Comment by musicale

14 hours ago

Apple's best video wallpaper is "Macintosh". I am interested in how it works.

3 comments

musicale

Reply
futhey  13 hours ago

Same! I distinctly remember seeing portions of this wallpaper that led me to believe it's procedurally generated and not simply a collection of video files, and had to rewatch it to confirm. There are several points where the date and time match the system date and time down to the second.

  • fphilipe  12 hours ago

    It features the current date and time with seconds, so it must be rendered on the fly.

    • troybetz  11 hours ago

      The assets and some? of the scripting for it are in a bundle at:

      /System/Library/ExtensionKit/Extensions/WallpaperMacintoshExtension.appex

      Can see the time and date being added here I think:

      System6ControlPanel.program

          //
    //  System 6 Control Panel
    //  Macintosh 40th Anniversary
    //
    //  Copyright © 2024 Apple. All rights reserved.
    //
    //----------------------------------------------

    start simultaneous
        scale out
        let image = "System6ControlPanel"
        ...
        ...
        add time at 267, 165 name "Geneva12"
        add date at 274, 239 name "Geneva12"
    end simultaneous