NeonDrift

NeonDrift is a macOS live wallpaper app that renders animated desktop overlays with Metal.

Instead of replacing the wallpaper selected in System Settings, NeonDrift creates a borderless, non-interactive window at the desktop layer for each display. The result is a live wallpaper effect that stays behind desktop icons and regular app windows.

Highlights

• Metal-powered animated desktop overlay for macOS
• Multiple visual families: plasma, fractals, patterns, and atmospheric themes
• Per-display configuration with global defaults
• Launch at login support
• Optional background mode with a status bar control surface
• Export and import for settings
• Diagnostics and renderer status inside the app

Requirements

• macOS 14 or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel Mac with Metal support
• Xcode 16+ or Swift 6 toolchain for local builds

Project Layout

• Sources/NeonDrift/main.swift contains the app, settings UI, and desktop overlay management
• Sources/NeonDrift/Resources/ contains the Metal shader sources
• Scripts/package_app.sh builds and assembles a distributable .app
• Scripts/compile_and_run.sh packages and launches the app for local development
• Scripts/archive_mas.sh archives the Xcode project for Mac App Store export
• version.env stores the app name, bundle id, and release version metadata

Local Development

Build and run from SwiftPM:

swift run NeonDrift

Package and launch a local app bundle:

./Scripts/compile_and_run.sh

Create a release app bundle without launching it:

./Scripts/package_app.sh release

The packaged app is created at ./NeonDrift.app.

Release Packaging

The current release metadata lives in version.env:

APP_NAME=NeonDrift
BUNDLE_ID=com.maxches.wallpaper.neon-drift
MARKETING_VERSION=0.1.0
BUILD_NUMBER=1
MACOS_MIN_VERSION=14.0

To create the local release build:

./Scripts/package_app.sh release

To prepare a Mac App Store archive from the Xcode project:

TEAM_ID=YOUR_TEAM_ID ./Scripts/archive_mas.sh

Supporting App Store metadata and review notes live in Docs/AppStore/.

Notes

• NeonDrift does not modify the system wallpaper preference.
• The live effect is created entirely through desktop-layer windows and Metal rendering.
• No screen recording, accessibility permission, or input monitoring is required for the wallpaper effect.