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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.
Wallpaper Multi-Monitor Cloning
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.
New Editing Features
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).
Next Content Patch
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
Additions
- 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.
Fixes
- 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.
Misc
- 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.