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79 points cindori | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.237s | source

Hi HN, I'm Oskar, a solo indie Mac developer from Sweden. For those in the Mac community, you might know me from my other apps like Sensei and Trim Enabler.

For years, I've been frustrated by the lack of customisation of macOS. In particular the Lock Screen which supports animated wallpapers, but only ones provided by Apple. There's never been a way to add your own personal videos.

I decided to figure out how to solve this, and the result is Backdrop 2.0. Backdrop is my Live Wallpaper app for Mac, it can play video wallpapers on your desktop. And now it can play on your Lock Screen too.

The core technical challenge, as you can imagine, came from trying to do something that Apple otherwise does not allow. However, through extensive reverse engineering of the macOS wallpaper system, I figured out a way to provide Backdrop wallpapers to the system in a way that allows them to play on the lock screen, and even appear in a custom section in System Settings.

I'm here all day to answer any questions—especially about the reverse engineering process, the challenges of integrating with macOS, or the experience of being an indie Mac developer.

Would love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

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iscoelho ◴[] No.45251378[source]
Hi cindori, I couldn't figure these out without purchasing:

1. Does Backdrop plan to support 5K/6K wallpapers? Those resolutions are pretty standard for Mac workstations.

2. Is functionality similar to TopNotch supported where the notch is hidden? If this was supported I'd likely buy a lifetime license today.

replies(1): >>45254175 #
1. cindori ◴[] No.45254175[source]
1. Yes, they are technically supported but sourcing material is hard. 2. It does not currently, but I’ll consider adding support for that! Although I feel that it might not work well on macOS Tahoe, which ships with a new ”faded blur” menu bar background.