How to Create Custom Wallpapers and Widgets for ScreenPlay

Updated

You create custom content for ScreenPlay by writing QML, a declarative UI language with native ECMA 2017 JavaScript support, and testing it with the built-in live reloading feature. This approach suits anyone comfortable with basic scripting who wants interactive or animated wallpapers and desktop widgets; if you only want to use existing content, the Steam Workshop is the simpler route.

What you need before starting

  • ScreenPlay installed on Windows or macOS. The site lists binaries with Workshop support for Windows and OSX via Steam, with Linux/KDE described as coming soon.
  • A text editor for writing QML/JS files. ScreenPlay does not present itself as a full IDE, so expect to edit project files externally.
  • Basic familiarity with declarative UI concepts. QML is described as easy to learn, and its JavaScript support follows ECMA 2017, so ordinary JS knowledge transfers directly.

The core mechanism: QML plus JavaScript

QML lets you describe what appears on screen — layout, properties, and bindings — while JavaScript handles logic and data. ScreenPlay describes this combination as powerful enough for "interactive and animated content," which is the key difference from plain video or GIF wallpapers: your content can respond to input and change over time rather than just loop.

A minimal mental model of a widget looks like this:

import QtQuick

Item {
    width: 300; height: 120

    Text {
        anchors.centerIn: parent
        text: "Hello from ScreenPlay"
        color: "white"
        font.pixelSize: 24
    }
}

The Item is the root container, and the Text element is positioned relative to it. For a real widget you would bind text to a JavaScript expression or an API value instead of a fixed string.

Building a widget with system and weather data

ScreenPlay exposes two APIs that are directly useful for widgets:

API What it provides Typical widget use
SysInfo API CPU usage, memory usage, IP address System monitor, power-user dashboard
Weather Forecast API 7-day forecast via open-meteo.com, plus matching weather icons Weather widget

The pattern is the same in both cases: read a value from the API, bind it to a QML property, and let the UI update automatically. For example, a CPU widget binds a text element to the CPU usage value and refreshes on an interval; a weather widget binds to the forecast data and swaps in the provided icon set.

The site notes the SysInfo API is aimed at power users, developers, and sysadmins who need to monitor system stats — a reasonable guide to whether a system widget is worth building for your own use.

Iterating quickly with live reloading

ScreenPlay's hot reloading feature shows changes to your project in real time, so you do not restart content after every edit. The practical workflow is:

  1. Create or open your QML project.
  2. Make a change — adjust a layout value, add an element, or modify a binding.
  3. Save the file and observe the result on the desktop immediately.
  4. Repeat until the layout and behavior are right.

This matters most for animation and interaction work, where small timing or positioning changes are hard to judge without seeing them applied.

Wallpaper formats and when to script instead

ScreenPlay supports most video formats as well as HTML5, QML, and GIF wallpapers. That gives you a clear decision rule:

  • Use video, GIF, or HTML5 when the content is essentially playback and needs no access to system data.
  • Use QML/JS when you need animation driven by logic, interactivity, or live data from the SysInfo or Weather APIs.

Joining the open-source project

ScreenPlay is free and open source, built in modern C++20/Qt6/QML, and the site invites contributions from the community. If you want to go beyond content creation, the project links to GitLab for code and Discord and forums for discussion. Note that the site also links to Patreon, but no pricing or payment details are stated there, so treat any support tier as something to check on the linked page rather than assume.

Common sticking points

  • Expecting a built-in editor. Plan on external file editing plus live reloading rather than an all-in-one authoring tool.
  • Platform gaps. Workshop-enabled binaries are listed for Windows and macOS; Linux/KDE is described as soon, so verify availability before committing to that platform.
  • Overcomplicating a wallpaper. If your idea needs no data or interaction, a video or GIF will be faster to produce and just as effective.