ShittyRandomPhotoScreenSaver (SRPSS)

ShittyRandomPhotoScreenSaver (SRPSS) is a modern Windows 10/11 screensaver that is surprisingly less shit than the majority of ancient decrepit screensavers around today. Born from my sheer exhaustion of still using a screensaver from 2005 to do less than what this does.

It's a random wallpaper screensaver, a multi-monitor display, a widget dashboard, a media controller, gmail notifier, reddit aggrigator, news reader with images, custom rss feed dashboard and a disturbingly configurable audio visualizer. You can use as much or as little of that as you want. AlsoisbasicallyafuckingcustomopenglengineatthispointtoobecauseIhaveboundaryissuesorsomething.

Download the latest release · All releases · Transitions · Controls

Overview

Feature	Current source catalogue
Image transitions	25 registered effects
Audio-reactive visualizers	8 modes
Feed cards	10 (4 custom + 6 news)
Widget families	10
Custom layout slots	10 (keys 0–9)

Transition and Visualizer availability is COMPLETELY configurable so you can disable or enable whatever you want.

Supposed Features

Wallpapers, sources and displays

• Random image slideshow: Choose one or several local folders, including subfolders, for your wallpaper library.
• Online wallpaper feeds: Optional RSS/JSON image sources, including curated Reddit wallpaper feeds. Press Just Make It Work if you don't feel like finding them yourself.
• Mix local and online: Use both together, with a ratio slider to control the balance.
• Image presentation: High-quality scaling, optional sharpening, pan & scan and configurable timing.
• Multiple monitors: Mirror an image across screens or run independent image selections and transitions per display. Choose which displays participate.
• Keep and reject images: Images → Save Image, Ban Image, and Clear Image Bans are available from the running saver's context menu. Bans persist across sessions, so unwanted wallpapers stay out of subsequent rotation until cleared.
• Transitions: Simple fades and wipes through to glass, particles, 3D surfaces, fracturing and other less reasonable choices. Choose an effect, tune its controls, or enable effects for the Random pool.

Audio, media and visualizers

• Now-playing media widget: Spotify/MusicBee/AppleMusic/Browser integration with artwork, playback information and optional media controls; MusicBee plugin information is available in Settings.
• Audio-reactive Beat Visualizer: 8 registered modes with mode-specific tuning, editable curated presets and a separate user-owned Custom state. Overly robust and feature filled af. Available modes include:
  • Spectrum
  • Oscilloscope
  • Sine Waves
  • Bubble
  • Spline Curve (Dev Curve)
  • Voxel Sphere (3D)
  • Extruded Spectrum (3D)
  • Shockwave Grid (3D)
• Properly adjustable 3D views like it's 2002: Orbit the applicable 3D visualizers, move or resize their stage and preserve your poorly chosen viewpoint. Alt-Left to rotate, Alt-Scroll to resize and Alt-Right to drag 3D Visualizers.
• System Audio OSD: Optional reminder that you are always being watched when this pops up from small sound adjustments.

Widgets, feeds and everything else

• GMAIL: IMAP unread-mail notifications and an interactive inbox summary. Custom sounds, full moldable display.
• Clocks: Up to three clocks, analogue or digital, 12/24-hour time, different time zones and optional weekday/date rows.
• Weather: Open-Meteo weather without an API key. First-run location detection is available, but city autocomplete is there for when geolocation inevitably has ideas of its own.
• Reddit: Two configurable subreddit widgets. Click posts to visit their comments because no one reads the articles/links anyway.
• STEAM: Achievement Pulse (Your glorious work.), Abandonment Issues (Your backlog.), Friend Pulse (Your people.) and Games You Follow (news from the games you actually follow).
• FEEDS: Ten independent cards: Custom 1–4 (RSS/Atom/JSON/h-feed sources) and six News categories (World, US, Politics, Gaming, Tech and Anime). List/Grid/Compact presentation, optionally cached article images and clickable stories.
• System Stats: An optional system-information card for CPU, memory and other selectable system metrics.

Customizability

• Edit Mode: Right-click to edit and move, resize or reposition widgets however your kinky ass wants. Edit works across displays and includes child-widget adjustment, snapping, reset and undo. Save or cancel changes explicitly. Child editing is accessed not only through poor real life decisions but also clicking the little lock inside each widget while editing.
• Ten saved layouts: Shift+0 through Shift+9 save your current arrangement; 0 through 9 recall one while the saver is running.
• Guided Setup & Quick Start: Set up sources, displays, themes, accounts and widget arrangements without digging through every advanced option. Quick Start can be reopened later.
• Separate themes: Customizable Settings themes and widget themes, including Windows (vista but shut the fuck up about it) glass/acrylic-inspired presentation and configurable card styling.
• Accessibility/display options: Background brightness dimming and pixel shifting, alongside display and interaction controls.
• Interaction Mode: Keep the saver open while interacting with widgets. Normal cursor movement needn't exit it; Ctrl can temporarily expose the interaction halo when needed.
• Media Center (MC) builds: Designed especially for keeping the display running as an interactive, always-on dashboard.

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Transition gallery

Some fancy ass transition effects are below, expand each group to see its fancy-ass-ness and hopefully not make your browser memory eat dirt.

Transitions Showcase Shrunk Down To GitHub's 1999 Ass 10MB Limit:

Fracture, particles and destruction.

