A quite neat wallpaper application.

I'm testing this software on my laptop 5200u, 16 GB RAM DDR3L, Intel HD+840m, SATA HDD, 1366*768 resolution, Windows 10 x64 with 15 mbps internet speed.

Wallpaper Engine's UI is simple... and rather bland - it doesn't need tutorial to understand and navigate around. You can select/search local files to activate (or workshop files that have been downloaded) and you can browse/search the workshop directly inside the app to subscribe and download it. Within main UI you can also make 'playlist' similar to when you queue MP3s on Winamp/Foobar/Spotify. Overall the UI is pretty basic but it gets the jobs done.

When pulling data from Steam workshop, the performance overall is impacted if the file being downloaded is big e.g: video wallpaper around 700 MB. It takes as much as 80% of my harddrive alone. Understandable though, but it does affect the app's own performance if it's playing video + music as it causes stutters. People with more powerful rig and notably SSD prolly won't see this performance hit.

The software is smart enough to detect if there's full screen app active - so it stops its operation, and there are options to adjust so your performance loss when using the software in the background is suppressed. The biggest performance hit comes when you play high resolution video (1080p/60fps). If I use it, it causes a big performance drop for my laptop. Switching to other app as full screen app instantly stutters everything for a second, and if the video background has music attached, it also freezes a bit. Thankfully for a normal live wallpaper, I can use it just fine with no noticeable performance drop.

As for the workshop itself - which I deem as the main strength of this app as crowd-sourcing app contents still surpasses developer's contents in terms of richness - , you can select from many styles of videos or live wallpapers. There are thousands materials to select from already, and growing, making the selection pool pretty large. You can use an in-app editor to make your own and upload it for free, or monetize it if the users give you approval (like Steam's Greenlight system).

Honestly I can do nothing but recommending the app. It's cheap, has crowd contents, allows you to upload your own creation and really I've had fun tinkering so even the experience alone is well worth the money. Just be wary if you use a toaster like me, don't have too high of an expectation.

8.5/10 - please improve the UI, developer.

A quite neat wallpaper application. I'm testing this software on my laptop 5200u, 16 GB RAM DDR3L, Intel HD+840m, SATA HDD, 1366*768 resolution, Windows 10 x64 with 15 mbps internet speed. Wallpaper Engine's UI is simple... and rather bland - it doesn't need tutorial to understand and navigate around. You can select/search local files to activate (or workshop files that have been downloaded) and you can browse/search the workshop directly inside the app to subscribe and download it. Within main UI you can also make 'playlist' similar to when you queue MP3s on Winamp/Foobar/Spotify. Overall the UI is pretty basic but it gets the jobs done. When pulling data from Steam workshop, the performance overall is impacted if the file being downloaded is big e.g: video wallpaper around 700 MB. It takes as much as 80% of my harddrive alone. Understandable though, but it does affect the app's own performance if it's playing video + music as it causes stutters. People with more powerful rig and notably SSD prolly won't see this performance hit. The software is smart enough to detect if there's full screen app active - so it stops its operation, and there are options to adjust so your performance loss when using the software in the background is suppressed. The biggest performance hit comes when you play high resolution video (1080p/60fps). If I use it, it causes a big performance drop for my laptop. Switching to other app as full screen app instantly stutters everything for a second, and if the video background has music attached, it also freezes a bit. Thankfully for a normal live wallpaper, I can use it just fine with no noticeable performance drop. As for the workshop itself - which I deem as the main strength of this app as crowd-sourcing app contents still surpasses developer's contents in terms of richness - , you can select from many styles of videos or live wallpapers. There are thousands materials to select from already, and growing, making the selection pool pretty large. You can use an in-app editor to make your own and upload it for free, or monetize it if the users give you approval (like Steam's Greenlight system). Honestly I can do nothing but recommending the app. It's cheap, has crowd contents, allows you to upload your own creation and really I've had fun tinkering so even the experience alone is well worth the money. Just be wary if you use a toaster like me, don't have too high of an expectation. 8.5/10 - please improve the UI, developer.