Engine Comparison

Engine Comparison

This page is a side-by-side matrix of Sucrose's seven render engines — their underlying technology, the wallpaper types each can render, runtime requirements, interactivity, and support for the audio-reactive / system-status JavaScript APIs. Use it to decide which engine to assign per type on the Settings → Wallpaper page. Each wallpaper has a type (Gif, Url, Web, Video, YouTube, Application), and Sucrose maps that type to a configurable engine, launching the chosen .exe as a child process behind the desktop icons.

Audience: users and developers. For the conceptual overview and launch mechanics, see Engines-Overview.

Contents

• The seven engines
• Engine enum order
• Type → allowed engines
• Full capability matrix
• Runtime requirement matrix
• Hardware acceleration behavior
• Interactivity and data-API support
• Choosing an engine
• See also

The seven engines

Engine	Assembly	Underlying tech	Renders
MpvPlayer	Sucrose.Live.MpvPlayer.exe	libmpv (native, via Sucrose.Mpv.NET)	Gif, Video
WebView	Sucrose.Live.WebView.exe	Microsoft Edge WebView2 (Chromium)	Gif, Url, Web, Video, YouTube
CefSharp	Sucrose.Live.CefSharp.exe	CEF / CefSharp (Chromium Embedded, offscreen)	Gif, Url, Web, Video, YouTube
Nebula	Sucrose.Live.Nebula.exe	WPF MediaElement (Windows Media / DirectShow)	Video
Vexana	Sucrose.Live.Vexana.exe	WPF image + in-house frame-by-frame GIF decode	Gif
Xavier	Sucrose.Live.Xavier.exe	Sucrose.XamlAnimatedGif (XAML attached behavior)	Gif
Aurora	Sucrose.Live.Aurora.exe	External process embedding (per monitor)	Application

🖼️ Diagram needed: A matrix/grid graphic mapping the six wallpaper types (rows) to the seven engines (columns), with cells marked "default" or "available".

Engine enum order

The internal EngineType enum (src/Shared/Sucrose.Shared.Dependency/Enum/EngineType.cs) defines the canonical engine order, which is used as integer indices:

internal enum EngineType { AuroraLive, NebulaLive, VexanaLive, XavierLive, WebViewLive, CefSharpLive, MpvPlayerLive }

The six wallpaper types are defined in WallpaperType.cs:

internal enum WallpaperType { Gif, Url, Web, Video, YouTube, Application }

Type → allowed engines

Per-type allowed engines are sub-enums whose values alias back to EngineType. The default for each type comes from src/Shared/Sucrose.Shared.Space/Manage/Internal.cs:

Type	Allowed engines	Default
Gif (GifEngineType)	Vexana, Xavier, WebView, CefSharp, MpvPlayer	MpvPlayer
Url (UrlEngineType)	WebView, CefSharp	CefSharp
Web (WebEngineType)	WebView, CefSharp	CefSharp
Video (VideoEngineType)	Nebula, WebView, CefSharp, MpvPlayer	MpvPlayer
YouTube (YouTubeEngineType)	WebView, CefSharp	CefSharp
Application (ApplicationEngineType)	Aurora (only)	Aurora

The defaults in source:

public static SSDEUET UrlEngine = SSDEUET.CefSharp;
public static SSDEWET WebEngine = SSDEWET.CefSharp;
public static SSDEGET GifEngine = SSDEGET.MpvPlayer;
public static SSDEVET VideoEngine = SSDEVET.MpvPlayer;
public static SSDEAET ApplicationEngine = SSDEAET.Aurora;
public static SSDEYTET YouTubeEngine = SSDEYTET.CefSharp;

You change these in Portal → Settings → Wallpaper (see Choosing-Engines and Settings-Wallpaper). The combo boxes are GifPlayer and VideoPlayer in the Extensions area, and UrlPlayer, WebPlayer, YouTubePlayer, ApplicationPlayer in the Engines area; each writes the engine setting key (Gif, Url, Web, Video, YouTube, Application).

