mpvpaper is a wallpaper program for wlroots based Wayland compositors, such as sway.
The software lets you play videos with mpv as your wallpaper.
mpvpaper manipulates a feature of Wayland called a “surface frame callback”. This feature of Wayland allows mpvpaper to draw/render only when it makes sense to do so.
One reason mpvpaper might not draw/render is if it\’s “hidden”. This is the magic behind the automagic pause/stop options. Whatever “hidden” means is up to compositor. As for Sway, “hidden” is if there is a fullscreen window in the way of the wallpaper. mpvpaper will still draw/render even if there is a normal window blocking the wallpaper view entirely.
This feature is at best a hack that works on some compositors. Usability of these auto options will vary and may not work as intended or at all. In such a case, other features like the “watch lists” mentioned above should be used instead.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Play a video on all output.
- Forward mpv options.
- Control mpvpaper just like mpv in the terminal with keyboard bindings.
Website: github.com/GhostNaN/mpvpaper
Support:
Developer: Henri Hänninen
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
mpvpaper is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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I’d find videos as as desktop wallpaper to be far too distracting.
I’m the same. Good old boring full black background is my staple.
Hi Steve. That’s the other extreme. 🙂
I love desktop wallpapers and have them auto change every 20 minutes.
I think it comes from the day when every byte of RAM was precious and I didn’t have RAM to be fanciful. But I am partial to astronomy pictures on my background, not just dark matter 🙂