NeoWall

NeoWall is a Wayland wallpaper engine that transforms your desktop experience by rendering GLSL shaders as dynamic wallpapers, allowing for an impressive visual experience on multi-monitor setups. Engineered with efficiency in mind, NeoWall operates at approximately 2% CPU usage while maintaining 60 frames per second, leveraging the power of your GPU for high-performance graphics.

Key Features

• Shadertoy Compatibility: Utilize over 10,000 shaders available on Shadertoy.com, seamlessly integrating a plethora of creative designs.
• Smooth Transitions: Offers various transition effects including fade, slide, glitch, and pixelate, ensuring a visually appealing desktop.
• Multi-Monitor Support: Configure individual wallpapers for each monitor with dedicated output settings.
• Hot-Reload Configuration: Changes made to the configuration file are applied automatically upon saving, streamlining the customization process.
• Static Images Support: In addition to shaders, NeoWall can handle static images with elegant transitions between them.

Usage

To start NeoWall as a wallpaper daemon, simply run:

neowall

Configuration

Customizable via the config file located at ~/.config/neowall/config.vibe, users can easily define single shaders, cycle through multiple wallpapers, or even set transitions for images. For example:

default {
  shader matrix_real.glsl
  shader_speed 1.0
}

Available Display Modes

• fill: Scale to fill the screen (recommended)
• fit: Scale to fit within the screen dimensions
• center: No scaling, keeps the aspect ratio
• stretch: Fills the screen, possibly distorting the image
• tile: Repeats the image across the desktop

Custom Shader Creation

Easily create custom shaders using GLSL syntax. Here’s a basic example:

#version 100
precision highp float;
uniform float time;        // Elapsed seconds
uniform vec2 resolution;   // Screen size

void main() {
    vec2 uv = gl_FragCoord.xy / resolution.xy;
    vec3 color = vec3(uv, sin(time));
    gl_FragColor = vec4(color, 1.0);
}

Save the shader as ~/.config/neowall/shaders/myshader.glsl and include it in the config.

Performance and Technical Details

Designed as a single binary with multi-version EGL/GLES support, NeoWall runs efficiently under various configurations. It utilizes the wlr-layer-shell protocol for seamless integration with Wayland compositors like Sway, Hyprland, and River, ensuring a stable and performant environment.

Troubleshooting

For issues like black screens with shaders, users can check log outputs with:

neowall -fv

This offers a verbose mode to help diagnose any problems. Ensure that no competing wallpaper services are active for optimal performance.

Contribution and Community

Contributions are welcome, with a focus on testing shaders on different compositors before submitting. NeoWall is developed for the Wayland and r/unixporn communities, making it an ideal fit for users looking to enhance their desktop aesthetics.

Explore a new dimension of desktop customization with NeoWall, where the boundaries between wallpapers and art blur.