u/corgisAreRad

Hi Devs,

Looking for opinions here.

I have a free iOS generative art app that serves as a companion to my Mac wallpaper app. Basically it gives you the same engines as the Mac app to generate Flam3 fractals and code/compile MSL shaders, save share, etc.

Well my next update now also saves them as amazing quality wallpapers and live-photos that bloom on the iOS lock screen wakes. It was very difficult to master the Live Photo formula for lock-screen wakes, since Apple doesn’t publish that. Now that I have that, it really sets this app apart from the “iOS live wallpaper” competition. The ones I tried in my research were super flakey and wanted to charge subscriptions, the usual crap apps.

I would certainly like to keep it a free companion to the Mac app for the engines and sharing features.

But what I’m contemplating is gating the iOS lock-screen features behind a reasonable one time purchase, since that is genuinely cool, unique, and took a lot work to get right.

What do you all think?

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/atheria-generative-art/id6787882705

To bring it to life: copy this whole message, open Atheria's Flame Creator, and press Paste Code.

ATHERIA-FLAME:2: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

Free on App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/atheria-generative-art/id6787882705

To bring it to life: copy this whole message, open Atheria's Flame Creator, and press Paste Code.

ATHERIA-FLAME:2: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

These are fractal flames, the Draves algorithm, but the engine is written from scratch in Metal rather than built on flam3. The reason was that I wanted them running live, not rendered out: on the Mac these are the actual live desktop wallpapers. Two things in here that took the longest to get right, if anyone is interested:

Metal has no float atomics, so the histogram accumulates in u32 fixed point at a color scale of 64 and the tone map divides it back out.

And the motion drifts the GENOME rather than the camera. Rotating a roughly symmetric cloud barely changes the picture however fast you spin it, so instead each transform's affine matrix rotates on its own slow sine with a golden-angle phase offset. That is what makes them breathe instead of just turn.

There are 16 of them rendering live in a browser here, WebGPU, no signup, and each one has a share code you can copy: https://atheria.app/flames

The iOS app is free and has the flame editor plus an MSL editor if you want to write shaders on a phone. Here is a share code for the one in the image, paste it into the flame editor to see it alive:

Fourfold Disc-Swirl Trio - a living flame from Atheria

ATHERIA-FLAME:2: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

To bring it to life: copy this whole message, open Atheria's Flame Creator, and press Paste Code.

These are fractal flames, the Draves algorithm, but the engine is written from scratch in Metal rather than built on flam3. The reason was that I wanted them running live, not rendered out: on the Mac these are the actual desktop wallpaper.

Two things in here that took the longest to get right, if anyone is interested:

Metal has no float atomics, so the histogram accumulates in u32 fixed point at a colour scale of 64 and the tone map divides it back out. And the motion drifts the GENOME rather than the camera. Rotating a roughly symmetric cloud barely changes the picture however fast you spin it, so instead each transform's affine matrix rotates on its own slow sine with a golden-angle phase offset. That is what makes them breathe instead of just turn.

There are 16 of them rendering live in a browser here, WebGPU, no signup, and each one has a share code you can copy:

https://atheria.app/flames

The iOS app is free and has the flame editor plus an MSL editor if you want to write shaders on a phone. Here is a share code for the fourth one in the video, paste it into the flame editor to keep it:

Fourfold Disc-Swirl Trio - a living flame from Atheria

ATHERIA-FLAME:2:rZRNb9swDIb/SqFelYCSKJHMbU1a7LzusA/sYKTOZiCJC8dbBwT576OUZbG7Dc2A6USRlN6HNOW96btqu1u13WZnZh/3Ztmu2+7+sa4fzAym0ZpvVddUfdNuNb43nL0M0SUK1oS8c4IcfOKDNdVq1WxrvUe9STyysxOYpggRRWK2xQtTTHbgHeViAEAJn+wRRO+35qluPn/pzcxPI8UAGA72Mk4VwoigQQd57zFEjBLHpNGH6IkzRwTwsZichCJTRhp4T6kFNHl0OACdhuPCM7GekBBZgC5AzoxujJYg+ECYewQuUHIg7oikJF6yefaP0il7SWjIl8qiIR6jRySXLsCjUqKWL4lPDU1IXjWH0Lk1CTl5Lh3V1iHlT5BRmSiRx1LBMPDrwLE00BGIZ3A3BCYHjuj3CXhO+7yXNNVhI6knoCraK+vs0AV/HDinAxc4yL/LqcRET4PON6sAZcHhNiP8Z0mnD1FfEbtSUC5RRcbOlyQ1/Fit676vX9ff9UpzLa84zG+MNddBPOE8W3e3wLeLYi38zVyMHlOGap2pXkLWEfr520AWr09jPPDCgMmlVCZBkn7tELSS4eac85dy9MZG1Y0SLqvN/F2JqvWm7U/mh7bdFBZO+rDdMfF9iW6rjaKYu/Zrt2rXD1eLZrec3D813frqbde05vAD

To bring it to life: copy this whole message, open Atheria's Flame Creator, and press Paste Code.

