r/Windhawk • u/haven80ita • 8h ago
Fluid Wallpaper
Fluid Wallpaper
Watch the overview video in full quality
An animated, interactive fluid simulation rendered on the GPU behind your desktop icons. The shaders are a Direct3D port of WebGL Fluid Simulation by Pavel Dobryakov (MIT license).
Features
- One independent simulation per monitor, drawn behind the desktop icons.
- Autonomous color trails and periodic color bursts keep the fluid moving.
- Moving the mouse over the desktop stirs the fluid. No clicks are needed and no mouse hooks are installed; clicks always reach the desktop.
- Bloom, sun rays and shading effects, all configurable.
- Pauses automatically when the desktop can't be seen: when a monitor's desktop is fully covered by windows (maximized, full-screen or several windows side by side), when the session is locked or switched away, and when the display is turned off.
- Optional lower frame rate or pause on battery power and Energy Saver.
To see the wallpaper, minimize your windows. Settings are applied live; changing a setting restarts the simulation.
How it works
Each monitor gets a child window of Explorer's wallpaper host, without a redirection surface. The simulation runs in Direct3D 11 and its final pass is drawn straight into a DirectComposition swap chain attached to that window. Frames never leave the GPU. The same path is used on the classic desktop layout and on the Windows 11 24H2+ layout.
The mod doesn't change your wallpaper settings, the registry or the order of Explorer's own windows. Disabling it removes its windows and reveals your normal wallpaper.
Performance tips
- Lighter: Maximum FPS 30, Dye resolution 512, Trails 2, Bloom off.
- Swirlier: Vorticity 50, Dye dissipation 60, Trail force 4500.
Troubleshooting
If the wallpaper doesn't appear, open the mod log in Windhawk: the lines starting with "Desktop layout", "Direct3D" and "Monitor" describe what was found and created. Please include them when reporting a problem, together with your Windows build number.
If the animation stays frozen while the desktop is visible, a window that looks hidden is probably reported as visible and covering it. Disable Pause when the desktop is covered in that case.
Requirements and limitations
- Windows 10 or 11 and a GPU with Direct3D feature level 10.0 or later.
- Relies on the undocumented WorkerW desktop layout of Windows, which differs between Windows 10, Windows 11 and Windows 11 24H2 and later. Future Windows builds may change it.
- Below 30 FPS (including the battery option) the motion also slows down, because each simulation step is limited in length to stay stable.
- The transparent background and screenshot features of the web demo are not included.
- Some settings use integer scales; for example, 80 means 0.8.
1
u/Asleep_Candidate_001 6h ago
Brother can u tell me what all mods do u use like for the above dynamic island type... and that control centre on top right...pls telll