Particle Storm OpenGL Live Wallpaper

[eymwsoft]

Hello all - I'd appreciate if you'd try out the free new live wallpaper I've written. Glowing particles swirl around the local magnetic field, drop due to gravity and respond to your touch. The wallpaper is rendered in OpenGL ES for maximum 3D effect.

You can choose primary and secondary colors of the particles, and the color mix of the particles can change as you slide through your home screens.

The program defaults to a moderate number of particles. If your phone can handle it (EVO 4G, Droid X, etc.) I'd recommend cranking it up in the settings. Likewise if you're experiencing framerate issues try toning down the number of particles.

For the physics nerds out there, the particles simulate charged electrons spiraling along the local magnetic field as sampled by the compass inside advanced Android phones. Accelerometer information is also incorporated to allow the particles to fall towards the ground regardless of the orientation of the phone.

The whole thing is totally free, no ads or anything - I just want to share my tech demo work with anyone who's interested.

QR code for download at the bottom, or search for com.eymwsoft or "Particle Storm" in the Market, or click here from your phone.

Find more details here or look at the Youtube video here: YouTube - Android 3D Live Wallpaper: Particle Storm

 

[Jeff80]

Pretty awesome! I'm gonna keep this for a while. Thanks!

 

[anon26174]

This is very cool, thank you for making it. It looks really pretty and is the kind of live wallpaper I like. My only quibble is that even with particles set to "tiny", it seems to be quite sluggish on the HTC Incredible... but I'm sure you're working on optimizing it better.

I wonder if it'd totally fly on the Droid X or a phone with a better GPU? Or maybe it'll be smoother on FroYo too. Hope some other folks get to test it out and give you feedback on it as well, just in case the sluggishness I found was unique to my device only.

Update: OK, I did a reboot (haven't done that for a while) and it's a bit smoother now. Perhaps I had a lot of background stuff running when I first installed it. Still keeping it on "tiny" particles though to be safe

 

[doctorlove316]

Seems pretty cool. I have it set to low right now just to be safe. I'll keep adjusting to see if it gets sluggish at all.

Nice Job!!!

 

[Ferman07]

Thanks for making this! I have it set to medium on my incredible and it's really not sluggish at all. Looking forward to more from you

 

[VDub2174]

Great job!!

 

[shellzda1]

this is way cool. Thanks

 

[egeorgia#AC]

Looks great on the Incredible. Stuck with Medium. That looks the best to me. How about being able to change the background color? Just a thought.

 

[eymwsoft]

Thank you all for your words of encouragement and advice. I've spent the afternoon increasing the performance of the app and I'm happy to report it runs much faster (almost a factor of two more frames for the same number of particle). Please update it when you get the chance.

I'll definitely work on changing the background color - thanks!

 

[holiday]

is this live wallpaper for higher end phones only? I have a Motorola Droid and I do not see it on the marketplace.

 

[Lorak]

Very nice wallpaper. Thanks for sharing!

 

[a1point8turbo]

Ludicrous particle count works well on the Droid X, thank you for sharing!

 

[eightysixx]

tthanks

 

[eightysixx]

thanks

 

[muoi13]

Definitely a keeper but I think the 30 fps cap on the Evo is holding it back (not your fault in this case).

I'm using Launcher.Pro and it looks "odd" in landscape mode but so do most live wallpapers.

 

[anon26174]

Question for developer: I checked my battery use (HTC Incredible), and Particle Storm was showing as 87% battery use, with everything else in single figures. Is this something to be worried about? Is the wallpaper continuing to run and use up system resources in the background even when the screen is off, or is it merely showing that figure because it's very CPU-intensive even for the few seconds it runs when you unlock the phone?

 

[Chillout80s]

Excellent, love this one!! Thanks for letting us know about it! I too have it turned to Low for right now till I see how it'll work with my Droid...so far it rocks though!

 

[rpfarrah]

Test-driving it now! Thanks

 

[eymwsoft]

Thanks much for trying it out! I can guarantee that with standard home screen managers it definitely shuts down as soon as the phone sleeps or a window is opened. Although it pushes your phone's cpu to the limit when running in a couple weeks of testing I haven't seen any difference in battery life because it only runs for a short time each day.

Question for developer: I checked my battery use (HTC Incredible), and Particle Storm was showing as 87% battery use, with everything else in single figures. Is this something to be worried about? Is the wallpaper continuing to run and use up system resources in the background even when the screen is off, or is it merely showing that figure because it's very CPU-intensive even for the few seconds it runs when you unlock the phone?

 

[WarER4X]

Why can I not find this in the marketplace? For some reason the link isn't working for me. :/

-SR-