Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2419

DeskScapes 1.01

Beta on Object Desktop (1.0b)

Update: DeskScapes 1.01 is generally available! Visit http://dream.wincustomize.com to download the latest version.

A new beta of Stardock DeskScapes is available for Object Desktop users. It supports (and includes) two dynamic animated wallpapers (Dynamic Dreams). That is, animated wallpaper that is generated on the fly as opposed to a looping video.

The advantage of Dynamic Dreams is that less CPU use is involved and users can control the experience through a performance setting which lets users choose between quality and speed (similar to the kinds of settings in a PC game). The better your video card, the higher the resolution you can run Dynamic Dreams at maximum quality.

Note the low CPU usage. Screenshot taken on a ThinkPad T60 laptop

Once DeskScapes 1.01 completes its beta cycle on Object Desktop, it will be released to the general public. Object Desktop users will be receiving some premium Dynamic Dream content as part of their subscription to ObjectDesktop.net.

An SDK will follow shortly to allow third-parties to create their own Dynamic Dreams. DeskScapes 1.01 will also include a triggered based Dream (where the animated wallpaper changes based on time of day or other conditions).

Stardock will be also updating DreamMaker to v1.01 which will support dynamic dreams and include the Dynamic Dreams SDK shortly after 1.01 is generally available.

A guided tour of DeskScapes 1.01 will be available tomorrow.

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yay!

wait a minute....

I don't have Vista

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For as much as I am a supporter of this...it just has too many problems right now.

1. Both dreamscape/dreamscene have lack of multimonitor support. Figure out a way to fix that and it might be worth installing again.

2. dreamscape will NOT play nice with the milestone release of wb5.5. In order for an .dream to play I have to unload wb, reload the aero scheme, select/load a dream file and then reload wb. If wb is running first and then I try to run a .dream, I get the error messege that the aero scheme must be running to use windows dreamscene.

3. dreamscape borks my aero/dwm. If I have wb running and mistakenly try to load a .dream, I get that error messege as described above. But if I unloaded wb, I only get the option for vista basic scheme, no aero. In order to get aero/dwm running again, I have to restart my machine.

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Needs Dual monitor support, both DeskScapes and (DreamScenes Microsoft)need to be fixed, If i lower my reslution settings on my monitors to 1024 x 768 on both it works but looks like crap and i need it to run on 1280 x 1024 for both. I know that the Earth.dream that came with the package in DeskScape plays on both Monitors and one other one. No need in making a new program if it does't work for everyone, I suppose this should be an easy fix, because like i said the earth.dream works for 1280 x 1024 on dual monitors!

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Neil Banfield

Join Date 04/2001

+1104

Dreamscenes will not support multiple monitors with a combined width of more than 2048 pixels if you own an older ATI (pre X1xxx) series graphics card.

Deskscapes will support multiple monitors on such hardware. So all dynamic content will work fine. Videos use the dreamscenes video system, so will not support those older ATI cards.

If you have a newer ATI card or a nvidia card dreamscenes will support multiple monitors.

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Oh yeah, these are GOOD!

Going very close to what I was kind of hoping the technology could do, in fact..

Till now, I'd been pretty unimpressed with the quality of animated walls coming from Microsoft [Sorry guys, but I'm sure you'll either get it right, or completely hand the reins of this over to Stardock.

], and I'm only hanging on to two of the MS ones.

The quality of .dream files coming from Stardock/Wincustomize contributors has been far superior, in my opinion.

These latest two [from Stardock] are definite keepers!

...btw - The avenues open to this are limitless.

Imagine dropping a half second long graphic into the video loop saying "Buy WindowBlinds"...

[subliminal ads

]

A skinner makes full suite of skins, and wants a .dream to match the blind. The resulting animated wall could advertise the name of the suite, or have a revolving logo, or even have interaction with the skin itself, like tendrils reaching down to 'attach' to the rear of the taskbar for example.

Because all this is using animation, surely the boundaries are somewhat limitless, no?

[Apart from the obvious hardware limitations]

Anyone?

Thoughts?

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no need to make a new program if it won't work for everyone, you say? name a single application that works for everyone! i'd bet a year's wages that there isn't a single application that works for everyone. the earth.dream is fantastic, guys. i'd like to extend my gratitude to the genius who made that particular dream.

