animBack

Animated desktop wallpapers and live screensaver rendering wallpapers for Haiku.

---

Turns a folder of numbered images or any screensaver add-on into a lively desktop background.

Features

• Load a folder of numbered frames and play them as a wallpaper animation
• Render any installed Haiku screensaver add-on directly to the desktop
• Adjustable playback speed from 1 to 30 FPS
• Average colour erase matching to suppress Tracker's blank-before-draw-flash
• Simple GUI
• CLI mode for autostart

Requirements

• Haiku (Tested only on x86_64 Stable)
• libbe, libtracker, libtranslation, libscreensaver (all included in a standard Haiku install)
• g++ with C++17 support

Build

make

For a quick install directly to ~/config/non-packaged/apps/animBack:

make install

To produce a distributable .hpkg:

make package

Use

Launch the GUI:

animback

Run from the terminal:

animback --animate /path/to/frames [fps]
animback --screensaver "/boot/system/add-ons/Screen Savers/screensaver" [fps]

Clear the desktop background:

animback --clear

Image Frames

Frames must be image files named with integers only: 1.png, 2.png, 3.png, and so on. Supported formats are anything the Haiku Translation Kit can decode: PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF. Frames are automatically scaled to screen resolution on load. Place them in a folder, point animBack at it, and hit Start.

Screensaver Mode

Any screensaver add-on installed under /boot/system/add-ons/Screen Savers or ~/config/add-ons/Screen Savers will appear in the Screensaver tab. Select one and click Use This Screensaver to render it frame-by-frame to the desktop.