I generated these with my free iOS app in the flame engine, also includes an MSL editor to compile and share. On mac they become your living wallpapers.

https://atheria.app

Free on iOS:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/atheria-generative-art/id6787882705

Free to try on Mac, 9.99 in app purchase for 85 included shaders and both flame and MSL editor:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/atheria-live-wallpaper/id6780326970

Hey r/macapps,

I built Atheria, a native (swift and metal) macOS live-wallpaper app.

**The problem**

Live wallpapers on Mac usually make you pick two of three: pretty, efficient, or private. Most animated-wallpaper apps either hammer your battery, hand you the same stock loops everyone else has, or run through a server and an account. I wanted one that looks alive, stays out of your way, keeps everything on your machine, and lets you make something that's actually yours instead of picking from a catalog.

**How it compares**

- vs Wallux: a big library of stock video loops (10k+), with a subscription tier plus a lifetime option. The trade is it's the same clips everyone else has, it's a direct download rather than the App Store, and it streams from a server. Atheria is generative: real-time shaders plus a Flame Creator that grows fractal flames from a small "genome," so what you make is one of a kind (there are more possible flames than atoms in the universe, and I generated ten million to confirm no two match). It's on the App Store, sandboxed, and never phones home.

- vs Backdrop: another curated video catalog with a watermarked trial, and its headline is a live lock-screen video. Atheria isn't a catalog you browse, it's an engine you create with, and it drops to 0 fps the moment a window covers the desktop, so it's close to free on battery.

**Why no live lock screen**

A couple of these apps offer an animated lock screen, and I left it out on purpose. The only way to do it on macOS is to run outside the App Sandbox and overwrite private system files, which is exactly why every app that offers it ships as a direct download instead of through the App Store. I'd rather stay sandboxed and on the App Store, because that's what makes "nothing leaves your Mac" a promise I can keep instead of just a line. Atheria still syncs a matching still image to your lock screen, just not live video.

**Pricing**

Free tier to try it (a full live shader, no time limit or watermark). Pro unlocks the full shader library, shader creator, flame engine, loop editor, multi monitor support, unlimited playlist, and is a one-time purchase [$6.99 launch week, then $9.99], no subscription, no account, nothing collected.

App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/atheria-live-wallpapers/id6780326970?mt=12

Showcase website:

https://www.embraarchive.com/atheria-live (best viewed on Mac, fine on mobile)

Requirements: macOS 15+, Apple Silicon and Intel.

I'm the only person on this, so honest feedback, good or brutal, is genuinely welcome. Happy to nerd out on how the flame engine works too.

Hi everyone,

I know what you're thinking: "Great, another live wallpaper app claiming to be 'native and lightweight.'" Every single app in this category says the exact same thing.

But if you’ve ever opened Activity Monitor while running a dynamic background, you know the reality:

1. Apple’s own ⁠idleassetsd⁠ and ⁠WallpaperVideoExtension⁠ are notorious for massive memory leaks (sometimes ballooning into gigabytes of RAM or constantly writing cache files).

2. Most third-party video wallpaper tools are just bloated wrappers that force the CPU to constantly decode heavy 4K H.264 files, running hot and killing MacBook battery life.

I built Atheria to fix this specific technical headache. Instead of hiding behind generic performance buzzwords, here is exactly how it works under the hood:

Zero-Decoder Video Pipeline: For "Bring Your Own Video" loops, Atheria doesn't just play a raw MP4. It has a built-in transcoder that downscales and matches the file to your display's exact native resolution, exporting it into an ultra-tight, hardware-accelerated HEVC container. A 4K anime loop in another app that pulled 40% CPU and 2GB of RAM on a Retina display runs at 3% CPU and 53MB of RAM in Atheria.

Procedural Metal Shaders: If you are into creative coding, you can write MSL or convert GLSL shaders directly in the app. The app compiles the math to run directly on the GPU using Apple's Metal framework—rendering beautifully without waking up your CPU cores.

Flame Fractals: Generates mathematically unique, real-time flame fractals (again, pure GPU execution).

Zero Battery Drain: The rendering engine completely pauses the frame loop the exact millisecond an application goes fullscreen, or when you unplug from power and the battery gets low (fully customizable).

I do have a genuine question for this sub:
I intentionally chose not to build a massive, cloud-hosted online gallery of wallpapers. I wanted to keep the app local, lightning-fast, and entirely bloat-free. Instead, users can share custom shaders and creations via instant shortcodes and tiny share cards.

Is a massive online catalog a make or break feature for you, or do you prefer a clean, highly efficient creation utility that doesn't hoard storage?

Atheria is free to try. If you like it, the lifetime Pro unlock is on sale for $6.99 until August 4th. If you want to test it out and dig into the shader compiler, drop me a DM—I've got a handful of free Pro promo codes to hand out to folks who want to give some technical feedback.

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/atheria-live-wallpapers/id6780326970?mt=12

Showcase Website: https://embraarchive.com/atheria-live

Hi all!

New here and while browsing realized I haven’t really had any human feedback about my website. Would love for you all roast it.

Https://www.embraarchive.com/atheria-live

Yes! My second app was approved with 1 rejection, they wanted to know if my Al features used a third party api when it clearly states in the onboarding and paywall and settings that it's fully local on device, Core LLM.

Now to start on the third and final it the suite to bring it all together.
Also want to say appreciate you all in this community, mostly silently browser and occasionally commenting, I've learned a lot and gained perspective I did not have before!

www.embraarchive.com