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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?
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Yes, live wallpaper does affect performance, but it depends on which application you are using. We have mentioned some great apps on this list that don't hog system resources and pauses live wallpaper when you are playing a game or using an app in full screen.
Wallpaper Engine aims to not affect gaming performance by pausing when you have another application maximized or fullscreen. You can also make it pause when you have another application focused (useful if you are usually playing games windowed). You can set it to pause per monitor or never pause at all.
Wallpaper engine automatically pauses the background when you are in full screen mode, this brings its cpu and gpu usage to 0. But it will still use however much ram is needed for your background. Scenes don't use a lot. But video backgrounds can use a fair bit of ram.
Yes, it does have an impact by making the CPU and GPU temperatures higher , plus a higher usage while the system is idle. If your system is pretty powerful, then this shouldn't be an issue while playing games.
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.
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