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.

I reverted the updates for the 'Boost' library since the new version was apparently causing the browser to crash. Make sure to restart Steam and run Wallpaper Engine over Steam once to get this fix if you were having this issue.



Hey all,

a new update for Wallpaper Engine has been released that adds new effect presets and a few new particle options and components. CEF received yet another update to work around some AMD and Intel driver issues and a few general fixes have been added as well.

A number of new effect presets and variations from this update can now be used right off the bat in the editor:



The dust motes and vapor effects have subtle mouse interaction as well: https://streamable.com/cktz1

Magic effects can be combined to build complex animations: https://streamable.com/m3clq

There are also some new particle components that can be used by advanced users. These include two new particle renderers, rope and rope trail, and two new initializers, map sequence around control point and map sequence between control points. All particle renderers also have support for new 'fixed' and 'upright' orientations now.

All layers in a wallpaper can now have their transforms locked and the first imported image (usually the background image) is locked by default. This mainly helps new users avoid moving the background image by accident, since that usually ruins the wallpaper - you will end up with an empty/grey border on some side. Particles also got a visibility property now.



There is also new content on scene optimization available on the wiki: https://wallpaper-engine.wikia.com/wiki/Tutorial_Scene_Optimization This info is quite advanced, so nobody is expected to take it into account. But for those who are interested, this might be useful when you are looking to further optimize your wallpaper.

CEF has been updated again, however, this update does not include any official Chromium or CEF changes from Google. Instead, I have made custom changes to Chromium to avoid various driver crashes from AMD and Intel, any crashes related to 'amdvlk32.dll' or 'igvk32.dll' should be gone now after this update. Make sure the update is actually applied by restarting Wallpaper Engine over Steam if you experienced those.

It seems both AMD and Intel have released some drivers in 2017 with Vulkan integration that crash merely by asking them whether Vulkan is supported. We have also informed Google about this and they already worked on improving their detection and avoidance of the affected broken driver versions in Chromium officially. Another fix would be to update the driver and get a working one (released in/after December 2017).

Full changelog

• Added more particle presets.
  
• Added rope particle renderers.
  
• Added new particle orientation options.
  
• Added wrappers for pen and touch input, they should be treated better now although nothing advanced like pressure is supported.
  
• Added shift click selection to browser.
  
• Added option for small wallpaper icons.
  
• Added layer transform locking.
  
• Added particle visibility property.
  
• Added DXT3/1 compression.
  
• Added project close button to editor file menu.

• Disabled Vulkan info collection in Chromium completely.
  
• Fixed Chromium nullptr exception in browser process while handling mouse events when there is no render process running.
  
• Fixed remote session state not being read when the program starts.
  
• Fixed CTRL+A not selecting across pages.
  
• Fixed editor shutdown crash when Steam queries were made from wallpaper browser process.
  
• Fixed some alignment issues with SSE intrinsics.
  
• Fixed texture previews not working when there are unicode characters in the path.
  
• Fixed texture previews not working on compiled textures.
  
• Fixed entire playlist getting deleted if the currently visible wallpaper on a monitor is unsubscribed/removed.

• Updated Boost library. Reverted because it seemed to cause crashes.

Hey all,

A new patch for Wallpaper Engine has been released that makes discovering wallpapers in the Workshop easier and adds a few rudimentary features to the scene editor.

The wallpaper browse window received a new tab, Discover, which allows browsing the Workshop based on genres, keywords and creators.



You receive a balanced mix of all genres from the Workshop, making it easier to get an idea about what kind of wallpapers are available and helping you to find new and popular ones.



Make sure to vote on lists you really like or dislike. By doing that, more similar lists will be shown to you that belong into the same genre. For example, if you vote for game related wallpapers, you will receive more game specific lists.



You can also favorite lists to find them again more easily:



Or create a custom list by searching for a keyword through Steam:





Wallpapers in all lists will now scale along with the window and screen size better and a new download icon on the Workshop tabs indicates which wallpapers you already downloaded. The new Discover view is still based on Steam's Workshop at its core meaning wrongly tagged submissions may show up in the lists. As before, the built-in report tool can be used to flag them so they can be sorted properly by us.

