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Settings Performance
The Performance tab has two sections: Playback, the rules that pause or mute wallpapers when you are busy, and Quality, which trades image quality for speed. The quality settings are designed for scene wallpapers and may not work as expected for other types.
These rules are explained in full in Displays and playback rules.
| Setting | Options | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Other Application Focused | Keep Running, Mute, Pause (or Pause per Display / Pause All with several displays) | Keep Running |
| Other Application Maximized | Keep Running, Mute, Pause…, Stop (free memory) | Keep Running |
| Other Application Fullscreen | Keep Running, Mute, Pause…, Stop (free memory) | Keep Running |
| Other Application Playing Audio | Keep Running, Mute, Pause | Keep Running |
| Display asleep | Keep Running, Pause, Stop (free memory) | Keep Running |
| Laptop on battery | Keep Running, Pause, Stop (free memory) | Keep Running |
| Application Rules | Edit opens rules for specific apps (see Displays and playback rules) | None |
The Preset buttons set several options at once. None of them stays selected; you can adjust each option afterwards. Each also sets the Quality ↔ Efficiency slider.
| Preset | Anti-aliasing | Post-Processing | Texture Resolution | Shadows and Volumetrics | FPS | Reflections | Particle Budget | Upscaling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | None | Disabled | High Quality | Low | 15 | Off | Low | MetalFX at 50 % |
| Medium | None | Enabled | High Quality | Medium | 30 | On | Medium | Off |
| High | MSAA x2 | Enabled | High Quality | High | 60 | On | High | Off |
| Ultra | MSAA x2 | Ultra | High Quality | Ultra | 240 (no limit) | On | Unlimited | Off |
Medium, High and Ultra also set Render Resolution to Display.
| Option | Choices | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-aliasing | None, MSAA x2, MSAA x4, MSAA x8 | None | Smooths jagged edges. A red warning at ×8: "only recommended for powerful high-end desktop graphics cards." |
| Post-Processing | Disabled, Enabled, Ultra, Ultra (Display HDR) | Enabled | Bloom and other post effects. Ultra adds HDR bloom to supported wallpapers (yellow warning). Ultra (Display HDR) appears only when a display has HDR (EDR) headroom, and outputs EDR on it; on a display without headroom it draws as Ultra. |
| Texture Resolution | High Quality, High Performance, Automatic | Automatic | Wallpaper Engine's setting. High Performance loads textures at half size and runs effects at half size too. Automatic does so for a scene with more than 3.9 times the display's pixels (a 4K scene on a 1080p display), and for a 3D scene on a display smaller than 1080p. |
| Scene Detail | Match Display, Full (Wallpaper Engine) | Match Display | Match Display draws no more detail than the display shows: a scene larger than the display is drawn at the display's size, and each layer's effects at the size it appears on screen. Full draws every effect at its texture's full size, as Wallpaper Engine does. |
| Render Resolution | Display, Retina, Full (each with its size) | Display | Display renders at the display's size in points (a quarter of the pixels on Retina) and scales up; web wallpapers then draw at standard resolution too. Retina renders the native pixels one for one. Full renders the wallpaper's authored size scaled to fit. |
| Upscaling | Off, MetalFX | Off | MetalFX draws the scene at the Render Scale (shown while upscaling; default 75 %) and scales it up. Where MetalFX isn't available, or for HDR, the frame is scaled smoothly instead. |
| Shadows | Disabled, Low, Medium, High, Ultra | Medium | Shadows cast by wallpapers' lights. Higher qualities draw larger shadow maps. |
| Volumetrics | Disabled, Low, Medium, High, Ultra | Medium | Light shafts from wallpapers' volumetric lights. Higher qualities march more samples at a finer resolution; Low and Medium blur a coarser buffer. |
| FPS | 10–240 (slider and field; 240 means no limit) | 30 | The frame rate cap for scene and web wallpapers. Yellow warning above 30, red above 60 ("High FPS may slow down your Mac!"). |
| Quality ↔ Efficiency | A five-stop slider | The fourth stop | Toward Efficiency, scenes cap smooth motion at 60 and then 30 fps, redraw slow changes less often, and draw blurs and glows at half or quarter size. A scene that isn't changing isn't redrawn, and a hot Mac or Low Power Mode moves further toward Efficiency. |
| Particle Budget | Low (10,000), Medium (25,000), High (50,000), Unlimited | Medium | The most particles one wallpaper may hold. A wallpaper made with more draws every particle system thinner, keeping its look. |
| Reflections | On/Off | On | Lets scenes draw their reflection effects, such as water or glass |
More options that trade quality for speed (Optimise textures, Cheaper shadows and others) are on the Optimizations tab; see General, Optimizations, Updates and Privacy.
- Ultra renders HDR scenes with Wallpaper Engine's HDR bloom chain.
- Ultra (Display HDR) additionally sends extended dynamic range (EDR) to displays that can show it, for brighter highlights.
- If no connected display has HDR headroom, a saved "Ultra (Display HDR)" is shown and used as Ultra.
| To gain speed | Change |
|---|---|
| The biggest win on Retina displays | Keep Render Resolution at Display, or turn on Upscaling › MetalFX |
| Heavy effects on big layers | Keep Scene Detail at Match Display; try Texture Resolution › High Performance |
| Fans and battery | Lower FPS (30 or less) and use the battery and fullscreen playback rules |
| Huge particle counts | A lower Particle Budget |
| Volumetric light shafts | Volumetrics › Low or Disabled |
See also Troubleshooting.
Read more (for developers): Performance notes and Scene pipeline