Full capability matrix

Engine	Tech	Gif	Url	Web	Video	YouTube	Application	Interactive	Audio/System data
MpvPlayer	libmpv	✔ (default)	–	–	✔ (default)	–	–	No	No
WebView	Edge WebView2	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	–	Yes	Yes (Web only)
CefSharp	CEF / CefSharp	✔	✔ (default)	✔ (default)	✔	✔ (default)	–	Yes	Yes (Web only)
Nebula	WPF MediaElement	–	–	–	✔	–	–	No	No
Vexana	In-house GIF parser	✔	–	–	–	–	–	No	No
Xavier	XamlAnimatedGif	✔	–	–	–	–	–	No	No
Aurora	Process embedding	–	–	–	–	–	✔ (default)	Input forwarded	Volume only

Notes:

• "Audio/System data" means the JavaScript audio-reactive and system-status APIs (SucroseAudioData, SucroseProcessorData, etc.). These are delivered only for the Web type on WebView or CefSharp. See Create-Audio-API and Create-System-API.
• MpvPlayer intentionally does not serve the YouTube type even though libmpv could — YouTube is routed only to the browser engines.
• "Interactive" reflects which engines forward input: WebView, CefSharp, and Aurora reference RawInput.Sharp; MpvPlayer, Nebula, Vexana, and Xavier are non-interactive renderers.

Runtime requirement matrix

Engine	Extra runtime requirement	Auto-download offered?	Min OS / version
MpvPlayer	Ships its own libmpv-{x86,x64,ARM64}.dll (no external install)	n/a (bundled)	Windows 10 1607 (Redstone 1) via IsRedstone1 check
WebView	Edge WebView2 runtime ≥ 131.0.2903.70	Yes (Continue / Download / Remember / Close)	—
CefSharp	VC++ Redistributable ≥ 14.40.33816.0; CEF native binaries shipped with engine	Yes (Continue / Download / Remember / Close)	—
Nebula	OS media codecs (Media Foundation / DirectShow)	n/a	—
Vexana	None (pure managed WPF)	n/a	—
Xavier	None (pure managed WPF)	n/a	—
Aurora	None beyond .NET + Skylark; the embedded app supplies its own	n/a	—

All engines target .NET 10.0-windows and ship for x86, x64, and ARM64. The .NET 10 runtime is bundled privately as Sucrose.Runtime — no system .NET install is required. See System-Requirements and Runtime-Dependencies.

Hardware acceleration behavior

The HardwareAcceleration toggle (Settings → Wallpaper) maps to engine-specific flags:

Engine	HardwareAcceleration ON	HardwareAcceleration OFF
MpvPlayer	hwdec=auto-safe	hwdec=no
WebView	--enable-gpu + --enable-gpu-vsync	--disable-gpu + --disable-gpu-vsync
CefSharp	enable-gpu=1 + enable-gpu-vsync=1	disable-gpu=1 + disable-gpu-vsync=1 (skipped on Germanium)
Nebula / Vexana / Xavier / Aurora	n/a (WPF/native handles it)	n/a

Stay Awake applies across all engines via a 30-second SetThreadExecutionState loop (ON → ES_CONTINUOUS | ES_SYSTEM_REQUIRED | ES_DISPLAY_REQUIRED; OFF → ES_CONTINUOUS); MpvPlayer additionally rewrites its stop-screensaver config. See Performance-Rules and Choosing-Engines.

Interactivity and data-API support

• Interactive engines: WebView, CefSharp, Aurora (reference RawInput.Sharp; forward mouse/keyboard).
• Non-interactive renderers: MpvPlayer, Nebula, Vexana, Xavier.
• Audio-reactive + system-status JS APIs: Only the Web type on WebView or CefSharp. The engine flips Backgroundog's AudioRequired = true, opens a communication channel (CommunicationType: Pipe / Signal / Transmission), receives data from Backgroundog, and calls ExecuteScriptAsync with the theme's JS callbacks. Video/Gif/Application engines inject no system data (Aurora apps get volume only). See Create-Web-Architecture and IPC.

Choosing an engine

If you want…	Use
The most format-robust video/GIF playback	MpvPlayer (default for Gif & Video)
Audio-reactive / system-data web wallpapers	CefSharp (default for Web) or WebView
The most versatile browser engine across all browser types	WebView
A lightweight video player without libmpv	Nebula (relies on OS codecs)
A lightweight local-GIF player, no native runtime	Vexana
A GIF streamed from a remote URL, no native runtime	Xavier
To run an app/game as the wallpaper	Aurora (Application only)

If a type is manually assigned to an engine that cannot render it, the engine's Configure() switch hits default → Close() and nothing shows — but the Portal only offers compatible engines per type, so this is a safeguard.

See also

• Engines-Overview — selection and launch mechanics
• Choosing-Engines — changing engines per type in Settings
• Settings-Wallpaper — the per-type engine selectors
• Performance-Rules — Close/Pause/Resume behavior per engine
• Wallpaper-Types — the six types and their defaults
• Create-Web-Architecture — how web wallpapers receive live data