AndreasV Posted November 11, 2007 Share Posted November 11, 2007 (edited) Desktop Effects Preview This application is a preview, and will expire on 25 November 2007. New version, expires 25 November Snow effect Fire effect Video wallpaper Photo Slideshow Desktop scribbler Underwater wallpaper Description Desktop Effects is an application that ads special effects to your desktop. Forget the boring static wallpaper, but use a dynamic Photo Slideshow to your desktop. Use your desktop to scribble notes on it. Effects are simple COM plugins, which allow new plugins to be developed quickly in a multitude of languages and environments. Windows Dreamscene, video-as-wallpaper, can easily be made possible writing a small plugin. Image Requirements + Windows Vista, with Aero enabled. + Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Runtime DLLs: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en + DX9 November Update: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en Download http://www.desktopfx.net/ Edited November 17, 2007 by AndreasV Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denis W. Veteran Posted November 11, 2007 Veteran Share Posted November 11, 2007 Sounds interesting. The DLL "AveDesktopEffects.dll" cannot be registered by regsvr32: Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588984938 Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreasV Posted November 11, 2007 Author Share Posted November 11, 2007 Do you have c:\windows\system32\d3dx9_36.dll ? If not, get it. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588984948 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denis W. Veteran Posted November 11, 2007 Veteran Share Posted November 11, 2007 Didn't know DirectX 9 was just updated this month. :blink: I'll try updating the runtime right now. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588985105 Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Kyle Subscriber¹ Posted November 11, 2007 Subscriber¹ Share Posted November 11, 2007 Woah! A scribble pad on my desktop?! Awesome! Does this have compatibility with a laptop where you can write on the screen? Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588985110 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denis W. Veteran Posted November 11, 2007 Veteran Share Posted November 11, 2007 Yep, it was the DirectX 9.0c November 2007 runtimes that weren't installed. Thanks for the heads up; you may want to add that to your readme. The slideshow and scribbler works pretty well! Bugs and suggestions: - Desktop icon's text looks garbled. - If I hide the desktop icons, the slideshow goes with it. If I stop and start it while the icons are hidden, Explorer crashes (but once it restarted I couldn't reproduce the crash). - Small flicker when Windows+D is pressed. I also had one occurance of the slideshow also being hidden with Windows+D. + options for ink? + randomization for wallpaper? Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588985130 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbo11883 Posted November 11, 2007 Share Posted November 11, 2007 I'd love to know how you did this... I wanted to put a fade effect into my wallpaper changer. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588985142 Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreasV Posted November 11, 2007 Author Share Posted November 11, 2007 (DirectX now updates, there isn't one DLL anymore, but DLLs are version ->d3dx9_VERSION.dll ). (Thanks for the DX runtime suggestion -> added it to the page) I updated the installer with a new effect: Underwater Wallpaper. Desktop icon's text looks garbled. It has to do with rendering -> personally, I liked them more this way, but I'll make it a setting. - If I hide the desktop icons, the slideshow goes with it. If I stop and start it while the icons are hidden, Explorer crashes (but once it restarted I couldn't reproduce the crash). :) Indeed a codepath I didn't forsee. - Small flicker when Windows+D is pressed. I also had one occurance of the slideshow also being hidden with Windows+D. Yes, I'm working on that actually; It's basically the nature of how the desktop is rendered in Windows + how it handles 'WIN+D'. + options for ink? Will come in the final/full version. This is just a preview :) + randomization for wallpaper? Nice idea for the full version indeed. Does this have compatibility with a laptop where you can write on the screen? I can't write on my laptops screen, so I have no idea what you mean :) Just to be clear: This is just a preview, there's a good chance the final version is not free. I'd love to know how you did this... I wanted to put a fade effect into my wallpaper changer. It's a lot of non-trivial code. However, it should be easy to let your wallpaper changer use Desktop Effects for a fading effect. If you are interested in that, just contact me. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588985143 Share on other sites More sharing options...
nero78 Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 Wow this is really nice! Been looking for fading wallpaper support for ages and now you provide it :) I like the underwater effect to and will like to see some more effects :) When do you plan to release a version that we can use a bit longer? Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588987608 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Montage Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 It might crash explorer.exe You might want to simulate and handle that! Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588987611 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mugwump00 Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 Andreas, this is amazing, I _would_ pay for this! Does the preview support x64 ? I see no mention, but then the installer appears to install, just no desktop context menu. Looks great on my 32bit wuxga panel! Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588987704 Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreasV Posted November 12, 2007 Author Share Posted November 12, 2007 Andreas, this is amazing, I _would_ pay for this!Does the preview support x64 ? I see no mention, but then the installer appears to install, just no desktop context menu. Looks great on my 32bit wuxga panel! The preview does not support 64 bit, however the code can easily be compiled for 64bit :) You might want to simulate and handle that! I have no idea what you mean with this. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588988351 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney T. Administrators Posted November 12, 2007 Administrators Share Posted November 12, 2007 Thread cleaned Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588988438 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foub Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 nc Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588988441 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dan C Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 The photo changer effect tends to crash explorer a lot :/ Awesome application though. Hope to see more effects in the future with the ability to write your own effects (C# .Net? :D) Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588988513 Share on other sites More sharing options...
deactivated01032015 Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 It would be great if someone can post a screenshot of those effects (scribble pad especially). Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588988523 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dan C Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 Not much to show for the photo and water effects as you need to be seeing them in real time. Here is a shot of desktop scribble though - Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588988578 Share on other sites More sharing options...
acido00 Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 3D cube? Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588988725 Share on other sites More sharing options...
willywonka Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Holy crap that's neat. I'd love to use this to automatically change wallpaper with fading like this https://www.neowin.net/forum/lofiversion/in...hp/t588468.html except this is only a work around Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588989244 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtherrien Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Very cool! I look forward to the next update. Hopefully the text rendering can be fixed. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588989378 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mugwump00 Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Holy crap that's neat.I'd love to use this to automatically change wallpaper with fading like this https://www.neowin.net/forum/lofiversion/in...hp/t588468.html except this is only a work around well it does - and for a alpha/beta/prerelease its stunning! I've got Ubericon & Desktop Icon Toy animating icons as the wallpaper fades! I love eye candy! :D I'm sure everyone who has it running has a load of requests - mine's just a x64 version please! Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588989817 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dan C Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 3D cube? Yeah, that would work if you make use of the DWM thumbnail API... I think :) Good idea though. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588989973 Share on other sites More sharing options...
NienorGT Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Dang, I just canned Vista until Public Beta / RTM of SP1 few days ago... What you mean by "expire on Nov 17"? do you mean theyre will be a new release or it mean you will make a paid program about this? Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588989994 Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreasV Posted November 13, 2007 Author Share Posted November 13, 2007 The photo changer effect tends to crash explorer a lot :/Awesome application though. Hope to see more effects in the future with the ability to write your own effects (C# .Net? :D) Effects are COM plugins, which can be written in lotsa languages. Very cool! I look forward to the next update.Hopefully the text rendering can be fixed. What exactly is the problem with text-rendering? Got a screenshot? What you mean by "expire on Nov 17"? do you mean theyre will be a new release or it mean you will make a paid program about this? No idea yet :) Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588990109 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Montage Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 It might crash explorer.exe You might want to simulate and handle that! I have no idea what you mean with this So you don't intend to see what happens when it expires, write any exception handling, and are happy to just crash explorer.exe on your users machines? Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/600139-desktop-effects/#findComment-588990111 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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