Size of desktop wallpapers

[pelago]

Does anyone know the size of the pictures that can be used for the desktop wallpaper (background) in Maemo 5/N900? Before you say 800x480 (or 3200x480 for one picture that covers all four desktops), I don't think that's right.

Videos of the sideways scrolling of the desktop show that there is a parallax effect, where the widgets scroll faster than the wallpaper. So the wallpaper will scroll less than 800 pixels when moving from one desktop to the next. I'm pretty sure this will mean two things: (1) Individual desktop pictures will be 480 pixels high, but less than 800 pixels wide, (2) You will be able to see the left and right edges of the adjacent wallpapers on all desktops.

(2) is particularly a shame, as it would be hard to have different desktops with radically different wallpapers, without it looking messy. I guess this is why the demo wallpapers are like a long thin image that blends from one desktop to another, without a hard edge between desktops.

If I've got this wrong, then let me know!

[zerojay]

Does anyone know the size of the pictures that can be used for the desktop wallpaper (background) in Maemo 5/N900? Before you say 800x480 (or 3200x480 for one picture that covers all four desktops), I don't think that's right.

Videos of the sideways scrolling of the desktop show that there is a parallax effect, where the widgets scroll faster than the wallpaper. So the wallpaper will scroll less than 800 pixels when moving from one desktop to the next. I'm pretty sure this will mean two things: (1) Individual desktop pictures will be 480 pixels high, but less than 800 pixels wide, (2) You will be able to see the left and right edges of the adjacent wallpapers on all desktops.

(2) is particularly a shame, as it would be hard to have different desktops with radically different wallpapers, without it looking messy. I guess this is why the demo wallpapers are like a long thin image that blends from one desktop to another, without a hard edge between desktops.

If I've got this wrong, then let me know!

Desktop backgrounds are 800x480. Each desktop is individually configured. Those demo wallpapers are really just 4 separate images. If you don't see the problem with the demo wallpaper, you won't see it with your own desktop images.

[kanishou]

Yes, the wallpapers are regular 800x480.

The parallax effect is magic. :)

[bheetebrij]

(2) is particularly a shame, as it would be hard to have different desktops with radically different wallpapers, without it looking messy. I guess this is why the demo wallpapers are like a long thin image that blends from one desktop to another, without a hard edge between desktops.


I think you are right in that it looks slightly less holistic to have 4 different background images. On the other hand in the Demo Jussi gave of the N900 [link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Az8VE1NtY8)] he has 4 different backgrounds (check out first 30 seconds) and it actually looks kind of cool if you ask me.

It is a matter of taste though.

[thecursedfly]

I have this (http://www.fhqhosting.com/ui/GrandCanyonSunset_3200x480.jpg), this (http://www.fhqhosting.com/ui/blooddrops%203200x480.jpg), this (http://www.fhqhosting.com/ui/Untitled_Panorama%203200x480.jpg) and this (http://www.fhqhosting.com/ui/lines%203200x480.jpg) ready to be cut in 4 parts... :D :D

just need to find some that loop (meaning that the extreme left corner continues the theme of the extreme right corner)... :D

[pelago]

Yes, the wallpapers are regular 800x480.

The parallax effect is magic. :)
I can't get my head round how the parallax effect can work without the wallpapers being narrower than 800, but I'll take your word for it, thanks!

[nymajoak]

I can't get my head round how the parallax effect can work without the wallpapers being narrower than 800, but I'll take your word for it, thanks!
It is not necessarily connected to the wallpaper. The icons are also moving... ;)

[Red]

Delayed on/off for the icons. Think about it.

1) Start scrolling the background and the icons off at the same time, but have the icons move slightly faster so that the background is only 50% scrolled by the time they are off screen.

2) You now have 50% of each desktop background showing, time to scroll in your new icons. They will need to travel twice as fast as the background to reach their final position at the same time as the background.

3) ????

4) Parallax!

[hartti]

When you scroll/pan sideways the background moves with the speed of you finger, and the icons move "faster". This creates the "parallax effect"

Hartti

[pelago]

When you scroll/pan sideways the background moves with the speed of you finger, and the icons move "faster". This creates the "parallax effect"
Ah, thanks for the explanation. I didn't think of it working that way. For some reason I assumed the widgets would move at "finger speed" (them being the things that look like they are closest to the finger) with the wallpaper lagging behind in the distance.

I wonder if it'll look odd that the widgets move faster than the finger? I suppose it will only be noticeable if you swipe at a slow pace.

[Nelson L. Squeeko]

I have this (http://www.fhqhosting.com/ui/GrandCanyonSunset_3200x480.jpg), this (http://www.fhqhosting.com/ui/blooddrops%203200x480.jpg), this (http://www.fhqhosting.com/ui/Untitled_Panorama%203200x480.jpg) and this (http://www.fhqhosting.com/ui/lines%203200x480.jpg) ready to be cut in 4 parts... :D :D

just need to find some that loop (meaning that the extreme left corner continues the theme of the extreme right corner)... :D

The blood splat and brown hair looking one shouldn't be too hard to loop with a little Photoshopping. The other two images it would still be possible to loop the edges, just a little bit more work.

[kanishou]

Ah, thanks for the explanation. I didn't think of it working that way. For some reason I assumed the widgets would move at "finger speed" (them being the things that look like they are closest to the finger) with the wallpaper lagging behind in the distance.

