Some wallpapers not working correctly in the latest WPE version

[butcho]

Hey Tim,

I noticed some weird wallpaper behaviour over the last weeks, since the release of the latest WPE version. I have wallpapers that look different in the latest WPE version. For example this one:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3242153751

You can see in the YouTube-Preview that there are some clearly visible particle systems which just don't show anymore when I run it in realtime. I checked the project files and the particles are activated but they are also not visible in the editor. I can edit them and the preview window shows the correct output but the editor refuses to show anything, so does the desktop when the wallpaper is applied.

The list of wallpapers that are kind of broken is a bit longer. My The Expanse wallpaper for example shows some weird HDR output on certain particle systems. Way too bright than before.

And then there's this thing that a some scripts I often use don't work reliably anymore. Gariam's Video Control Script for example and another script he wrote, also about video textures. I opened a thread about that some months ago, but sadly never got an answer.

I validated files for Wallpaper Engine, run all the faulty wallpapers at three different PCs with different configurations but the outcome is always like I described above, so I don't think it's a problem with my main PC. This somehow takes the fun out of creating wallpapers.

So what happened to WPE that might cause this?

[Tim]

Could you send me the project files or - since your projects tend to be rather large - a copy of the particle system / an empty project featuring the particle system? I would not want to use the Workshop asset functionality just in case something ends up being buggy and getting lost there.

[butcho]

Thanks for the reply. In the above mentioned project I did some research and it turned out that the reason for the invisible particle system were messed up origin coordinates for every object that was attached to an adjustable composition layer which placed the particle system out of the camera view.. So I could fix this pretty easy by adjusting the position.

Maybe you changed something in the editor that moved some particle systems around when they are attached to another layer.

[Tim]

Well, we did find a bug and some behavioral changes in relation to this issue:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/431960/discussions/1/594017071164034876/

So when in doubt, feel free to send me anything that might strike you as odd, you can also double-check if the issues persist on the latest beta as it already contains a couple of fixes. Though in the case of Capt. Luke, we fixed an old bug which caused a behavioral change in his example, so that is something that would be better solved by just adjusting the wallpaper.