Deskscapes 1.01 or Eath.Dream has a bug
Saturday, April 21, 2007 by Ryster092 | Discussion: Animated Wallpapers
When you boot up or shutdown your PC, before the new Earth dream loads and right after it is unloaded, you can see a static image of the previous dream you had selected before installing the new Earth dream. This is either down to a faulty earth dream, or a faulty deskscapes product. It's almost like the running of the Earth dream is totally different to the running of regular animated video dreams and the new earth-type dreams just sit on top of the previous method.
usaf3588
Reply #2 Saturday, April 21, 2007 11:06 AM
Reply #2 Saturday, April 21, 2007 11:06 AM
I can vouch for this, same thing happens on mine.
Paul van Zyl
Reply #3 Saturday, April 21, 2007 4:47 PM
Reply #3 Saturday, April 21, 2007 4:47 PM
As far as I know it is not a bug as I see this type of thing happen daily in Windows XP using animated wallpaper or even static wallpaper.
Ryster092
Reply #4 Sunday, April 22, 2007 6:26 AM
Reply #4 Sunday, April 22, 2007 6:26 AM
But it didn't occur before I upgraded to 1.01 and installed the Earth dream. It used to just show the animated dream straight away (but paused) until the system had booted at which point the animation began. Who knows, it may be a problem with the Dreamscene Ultimate Extra from Microsoft... it is in beta after all 
Agrabren
Reply #5 Tuesday, April 24, 2007 8:55 PM
Reply #5 Tuesday, April 24, 2007 8:55 PM
Paul, I'd say that this *is* a bug, whether it's the behavior of XP or not. Whether it's a high-priority bug or not, or if there's an easy fix is a different question. I for one would like to see this minor issue fixed, or at least have it load a blank or default background while it loads the dynamic desktop. This isn't an issue with MS, since they don't have the dynamic ability, so they can't exhibit the problem. An easy fix for Stardock would be to set the windows background to a static BMP (maybe of the Stardock logo) while the content is loading.
[email protected]
Reply #6 Tuesday, April 24, 2007 9:37 PM
Reply #6 Tuesday, April 24, 2007 9:37 PM
DeskScapes is set to not kick in for some 10 seconds after logon, to give all the other stuff trying to load a bit more of a chance to settle down. I'll note setting a static wall of it for a future revision.
Kris
Agrabren
Reply #7 Thursday, April 26, 2007 11:25 PM
Reply #7 Thursday, April 26, 2007 11:25 PM
Sounds great. Seems like you could even cheat, and tell Windows to set the default background moments before configuring the DeskScape. That way, when the 10 seconds are ticking away, Windows has that in the background.
MadDuke
Reply #8 Friday, April 27, 2007 1:44 AM
Reply #8 Friday, April 27, 2007 1:44 AM
Hope this will help out.
First, select desktop background 'solid color' and select any color background(I personally like solid black one)
Second, reboot your computer, so you can see when your computer shutdown, there is no more hidden wallpapers or dreams...!
Third, select any dream that you want.
Here you go! Just try shutdown again. Now you can see very briefly your solid color background that you choose before dream, but it seems much much better than you can see another dream or wallpaper when you shutting down your computer.
First, select desktop background 'solid color' and select any color background(I personally like solid black one)
Second, reboot your computer, so you can see when your computer shutdown, there is no more hidden wallpapers or dreams...!
Third, select any dream that you want.
Here you go! Just try shutdown again. Now you can see very briefly your solid color background that you choose before dream, but it seems much much better than you can see another dream or wallpaper when you shutting down your computer.
Paul van Zyl
Reply #9 Friday, April 27, 2007 5:38 AM
Reply #9 Friday, April 27, 2007 5:38 AM
Hi Kris and everybody else,
I just rebooted my pc from XP into Vista Ultimate. Immediately after the Vista desktop displays there was a static image of the BlissfulSunset dream. A few seconds later the static image smoothly transitioned into the animation of the waving grass on the hill. I really like it working this way.
With all the dreams I've currently have on my system it is only when I switch from Desktop Earth to any other dream that there is not a smooth transition. It first switch to a yellow background.
Should you decide to use a predefined static image at system startup for the first few seconds this transition will be forced and occur every time whereas at the moment on my system it only occurs with Desktop Earth.
It will be appreciated if you make such a change only if a large percentage of users would like that forced static image instead of the current smooth transitions that happen with most dreams between the dream's own static image and its animation at system startup.
Paul
I just rebooted my pc from XP into Vista Ultimate. Immediately after the Vista desktop displays there was a static image of the BlissfulSunset dream. A few seconds later the static image smoothly transitioned into the animation of the waving grass on the hill. I really like it working this way.
With all the dreams I've currently have on my system it is only when I switch from Desktop Earth to any other dream that there is not a smooth transition. It first switch to a yellow background.