We could have just as well moved the widgets at the speed of your finger, the problem is the same. If you move the widgets, the backgrounds won't move far enough. If you move the backgrounds as we do, the widgets will move too far!

So who can guess how we solved this? :) It's remarkably simple.

[linuxeventually]

I think you should play with the Compiz Fusion cube on a linux desktop (Sabayon live-cd is a good choice) to give you some idea. The expo plugin might be useful as well. While it is possible to use different wallpapers with Compiz this is disable by default because it is quite unstable (last I checked)

EDIT: Unfold is probably a closer match

[PetriS]

We could have just as well moved the widgets at the speed of your finger, the problem is the same. If you move the widgets, the backgrounds won't move far enough. If you move the backgrounds as we do, the widgets will move too far!

So who can guess how we solved this? :) It's remarkably simple.

I would imagine that you just let the screens to be wider apart in the widget space coordinates. Then the widgets will arrive in the correct position, and go off when panned, invisible to the user. :) Looking forward to get my hands on the device internals to develop these kind of usability and productivity tricks 3D-accelerated.

[eiffel]

just need to find some that loop (meaning that the extreme left corner continues the theme of the extreme right corner)... :D
It's a bit of a kluge, but you can take a 480x1600 image and join it to a mirror-image of itself to obtain a 480x3200 wraparound.

[thecursedfly]

It's a bit of a kluge, but you can take a 480x1600 image and join it to a mirror-image of itself to obtain a 480x3200 wraparound.

lol, right, nice idea... but it would look kind of strange with some images (thinking about landscapes and pictures with clear subjects)... with abstract images (like the "red drops" one and the "lines/hair" one) it's possibly a good solution.. :)

[joshua.maverick]

i looped the blood image, maybe someone could check it/test it

http://mav-media.com/maemo5/wallpapers/bloodLooped001.jpg

[code177]

Guys - remember that the N900 screen is 267 PPI/DPI, so for the best results, make sure you have you DPI set to 250+ when making your wallpapers :)

Disregard this, I was totally wrong :D

[Corwin_bg]

Guys - remember that the N900 screen is 267 PPI/DPI, so for the best results, make sure you have you DPI set to 250+ when making your wallpapers :)

Nope, only get them to the right size in pixels. The DPI setting comes into play only while printing.

[joshua.maverick]

Nope, only get them to the right size in pixels. The DPI setting comes into play only while printing.

I was just going to say that

[code177]

Seriously? I never knew that. That makes life sooo much easier. Thanks!

[qole]

Having four completely different wallpapers looks fine. It can even help to keep things organized in your mind:

"What desktop was that icon on again?"
"Oh right, the one with the water wallpaper."

EDIT: I was thinking of four different "room" themes.

The "furnace room" is a dirty brick wall, and it has settings related stuff and the terminal icon on it....
The "living room" has paisley upholstery and you have all of your media-related icons there.
The "kitchen" has a picture of one of those old wall-mounted rotary phones and you keep your communications icons there
The "den" has a shag rug, and you keep all your games there.

[allnameswereout]

Via http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=3200x480 will also find pictures sooner or later although right now I didn't see many. (Actually, you can see one guy having a project using 4 laptops to project a 3200x480 wide screen on a festival, and you also see kontorii's blog with post about his theme maker. Pretty cool... :D). You can then split these 3200x480 in 4 parts. Only problem is that (usually) the 4th part doesn't connect with the 1st part. To make cool backgrounds which do have 4th part connected with 1st would require a 360 degrees photograph!

Moving background like in E71 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10kg2aSB8q4) would also be neat. Even though it renders very well (better than X) it'd still be too bad for the battery though.

[timsamoff]

The "furnace room" is a dirty brick wall, and it has settings related stuff and the terminal icon on it....
The "living room" has paisley upholstery and you have all of your media-related icons there.
The "kitchen" has a picture of one of those old wall-mounted rotary phones and you keep your communications icons there
The "den" has a shag rug, and you keep all your games there.
Brilliant!!! :D

Tim

[nikolajhendel]

what about backgrounds based on the 4 elements (not counting the later introduced aether - to make everything fit):
fire
water
earth
air

[qole]

Aether? No, you've got it wrong. This is the fifth element:

http://www.filmdope.com/Gallery/ActorsJ/8990-23787.gif

[hartti]

i looped the blood image, maybe someone could check it/test it

http://mav-media.com/maemo5/wallpapers/bloodLooped001.jpg

I broke the image to 4 pieces and tried it.
It worked, no discontinuities (although, unlike Dexter, I am not sure if I want to have blood splatters as the backgrounds :-).

Hartti

[Soulfarmer]

what about backgrounds based on the 4 elements (not counting the later introduced aether - to make everything fit):
fire
water
earth
air
I tried to find pictures of the same place with four seasons in them. Kinda like the 4 elements idea.

[andrewfblack]

I tried to find pictures of the same place with four seasons in them. Kinda like the 4 elements idea.


http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/2240466/Spring.jpg

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/2240466/Summer.jpg

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/2240466/Fall.jpg

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/2240466/Winter.jpg

[Soulfarmer]

Andrew, thanks, just the thing! I just need to wait for my device to see how the widgets and so on fit on top of those. I am a little afraid that I might like the wallpapers too much to clutter the desktop with widgets tho :)