# Wallpaper Engine Wallpaper Engine 2.6 - New Effects, Clipping Masks, Rope Physics & Bug Fixes

- Product: Wallpaper Engine (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/wallpaper-engine)
- Vendor: Wallpaper Engine
- Date: 2025-02-10
- Original notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/431960/view/519704171274829825
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/wallpaper-engine/releases/2025-02-10-wallpaper-engine-2.6-new-effects-clipping-masks-r

What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog.

Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.

---

- **added** — Clipping masks for puppet warp animations to define visible areas when hovering over specified regions
- **added** — Four new editor effects: shimmer, water caustics, glitter, and cloud motion
- **added** — Texture variant system to define multiple textures for the same image layer with user property selection
- **added** — Generic vertex editing gizmos to rotate and scale multiple vertices at once
- **added** — Blend shape bone modulation
- **added** — Puppet warp rope simulation with global gravity and wind properties
- **added** — Option to control cycle interpolation in water flow effect to reduce blurriness
- **added** — Low FPS preview option in editor for physics simulations
- **added** — Wallpaper transition option for wallpaper previews in app settings
- **added** — Ability to disable color overrides on child particles
- **added** — Automated puppet mesh depth generation with auto depth button
- **added** — Masked default shader snippet to shader editor
- **added** — Sampler generator to shader editor
- **added** — New perlin and uniform default textures
- **added** — Diffuse light blend mode to shader blend modes
- **added** — 64 bit compiler to resolve crashes on very large textures
- **added** — Texture size on disk display in texture info page
- **added** — VRAM and genre hints in publish dialog
- **changed** — Removed light layer limit and changed light system to render only the closest lights when limit is reached
- **changed** — Mip map streamer to load third detail level first for faster render start
- **fixed** — Lockscreen override and clone functionality on certain multi-screen environments

Hey everyone,

Wallpaper Engine 2.6 comes with several new features for the wallpaper editor, the update also fixes some bugs and improves compatibility with Windows 11 24H2.

##### Clipping Masks for Puppet Warp Animations

Clipping masks are a useful tool to implement certain animations which were not easily possible previously. With clipping masks, you can define certain areas of a puppet model which only become visible when they are hovering over the area that you have defined. This can be used to implement some unique effects and is especially useful for creating the appearance of animated shadows or shading on an object.
[table equalcells=1 noborder=1]
_Self-shadowing example achieved with a clipping mask_
To learn more about how to utilize clipping masks, take a look at our [designer documentation](https://docs.wallpaperengine.io/en/scene/puppet-warp/clippingmasks.html).

##### New Editor Effects

We have also added four new effects which you can apply to image layers in the editor. As always, effects can be used in more than just one way and we are looking forward to some creative uses of these effects.

[table equalcells=1 noborder=1]

        **(https://docs.wallpaperengine.io/en/scene/effects/effect/shimmer.html)**
A recurring line of light moving across your image.

        **[Water Caustics](https://docs.wallpaperengine.io/en/scene/effects/effect/watercaustics.html)**
Mimics light rays reflecting off of water.

[table equalcells=1 noborder=1]

        **(https://docs.wallpaperengine.io/en/scene/effects/effect/glitter.html)**
Bright spots of light which appear briefly.

        **[Cloud Motion](https://docs.wallpaperengine.io/en/scene/effects/effect/cloudmotion.html)**
A new option to simulate cloud movements.

##### Rope Physics Simulation

Another feature we have added is a new rope physics simulation for puppet warp animations. The new rope physics can also be used with a new global wind setting, allowing you to create objects that appear to be dangling in the wind. To learn more about this feature, see the **Rope Physics with a kinematic chain** section on the following page of our designer docs:

- [**Click here to learn more.**](https://docs.wallpaperengine.io/en/scene/puppet-warp/boneconstraints.html#rope-physics-with-a-kinematic-chain)
 _Please note that this feature is not to be confused with the old **Simple Rope Physics** guide which is also outlined on the same page._

##### Texture Variants

A relatively common feature which users like to implement is to offer multiple designs for individual wallpaper elements. However, this is often done by duplicating layers which is a pretty inefficient way to approach this problem. With the new texture variants feature, you can define multiple textures for the same image layer, as long as the textures all have the same dimensions. Users can then choose their favorite texture through user properties. This allows for efficient loading and unloading of textures and keeps the editor project in a clean state.

The feature is the right choice for you if you want to replace the look and feel of certain wallpaper elements (such as characters, objects or even entire background layers) but retain all effects, scripts and customizations on the layer. In our very simple example below, we are changing the apple from a red texture to a green texture. In a more realistic scenario, you could also think of this as a character changing their entire set of clothes or the background scenery changing.

You can also easily add new elements to a texture by using the alpha-blending feature which we showcase by adding a price tag to the apple.

- [**Click here to learn more about texture variants.**](https://docs.wallpaperengine.io/en/scene/userproperties/texturevariant.html)

Take a look at our full changelog to get an overview of all additions, changes and bug fixes:

##### Changelog

##### Additions & Changes

- Added clipping mask system to puppets.

- Added new effects: glitter, shimm

_[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/431960/view/519704171274829825]_