Live Wallpaper with Game Engine or not?

Question

I'd like to develop a live wallpaper. After some research, I concluded that there were two options to create one :

• Directly, i.e like it's said on Android-Developpers ( http://developer.android.com/resources/articles/live-wallpapers.html )

• Or thanks to a game engine like AndEngine ( http://code.google.com/p/andenginelivewallpaperextension/ )

I've never developed Live Wallpaper. Which solution is the easiest and fastest?

Answer 1

You can handle the drawing directly, as in the Cube example in the SDK. Or you can use OpenGl ES, e.g. via AndEngine, LibGDX, GLWallpaperService, or RenderScript. More work, but better performance.

If your wallpaper is fairly simple, I would suggest doing the drawing yourself. That is what most people do. If you need "physics" (e.g. a particle system), look at AndEngine or LibGDX. If you need 3D, look at GLWallpaperService. In addition to the Cube example, you might want to look at the Android system source code to see how the stock wallpapers (Grass, Galaxy, etc.) use RenderScript. This link may get you there, but things keep moving: http://grepcode.com/file/repository.grepcode.com/java/ext/com.google.android/android-apps/4.1.1_r1/com/android/wallpaper/ (then scroll down to the wallpapers)

Good luck. George.