The scene editor will now show a selection box for the selected object, which is especially useful for translucent images and particles.



Three buttons have been added to the top as well to quickly toggle the visibility for the new selection box, the grid and performance stats.



There is also a new tutorial about scene performance optimization that describes how expensive effects (like Shine) can be limited effectively to a small portion of the wallpaper.

CEF has been updated to the version cef_binary_3.3396.1777.g636f29b (Chromium 67.0.3396.79). To reduce some persistent CEF/Chromium stability issues, I have also implemented some additional work arounds. The web wallpaper will now only close after the wallpaper file has either been loaded or timed out to prevent an issue on shutdown. Quickly switching between web wallpapers should now apply the properties better and keep the wallpaper working as expected. Finally, the UI will now ignore mouse/keyboard input until the page has been loaded to a degree which should avoid some start up crashes (safe for a very rare one coming from the Steam overlay).

Full changelog

• Added new Workshop Discovery view.
  
• Added responsive layout for wallpaper lists.
  
• Added selection box in editor for images and particles.
  
• Added tool bar buttons for grid/selection/stats.
  
• Added proper default x ray sprite.
  
• Added last file modified time to local files so they can be sorted.
  
• Added downloaded icon to wallpapers in Workshop/Discovery browser.
  
• Made all windows save and restore their position.
  
• Added a small diagnostics tool (bin/diagnostics64.exe) to help detect other programs breaking Wallpaper Engine.

• Changed editor to use safe LZ4 decompress to avoid crashes from corrupted texture files due to hard drive failures.
  
• Fixed composition layer UV scaling.
  
• Possibly fixed a crash on playlist advance with multiple playlists running at the same time.
  
• Fixed adding multiple wallpapers to a playlist with the + button.
  
• Fixed boost copy crash on file read/write error when setting up a web/app project.
  
• Fixed custom URLs not being persisted in history.

• Added more unsolicited hook DLLs to the crash detector.
  
• Hid compose layer framebuffer texture sampler in editor.
  
• Refactored genre tags to use new exclusion system.
  
• Disabled monetization option unless a start parameter was specified.
  
• Updated Steam SDK.
  
• Changed web wallpapers to wait for loading to end before shutting down.
  
• Updated FontAwesome to version 5.
  
• Updated CEF to cef_binary_3.3396.1777.g636f29b.

DirectX/DXGI crash 8007000e - NVIDIA update driver
Malwarebytes 3.4.4 system crash
Verification issue while updating
STEAM: Content file locked / Disk write error / Content encrypted

Hey all,

a new patch for Wallpaper Engine has been released that fixes a few general things and improves some image effects.

The native video player has a fallback now that will attempt to load the video a second time without audio when necessary. This mainly helps with Geforce Experience's overlay, because when it enables itself, it will latently cause the audio device to error out in Windows for a moment. Now the video should just restart (though muted) when this happens instead of fully stopping and showing the Windows error 8889000f or C00D36FA. This is not the only cause for those error codes, but recently it has been reported the most.

The opacity mask for the shake (eye blink) effect has been improved and won't distort anymore and the god rays effect has a better noise option now with a smoother animation. A new 'shine' effect has been added as well that works similar to the god rays effect, it adds a glow shape to bright parts of the image instead of just adding a ray:



CEF has been updated as well to version 3.3359.1772, still using the major Chromium version 66 as before. Google has disabled all 'autoplay' elements, but I have added the respective command line to undo that.

Full changelog

• Added soft audio device error behavior (restart video, but muted, avoids errors C00D36FA and 8889000f in most cases).
  
• Added alpha write to blend effect.
  
• Added new 'shine' effect.

• Fixed a video loading crash if audio output was disabled and video file contains unreadable/corrupted streams.
  
• Fixed web access filter not applying access rights anymore.
  
• Fixed shake blink opacity mask getting distorted and not properly scaling.
  
• Fixed browser settings not always saving when certain options are changed.

• Updated CEF to version 3.3359.1772.
  
