Low Impact Dreams

Dreamscapes is working nicely on my Vista install (including mpeg2), however I notice that some walls need too much CPU.  For instance the rotating earth dream is fine, but the waving grass dream pushes dwm.exe to 50%.  Can you recommend a few that are low impact?

4,110 views 7 replies
Reply #1 Top
Anything with lots of objects moving will use CPU (except the few dynamic dreams).  Less animation = better performance.
Reply #2 Top
Yes, can you name some that have less animation/better performance?
Reply #3 Top
this one of mine uses between 12-15 %
https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=1250&libid=50
Reply #4 Top
The most contributing factor for high CPU useage is what type of video the dream was made from, MPEG2 or WMV. Mpeg will normally have better quality for less CPU at the cost of larger file size.
Then it breakes down to the bit rate, frames per second and resolution.

Zub, you are correct in the sence that if a dream has alot of motion the author will need to bump the frame rate up to 30 to keep the loop from being as noticeable. That being the case it will usually use more CPU. But, if a dream is done at 30 fps and at a lower bit rate it can use less cpu than a dream at 25 fps and a higher bit rate.
One thing about bit rate, the higher it is, the better the picture quality is.
Same goes for resolution.

All this makes it a balancing act for the author to get low cpu useage while trying to get a nice quality picture.
Reply #5 Top
Also check file size. There are some that are near or over 100mges. You might want to try out some of the smaller dream files (when running video).

I like CarGuys latest dream here: https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=1301&libid=50

It's only 8megs and it's nice.

Here is an example of a lot of motinon you can try out

https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=400&libid=50
Reply #6 Top
Thanks for the dream links. SpyroGyro and Twista are both cool effects, and very usable in terms of CPU usage.
Reply #7 Top
Also check file size. There are some that are near or over 100mges. You might want to try out some of the smaller dream files (when running video). I like CarGuys latest dream here: https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=1301&libid=50It's only 8megs and it's nice.Here is an example of a lot of motinon you can try outhttps://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=400&libid=50
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I'm not sure larger file sizes affect cpu usage. If anything, larger files use less CPU because they have less compression.