Animated Wallpapers: First Impression
My First Impressions of Dreams
Monday, February 26, 2007 by Island Dog | Discussion: Animated Wallpapers
When I first learned of DreamScene and Stardock DeskScapes I was pretty excited, but I also had some reservations about it. The idea has always been around for a while, but nothing ever practical came out of it until now. At first thought an animated wallpaper sounds cool, but will it hold up under daily use, or interfere with my productivity?
Those were just a few of the questions I originally had, and after being able to work with DeskScapes for a while, I have to say I was quite impressed. My first original concern is that an animated wallpaper would be too distracting, but after working with it for a few days straight, the answer was a definite no for me. While a few of the Dreams I tried could be considered very "busy", I tried to stay with animated wallpapers that were more subtle in nature.
The first one I used was Nebula by Stardock Design. This is a very subtle animated wallpaper with a beautiful space scene complimented by "twinkling" stars. This image is great as a static wallpaper, but the simple animation really brings it to life.
Next up I tried Wasserfall by peter22. This is a very relaxing scene of a waterfall with the water animated. This is a little more busy than something like Nebula, but it fits right into the desktop and has been one of my favorites.
Next was Blissful Sunset by Stardock Design. Grass swaying in the wind as the sun sets in the background, very nicely done. This is another "relaxing" Dream that you really need to see for yourself. This was very easy on the eyes without any distraction, so this was my favorite so far.
After working with DeskScapes over the past week I am pleased to give it a big thumbs up. I had used Dreams here and there for a while, but never worked with them on a full-time basis. My real first impressions were very positive, the animated wallpapers looked good, and they work quite well on my system. Now I'm waiting for the next step which will be dynamic content and triggers in DeskScapes. I think those alone will take animated desktops to a whole new level.
Reply #4 Monday, February 26, 2007 8:48 PM
very cruel post... 
/goes away to save pennies...
Reply #5 Monday, February 26, 2007 9:01 PM
Reply #6 Monday, February 26, 2007 9:34 PM
Best demo I have seen 
It's My Secret
Reply #8 Tuesday, February 27, 2007 6:59 AM
Yes, very good one, ID....
Jafo prods his DSL modem with a stick....."if you would JUST work with Vista....."
Reply #9 Tuesday, February 27, 2007 2:56 PM
Reply #10 Wednesday, February 28, 2007 9:17 AM
Also, in the scenes you reviewed were they all seamless loops?
Reply #11 Wednesday, February 28, 2007 9:40 AM
The CPU usage never went over about 10%, and I didn't detect any noticable drag or slowdown. When I was revewing these I was also using applications like Outlok 2007, Frontpage, iTunes and a couple others at the same time, so I was happy with how they were running on my system.
All the ones I reviewed didn't have any noticable loops.
Reply #12 Wednesday, February 28, 2007 11:29 AM
Thanks Island Dog for all the postings, news and reviews, etc here, there and beyond....they all come in very handy.
Reply #13 Wednesday, February 28, 2007 11:50 AM
I've tried it on a Dell Latitude D620.
This has the following specs.
processor - Duo Core 1.66 Ghz 2048 KB Cache
memory - 1024 MB 533 Mhz dual channel DDR2
Average processor running animated walls with nothing else running was 15-20%.
It's not a fair trade on this system at all. It looked very nice, but that's where it has to end.
I will try it on a 2.8Ghz Duo Core later next week and see what the use averages.
Reply #14 Wednesday, February 28, 2007 12:33 PM
Im running an FX-55 with 1gb of RAM and a 7800GTX and my CPU usage bottoms at 30%. Some of the dreams (though not necessarily the most impressive) top my usage at 75-80%!
On average, though, I run dreams with about 40-50% CPU usage.
If those numbers sound horrible (and I guess they are) I want you to know that I STILL use Dreams regardless (heck im watching peter22's WesserFall of the side of my screen as I type this... pretty). Sure the numbers are horrible, but when I actually USE them NO I don't notice a big enough difference in my everyday computer use to turn away from them. I am always running Outlook2007 in the background; always have a webpage open to manage my domain, which I do often; mostly have WMP running playing my fav tunes; and quite possibly have an FTP client and Dreamweaver also soaking up resources. Even with ALL of that I still don't notice a slowdown when I open a word document or do normal every day tasks that I would perform with my computer.
So for those of you out there avoiding dreams like the plague for 20% CPU usage... give it an honest, unbiased try before you put a lid on it forever.
Reply #16 Wednesday, February 28, 2007 1:02 PM
As far as I know thats the most current driver
Reply #17 Wednesday, February 28, 2007 1:03 PM
Processor - AMD Athlon64 bit 3800+ Running at 3 Ghz
Memory - 2048 MB 400 Mhz Dual Channel (Kingston)
GPU - ATI Radeon 1600 Pro 512 MB RAM
No problem
Reply #18 Wednesday, February 28, 2007 1:09 PM
This program from Microsoft and Wincustomize (Stardock) exists already for the past 5 years by DreamRender.
DreamRender
So Moderators check good for all the persons that are creating "Dreams" from this DreamRender site
Check Most Downloaded
Reply #19 Wednesday, February 28, 2007 5:11 PM
It's not necessary to post the same message in other posts. Keep it to one only please.
Reply #20 Monday, March 19, 2007 12:13 AM
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Reply #1 Monday, February 26, 2007 7:09 PM