Show HN: I reverse engineered Apple's video wallpapers
github.comEver since Apple introduced their video wallpapers I wanted to be able to put custom videos there. I decided to reverse engineer and see what I can do.
I built Phosphene to sell it, but the existing competitors were polished enough that the time it would have taken to catch up wasn't going to pay off. So I'm open-sourcing it.
WallpaperExtensionKit.framework is what powers macOS wallpapers. It controls what’s shows in the Settings app. It took a lot of trial and error to replicate the behavior, but the result is that your custom wallpapers appear alongside everything else. I wanted to have an “add” button there too, but I couldn’t find a way to do so, so there’s a companion app that will put your video where it needs to be.
Unlike Apple's Aerials, the video keeps playing on the desktop (not just the lock screen). The renderer drives AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer directly with PTS-offset gapless looping, and pauses or downshifts based on thermal state, battery level, brightness, and window occlusion.
It’s free and works well.
Wow, thank you for this. I've been working on a screensaver suite but LegacyScreenSaver is so janky. I was hoping someone would figure out apple's private wallpaper framework and you did!
OMG, LegacyScreenSaver is such a memory hog!
Very neat. I was confused at first, I was like you can download the video screensavers.. why scrape the frames. Then I saw your comment and read I can use my own videos for desktop and lock screen. Great work! Dont bury the lede! A title with the hook of what and how would be super helpful!
Apple's best video wallpaper is "Macintosh". I am interested in how it works.
Same! I distinctly remember seeing portions of this wallpaper that led me to believe it's procedurally generated and not simply a collection of video files, and had to rewatch it to confirm. There are several points where the date and time match the system date and time down to the second.
As much (fairly well deserved) hate as Tahoe gets, the video wallpapers and transparency are such a fun Windows Vista vibe I get nostalgia. Time to set this up with the Vista waterfall wallpaper and reallllyyy feel like it’s 2007!
I’m imagining dozens of people worldwide sharing your nostalgia for Vista.
“Good old Vista. People give it a bad press but I’m never upgrading, why would I? It just feels like a good pair of jeans.”
It's called frutiger aero now. Lot of people very bored with modern safe design nostalgic for when tech and UI was weird and bold.
What do you mean Windows Vista "nostalgia"? That makes me feel a little long in the horn.
guy_holding_shoulder.jpg
There are likely a number of folks on this forum now who were born after Vista was released.
The moving wallpapers are near the first few times but I can't turn it off. I had to dig deep into WallpaperKit (I mean really? It's a friggin wallpaper) to find the static last frame of the wooshy moving BS.
So cool! This reminds me I wanted to try setting a custom video background with some footage i had. Didn’t even realize it wasn’t natively supported till i saw this!
Thank you! I’m glad you like it
The app now has a landing page with a download link and you can also see my other projects: the largest one is Refrax browser, but I also have many other small utility apps!
https://kagerou.glass/phosphene/
https://kagerou.glass
Are there specific video wallpaper sets I can download that leverage these features?
You can use any website that lets you download video wallpapers, or you can make one yourself. Any video can be played
I vote the Vista wallpapers personally; feels just right.
Woah, thank you! Just checking these will keep on working on the lock screen and as screen savers too?
The video will keep playing on the lock screen, but screen savers are a different thing. You can have the same video as your wallpaper and screen saver though.
Very cool!
However, it may definitely get broken by Apple, as you note.
I don’t think they’ll touch this part anytime soon. It’s been unchanged for a few years now, they certainly have other priorities.
Good on ya.
I won't use it, myself, because I can't deal with wallpaper moving behind my work (I also can't listen to music, while I work. Maybe it's a "generational" thing). Also, I use a 49-inch ultrawide, so it might be vomit-inducing.
I remember some other utility that played wallpaper videos, but it wasn't anywhere near as nicely done.
Which generation is that? I'm a Gen Xer. I can't work without music, but specific music without lyrics for my brain to try to follow.
remember when windows had html wallpapers. brb gonaa agent something that i hope doenst supply chain my entire life
These damned wallpapers gave me my worst experience with Apple. MacOS would delete them and redownload automatically over and over again, using almost a terrabyte of data per week.
And I wasn't even using video wallpapers at the time.
Just discovered I had no internet 3 days into the month as my ISP had cut me off. Had to dig deep and spend hours I'll never get back trying to find out where all the data was going.
Here's a thread I just found now that shows others having similar issues: https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/1ii38g8/macbook_wall...
This app injects itself directly into Apple’s actual pipeline, so your videos won’t get removed or changed. It’s not just an automated replacer of Apple’s own videos.
Title should be prefixed with show hn:
I had the same thought and just did that, and your comment was the next thing I saw :)
I wonder about this when I see someone post their own work without the Show HN prefix - is it always supposed to be a Show? (Enforcement/community objection to the lack thereof doesn't seem to be very strenuous, if so. Or, maybe it gets fixed after a little while and I haven't noticed.)