Object Desktop: The road to DeskScapes 3

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 by Frogboy | Discussion: Personal Computing

As discussed yesterday, I’ve retaken the reigns on Object Desktop after a 3 year absence.  And the team has some very cool stuff that is now coming together in rapid fashion.

Today I’m going to talk about something that I think is a pretty big deal: DeskScapes 3.

For those of you not familiar with DeskScapes, it is a program that applies animated wallpaper. It’s effectively the only animated wallpaper program available for users of XP, Vista, and Windows 7. 

One of the first changes I wanted to see made to DeskScapes as part of the “new regime” is for it to be a lot more practical.  I like animated wallpaper as much as the next person, which means I’ll load it up for a bit, check it out, and slowly get tired of it like any wallpaper.  But what we really wanted to see with DeskScapes 3 is for it to be even more useful to a wider population.

DeskScapes 3 (v2.91 beta) will be going out tomorrow for Object Desktop users.  What’s in it that’s new?

image

Well the most obvious new thing is the support for your existing static wallpapers. But more importantly, that you can now apply the same kinds of effects to your existing wallpapers that you could once only apply to Dreams. 

image

In the above example, I’ve taken a very colorful image and applied a Sepia filter to it in order to make (for me) a better background.

The new DeskScapes beta also introduces a pretty big new technology that has been discussed previously but now we’ve actually finally got it together: Hybrid Dreams

image

The idea is to make it so that people can take an existing image (a static one) and animate a part of it. So in this case, only the trees and the lights and some sky elements change and it’s very subtle. But because it’s such a small part, it uses virtually no CPU.  The idea is to be able to make it so that animated wallpapers need not be obnoxious but merely a natural evolution beyond the static pictures we’ve had for the past two decades.

If you don’t have Object Desktop you can get it at http://www.objectdesktop.com.  The final version of DeskScapes is due out on October 28th.

First Previous Page 1 of 2 Next Last
vStyler
Reply #1 Wednesday, October 7, 2009 3:11 PM

I’ve retaken the reigns on Object Desktop

 

So whip it, whip it goood

zakai1369
Reply #2 Wednesday, October 7, 2009 4:12 PM

The idea is to make it so that people can take an existing image (a static one) and animate a part of it. So in this case, only the trees and the lights and some sky elements change and it’s very subtle. But because it’s such a small part, it uses virtually no CPU.

 

MarkSnyder61
Reply #3 Wednesday, October 7, 2009 6:52 PM
Devo Dreams!
bk13GarbageMan
Reply #4 Wednesday, October 7, 2009 7:21 PM
Cool!
GhoS
Reply #5 Wednesday, October 7, 2009 9:36 PM
I like the subtle changes part, so an animated wallpaper can be used but not be drawing your attention too much. I'm still not a big wallpaper person, seeing as how its covered a lot, but its nice to have a pleasant moving background sometimes.
winstar4
Reply #6 Wednesday, October 7, 2009 11:00 PM
Nice   
DrJBHL
Reply #7 Wednesday, October 7, 2009 11:10 PM

Sounds very good!

Trigeminal
Reply #8 Wednesday, October 7, 2009 11:14 PM

Hey frog,

 

Love deskscapes, but had to return it as it did not work with fences on xp.  Just upgraded to win7x64, do you know if they work together on this platform?  I would love to pick it up, but can't part with fences, please advise!

 

Thanks

amitsaran
Reply #9 Thursday, October 8, 2009 12:07 AM
Very Cool thanks Brad for letting us know about the new things coming up with Deskscapes3
RedneckDude
Reply #10 Thursday, October 8, 2009 1:24 AM
5 from the Redneck!!!   
Neil Banfield
Reply #11 Thursday, October 8, 2009 5:04 AM

Trigeminal
Hey frog,

 

Love deskscapes, but had to return it as it did not work with fences on xp.  Just upgraded to win7x64, do you know if they work together on this platform?  I would love to pick it up, but can't part with fences, please advise!

On Vista / 7 fences should cooperate with Deskscapes just fine.

benmanns
Reply #12 Thursday, October 8, 2009 6:12 AM
where can i get that vintage Stardock design from ? Ive searched for it but cant find it
Neil Banfield
Reply #13 Thursday, October 8, 2009 7:12 AM

The vintage dream will be coming with Deskscapes 3.

CarGuy1
Reply #14 Thursday, October 8, 2009 12:10 PM

Will the final version have the ability to add addtional tabs at the bottom so we can group the static wallpapers separate from the animated ones?

Frogboy
Reply #15 Thursday, October 8, 2009 12:14 PM
Already does with the filters.
CharlesCS
Reply #16 Thursday, October 8, 2009 3:12 PM

I like the subtle changes part, so an animated wallpaper can be used but not be drawing your attention too much. I'm still not a big wallpaper person, seeing as how its covered a lot, but its nice to have a pleasant moving background sometimes.

Just like Frogboy said, people on average get tired of the same old wallpaper so they change it. These subtle changes will not be very obvious but will make the picture change in a not so noticeable manner so that it doesn't seem as if you are looking at "the same old picture" all the time. I think that's great.

IIIIIIIII'm dreaming... of a DeeeeeskScape 3

Hapkido
Reply #17 Thursday, October 8, 2009 8:47 PM
In the "History" of this latest update there is mention of documentation for Dream Maker in the installation folder (I think that is what it said). But, #1 It doesn't mention where the installation folder is. #2 In C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\Dreamscapes there is no documentation Is the ability to take a static wallpaper image and create these subtle animations currently available? If so... HOW?   
Killasauce
Reply #18 Friday, October 9, 2009 5:12 PM
About adding subtle animations to static wallpaper, I was wondering the same thing? How do we add these effects? Or is this not yet available in the current beta. And one more thing, does Deskscapes 3 final version address the issues of time lapse dreams such as Blissful dream? As it is, Blissful dream does not change scenes. I'm very exited about these new features and developments, Keep up the great work Stardock! Thanks!
ZubaZ
Reply #19 Friday, October 9, 2009 7:00 PM

Hapkido
In the "History" of this latest update there is mention of documentation for Dream Maker in the installation folder (I think that is what it said). But,
#1 It doesn't mention where the installation folder is.
#2 In C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\Dreamscapes there is no documentation

Is the ability to take a static wallpaper image and create these subtle animations currently available? If so... HOW?   
On XP: C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\DeskScapes\HybridDreamFormat.pdf

 

petrossa
Reply #20 Saturday, October 10, 2009 1:20 PM
Would be nice if the folder settings would include a 'include subfolders' tickbox Also in latest beta the little previews in the bottom have all disappeared. One sees only a hourglass outline.

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