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it may be that i have a 5.9 vista score overall, but i have not encountered any problems except dreams not loading in startup if i have a wb skin applied....but for me all i have to do is load a wallpaper as a desktop then click on a dream and they load fine even with wb running....so all i can recomend is to find a way to stop windowblinds from messing up dreams from loading on startup.... like maybe making wb load aero at startup then applying a skin that the user has selected automatically like 1 - 2 min after startup....that would give time for the dream to load, then wb will auto apply whatever skin you were using.

otherwise the only other thing i would like to see is some of the dynamic content be interactive if at all possible..... like the box dream example....i would love to be able to grab it with my mouse and throw it around....or even use voice recognition to make it do things with some direct commands. but i think interaction is the next logical level.

and snidely.... you owe me a years wages....lol i can name 3 that work on any version of windows from windows 98 and up.... but it is all good fun and games....and the software i can name, not everyone would ave practical uses for...so it is impractical to use them to make a point.... for the most part you are right in your comments.

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AzDude

Join Date 11/2002

+559

I updated to this beta and sooooo far A.O.K. no glitches I can see - the Dreams top notch - and all working fine on my machine

CPU usage up a little but not much more than other Dreams - Ram usage showing about the same

All headed in the right direction , looks like

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scuse me for the simple question...
does it work on xp this time?

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scuse me for the simple question...
does it work on xp this time?

Vista Ultimate only.

Due to the differences in technology, I don't think this will ever be ported to XP.

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When you say you have updated it to 1.01. Why don't you wait until it really is 1.01, instead of 1.00.(

.008.

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ZubaZ

Join Date 11/2001

+917

Hippie, You've been around long enough that you should know that the (

means beta and that when released it'll be whatever the next version is.
It seems pretty clear in the article's title and sub-title. I, for one, like to get early news like this/

What's the big deal?

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Ok. You win. I was just picking.

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ZubaZ

Join Date 11/2001

+917

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I have only one complaint:

Why did you announce this AFTER I went to bed last night?? Now I'm at work and can't load it up to see what all the hubbub is about!

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Let me clarify my remark on multiple monitor support. Yes dreamscape/dreamscene does run on both of my monitors (on my ati x1600 pro) but it runs the same thing. Example: The rotating earth, the same picture rotates on booth monitors.

Multi-monitor support truly means that it should be able to span one image across both monitors. So my monitors ( 2 x 1280*1024) are actually one 2560*1024 monitor. The program desktop earth (can be found on download.com) is able to do this.

I hope that this feature is built into future builds.

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i use 3 monitors myself set in spanning mode and have never had a problem getting the dreams to work..... only issue ever was that some would look funny stretched that far... i am using a x1950 xtx w/ 512 mb ram.... but i have not seen the multi monitor issue you speak of.... just distortion due to stretching, so in my opinion you may have something set wrong on the video card.

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Neil Banfield

Join Date 04/2001

+1104

A dynamic content plugin gets to decide what appears on each screen. All of our current ones are set to show the same thing on all screens.

If the globe was split between 2 screens there would be complaints about this.

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So far my experience with DS has not been good. The only good thing so far is that the earth beta one seems to be trouble free. All the other files kill my drivers with a 50/50 chance of a full BSoD after about 10 minutes each time. My guess is it has something to do with the memory clearing or something like that given it is 100% repeatable.

For what it is worth, I have two G80s 768MB (factory OC) GPU in SLI mode, a QX6700 CPU and 4GBs of Dominator 8888 RAM.

I really want to tech to work out as it is something I have wanted on my PC since the Mac Classic days. Go - Go - Brad.....

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Neil Banfield

Join Date 04/2001

+1104

1Spartan: Would all the others be videos?

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Neil,
the plugin determining what goes on what screen might be worth trying again. I hold out hope that this becomes as good as WB has become.

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1spartan: sli mode is not working properly on many vista machines if at all....that may be part of your issue

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@Neil - As far as I know they are the defult ones from MS. Once I installed the direct one from SD I got a different folder and put all the downloads into it and I'm not sure what they either.
@o0SHU- I'm running Vista 64Bit currently with SLI. However I had the issue with SLI turned off. I know for sure it is the Nvidia drivers however and not anything by SD. When the BSoD appears it always shows an memory error in the driver for what it is worth.

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I don't get what this software has to offer, other then apparently better performence...

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Quoting ,

it offers users of windows vista ultimate the chance to have dynamic animated wallpaper that dont hog your resources, and allow you to do much more than just run a looping video. i persoanlly thought that the article above and the main dreamscape website explain it pretty clearly though.

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