• Changed NVAPI to only update application paths on launch, not always revert to Intel GPU on NV Optimus.
  
• Removed crash handler from web wallpaper process when it starts shutting down.
  
• Added MSI Gaming App DLL detection to crash handler (it can crash DirectX).

DirectX/DXGI crash 8007000e - NVIDIA driver 397.31
Malwarebytes 3.4.4 system crash
Verification issue while updating
STEAM: Content file locked / Disk write error / Content encrypted


Hey all,

A new patch has been released that adds a 'clone' mode for multi-monitor systems, general convenience functions to the editor and fixes a few issues.

You can now use the clone mode either by choosing the 'clone single wallpaper' layout to display a copy of the wallpaper on every monitor



or creating a custom clone group with specific monitors by right clicking a monitor.



A basic feature I have held off with for now because it's challenging to accomplish if all types of wallpapers should be supported. This solution uses Windows' thumbnail system, which is the same used by the Windows Explorer when you hover over icons on the task bar and a small preview pops up, showing the live contents of any particular window.



This means the Windows Explorer makes a fast and hardware accelerated copy of the final wallpaper image in real time. So the clones cost far less than running independent wallpapers on each screen, unless some basic conditions are not met by the computer (like not mixing unconnected graphics cards). The disadvantage is that I'm limited to what this system offers, for example, it does not allow mirroring cloned wallpapers.

The editor got support for undo/redo across renderables, effects and materials. You can use the buttons in the editor menu or CTRL+Z/Y for this.



There are also a few more features now to make editing more conventient, you can hide single effects/renderables using the new 'eye' button:



A new context menu for renderables allows you to duplicate/center/manipulate them with some preset functions:



I have also added a new tutorial to accomplish a simple eye blinking effect in the editor without having to prepare anything complex through external tools here.

The configuration of Wallpaper Engine has a backup system now that should prevent it from getting lost due to the program or computer crashing just at the time it is writing to the configuration file (i.e. power outage or Steam updating issues).

Before leaving Early Access I will attempt to further improve the wallpaper browsing experience with some alternative solutions. There has been an 'approved' list all this time already, where you could find some correctly tagged and well made wallpapers more easily, but of course many nice ones just slip through since this list has to be updated by hand.

So I will try adding a categorical browser that also allows browsing specific authors, custom themes or Steam collections. While it would still be necessary to add authors and collections there, at least the wallpapers associated with either will automatically be added afterwards.

Full changelog

• Added single clone mode across all monitors.
  
• Added user clone groups over splits and monitors.
  
• Added support for 64-bit apps as wallpapers.
  
• Added opacity mask to shake effect for proper eye blinking (Tutorial).
  
• Added effect naming.
  
• Added renderable and effect visiblity button in tree view.
  
• Added undo/redo system for renderables/effects/materials.
  
• Added texture reset button to material texture options.
  
• Added support for Microsoft's new OneDrive file system changes to fix external images from OneDrive not loading.
  
• Added visibility system to hide (not delete - because that will confuse Steam's update system) stock wallpapers via 'remove' button.
  
• Added enter as a hotkey to most modal dialogs.
  
• Added various editing buttons to context menu for renderables.
  
• Added 'backup' folder in wallpaper_engine/projects/backup that allows for easier Steam backups.
  
• Added warning about uploading images without any animation because Wallpaper Engine is not meant for that and will render them poorly.
  
• Added config backup system and removed support for deprecated config format from a year ago.

• Fixed description being truncated by Steam query in editor.
  
• Fixed editor gizmos 'snapping' a little while using them due to asynchronous change events.
  
• Fixed large context menus (i.e. dozens of custom folders) going offscreen.
  
• Fixed GDI bitmap leak in tray context menu.
  
• Fixed browse window not timely closing due to folder clean up behavior when shut down from the outside.
  
• Fixed sound library crashing if scene wallpapers with sounds are running on multiple monitors.

• Added two step process to library loading to accommodate Windows 7 without updates.
  
• Disabled safe start when updater has to terminate running processes.
  
• Changed image layer effects to use point filter if base texture uses point filter too.

* 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

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 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.