Desktop Walker

Bring your desktop to life.

Desktop Walker is a lightweight, native Windows application that adds a physics-based companion to your screen. This is built in pure C++ using Win32. It uses very little RAM and CPU, sitting quietly on top of your windows without getting in the way.

✨ Features

• Window Walking: The character recognizes open windows as physical platforms. They will walk along the tops of your browser, jump between apps, and sit on your taskbar.
• Smart Physics: Features gravity, momentum, and an "Elevator Effect"—if you drag a window up under the character, they will be scooped up and carried with it.
• Occlusion Aware: The character understands depth. If a window moves in front of them, they might be pushed off their ledge or wake up if they were sleeping.
• Ambient AI:
  • Sleeps when bored (long cycles, wakes on disturbance).
  • Watches Movies with you (detects YouTube/Netflix in window titles).
  • Jumps to nearby ledges dynamically.
• Multi-Monitor Support: seamlessly walks across screens and detects boundaries.

🎨 Customization

The character is entirely sprite-based. You can swap in any pixel art you like.

1. The Assets Folder

The app looks for a folder named assets/ next to the .exe. Images must be Transparent PNGs.

2. Naming Schema

The app looks for files named [action]_[index].png. You can add as many frames as you want for the walking animation; the code adapts.

Required Files:

• idle_0.png, idle_1.png (Standing still / breathing)
• walk_0.png, walk_1.png (Walking)
• sit_0.png (Sitting)
• sleep_0.png, sleep_1.png (Sleeping)
• fall_0.png (Falling / In Air)
• jump_0.png (Leaping up)
• popcorn_0.png (Watching a movie)

3. Tuning

Open Main.cpp and look at the Config namespace at the very top. You can tweak:

• Gravity & Walk Speed
• Jump Probability & Range
• Animation Speeds (in milliseconds)
• AI Personality (how often they sleep vs walk)

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🛠️ For Developers: Build & Run

This project uses Visual Studio Code with the MSVC (Microsoft Visual C++) compiler.

Prerequisites

1. Visual Studio Build Tools 2022 (Workload: "Desktop development with C++").
2. VS Code with the C/C++ Extension.

How to Compile w/ VSCode

1. Open this folder in VS Code via the Developer Command Prompt (Start -> "Developer Command Prompt for VS 2022" -> code .).
2. Create a .vscode/tasks.json file to tell the compiler to link Windows libraries (User32, Gdiplus, Shcore).
3. Press Ctrl + Shift + B to build.
4. Press F5 to run.

.exe is generated

Utilities

Included is pixel_converter.py, a simple helper script.

• Usage: cmd line a high-res image into the script to generate a pixel-art style sprite correctly scaled for the engine.

Controls

• ESC: Instantly closes the application (Panic button).

TODO:

• get rid of that command window, at least esc should close it
• test with other OS than WIN 11
• detect other movie windows like VLC etc
• jump via character's dynamic height
• detect animation length based on assets folder contents
• config outside so rebuild not required