/parallax-wallpaper

Multi-platform parallax wallpaper engine

Primary LanguageCMIT LicenseMIT

Parallax WallPaper

This allows you to create multi-layered parallax wallpapers.
Each layer moves with Your mouse cursor, creating this beautiful effect.

Installation • Configuration • Creating Wallpapers

a.mp4

Installation

Linux

Installation steps

  • Install SDL2 using Your package manager
  • If You are using Wayland, You also must install XWayland
  • Download .tar.gz package from releases
  • Extract the content to /:
sudo tar -o -xvf [archive name].tar.gz --directory /
  • Test Layered WallPaper by running lwp
  • Setting reload_rootwindow=1 in config file may be necessary on some distributions for Layered WallPaper to work properly (see configuration)
  • To make Layered WallPaper run on startup, add lwp & command to Your desktop enviroment .rc file

Build from source instead

  • Install SDL2 using Your package manager. On some distributions SDL2 doesn't contain development files, so it may be also necessary to install development version of SDL2
  • If You are using Wayland, You also must install XWayland
  • Install CMake
  • Clone the repository and prepare a build directory:
git clone https://github.com/jankozik/parallax-wallpaper
cd lwp
mkdir build
cd build
  • Compile the project and generate a .tar.gz package
cmake ../
cmake --build .
cpack
  • Extract .tar.gz package
sudo tar -o -xvf [archive name].tar.gz --directory /
  • Test Layered WallPaper by running lwp
  • Setting reload_rootwindow=1 in config file may be necessary on some distributions for Layered WallPaper to work properly (see configuration)
  • To make Layered WallPaper run on startup, add lwp & command to Your desktop enviroment .rc file
macOS

Installation steps

  • Download and run the installer from releases
  • Drag and drop Layered_WallPaper into Applications
  • To make Layered WallPaper run on startup, run Toggle_Autorun.command
    • To stop running Layered WallPaper on startup, run it again

Build from source instead

  • Install SDL2 (homebrew: brew install sdl2)
  • To build this project, You need to install cmake (homebrew: brew install cmake)
  • Clone the repository: 
    git clone https://github.com/jankozik/parallax-wallpaper
cd lwp
  • Compile and generate installer 
    mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../
cmake --build .
cpack -G DragNDrop
  • DMG installer should appear, open it and drag Layered_WallPaper into Applications
  • To make Layered WallPaper run on startup, run Toggle_Autorun.command
    • To stop running Layered WallPaper on startup, run it again
Windows

Installation steps

  • Download and run the installer from releases
  • Layered WallPaper should run immediately after the installation

Build from source instead

  • Layered WallPaper is built using cmake, so You must install it.
  • This project supports MinGW and MSVC compilers. Using different one could lead to unpredicted behavior. If You want to use MSVC, it should be installed with Visual Studio.
  • Download SDL2 and SDL2-devel package for Your compiler from SDL2 releases and extract them somewhere.
  • You also must install NSIS. It's required to build the installer, which is needed to correctly set the registry keys, that will make Layered WallPaper run on OS startup etc.
  • Clone the repository and create build directory
git clone https://github.com/jszczerbinsky/lwp
cd lwp
mkdir -p build
cd build
  • Type the following commands, replace square brackets elements with paths to extracted SDL2 packages, that You've downloaded:

For MSVC:

cmake -G "Visual Studio 17" -DSDL2_DIR=[PATH TO SDL2-MSVC-DEVEL DIRECTORY]\cmake -DSDL2_RUNTIME_DIR=[PATH TO SDL2 RUNTIME DIRECTORY]  ../
cmake --build . --config Release
cpack

For MinGW:

cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" -DSDL2_DIR=[PATH TO SDL2-MINGW-DEVEL DIRECTORY]\cmake -DSDL2_RUNTIME_DIR=[PATH TO SDL2 RUNTIME DIRECTORY] -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release  ../
cmake --build .
cpack
  • The installer should appear in build directory, that You've created earlier. After completing the installation Layered WallPaper should run immediately.

Configuration

Create a configuration file

Linux
  • Copy default config file to .config/lwp/lwp.cfg:
mkdir ~/.config/lwp
cp /etc/lwp.cfg ~/.config/lwp/lwp.cfg
macOS
  • Copy default config file to ~/.config/lwp/lwp.cfg: 
    mkdir -p ~/.config/lwp
cp /opt/lwp/lwp.cfg ~/.config/lwp/
Windows
  • Press ⊞ Win + R
  • Type %appdata% and press Ok
  • Create new directory and name it lwp
  • Copy file C:\Program Files\lwp\defaultWin.cfg to directory created in the previous step and rename it to lwp.cfg
  • Open lwp.cfg in notepad

Using config file

  • Do not put spaces between = and values
  • Do not leave trailing spaces
  • Comments start with #
  • Do not put strings in quotation marks

Available options:

Type Name Description
int reload_rootwindow Set this to 1 if You are using a compositor (linux only)
float smooth Smooth movement multipler
int monitors Monitors count
int monitor[n]_x Position of nth monitor in X axis
int monitor[n]_y Position of nth monitor in Y axis
int monitor[n]_w Width of nth monitor
int monitor[n]_h Height of nth monitor
string monitor[n]_wallpaper Absolute path to the wallpaper directory
int monitor[n]_wallpaper_x Position of the wallpaper relative to the monitor
int monitor[n]_wallpaper_y Position of the wallpaper relative to the monitor
int monitor[n]_wallpaper_w Wallpaper resolution
int monitor[n]_wallpaper_h Wallpaper resolution
int target_fps How many times per second should the wallpaper render (imprecise, hence "target")

Creating Wallpapers

Parallax wallpapers are not popular. Because of this if You want some cool parallax wallpaper, You have to either find a parallax game background on the internet and use it as a wallpaper or cut some real wallpaper into layers using Gimp or Photoshop.

How to create a wallpaper for Layered WallPaper

  • Create a directory for Your wallpaper
  • Save each layer to this directory as .bmp file and name them 1.bmp, 2.bmp ... (1.bmp is bottom most layer)
  • Create a wallpaper config file and name it wallpaper.cfg (You can make a copy from C:\Program Files\lwp\wallpapers\default-fullhd\wallpaper.cfg)

Example:

File structure:

C:
 └  MyCoolWallpaperDirectory
         └  wallpaper.cfg
         └  1.bmp
         └  2.bmp
         └  3.bmp

Config file:

Type Name Description
int count Wallpaper layers count
float movement_x Mouse sensitivity in X axis
float movement_y Mouse sensitivity in Y axis
float movement[n]_x Mouse sensitivity in X axis for nth layer (optional)
float movement[n]_y Mouse sensitivity in Y axis for nth layer (optional)
int repeat_x Repeat the wallpaper in X axis
int repeat_y Repeat the wallpaper in Y axis