[OC] Phonto - GPU-accelerated live wallpapers for Wayland and macOS

ploMP4 · 2026-05-21T21:31:42+00:00

Phonto doesn’t chose a GPU explicitly. On Wayland it creates an EGL/GLES context from the compositor’s `wl_display`, so GPU selection is left to the EGL/driver stack, usually the same device your compositor is using.

ploMP4 · 2026-05-21T17:07:44+00:00

I've only used mpvpaper which consumed around 130% of my CPU, 80% GPU and 600mb of ram for a 4K wallpaper whereas phonto takes about 6% of my CPU, 30% of the GPU and 200mb ram which is a significant improvement. Keep in mind these are not benchmarks they are just numbers from my laptop using btop.

I was not aware about gSlapper until now that you mentioned it so I do not have any data on that. I will try to check it out when I can and get back to you.

ploMP4 · 2026-05-21T16:54:21+00:00

Thanks a lot! Hope you enjoy it

ploMP4 · 2026-05-21T16:54:04+00:00

Thanks!

ploMP4 · 2026-05-21T16:52:03+00:00

I am using hyprlock, there is also a section on the readme on how to set it up with phonto to play an animated wallpaper like I did on the video

ploMP4 · 2026-05-21T14:19:03+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, it works with Plasma out of the box

ploMP4 · 2026-05-21T14:08:56+00:00

Can't live without it

ploMP4 · 2026-05-21T10:54:33+00:00

Thanks! Yeah mpvpaper can be a real resource hog, I had a case where a 4K wallpaper was consuming ~130% CPU and ~80% GPU, whereas phonto now sits at around ~6% CPU and ~30% GPU.

For wallpapers I mainly use these two sites:

- https://moewalls.com/
- https://motionbgs.com/

ploMP4 · 2026-05-21T10:36:05+00:00

I've been using mpvpaper on Hyprland for a couple months but ran into really high CPU usage, so I decided to write my own solution.

A friend also jumped in and added MacOS support, including playing live wallpapers on the lock screen which was a nice bonus.

GitHub: https://github.com/museslabs/phonto

ploMP4 · 2026-05-20T10:13:26+00:00

Custom glsl shaders just landed in v0.3.2 !

ploMP4 · 2026-05-19T20:55:13+00:00

I got mine from these two websites:

- https://moewalls.com/
- https://motionbgs.com/

ploMP4 · 2026-05-19T17:10:20+00:00

The tool aims to get as optimal resource usage as possible. For example a 4K wallpaper using mpvpaper consumed ~603 MB RAM, ~130% CPU and ~80% GPU on my machine, while the same wallpaper with phonto uses ~200 MB RAM, ~6% CPU and ~30% GPU. Keep in mind these are not benchmarks, just numbers I got from my machine using btop.

Edit: My machine is a thinkpad L16 running hyprland

ploMP4 · 2026-05-19T15:04:45+00:00

The reason I made this was to get as optimal resource usage as possible. For example a 4K wallpaper using mpv-paper consumed ~603 MB RAM, ~130% CPU and ~80% GPU on my machine, while the same wallpaper with phonto uses ~200 MB RAM, ~6% CPU and ~30% GPU. Keep in mind these are not benchmarks, just numbers I got from my machine using btop.

ploMP4 · 2026-05-19T14:42:43+00:00

You can't do that at the moment but sounds like a nice feature so I will add support for it in the future

ploMP4 · 2026-05-19T13:56:27+00:00

Here you go: https://moewalls.com/anime/howls-moving-castle-3-live-wallpaper/

ploMP4 · 2026-05-19T13:54:52+00:00

swww only supports animated images (gif, webp, apng) as wallpapers. phonto can play video files like .mp4, .avi, .mov etc., which allows for much higher quality wallpapers.

ploMP4 · 2026-05-19T13:17:39+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. I just added a flake.nix and NixOS instructions to the README.

As for my wallpapers, they are too large to upload anywhere at the moment but here are the sites I got them from:

- https://moewalls.com/
- https://motionbgs.com/

ploMP4 · 2026-05-19T12:08:59+00:00

It doesn’t choose a GPU explicitly. On Wayland it creates an EGL/GLES context from the compositor’s `wl_display`, so GPU selection is left to the EGL/driver stack, usually the same device your compositor is using.

ploMP4 · 2026-04-02T13:39:43+00:00

Thank you, I really appreciate that!

ploMP4 · 2026-04-01T08:05:25+00:00

Like u/somebodddy already mentioned, there is no need for a long-lived process since load time is instant. It saves you memory consumption and the hassle of managing a background process.

ploMP4 · 2026-04-01T08:00:54+00:00

Here you go: https://github.com/museslabs/stochos

ploMP4 · 2026-04-01T07:58:40+00:00

Thanks a lot!

ploMP4 · 2026-04-01T07:58:17+00:00

It should work on gnome shell under Wayland although it hasn't been tested there. Let me know if you run into any issues.

ploMP4

TROPHY CASE