Dani John

"Lively Wallpaper" just got a complete makeover using WinUI 3. Check out the open source animated wallpaper software here: microsoft.com/store/apps/9NT… @zeealeid @FireCubeStudios @WindowsUI #WinUI #Windows11 #Wallpapers

Did you know the window move animation in my weather app has inertia! Move the window fast or slow, and the snow resists or stops naturally, adding a touch of realism.

Inspired by 🍎 This took some work. Initially tried multiplying time directly, but it caused the animation to rewind. Switched to adding a time difference (delta), fixing rewind but too abrupt. Final solution: linearly interpolate (lerp) a delta multiplier for smooth transition.

Why go native? Microsoft Weather (WebView) vs. Lively Weather (UWP) side by side. I Initially considered Electron, but just the shader animations alone used ~500MB RAM-add the full UI, and you're near 1GB. Native keeps it light and gives me more headroom to try new things.

The frame-rate setting is independent of the UI animation as it is the update interval for the AnimatedCanvasControl, for example you can run the weather effect at 24fps and UI at 60fps.

Here is a quick comparison, notice the overall reduction in the Clock speed, Load and Power with pixel shader (D2D1)

The next Lively Weather update will introduces Direct2D shaders, delivering 40% performance boost!🥳

Lively Weather (Preview) for Linux is now available! Built with @AvaloniaUI, while the Windows version will continue using UWP. Check it out: github.com/rocksdanister/wea…

Lively Weather update just added Precipitation, Cloud and Visibility information. Check out these new cards that adapt to real-time conditions. Learn more: github.com/rocksdanister/wea…

Excited to share that I’ve sent a PR to integrate Lively Wallpaper's music visualizer with Screenbox, a modern VLC based video/music player. github.com/rocksdanister/Scr…

Lively Wallpaper v2.1 is out now! New screensaver mode, improved performance, ux enhancements and a complete 64-bit transition - all in one update. Check out the full details here: rocksdanister.com/lively/cha…

New screensaver design. Not my favorite but at the moment I cant think of anything better 🤔

Starting with next update media scaler setting will be unique to each file and layout like the rest of the customisation options.

New redesigned FolderDropdown control. Get thumbnail from shell and put it on a flyout. Simple enough right? WRONG there is a WinUI3 bug that causes whole app to crash: github.com/microsoft/microso… Eventually figured out a a workaround. The issue is from April 2023😭 @WindowsUI

I have been working on Lively's performance for the last few days. Check out the new version (left) opening a configuration file with 10,000 options vs the old one (right)