# Wallpaper Engine Wallpaper Engine 2.7 - Particle Editor Updates, User Shortcuts & Image Filters - Product: Wallpaper Engine (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/wallpaper-engine) - Vendor: Wallpaper Engine - Date: 2025-09-04 - Original notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/431960/view/528730392279122594 - Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/wallpaper-engine/releases/2025-09-04-wallpaper-engine-2.7-particle-editor-updates-user 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** — Particle system collision operators for adding collision physics to particles - **added** — Particle system boids operator for adding flocking behavior and organic grouping of particles - **added** — Particle system inheritance feature to copy values from particles to child particles - **added** — Real-time lighting support for particles - **added** — New stock particle assets including Ember Beams, Thunderbolt, Screen Rain Drops, and Vortex - **added** — Video previews for particle components, effects, and assets - **added** — Image Layer emitter to tie an image layer to particle systems and spawn particles based on the image - **added** — HSV color initializer to apply colors to particles based on hue, saturation, and brightness values - **added** — Color list initializer to define up to ten colors randomly applied to particles at creation - **added** — User shortcut property allowing wallpaper creators to define clickable elements that open local apps, folders, websites, or console commands - **added** — 25 image filters for Scene-type wallpapers to adjust color palette, brightness, and contrast - **changed** — Particle editor now includes previews, descriptions, and lengthier explanations for each feature With the release of Wallpaper Engine 2.7, we are introducing a large number of improvements and new features for particle systems and to the particle editor itself. Additionally, the update also introduces a new concept of _**user shortcuts**_, which allow wallpaper creators to create clickable elements which open a local user-defined shortcut on the system and we have added a set of image filters, allowing you to quickly alter the look and feel of many wallpapers by modifying their color palette in a single click. ##### Particle System Updates ##### New Particle System Features This update introduces over a dozen new particle system components and features. The following examples are just a small preview, for the full list of changes and additions, take a closer look at the changelog further down below. [table equalcells=1 noborder=1] **Collision Operators:** Add collision physics to your particles. **Boids Operator:** Add flocking behavior to your particles (organic grouping of particles). [table equalcells=1 noborder=1] **Inheritance:** Copy values from particles to child particles (see color inheritance here). **Particle Lighting:** Particles now also support real-time lighting. ##### New Stock Particle Assets We have also taken the opportunity to update some of the standard assets and added a handful of new ones. Be sure to take a look at the asset list in the editor to see all the new assets that are included in the app. Here is a small preview: [table equalcells=1 noborder=1] **Ember Beams:** A new asset which features organically moving embers of fire. **Thunderbolt:** A new, thunderbolt asset which can be positioned precisely on both ends. [table equalcells=1 noborder=1] **Screen Rain Drops:** A new set of rain drop particles which appear to run down the screen. **Vortex:** A new sample asset to showcases more complex scenarios with Timeline Animations. ##### Particle Editor Previews & Descriptions Previously, the particle editor was a bit difficult to get started with since none of its features were really shown off or explained in great detail. We went back and created previews, descriptions and lengthier explanations for each particle editor feature, which should help users to get started with the particle editor. We have also created an extensive documentation of every single particle editor feature and all their options. If you have not tried working with the particle system editor before, now is a good chance to give it a try. Be sure to try out our new "Getting Started" tutorial, it will teach you all the basics to start tinkering with your own particle systems: - [Getting Started with Particle Systems](https://docs.wallpaperengine.io/en/scene/particles/tutorial/getting_started.html) ##### User Shortcut Property User shortcuts are the next major addition to Wallpaper Engine. They allow wallpaper creators to define clickable elements that serve as system shortcuts. With these shortcuts, users can choose local apps, folders, websites or console commands that are opened on their system when clicking on the wallpaper. This choice is limited to users only. Wallpaper Engine will also attempt to provide an icon for the app, folder or website so that it can be made part of the overall wallpaper design. Take a look at the following short snippet, where we add Steam as a shortcut to our wallpaper: After adding the shortcut, the Steam icon and the executable name appear in our wallpaper and it becomes clickable like a desktop symbol in this example. The look and feel of this is fully customizable and up to wallpaper creators. User shortcuts were designed with security in mind: They are never shared with other users, they will also not execute when moving the config file to a new computer and wallpaper creators have no way to control what is launched - creators can only choose which user shortcut property is opened during a cursor _[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/431960/view/528730392279122594]_