uLiveWallpaper - Develop Android Live Wallpapers with Unity!

Asset Store - Pro version
Asset Store - Indie version​

uLiveWallpaper is an Unity extension that allows you to create Live Wallpapers for Android using the full potential of Unity in an efficient and easy way.

Bring your creativity to your phone's home screen with the power of Unity and uLiveWallpaper!

Android Demo APK

Highlights:

• Supports all latest Unity features.
• Supports ARMv7 and x86 devices running Android 2.3+.
• Creates projects for Android Studio — the official IDE for Android application development.
• Well-tested and extremely stable.
  
• Convenient editor interface. Update your Android Studio project in a single click!
• Allows to automatically generate a simple Settings Activity for you to expand.
  
• Clear and simple API.
• Documented demo examples.

Unity 5.3.1 and newer is supported, both Personal and Pro.

uLiveWallpaper is available in two versions: Indie and Pro. They are functionally identical, the only difference is that Pro version includes the full source code (C# + Java), while Indie version does not. You are able to upgrade to Pro version from Indie at any time.

 

Hi everyone!
Development of the initial version is now close to end. While the plugin itself is ready, there is still some work to do - finish the manual, create examples, prepare for Asset Store release etc.
I hope to finish the initial version in a few days and then submit it to Asset Store for approval. The approval process will take some time - probably a week or longer (due to holidays). Meanwhile, here's a sneak peak of the interface:

Spoiler

Hope you'll like it!
Feel free to say if you have any questions or ideas, I really appreciate your feedback

 

How soon is soon? I need this asap!!

 

Here's an idea . Can you submit the plugin now and put the manual and the examples in an update? I, for one, would highly appreciate it. Also, will your plugin have support for settings through android's sdk, or should we prepare to have a settings screen made in unity?

 

I appreciate your eagerness, but I won't release something that's not finished and user-friendly How'd you able to work with a plugin without any documentation or examples?

First release will have support for settings Activity, but it'll be somewhat limited and not as convenient as it could be, I guess... This is the number one thing I plan to improve in future updates.

 

How'd you able to work with a plugin without any documentation or examples?
I'm assuming most of us have some experience with unity2lwp (besides, the quick guide in your screenshot seems pretty clear ).
Also, did you figure the indie vs pro prices? I'm assuming that one can live happily without the java source if he doesn't plan to heavily modify the LWP's container (like the settings Activity), but would that prevent one from getting a double/tripple tap to call a settings screen?

 

Okay, you (and Uni2Lwp users) would be able to use it But I also want people who are new to live wallpapers to feel comfortable when using the plugin.

Not yet, but expect Pro to be 1.5-2x more expensive than Indie. But indeed, Indie will be enough for almost anyone. You won't need Pro for stuff like custom Activities, only for low-level part that does Unity player initialization and management.

 

Zimm, thank you for all the effort you are putting into this pluging, I know its early to say this but this plugging alone will change the face of live wallpapers for ever, finally we would be able to bring live wallpapers to the next level with all the beauty they deserve, i have a sugestion, we should create a thread or somenthing similiar to where we can put a link to the play store so that everyone can show off their awsome wallpapers, when we used rajawalli's engine on the past they had it set this way and it allowed everyone to see their live wallpapers made with the engine.

 

Thank you for the kind words
It's a nice idea to have a thread for wallpaper show-off, but it's a bit early to think about something like this now. Maybe someday... It'd also be a bit confusing to have two threads around the same plugin in a huge forum like this Unity. But thanks for the idea!

 

Finally !!!...
The only thing i kindly would like to ask you to please consider the prices.
There are lots of indie developers out there.
Please consider.

 

Thank you

 

Hi Zimm. Have problems in Samsung devices such as screen scrolling plugin?
I hope I was working smoothly.

 

I think you're referring to the fact that some launchers don't call the onOffsetsChanged() event, which contains the scrolling information. Sense and Touchwiz launchers are notoriously known for this. This is not a bug of the plugin, since the plugin actually works as it should, it's the launcher that behaves weirdly. So there are two options:
1) Leave live wallpapers without screen scrolling when Touchwiz is used. After all, if the launcher doesn't supports scrolling, users won't expect it in your live wallpaper.
2) Implement some hacks using touch input. Unreliable.

Here's a SO question on the same subject:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14258234/onoffsetschanged-not-called-by-touchwiz

 

Hey, I doubt that would work, but is it possible to detect when the user taps on a folder and send that back to unity? (OnFolder tap or smth)?

 

N-nope. There is no API for that.

 

After some thought, I've decided to make better support for Settings Activities for the initial version, and spent this day programming it. At the moment, you are able to read/write preferences, listen for changes, open the Settings Activity by calling a single method (double-click-to-open script included).
I will also add an option to generate barebones Settings Activity automatically, so you can simply adjust it to your needs without setting everything up manually.

 

@ZimM
Good to hear that !!

love you dude..

 

Woot woot

 

Awesome news. Can you upload a test apk?

 

Sure, why not. I'll upload the demo as soon as I finalize it.

 

Nice

 

As promised, here's the final(ish) version of the demo
https://www.dropbox.com/s/14kxlzctgwy4v1l/VirtualBoxWallpaper.apk?dl=1
This demo will also be included with the package as an example.
It should be very stable, but I'd appreciate letting me know about any issues you might notice in this demo, so I can fix them before submitting to Asset Store.

