hybrid dreams -help needed
Friday, February 24, 2017 by lorddayradon | Discussion: Animated Wallpapers
So I am working on a new dream. I've delved into .hybrid . Decided to test out what I have accomplished so far.
It appears as if only certain parts of the .hybrid file are being used and others are being ignore I'll post the full code at the bottom
I have 3 images, background, eyes that blink, chest breathing. I have converted them all to .NWA
For example the eyes are a 4 frame animation 2 closed eyes, 2 open eyes, I looked up the average time between eye blinks, and set the MinAnimationLoop/Animation Gap accordingly. it just plays non stop at that rate. with the settings below it appears to wait for the determined time at load, and then plays non stop. Position is X/Y doesn't seem to function, Those are the exact pixel references via PS. it appears to place it at about X:135 (which matches what layer 2 is set at) Y:400 (in that area). Nothing I can do will make it move down to the appropriate spot it just reaches a point and won't move. Image2 is worse, Y is set to 934, displays as 0
I've opened in notepad++ Vintage dream, my extracted, my working to compare and ensure syntax
Each test I; close dreamscape, delete my extracted, delete the original, recreate the dream. open dreamscape and test to ensure no left overs causing issue
I notice vintage uses png instead of nwa for image 1, tried=no change, also changed from width/height not present to -100 no change, set tile mode from not present, to 0, to 1 to match vintage.
my screen res matches dream size, I've tried setting the X/Y coordinate alignment modes
[Layer3]
ImageIndex = 3
X = 146
Y = 658
TileMode = 1
MinAnimationLoop = 500
StartingFrame = 0
Animation Gap = -1000
Is there any reason why it would ignore Y coordinates, and AnimationLoop/Gap settings, or only use the Animation settings once on load and then just loop continiously?
Full .hybrid
[Hybrid]
BaseTimer = 25
HybridWidth = 1920
HybridHeight = 1080
HybridCropMode = 0
SettingsName = testing
[Image1]
Image = testing_bg.png
[Image2]
Image = breathing_01.NWA
[Image3]
Image = eyelids_01.NWA
[Layer1]
ImageIndex = 1
Width = -100
Height = -100
TileMode = 1
[Layer2]
ImageIndex = 2
X = 135
Y = 934
TileMode = 1
MinAnimationLoop = 150
Animation Gap = -30
StartingFrame = 0
[Layer3]
ImageIndex = 3
X = 146
Y = 658
TileMode = 1
MinAnimationLoop = 500
StartingFrame = 0
Animation Gap = -1000
Reply #2 Friday, February 24, 2017 3:39 AM
Wow that helps alot! Thank you. most of what you mentioned I have tried at one point or another, but the 0.0 being referenced from the bottom rather than the top is most likely my issue. Thank you very much!
At the very least it gives me something to try.
Do you have any thoughts on the animations looping infinitely rather than obeying the settings? I'm concerned that it may be due to a 4 frame animation rather than something like 500. worst case I'll just have to make the animation 500 frames long and manually set the blinking and breathing.
Reply #3 Friday, February 24, 2017 3:58 AM
I'm concerned that it may be due to a 4 frame animation rather than something like 500.
I don't think so, that's not where I'd start. I'm thinking it's caused by this:
Animation Gap = -1000
Is it just that one image that's doing it to you or is it all of them?
A couple of definitions I have from somewhere:
"Minimum gap between animation loops (in frames)
MinAnimationLoop ="
"Gap between animation loops. < 0 means random upto this value (+ MinAnimationLoop)
Animation Gap ="
Reply #4 Friday, February 24, 2017 4:08 AM
In your DeskScapes program directory there is a small pdf file which does have some specifics-
C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\DeskScapes8\HybridDreamFormat.pdf
Reply #5 Friday, February 24, 2017 4:25 AM
I'm concerned that it may be due to a 4 frame animation rather than something like 500.
I don't think so, that's not where I'd start. I'm thinking it's caused by this:
Animation Gap = -1000
Is it just that one image that's doing it to you or is it all of them?
