macOS 26 Tahoe · Apple Silicon

Wallpapers that are actually alive.

Metal shaders and web scenes running on your Mac GPU, on the desktop and on the lock screen. When a window covers everything, PrimoEngine pauses itself and your battery says thanks.

Download free Premium for US$ 4.99

Free forever. Lifetime Premium is a one-time payment, no subscription.

32 wallpapers in the app

0% CPU while the desktop is covered

US$ 4.99 lifetime Premium · Early Bird

0 accounts required

Why PrimoEngine

Living shaders and hand-painted scenes.

Scenes rendered on your GPU in real time and watercolor videos, in an app built natively for macOS so it stays light, sharp and quiet.

Native Metal shaders

Real fragment shaders drawn every frame on your GPU. Fluid motion from files of a few kilobytes.

Pauses when nobody looks

Full-screen app, covered desktop or display asleep: PrimoEngine stops drawing and drops to 0% CPU. On battery, you choose how it behaves.

On the lock screen too Premium

The shaders show up in System Settings › Wallpaper and stay alive on the macOS lock screen.

Every display, your way

One wallpaper per screen, automatic rotation, and a time-of-day schedule that swaps scenes as your day goes.

Web scenes that follow your music

HTML, Canvas and WebGL wallpapers, sandboxed and offline. Vinyl shows the cover and title of what is playing in Music or Spotify.

Painted videos, or your own

Watercolor scenes in the catalog, like Tokyo Rain and Winter Cabin, or your own .mp4 or .mov (Premium). A .livewallpaper a friend sent you opens through the + button.

Wallpapers

See them move before you pick.

32 wallpapers and counting, now with hand-painted video scenes: 14 ship inside the app, and new ones arrive through the catalog with no app update. Four are free forever; Premium unlocks the rest.

Topo · Contours Dark Premium Metal shader

How it works

From download to desktop in a minute.

The background of this section is a shader running on your GPU right now, just like the ones that land on your desktop.

Open the DMG, drag to Applications

The app lives in the menu bar, with no Dock icon. The intro shows the wallpapers running for real.

Pick and tune

Tap a wallpaper to see it full screen, apply it to every display or just one, and set speed and color under Customize.

Forget it is there

PrimoEngine updates itself and pauses whenever you are not looking. Your Mac stays fast.

Pricing

Free forever. Premium is US$ 4.99, once.

Early Bird launch price: it goes up in a few days. No subscription, no account. Pay once by card and keep it.

Free

PrimoEngine

US$ 0 forever

4 wallpapers: Electronic · PCB, Electronic · Scope, Starfield and Snowfall
A different wallpaper on each display
Automatic pausing and battery mode
Import and share shader and web wallpapers
Make your own with the open creator docs

Download free

Lifetime · Early Bird

Premium

US$ 4.99 one-time payment · 1 Mac

Early Bird launch price. Goes up to US$ 8.99 after launch.

The full catalog: Nebula, Jupiter, Topo, Vinyl, Scribbles, Aurora, Plasma
Hand-painted video scenes, like Tokyo Rain and Winter Cabin
Per-display rotation and playlists
Time-of-day wallpaper schedule
Live wallpapers on the lock screen
Your own videos as wallpapers

Brazilian card? Pay in reais with Pix or card

Charged in US dollars through Stripe. Cards issued in Brazil can only be charged in reais, so use the reais option below (it opens our Portuguese page). After paying you see your license code, and we email it too. In the app, open Premium and choose “I already have a license code”. To move to another Mac, deactivate in the app and activate the new one with the same code.

For creators

Make your own wallpaper. Or ask an AI.

A wallpaper is a folder with a manifest.json and a Metal shader or a web page. The docs have complete examples, a packer, and ready-made prompts for ChatGPT and Claude.

Your first shader in 10 minutes
Canvas and WebGL with user settings
Share the .livewallpaper file by AirDrop, chat or email

Read the docs llms.txt for AIs

// manifest.json
{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "id": "com.you.aurora",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "title": "Aurora",
  "type": "metal",
  "entry": "content/shader.metal",
  "config": [
    { "key": "speed", "type": "float",
      "min": 0.1, "max": 3, "default": 1 },
    { "key": "tint", "type": "color",
      "default": "#7FD1FF" }
  ]
}

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Which Macs does it run on?

macOS 26 (Tahoe) or newer, on a Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or later).

Does it drain the battery?

No. When a window covers the desktop, PrimoEngine stops drawing (0% CPU, measured). Metal shaders are the lightest kind of wallpaper, and you choose what happens on battery.

How does payment work?

A single US$ 4.99 payment (the Early Bird launch price, going up soon) by card, processed by Stripe. No subscription. Have a Brazilian card? Cards issued in Brazil can only be charged in reais, so pay in reais (Pix or card, via InfinitePay) from our Portuguese page, or buy inside the app.

I bought on the site. How do I activate?

After paying you see your license code, which also arrives by email. In the app, open Premium, choose “I already have a license code” and paste it.

Can I use it on more than one Mac?

The license works on one Mac at a time. To switch, deactivate on the old Mac and activate the new one with the same code.

Need help?

Email apps@oprimo.dev. For anything about your license, include your license code.

Is it safe to open wallpapers people send me?

Every file goes through the same checks on import. Shaders can only draw pixels, and web wallpapers run sandboxed, with no internet access and no access to your files.

Give your desktop a pulse.

Free to start, ready in under a minute.

Download free See Premium