Volumetric Dissolve

Glass Shatter

Exploding Tiles

Crumble

Disintegrate

Burn

Directional Pixel Accretion

Jigsaw Piece Flip

3D surfaces, materials and reveals

Page Curl

Melt Drip

Beam

Classic, patterned and screen-space effects · 6 transitions

Slide

Wipe

Ripple

3D Block Spins

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Settings dialog

This Sunvabitch Has No Business Being As Pretty As It Took Me Days To Get It Because UI Is The One Thing I Enjoy More Than Abusing Title Case.

It's a dark, fully themeable, frameless interface that even simulates DWM transparency from the Vista era.

You can open it from Windows Screen Saver Settings → Settings..., or from your precious right-click context menu while SRPSS is running.

The settings dialog lets you:

• CONFIGURE EVERYTHING.
• CHANGE EVERYTHING.
• DEVOUR EVERYTHING.
• BECOME ONE.

Settings pages and what lives in them

• Sources: Local folders and online wallpaper feeds, plus Just Make It Work.
• Display: Screen selection, slideshow mode and interval, sharpening, pan & scan and interaction/display options.
• Transitions: Activate effects, select the Random pool, set duration/direction and tune individual transitions.
• Widgets: Clocks, Weather, Media, Reddit, Gmail, Steam, FEEDS, System Stats and the optional volume/mute OSD. You'll need to configure these to your liking! Geolocation is kinda shit.
• Visualizers: Mode activation/selection, curated presets, Custom and per-mode appearance/reactivity settings.
• Accessibility: Join my crippled ass with these features! Background brightness dimming and pixel shifting because maybe you're feeling kinda weird or something.
• Themes: Choose/customize separate Settings and Widget themes.
• About: Version, credits, SST/JSON settings import/export, preset import/export and emergency defaults.
• Quick Start: Reopen the guided setup/arrangement flow after first run.

Settings persistence and preset ownership

Settings persist between runs. Continuous controls save on their normal completion/release path rather than writing to disk for every pointer movement. Edit-mode layouts have an explicit Save/Cancel workflow.

Curated Visualizer presets and your authored preset files are separate. Back up your presets before reinstalling, importing settings or resetting anything. Don't assume a shipped preset and a user-owned preset are the same thing.

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Interaction Mode & interaction gating

Why? Because you can actually click the things that are meant to be clicked: Reddit/Gmail/FEEDS/Steam links and media controls. I never clicked the clock or weather though, you probably shouldn't try it.

• Normal screensaver mode: Ordinary mouse movement or clicks exit the saver. Hold Ctrl to reveal the temporary interaction halo so you can operate supported overlays without exiting.
• Interaction Mode: Ordinary pointer movement and clicks stay inside SRPSS. External-link actions can hand off to the desktop and close the saver cleanly. Esc, Q and the context menu remain explicit exit paths.
• Media Center builds: Interaction Mode is enabled by design. You can select one or more displays and leave SRPSS running as a widget dashboard.

While seeming strange at first, if you have multiple monitors you can pick one or two of them, leave it running 24/7 with widgets of your choice. Your image will change reducing any burn worries aaaand you have pretty widgets.

(If you have an OLED nothing is gonna stop burn in except a black screen but you know that already.)

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Mouse & keyboard controls

Mouse controls, interaction halo and 3D visualizer gestures

• Normal mode: Moving the mouse beyond a small threshold, or clicking a mouse button, exits the screensaver unless the temporary Ctrl interaction halo is active.
• Interaction Mode ON: Mouse movement and regular clicks do not exit. Double-clicking advances to the next image.
• Hold Ctrl: Reveal the interaction halo/cursor proxy for admitted widget actions.

Mouse gesture	Action
Ctrl + right-click	Open the context menu
Double right-click empty space	Enter Edit Mode
Double left-click empty space (in Edit Mode)	Save and leave Edit Mode
Alt + left-drag on a 3D visualizer	Orbit the applicable 3D view, including Voxel Sphere
Alt + right-drag on a 3D visualizer	Move its stage without entering Edit Mode (Interaction Mode)
Alt + mouse wheel on a 3D visualizer	Resize its stage without entering Edit Mode (Interaction Mode)

Right Click while holding Ctrl and a glorious context menu is born.

Use it for EVERYTHING. EMBRACE IT. HOLD IT. DO NOT LET OTHERS KNOW YOU HAVE IT. IT IS YOURS ALONE.

Keyboard shortcuts while the screensaver is running

Key	Action
Z / X	Previous / next image
C	Cycle transition type
Shift+0–Shift+9	Save a layout slot
0–9	Recall a layout slot
W / A / S / D	Orbit a shown Extruded Spectrum or Shockwave Grid in 3D; viewpoint saves on release
PgUp / PgDown	System volume up / down
Space	Play/pause
Home	Global media play/pause
End	Global system mute toggle
Esc / Q	Exit the screensaver

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Useful documentation for completely acceptable stealing of any code:

• Index.md: project documentation map.
• Docs/00_PROJECT_OVERVIEW.md: architecture and project position.
• Docs/Reference/Transitions.md: transition catalogue behaviour and controls.
• Docs/Reference/Visualizer_Reference.md: Visualizer modes and presentation.
• Docs/Reference/Feeds.md: feed card capabilities.
• Docs/Historical_Bugs.md: PEER INTO HELL ITSELF FOR THE STRIFE I HAVE OVERCOME TO BRING YOU THIS TAINTED BLESSING.
• Current_Plan.md: work currently being fucked up by me, agent or both.

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Credits

Jayde Ver Elst / Basjohn

Did you know I'm actually a published author? No? How could writing this cringe get published? I don't know either, and neither do most readers apparently.

basmilius.github.io for the pillaged weather icons!

This README focuses on wasting your time.