter is active.
  

• Disabled safe start when auto starting since Windows just doesn't shut the program down gently on some PCs which I should have expected because Windows.
  
• Fixed shake shader causing black flashes on Intel GPU because of bad Intel Math driver optimizations. (Wallpapers need to be updated with the shader though. Open it in the editor, add the shake effect somewhere, remove it again, publish.)
  
• Fixed scene properties loading after scheme color is read.
  
• Fixed editor stream window sometimes failing to allocate memory because the program renders too fast.
  
• Fixed maximized playback option being reverted.
  
• Potentially fixed wallpapers not closing/reloading properly when fullscreen 'stop' is used.
  

• Changed video pause fade to be shorter if the volume is higher. You can disable fade with 'video audio output' for now.