Valentine Day Dynamic Dream
Saturday, February 2, 2008 by Littleboy | Discussion: Animated Wallpapers
For valentine day, I decided to create a new dynamic dream: it will be an "animated" heart using particles. Time is limited, so I'm doing something simple. You will be able to tweak some settings such as change the color & background, but most things will be hard-coded.
It will use some particle system to create the heart itself. You will be able to change the color and texture used for the particles. The background will be chosen among a few different pictures, with a shader applied for blur & coloration.
Things to do:
- load/save configuration
- configuration UI
- Particle "engine"
- Background, with pixel shader for color & blur
The plan is to get a first test build as soon as possible to get some feedback, with a pre-release build on February 8 for final tweaking. I expect to make a final release on February 12.
I need to find a few nice backgrounds (flick is my friend here 
). Color selection for the heart will probably be limited to magenta and blue, with 2/3 different particle textures.
As you can see from the two pictures, I'm not really good at sketching 
I will try to get some screenshots of the real UI soon, so you can get a better idea of how it will look like.
BTW, for people wanting to create dynamic dreams, I can't really release any source code right now, but you can start by downloading the December 2006 Microsoft DirectX SDK (the version is important!). Creating dynamic dreams is a lot like creating screensavers: get the CD3DScreensaver class that is part of DXUtil and start hacking on it. Converting that work to a dynamic dream should be relatively straightforward once the Dream SDK is released.
Update: First Look at the Valentine Dream
Here we go: a very crude version of the configuration UI and two screenshots of the dream (with and without a background).
The configuration is loaded from the registry at startup (and initialized if the dream is started for the first time). You can tweak it by changing the registry keys as the UI is not functional at the moment.
Once I have the config UI working I will make a test build available (probably not a .Dream at first) so that you can play with it a little
(Background picture is Valentine Favorites by craftilyeverafter - Particle tutorial by Almar Joling was a great help)
Progress and a test build
Since the last update, most of the work has been directed towards the configuration UI. Loading and saving settings is now fully implemented. I also added a slider to modify the size of the particles. 
What's not working correctly yet:
- Applying a new configuration is causing the dream to reset.
- The colorize shader still needs some work to make it use the particle color (the color is hard-coded right now).
- More particle textures are needed
- The colors need to be tweaked
- The "scaling" code (to adapt to the different quality settings) is not working properly.
- A few potential bugs in the config code
You can download a zip file containing the dll files and the resources, as well as a test program named TestDream that will load the dream inside it's own window. Simply open a command prompt and launch it with "TestDream.exe Valentine32.dll".
There is also a .Dream file inside, but remember that it hasn't be tested extensively, so use it with caution (make sure to take a look at the readme file).
Download: Valentine Dream Test Build
Reply #2 Saturday, February 2, 2008 11:52 AM
I plan to release a few test builds before uploading the final version to WinCustomize. As I wrote before, the first test build will just be the dlls and resources and a small utility called TestDream that loads the Dream in a window. That way, no need to worry about crashes
Reply #4 Saturday, February 2, 2008 9:32 PM
While I may do some "Master" dreams in the future, this one as well as the ports of XboxMediaCenter screensavers will be free.
Reply #5 Friday, February 8, 2008 3:03 PM
Changes:
- New "Heart" particle texture
- Fixed configuration window (no more reloading of the Dream on configuration change)
- Fixed reloading of textures
- Fixed behavior on higher quality settings
Reply #7 Friday, February 8, 2008 7:16 PM
I just tested the file currently in the mod-queue, and I can't seem to get it to work.
Nopthing happens when I select the Dream + all the menus in the config window are empty.
Dunno if this is a generel problem. Dreams seem to work differently in diferrent systems.
We've had Dreams working on some moderators systems but not on others.
Reply #9 Friday, February 8, 2008 10:34 PM
Reply #10 Friday, February 8, 2008 10:54 PM
Reply #11 Saturday, February 9, 2008 9:24 AM
I've added a log file (found in "%ProgramData%\Stardock\DeskScapes\ExtractedData\" in the folder named "Valentine {...}") and modified a few things.
You can find this version here.
Can you try the new one to see if it's better?
Zubaz & WOM: the registry change is only to fix things if it crashes. It simply tells Deskscapes to stop loading the dream when explorer starts and revert to you wallpaper.
Reply #12 Saturday, February 9, 2008 2:06 PM
Reply #13 Saturday, February 9, 2008 10:36 PM
Reply #14 Saturday, February 9, 2008 11:02 PM
Definitely a unique idea and I like it.. I have to agree with Zubaz though.. The background being a little blurry tends to be slightly distracting..
Very nice work though
Anne
Reply #15 Sunday, February 10, 2008 12:29 AM
I like to have my background slightly out of focus, but I agree it's a bit too much presently.
Oh, and good to hear it's finally working
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Reply #1 Saturday, February 2, 2008 10:57 AM
Cool stuff Julian.