Should you decide to use a predefined static image at system startup for the first few seconds this transition will be forced and occur every time whereas at the moment on my system it only occurs with Desktop Earth.
It will be appreciated if you make such a change only if a large percentage of users would like that forced static image instead of the current smooth transitions that happen with most dreams between the dream's own static image and its animation at system startup.
Paul
Agrabren
Reply #10 Friday, April 27, 2007 10:22 AM
Reply #10 Friday, April 27, 2007 10:22 AM
Paul, my suggestion was only for Dynamic content. Video content would be driven by Microsoft's DreamScene engine, which is enabled immediately on startup. It's only the DeskScape Dynamic Content which has the 10-second delay. So the suggestion only affects Desktop Earth, that spinning box thingie, and ovals. The requested change should NOT affect any other video backgrounds.
Paul van Zyl
Reply #11 Saturday, April 28, 2007 2:08 AM
Reply #11 Saturday, April 28, 2007 2:08 AM
Hi Agrabren,
So it won't affect dreams like BlissfulSunset? That dream is not dynamic but it is in the .dream format and it requires Deskscapes but Desktop Earth on the other hand is dynamic. So will there be differentiated between .dream files that is dynamic and others that is not dynamic when such a change is implemented?
So it won't affect dreams like BlissfulSunset? That dream is not dynamic but it is in the .dream format and it requires Deskscapes but Desktop Earth on the other hand is dynamic. So will there be differentiated between .dream files that is dynamic and others that is not dynamic when such a change is implemented?
Neil Banfield
Reply #12 Saturday, April 28, 2007 4:48 AM
Reply #12 Saturday, April 28, 2007 4:48 AM
Dreamscenes are also delayed on startup.
A video is easy to smoothly transition into because you just set the wallpaper to be the first frame of the video, but the dynamic content is more complicated.
Agrabren
Reply #13 Saturday, April 28, 2007 10:53 AM
Reply #13 Saturday, April 28, 2007 10:53 AM
Paul, you hit on my biggest complain about the dream.wincustomize.com site. Currently, there are only three dynamic dreams availables. And I posted that Stardock will probably need to think about doing something in the DeskScape product as a warning, there is currently no way to tell if a DREAM you are downloading is dynamic or video. To understand the difference: a video dream is just a video clip. Say an MPEG or WMV file, packaged in the .DREAM format. A dynamic dream is a program. It has executable code which is run on your machine, and actually renders the dream. For instance, Neil's "Ovals" dream could have the ovals changing color based on CPU load. That is why it is called a "dynamic" dream. What is shown on the screen is calculated in real-time, instead of just the next frame from a video clip. The website should call out the difference, because I, for instance, prefer dynamic dreams. And many people aren't going to be able to tell the difference from a 20 word blurb. Dynamic dreams can also use less CPU and memory than video, since they're not nearly as large. The reason Stardock should *really* warn you about dynamic dreams when you run them (again, after they release the SDK), is because it IS executing custom code on the client PC. And while I'm sure they'll do everything in they can to prevent users from posting mallicious dreams, there is a risk involved. They should also strip away almost all privileges from the process running the dream, but that's getting a bit technical for this blog. If Neil or someone from Stardock wants more info about that (if they don't already know about stripping process privs) they can send me a private message.
Paul van Zyl
Reply #14 Sunday, April 29, 2007 11:32 AM
Reply #14 Sunday, April 29, 2007 11:32 AM
Maybe Stardock can implement an user selectable option in future versions of Deskscapes where the user can either choose to have a predefined static image displayed at system startup or leave it as it currently is. They can even go further and if the user choose to have a static image displayed at startup to provide the location of the image he/she want displayed.
I think addressing the issue Agrabren has pointed out above is also very important. At least .dreams should be clearly indicated on their respective download pages as being "normal" or dynamic. I don't think you should build it into Deskscapes to ask a user first his permission before running a dynamic animated wallpaper as it would be a real pain and therefore user interaction should be kept to a minimum. Rather promote safe computing through software solutions and methods as suggested by Agrabren. Also Deskscapes could display to the user if a .dream is dynamic or not somewhere where the Author info is currently displayed. This should not be set by the creator of the wallpaper, but automatically be detected and displayed by Deskscapes.
I think addressing the issue Agrabren has pointed out above is also very important. At least .dreams should be clearly indicated on their respective download pages as being "normal" or dynamic. I don't think you should build it into Deskscapes to ask a user first his permission before running a dynamic animated wallpaper as it would be a real pain and therefore user interaction should be kept to a minimum. Rather promote safe computing through software solutions and methods as suggested by Agrabren. Also Deskscapes could display to the user if a .dream is dynamic or not somewhere where the Author info is currently displayed. This should not be set by the creator of the wallpaper, but automatically be detected and displayed by Deskscapes.
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Reply #1 Saturday, April 21, 2007 10:21 AM
So it must be Deskscapes (or even Vista itself?)