A couple of definitions I have from somewhere:
"Minimum gap between animation loops (in frames)
MinAnimationLoop ="
"Gap between animation loops. < 0 means random upto this value (+ MinAnimationLoop)
Animation Gap ="
Yeah I just threw in some large numbers to see if I could get some different results. I've read the pdf and found the online version also.
My reasoning says that if I want a minimum 4 second gap at 25 frames per second it should be:
MinAnimationLoop = 100
But if I want it to randomize betweeen 4-6 seconds or 100 - 150, i'm not sure about the second line
I tried Animation Gap = -50 assuming it would be random 1-50 frames + 100 (assuming the - is ignored as a number)
I believe I tried that and it seemed to just loop infinitely from the start but I could have messed up that second line.
I may just eliminate the randomness for now, but subtleties like that can make a huge difference.
I have to say I really appreciate the help.
Reply #6 Friday, February 24, 2017 4:32 AM
A couple of combinations I used that worked with a fair amount of randomness, if you want kind of start from there:
MinAnimationLoop = 50
AnimationGap = -400
MinAnimationLoop = 100
AnimationGap = -700
Reply #8 Friday, February 24, 2017 5:48 AM
ok first off the bottom reference for position was exactly right! huge thanx.
As for AnimationLoop/AnimationGap.... something not right here
'AnimationLoop' for me, appears to be the number of frames to wait on load before starting the animation.
'AnimationGap' for me, appears to do nothing. Once the animation starts, it never pauses/stops it just keeps looping infinitely.
so for me eye blink I have: ......STOP THE PRESS!
I figured it out, again thanx to you.
PDF guide and the online guideat:
( https://www.stardock.com/products/deskscapes/helpDS325/appx_a_hybrid_dream_format.htm) have this:
; Gap between animation loops. < 0 means random up to this value (+ MinAnimationLoop)
Animation Gap =
Gotta love when developers screw up their syntax when writing the guide
You have
A couple of combinations I used that worked with a fair amount of randomness, if you want kind of start from there:
MinAnimationLoop = 50
AnimationGap = -400
MinAnimationLoop = 100
AnimationGap = -700
Notice the lack of a single space between 'Animation' & 'Gap' in your example and the space included the developers provides in all their guides. Thought I'd try it out with out the space. Problem solved.
10-15 years and their instructions still DON'T have the CORRECT syntax. 
Thanx Dave. You've set me on the path to creativity again.
Reply #9 Friday, February 24, 2017 1:39 PM
I have updated the web page and the PDF (the pdf isn't great but it works).
Thanks for pointing out the error.
Reply #10 Friday, February 24, 2017 3:04 PM
Notice the lack of a single space
Good catch. It's a pretty safe bet that you're the 1st to catch that and let them know, I know I never noticed it. Sitting right here staring at it and I still didn't see it. Glad I happened to copy/paste the sample, I'll always take "dumb luck" over no luck at all 
Reply #11 Friday, February 24, 2017 3:19 PM
I'm sure future users will appreciate it. Also you might want to edit your post and change those happy face to more a more embarrassed looking emoji 
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Reply #1 Friday, February 24, 2017 3:26 AM
It's been a decade since I played with this, so no guarantees.
TileMode = 1 should cause the image to tile when the wallpaper is resized, I would imagine you would want TileMode = 0 so that it would stretch
My notes tell me that the Y coordinates refer to the position of the bottom of the image, instead of the top as you might expect. Also, I believe the default y positioning refers to "pixels from the bottom" as opposed to "pixels from the top" as you might expect. So "Y = 934" is telling it to place the bottom of the layer 934 pixels from the bottom of the screen. See if that helps.
I think you can insert lines to define whether the y is considered from top or from bottom of the screen:
YAlignment = 0 (which would be the default) aligns from the bottom of the screen
YAlignment = 1 (which you would need to specifically define) aligns from the top of the screen
Similarly for the x value:
XAlignment = 0 aligns from the left
XAlignment = 1 aligns from the right
Height = -100
On the few that I played with I just had them as "0".
I'll see if I can find anything specific on the animation settings.