Dani John

I make cool apps and stuff

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

"Lively Wallpaper" just got a complete makeover using WinUI 3.

Check out the open source animated wallpaper software here:
https://t.co/vC6t5JaK3S
@zeealeid @FireCubeStudios @WindowsUI
#WinUI #Windows11 #Wallpapers

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

@NVIDIA_AI_PC Why not both? Clippy in ChatRTX when :D

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

Did you know the window move animation in my weather app has inertia!
Move the window fast or slow, and the snow resists or stops naturally, adding a touch of realism.

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

Inspired by 🍎
This took some work. Initially tried multiplying time directly, but it caused the animation to rewind. Switched to adding a time difference (delta), fixing rewind but too abrupt. Final solution: linearly interpolate (lerp) a delta multiplier for smooth transition.

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

Why go native? Microsoft Weather (WebView) vs. Lively Weather (UWP) side by side.
I Initially considered Electron, but just the shader animations alone used ~500MB RAM-add the full UI, and you're near 1GB. Native keeps it light and gives me more headroom to try new things.

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

By enhanced compatibility, the weather effects can be turned enabled on GPU supporting DirectX 11 or older.

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

Lively Weather v2.0 is completely rewritten, switching from compute to pixel shaders. The result? Up to 50% better performance and enhanced compatibility with older hardware.

Learn more:
https://t.co/iRjcuU2lTI

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

The frame-rate setting is independent of the UI animation as it is the update interval for the AnimatedCanvasControl, for example you can run the weather effect at 24fps and UI at 60fps.

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

Here is a quick comparison, notice the overall reduction in the Clock speed, Load and Power with pixel shader (D2D1)

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

The next Lively Weather update will introduces Direct2D shaders, delivering 40% performance boost!🥳

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

@SuperJMN @AvaloniaUI That would be great, Github CI/CD would save me time as currently I have to boot into Linux for packaging.

Can you create an issue on the project page to continue our conversation.

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

Lively Weather (Preview) for Linux is now available!
Built with @AvaloniaUI, while the Windows version will continue using UWP.

Check it out:
https://t.co/c5w85AGlDb

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

@srvzox @AvaloniaUI Had some trouble with Uno during setup (kept crashing on startup, probably an issue on my end).

To Avalonia's credit set up was quick, so I was able to built the shader prototype fast.

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

@SuperJMN @AvaloniaUI Thanks, I'll take a look. Currently I'm using fpm to simplify build process.

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

@AvaloniaUI Thanks for the shoutout! Here’s a quick look at the app in action.

[Avalonia UI @AvaloniaUI]

One of the best things about Avalonia is the powerful styling system. If you can imagine it, you can create it.

Today, we saw this beautiful app from @rocksdanister ❤️

https://t.co/KtkNeIxvzj

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

@zeealeid That's one thing I want try but its difficult to do it efficiently, sending the position of all the ui elements to the gpu shader feels too much.
A simpler method would be to pre-make a texture but it will not look good without the different background reflection on the drops.

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

Lively Weather update just added Precipitation, Cloud and Visibility information.
Check out these new cards that adapt to real-time conditions.

Learn more:
https://t.co/igmNViSBoa

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

Excited to share that I’ve sent a PR to integrate Lively Wallpaper's music visualizer with Screenbox, a modern VLC based video/music player.
https://t.co/cok5i3nMfh

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

@taskcan_tech Installer won't touch Local AppData files so not sure what you mean here, keep in mind Lively is just a hobby project run by one guy so unless people help out by sending bug reports not much to go on.

[Dani John @rocksdanister]

Lively Wallpaper v2.1 is out now!
New screensaver mode, improved performance, ux enhancements and a complete 64-bit transition - all in one update.

Check out the full details here:
https://t.co/aJRoawavYo