DeskScapes 2.0 Preview is here!

Now Vista users can have their Dreams come true

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News

Have Windows Vista? Feeling a little adventurous? Try DeskScapes 2.0 Preview. It's free.

Stardock is pleased to announce that the DeskScapes 2.0 preview version is now available.  DeskScapes allows users of Windows Vista to have animated wallpapers on their desktop. It runs the Stardock created .DREAM format which can contain videos as animated wallpapers or dynamically generated content.

What makes DeskScapes special is that animated wallpapers can be run that use hardly any system resources (obviously this will depend on what animated wallpaper is chosen). It integrates seamlessly with the Windows Vista desktop background dialog so picking animated wallpapers is much the same as picking any other desktop wallpaper.

The Preview build comes with 3 DREAMs:

  1. Watercolor. A dynamic dream that randomizes your desktop background.
  2. Silent Hill. A brand-new video based dream.
  3. Stardock Cube. A simple 3D cube dancing on the desktop

The goal of the preview version is to evaluate the variety of hardware configurations out there running Windows Vista in order to see how well different types of Dreams run.  The three included Dreams were especially chosen to check out 3 very different types of capabilities.

Stardock expects to release DeskScapes 2.0 later this month in time for Object Desktop 2008.

Get DeskScapes 2.0 Preview.

26 Reply 151 Referrals
First Previous Page 1 of 2 Next Last
SteveGosselin
Reply #1 Wednesday, March 12, 2008 4:54 PM
Woohooo!

CarGuy1
Reply #2 Wednesday, March 12, 2008 5:18 PM
Any way to get the Silent Hill dream posted to SDC for us Object Descktop subscribers? I don't want to install the preview to check out the dream.

Frogboy
Reply #3 Wednesday, March 12, 2008 5:41 PM
Yea, we'll get that up shortly.

Bash2cool
Reply #4 Wednesday, March 12, 2008 5:46 PM
That's cool. Question:[U] Will there ever be DeskScapes for windows XP users? (

CarGuy1
Reply #5 Wednesday, March 12, 2008 7:00 PM
Thank you Brad.
BTW: have you had a chance to check out the latest dreams in the gallery?  

firebrick
Reply #6 Wednesday, March 12, 2008 6:26 PM
Well i tried it out on my 13yr old daughters pc, i thought i would surprise her!(she has the only Vista pc in the house) it has Home Premium installed, a very basic pc 1 gig of ram, integrated graphics Intel 82945G 256mb with a 3.1 index rating. Two of the three worked, pretty good but the water color dynamic one would not work at all, i kept getting a driver recovery error. Question is, do Dynamic dreams require more "Power"??

Frogboy
Reply #7 Wednesday, March 12, 2008 6:30 PM
Dynamic dreams do require a 3D accelerated.  Funny you should mention the Intel 82845G. It was just the subject of a rant by the CEO of Epic games.

firebrick
Reply #8 Wednesday, March 12, 2008 7:44 PM
ok, that explains it, well.. i did get a "WHOA!! dad thats cool!!" out of her any way!

mike b1954
Reply #9 Wednesday, March 12, 2008 9:47 PM
Hopefully I will getting a new PC shortly with Vista Home Premium on it ~ Pre Installed .. Will Deskscapes 2 work on this version of Vista ..just wondering ...  

TheMasterBaron
Reply #10 Wednesday, March 12, 2008 9:54 PM
Stardock has made a lot of people happy today.

GhoS
Reply #11 Wednesday, March 12, 2008 10:40 PM
I've been using Dreams for a little while since I recently got Vista Premium and it really is an exciting program to have funny. Its much better than most screensavers actually (even though I don't use a screensaver really, this gives you a reason to keep your monitor on) I'm also glad I don't have to get Ultimate to enjoy this software from Stardock that ultimately should be part of everyone's collection (if on Vista).

Bebi Bulma
Reply #12 Thursday, March 13, 2008 12:26 AM
Ok, what gives? Is quoting broken now?

mike b: Yes DeskScapes 2.0 works on all versions of Vista (running it on my home premium laptop).

mike b1954
Reply #13 Wednesday, March 12, 2008 11:33 PM
Thanks Bebi ... its all I need to know ... I appreciate it ..    This is what I had in mind .. WWW Link

Inge18
Reply #14 Thursday, March 13, 2008 4:54 AM
I have two monitors connected and would like to run the animated wallpaper only on the second monitor. My primary screen is heavy loaded with windows, I don't see a single pixel of the wall. Right now when I apply a Dream it appears on both monitors. The waving grass uses 10-15% CPU, when running only on one monitor it would consume less CPU - I wonder? (Dual Core T7200, Nvidia GeForce Go 7900 GS, Vista Home Premium)

Zargon
Reply #15 Thursday, March 13, 2008 7:55 AM

Many people ask this question.  Displaying it on both monitors does not use an appreciable amount more of your CPU.  It is a function of the graphics hardware.


Bambooben
Reply #16 Thursday, March 13, 2008 10:11 AM
I gave the preview a go last night and couldn't believe how much CPU it uses. I have a Quad6600 overclocked to 3.0 and it was still using up a noticeable amount of CPU on my core monitor while using the waving grass dream. I really want to use Dreams, but FPS in games is a little more important. Also, as the guy above, I am running dual monitors.

Neil Banfield
Reply #17 Thursday, March 13, 2008 11:23 AM

The grass dream is a video dream and will use more cpu than the others.  The other two should use little cpu.

Also it stops when you are playing full screen games so it is not using any cpu when you play.


Dee85
Reply #18 Thursday, March 13, 2008 1:04 PM
Hi, I just registered to share my experience with the 2.0 preview on my Vista Home Premium laptop. All the dreams work quite well for me. The dynamic dreams take about fifteen seconds to load after I click on them. My recommended setting was Regular Quality 2, but I was able to run it up to Top quality with no issues. I'm sure they could look better because my video card is just a Mobile Intel 945 Express Chipset Family with 224MB of Video Memory. The process is bouncing around between 0 and 2% of my CPU usage (Intel Core 2 CPU T5500, 1.66 GHz), 2G Ram). The grassy field uses slightly more, but runs just fine. I do notice where the video loops, but I assume thats a normal occurrence. Hope to see the final version out soon! Based on this preview, I would most definitely shell out the money for it!

-Dee

CarGuy1
Reply #19 Thursday, March 13, 2008 1:40 PM
Dee, I'm surprised you noticed the loop as it should be seamless. If you are noticing a slight hiccup when it loops you may have some codec incompatibility. Check out the following Stardock page that covers codecs, it may be of some help. WWW Link
When Dreamscence and Deskscapes first came out I had a hiccup problem that ended up being caused by Nero 7. I uninstalled it and the problem went away.

zakai1369
Reply #20 Thursday, March 13, 2008 2:36 PM
That's cool.

Question:[U] Will there ever be DeskScapes for windows XP users?


Bash2cool: The following is a quote from Frogboy's Object Desktop 2008 Guided Tour thread.

While currently only available for Windows Vista users, Stardock is investigating some of the recent video driver advances on Windows XP...



Here's hoping those investigations have good results.

Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

  • Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums and downloading skins.
  • Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
  • Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
  • It's simple, and FREE!
Login
First Previous Page 1 of 2 Next Last

Home | About | Privacy | Upload Guidelines | Terms of Service | Help
Copyright © Stardock Corporation. All Rights Reserved.


web-wc01