[COSMIC] My wallpaper is a kingdom simulation fed by my system: browsers are empires, compiling summons storms
**Wallpaper**: [Kernel Kingdom](rsmedrano-cloud/kernel-kingdom) (OC, my own project): a live pixel-art kingdom simulated from my running processes, RAM, CPU and containers
**DE**: [COSMIC](system76.com) 1.0 on [Fedora 43 COSMIC Atomic](fedoraproject.org)
**Theme**: COSMIC Dark (default) · GTK: [adw-gtk3-dark](lassekongo83/adw-gtk3)
**Icon Theme**: [Cosmic](pop-os/cosmic-icons)
**Fonts**: Noto Sans / Noto Sans Mono
**Panel applets**: [minimon](cosmic-utils/cosmic-ext-applet-minimon), [weather](cosmic-utils/cosmic-ext-applet-weather), [bitrate](avomar/bitrate)
+ **Other**: [COSMIC Tweaks](cosmic-utils/cosmic-ext-tweaks)
**About the wallpaper:** each heavy app is a realm (browsers become empires), containers and services are fortresses, compiling brings storms, and realms go to war on their own: armies, trebuchets, burning cities, sacked capitals. A procedural chronicle narrates it all. It runs on the background layer via gtk4-layer-shell and pauses at 0% CPU when covered by windows. Python + GTK4, MIT, one-line install in the repo.
I've been building Kernel Kingdom, a pixel-art isometric live wallpaper / idle game for Linux where the world is built from what your machine is actually doing.
- Each heavy app becomes a realm: browsers grow into empires, smaller apps become hamlets. RAM is territory, CPU is activity, process count is population.
- Containers and long-running services are fortresses that get walls the longer they stay up. Compiling brings thunderstorms. Network traffic sends ships around the island, typing sends messenger birds.
- Realms go to war on their own: armies march, trebuchets fire at cities, buildings burn, capitals get sacked and move elsewhere. Borders really change over the day.
- Kill an app and its realm falls and leaves ruins. Reopen it and a new dynasty is born somewhere else.
- A procedural chronicle tells all of it (rulers, heroes, religions, named wars), and you can export each day's story as Markdown or plain text for TTS.
- You also get a few "god powers" (lightning, rain, festivals, lighthouses...) paid with resources the world produces.
It runs as a wallpaper on the background layer and pauses (0% CPU) when it's covered by maximized windows. There's also a window mode with zoom and the full chronicle. Capped at 30 FPS; a frame takes about 1 ms.
Install: curl -fsSL raw.githubusercontent.com | bash (installs to ~/.local, so it works fine on Fedora Atomic)
Python + GTK4 + gtk4-layer-shell + psutil. Wallpaper mode needs a compositor with layer-shell support. I've only tested it on Fedora 43 / COSMIC; on other desktops expect rough edges, and reports are very welcome. English and Spanish.
Repo: rsmedrano-cloud/kernel-kingdom (MIT)
I'd love to hear what other system signals you'd want to see turned into world events.
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[COSMIC] My wallpaper is a kingdom simulation fed by my system: browsers are empires, compiling summons storms **Wallpaper**: [Kernel Kingdom](rsmedrano-cloud/kernel-kingdom) (OC, my own project): a live pixel-art kingdom simulated from my running processes, RAM, CPU and containers **DE**: [COSMIC](system76.com) 1.0 on [Fedora 43 COSMIC Atomic](fedoraproject.org) **Theme**: COSMIC Dark (default) · GTK: [adw-gtk3-dark](lassekongo83/adw-gtk3) **Icon Theme**: [Cosmic](pop-os/cosmic-icons) **Fonts**: Noto Sans / Noto Sans Mono **Panel applets**: [minimon](cosmic-utils/cosmic-ext-applet-minimon), [weather](cosmic-utils/cosmic-ext-applet-weather), [bitrate](avomar/bitrate) + **Other**: [COSMIC Tweaks](cosmic-utils/cosmic-ext-tweaks) **About the wallpaper:** each heavy app is a realm (browsers become empires), containers and services are fortresses, compiling brings storms, and realms go to war on their own: armies, trebuchets, burning cities, sacked capitals. A procedural chronicle narrates it all. It runs on the background layer via gtk4-layer-shell and pauses at 0% CPU when covered by windows. Python + GTK4, MIT, one-line install in the repo. I've been building Kernel Kingdom, a pixel-art isometric live wallpaper / idle game for Linux where the world is built from what your machine is actually doing. - Each heavy app becomes a realm: browsers grow into empires, smaller apps become hamlets. RAM is territory, CPU is activity, process count is population. - Containers and long-running services are fortresses that get walls the longer they stay up. Compiling brings thunderstorms. Network traffic sends ships around the island, typing sends messenger birds. - Realms go to war on their own: armies march, trebuchets fire at cities, buildings burn, capitals get sacked and move elsewhere. Borders really change over the day. - Kill an app and its realm falls and leaves ruins. Reopen it and a new dynasty is born somewhere else. - A procedural chronicle tells all of it (rulers, heroes, religions, named wars), and you can export each day's story as Markdown or plain text for TTS. - You also get a few "god powers" (lightning, rain, festivals, lighthouses...) paid with resources the world produces. It runs as a wallpaper on the background layer and pauses (0% CPU) when it's covered by maximized windows. There's also a window mode with zoom and the full chronicle. Capped at 30 FPS; a frame takes about 1 ms. Install: curl -fsSL raw.githubusercontent.com | bash (installs to ~/.local, so it works fine on Fedora Atomic) Python + GTK4 + gtk4-layer-shell + psutil. Wallpaper mode needs a compositor with layer-shell support. I've only tested it on Fedora 43 / COSMIC; on other desktops expect rough edges, and reports are very welcome. English and Spanish. Repo: rsmedrano-cloud/kernel-kingdom (MIT) I'd love to hear what other system signals you'd want to see turned into world events.