Capture a window in a Wallpaper

[Melody]

Hello everyone, I've been searching for ways to capture a window in Wallpaper Engine, as in I want the wallpaper itself to just mirror one of my windows, kind of like OBS but as a WE wallpaper. I can't find a way to do that and I couldn't find anything online about it. The only other thing I have tried is just making an application wallpaper and importing OBS itself into that, but that of course doesn't work because it doesn't import all the necessary folders.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Bubbles~]

Im curious if anyone knows about this too, havent been able to find a way to do it yet either

[butcho]

You could use the "Play in Window" function on the wallpaper you try to capture with OBS.

[Bubbles~]

Originally posted by butcho:

You could use the "Play in Window" function on the wallpaper you try to capture with OBS.

im not sure what you mean, ive used obs for 8 years and dont know what you mean haha

[butcho]

I'm not exactly sure what you guys are trying to achive but my guess was that you need a wallpaper to run in a seperate window so you can capture it with OBS. If that's the case you can right click on a wallpaper in the browser and select "Play in Window". Then you'll have a wallpaper running in a window instead of the desktop and you can do whatever you need to do with OBS. ^^

[Melody]

That is the exact opposite of what I'm trying to achieve actually. Basically, I want what I see in OBS (or any other window actually) to be displayed in the wallpaper. Let's say for the wallpaper we have some drawing of someone's room, and on the monitor it shows one of your opened windows (I know you can put in stuff where the user uploads an image from their PC to use for that, but what I want is a live capture of a window/screen).

[Capt.Luke]

and why do you need it as a wallpaper? why dont you leave that "window " that you want as a wallpaper ... open ? is that a wallpaper that you will share ? becasue I am wondering what will happen when someone else use your wallpaper. do you want that person to see your window ? you realize what you are asking ? I believe what you are asking is impossible for security reason , wallpaper engine cannot interact with windows explorer like that.

[Bubbles~]

Originally posted by Melody:

That is the exact opposite of what I'm trying to achieve actually. Basically, I want what I see in OBS (or any other window actually) to be displayed in the wallpaper. Let's say for the wallpaper we have some drawing of someone's room, and on the monitor it shows one of your opened windows (I know you can put in stuff where the user uploads an image from their PC to use for that, but what I want is a live capture of a window/screen).

Ah, that's definately not what I was looking for 🤣 this is definately not practical, and I wouldn't share a wallpaper of your whole screen ever, it's very incriminating! You could always just do the obs route and share your screen with anyone you need to share it with, but definately don't do this through wallpaper engine.

[Bubbles~]

Originally posted by Capt.Luke:

and why do you need it as a wallpaper? why dont you leave that "window " that you want as a wallpaper ... open ? is that a wallpaper that you will share ? becasue I am wondering what will happen when someone else use your wallpaper. do you want that person to see your window ? you realize what you are asking ? I believe what you are asking is impossible for security reason , wallpaper engine cannot interact with windows explorer like that.

I'm pretty sure they'd have to leave the window open to get it to work in the first place, so this is definately the only route I see working 🤣

[Melody]

Ok maybe I should explain WHY I want this. Basically, I often play something on some console (like Switch, PS5, PS2, anything really) and I capture it with a capture card and display it in OBS and then I often share that with my friends in Discord when we're in voice. Now, I wanna be able to see the capture of my game as a wallpaper, because I just think that would look neat. Also, I don't see how this would be incriminating since it's not like if I shared it other people would see my screen and windows, they'd be able to select their own? But also this isn't something I'd share since it's for personal use anyway.

[Bubbles~]

Originally posted by Melody:

Ok maybe I should explain WHY I want this. Basically, I often play something on some console (like Switch, PS5, PS2, anything really) and I capture it with a capture card and display it in OBS and then I often share that with my friends in Discord when we're in voice. Now, I wanna be able to see the capture of my game as a wallpaper, because I just think that would look neat. Also, I don't see how this would be incriminating since it's not like if I shared it other people would see my screen and windows, they'd be able to select their own? But also this isn't something I'd share since it's for personal use anyway.

if you shared it, it WOULD show your window the way you are explaining it. What I do suggest doing is either just opening a preview window and setting it to fullscreen on your monitor, or full screening the screenshare of discord via a pop up window. I don't think its possible without being incriminating and against TOS in some way with wallpaper engine.

I do understand what you are trying to do, because i fullscreen my obs capture on my second monitor to see my stuff as well, its just the way it is

[Capt.Luke]

just use OBS as a wallpaper open the creator and make a new application wallpaper and use OBS.. voila done