Collaboration Opportunity – Wallpaper Playlist/Slideshow Feature

[artrointel]

Hello, first of all, thank you for your great work on Lively Wallpaper.
I’m currently using this project and find it very useful.

Regarding the wallpaper auto-change/playlist feature (#137), I understand there are many aspects to consider, and personally I think this feature would be very important for users from a practical standpoint. I also understand that while you may have worked on this, it has likely been delayed due to more important priorities.

I’ve been following the history of #137 and hope that this feature will eventually be part of a release.

May I kindly ask: if there is any local branch where you have been experimenting with this feature, would it be possible to push it remotely (even if incomplete)? That way, contributors like myself could fork from there and help continue the work.

Otherwise, I may start from main as a separate fork, but if any partial work already exists, it would be great to build upon that branch to save time and collaborate more effectively.

Thank you again for your time and for maintaining this project!

[rocksdanister]

Everyone wants the playlist feature… but it’s starting to feel as cursed as Half-Life 3 😅.

First it was the WinUI3 framework crashes holding things up.
When that got sorted I had to take a health break.
When I finally came to working on it new things popped up - Windows 24H2 update, WebView2 implementation which was suppose to be a week of work but ended up taking several months due to many quirks when trying to make it work as wallpaper.

As for the playlist work itself, I’m basically dealing with something similar to writer’s block:

1. Can’t settle on the final set of features.
2. Can't visualize the data structure - mostly due to (1)
3. Can't think of a UI design.

For the UI I have thought of few designs - timeline with drag n drop, slot with selection etc.. but can't decide on one and (1) and (2) is not helping either.

To answer your question, no I do not have any implementation code other than the related commandline control random command.

Maybe I set the bar too high for myself and that’s the real blocker. Either way, I am working on it currently - some rough designs and settling on the features, want to start writing some code this month. If you have any suggestions for (1) and concept designs (3) let me know.

[artrointel]

Thank you very much for your detailed answer.
I’d like to share some proposed UI/UX ideas that may help guide the feature development.
Please note that all feature names used below are provisional and should be renamed appropriately as you see fit.
I’ve attached an HTML prototype of the UI (generated by GPT). Feel free to open it and check the flow.

Wallpaper Playlist Manager

1. Feature Definitions

As a developer, I think it’s important to design this so that it’s both maintainable and extensible, while also giving users flexible control over how wallpaper changes are managed.

1.1. FavoriteList Feature

Users can create their own personalized lists of wallpapers.

• Users can assign a name to each new FavoriteList (e.g., "sound-interactive").
• Each FavoriteList can contain n wallpapers.
• Multiple FavoriteLists can be created.

1.2. WallpaperUpdateRule Feature

Users can define rules that automatically change wallpapers based on certain conditions.

• Users can create multiple WallpaperUpdateRules.
• Each rule consists of the following 4 components: Condition, TargetFavoriteList, Selection Strategy, Advanced Settings.

1.2.1. WallpaperUpdateRule:Condition

Users can select when wallpaper changes should be triggered. Examples:

• ByTime: Daily, Weekly, Monthly… (optionally at a specific time like 12:34 PM).
• BySunlight: Switches between DayLight and DayNight.
• OnBoot: Every time Windows starts.
• ByShortcut: A predefined keyboard shortcut triggers the change manually.
• This design is also extensible for future use cases:
  • e.g., (TBD) ByContext → ByWeather, ByLocation, BySpecificProgramStart, etc.

1.2.2. WallpaperUpdateRule:TargetFavoriteList

The actual wallpaper will be chosen from the specified FavoriteList.

1.2.3. WallpaperUpdateRule:Selection Strategy

Users can define how wallpapers are picked:

• Shuffle
• Random
• Sequential (the order in a list)

1.2.4. WallpaperUpdateRule:Advanced Settings

Users can toggle advanced behaviors on/off. Examples:

• "Change wallpapers only when the PC is idle" (default = on)

  • It could be delayed or skipped
  • Tasks are kept pending only if delayed and trigger once CPU load is low enough.

• "Delay(or Skip) wallpaper change while on battery" (default = on)

  • Tasks are kept pending only if delayed and only trigger when charging.

• (TBD) Other advanced options may be added later.

---

2. UI Sketch by GPT

• To illustrate the proposed features, I’ve included a sample HTML UI mockup.
• Running the file shows a simple flow of how the features might look.
• Ideally, this design can be reworked and refined so that it fits seamlessly into the actual application.

ui-proto-wallpaper.html

[rocksdanister]

Here are my thoughts:

1.1. FavoriteList Feature

Multiple favoritelist is a great idea.

1.2. WallpaperUpdateRule Feature

Wallpaper update rule I agree with most of it. The default will be interval as seen in Windows (every 5, 15, 20.. minutes.)
I am not sure about Daily (See bottom), Weekly and Monthly.. seems niche to me? which I feel is better done by using commandline control script (there will be a command to activate playlist by name.)

1.2.3. WallpaperUpdateRule:Selection Strategy

I don't understand the difference between shuffle and random, this is about selecting wallpaper from a single playlist right?

1.2.4. WallpaperUpdateRule:Advanced Settings

I agree, only difference is Idle detection may not be reliable since cpu usage can vary based on clockspeed.. checking if desktop is present maybe better (though this means slight delay as user open desktop.)

The UI has issues:

1. The issue is display arrangement (Per, duplicate and span.)
   Span and duplicate only require one wallpaper but per require selecting wallpaper per screen.
2. I want to show this as a dialog but u can only have one dialog at a time, not a big deal since just require some changes in design.

Regarding (1) this also means arrangement needs to be stored also and changed when setting playlist.

There is also the question of how to activate playlist, some of the UpdateRule only make sense if you can activate multiple playlist at once.. priority would be given I suppose (OnBoot > Sunlight -> Daily/Weekly/Month -> Interval.) but this gets confusing.. if you have a wallpaper for the entire day? but its gets overriden by another list.

[artrointel]

The overall concept should focus on setting a general direction, with vague examples serving only as illustrative references. Whether or not to support specific detailed cases should ultimately depend on the developer’s final decision.

I am not sure about Daily (See bottom), Weekly and Monthly.. seems niche to me?

Settings such as Daily/Weekly appear less flexible than timer-based configurations. They are merely examples, but ones designed to feel familiar and intuitive for users.

I don't understand the difference between shuffle and random, this is about selecting wallpaper from a single playlist right?

Random vs. Shuffle differ only in whether duplicates are allowed. this is about selecting wallpaper from a single playlist, correct.

cpu usage can vary based on clockspeed..

Since CPU clock fluctuations reduce reliability, adjusting the sampling interval and number of samples in tools like HWInfo to derive averages or medians could achieve a reasonable level of reliability.

The issue is display arrangement (Per, duplicate and span.)

I agree that the UI/UX details increase in complexity for multi-display environments and the logic also needs to account for this. However, I believe that with a well-abstracted structure and careful design, it can be handled without much difficulty.

its gets overriden by another list.

Yes, it's an intention. it would select a wallpaper from a playlist. this means there is no such a single "active" playlist. a playlist is just a bundle of wallpapers chosen by users to make wallpaper more random .

Intention of the UpdateRules

The use of multiple UpdateRules according to user intent is intentional, and managing the increased complexity of the wallpaper runtime state diagram becomes the user’s responsibility.

Nevertheless, if high freedom of conditions is supported while also aiming to prevent conflicts such as the ones mentioned, then a UI for FSM (e.g., Unreal’s State Machine) control along with the actual implementation would need to be included. However, in my opinion, this feature does not seem significant enough to justify heavy investment of time and effort for a high level of completion.