Bloom Post-Processing for Windows

[ranger]

Is there a program that makes the display have bloom? Because I want my desktop to have a bloom effect

[Feared]

Is there a program that makes the display have bloom? Because I want my desktop to have a bloom effect

Screw that. I want HDR. I want to be able to move my window then not be able to read it for a few seconds while it's being realistic in my face and all.

[Arkage]

Would you like a helping of desaturation with that too?

If you want the effect that bad why not just edit the wallpaper itself?

[Sajt]

Is there a program that makes the display have bloom? Because I want my desktop to have a bloom effect

Cut some onions and don't rub your eyes or blink too much.

[horrorporn]

best post of 2010

[ranger]

thanks guys, but really, I want my icons, wallpaper, start menu, mouse etc to have the bloom effect or HDR effect

[Feared]

This my friend is a joke taken too far.

[mh]

Just turn up the brightness. Way up.

Serious answer: I highly doubt if this is even possible. You don't say what version of Windows you use. If it's XP or earlier, the desktop/etc is rendered using GDI (possibly sitting on top of DirectDraw) which doesn't support this kind of effect.

For Vista or later (assuming Aero is running - if not you're SoL) the desktop is rendered using D3D9 and a pixel shader. A search on Google (novel concept, that!) for "windows desktop custom shaders" indicates that there is no supported way to use your own shaders here.

No doubt some "power user" (translation: someone with just about enough knowledge for it to be a dangerous thing) will cook up a solution sometime involving True Evil like hacking the D3D DLLs (thus breaking everything any time D3D gets updated), intercepting undocumented window messages, and modifying undocumented structures. And when it does keel over and die people will blame Windows for being buggy rather than point the finger in the right direction.

[Junrall]

thanks guys, but really, I want my icons, wallpaper, start menu, mouse etc to have the bloom effect or HDR effect

The easiest thing to do would be to "skin" your desktop with HDR images and icons. Though, I think what you are really wanting is something that will do HDR and/or bloom dynamically... My guess that this is going to be some sort of video driver or background process. I've not ever come across such a thing.
Truthfully, this would be cool... for a day or so... then it would get annoying.

[revelator]

heh actually there is something.

its used for older d3d games to spif em up a little.

http://enbdev.com/index_en.html

its a wrapper dll for d3d9 enabling effects such as hdr and bloom on things that normally dont have that

im not sure how to get the effect on the desktop though

[Spirit]

Just put some milky glass infront of your monitor.