 

Tested it on the galaxy s5 and its awsome

 

Just tested the demo now...
Working flawlessly...
Good job ZimM...

@ZimM
The settings included in the demo apk will be the default settings included in the package?
i mean the Graphics Quality & Frames per Seconds options.

if yes that would be awesome..!!

 

Hi ZimM !

First of all, thank you for the work you do and especially to finally use the new features of UNITY 5.

Tested on Galaxy Note 3 and its great !

 

It's very stable, thank you so much! Can't wait to get it .

 

Thanks everyone Good to know demo works fine for you.

Yes. This is all automatically generated, the only things I've added for this demo are preferences for number of different objects.

 

How will the upgrade be handled ? From what i have read you can offer an upgrade a year after a pack has been released to the store.

 

The objects don't appear to have a texture on them. They all appear black. Is this intended? Seen on Nexus 6.

 

Can you post a screenshot? They do have a grid texture, but since the objects are small, you might not see the lines. Either way, they shouldn't be full black.

 

Not exactly. There are two kinds of upgrades on Asset Store - "major version upgrade" and "lite version". The first one is when, for example, publisher releases a 2.0 version, and wants users of 1.x versions to pay the upgrade fee. This type of upgrade, indeed, requires the asset to be published for at least a year. The second one is simply for upgrades within the same version of the package, but to a more advanced "edition".

As @neodorus mentioned, probably you can't just distinguish the texture? It's all very standard stuff, basic built-in primitives using built-in shaders, so, unless there's a Unity bug, it should be fine. In any case, graphical issues are not related to uLiveWallpaper itself.

 

The force is strong on this one

 

See attachment for pics. One is textured and the other obviously isn't.

The textured-objects-r screen shot came from an earlier released demo from zimm. The other screen shot from hist latest demo.

 

That's strange. That shouldn't happen with default shaders (especially not on a nexus 6). Seems like a lighting issue (although, you can still see the shadows). I would kindly recommend a restart + reinstall.
(I know this is Zimm's thread, I'm simply trying to figure out whatever problems might occur along the way)

 

I agree it looks like a ram issue, unity allows to provide weights to the textures and it may just need a restart. In any case this easily fixed when creating a unity project

 

@spacehunter
That's strange. IIRC, the only thing different between those two demos is the shader used for the objects - I switched from Mobile/Diffuse to a simpler Legacy Shaders/VertexLit. Probably a Unity bug?.. Please check your PM.

 

Makes a bit more sense now. The light is per pixel while the objects use per vertex lighting. It's still weird to be happening to one person, especially with a high-end gpu.
@spacehunter, have you tried switching the graphics quality from lowest to highest (in the settings)?

 

yes I did, no difference.

 

@ZimM
just asking....
Is the AdMob integration will be included in the first release version?

 

AdMob?.. No, and, honestly, I don't think it ever should. uLiveWallpaper's job is not to automate integration with every possible plugin out there. Unity itself has no built-in support for AdMob, so why should uLiveWallpaper have it? And what if I want to use a different advertisement platform? This clearly seems like a individual per-case thing.
Correct me if I'm wrong - I've never used advertisements in Android applications, so my understanding may be incomplete.

 

Good to know that...just wanted to know because Uni2Lwp used to have that...
cheers

 

@ZimM
Any chance that you could submit before Christmas?

 

If you create the menu in unity, you can integrate it there. You can also try to adapt the script from u2lwp if you get the pro version (you'll need the java source).

 

Working hard on it right now, but probably won't have enough time to actually submit it before Christmas. Besides, I'm pretty sure Asset Store vetting team won't be working on Christmas, so it doesn't really matters if I submit now of right after Christmas. I guess I'll just take my time and finish it without hurry.

Integrating AdMob should be the same as with any regular Android application, given that pretty much the only place you could place ads is in the preferences Activity. And I'm pretty sure you won't need Pro version for that, since the Settings Activity code is open, and you even can override the closed-source classes if you'll need to.

 

Hi everyone!

After some thought, I've decided that C# plugin code will only be included in the Pro version, so Indie version will have all the code pre-compiled. But don't be afraid! C# side is mostly just editor GUI related code and glue for Java side, so it's not very useful unless you also have the Java code. I made sure that Indie version is flexible enough to be suitable for almost all practical needs, unless you plan to do modifications to uLiveWallpaper itself. And, obviously, sources for the demos will be available in both versions.

I've also decided on the final prices: $29.95 for Indie version, and $59.95 for Pro version. There'd be an introductory sale to celebrate uLiveWallpaper release, so keep an eye on this thread to buy it at a lower price

 

Glad to know that...
waiting for the release now...

 

@ZimM
Hey,
Do you have any timeframe? I'm checking this thread several times a day.

 

Just tested it on my trusty Xperia Mini, works wonderfully!

I'm interested in doing simple wallpapers, like animations, or backgrounds which change from day to night using the phone's clock. But does it require scripting knowledge? I use a visual scripting asset called GameFlow, which is similar to Playmaker, but I have very limited knowledge of scripting, although I can usually find my way around a script if needed.

 

@ZimM
Any updates??

 

Tested on LG G2,
LG G3,
its great