Objects Slideshow
Grids of object images scrolling across the screen, with camera-like effects. Free for Windows.
What it is
Pick a few objects (a cat, a car, a cup, anything), give each a folder of images or let the app download them, and Objects Slideshow fills the screen with rows of those images moving in any of 8 directions. Each object can get its own camera effects, so the pictures look as if a real camera filmed them: zoom and pan, rotation, perspective, camera shake, motion blur, defocus, lens distortion, low resolution, compression, color and exposure, noise, flicker, glare, fog / rain / dirt, partial view, patches covering the image.
Every setting works while the show runs: change the speed, the size, a direction or an effect and the show follows at once (see the clips below). The show can also be streamed like a network camera, to VLC, a browser or a detector, and a preset schedule can change the whole show by itself, hour after hour.
Testing vision systems
Show a camera or a model many images of an object, moving and degraded in controlled ways, for as long as needed. Stream it straight to the model (MJPEG or RTSP), or record it as a video to repeat a test exactly.
A moving photo wall
Your own photos scrolling on a second screen, a TV or a display, on the monitor you choose.
Something nice to look at
Calm, endless motion in the background. A screensaver mode is planned.
- Smooth and light: up to 60 fps; effects in their own process; pauses while its window is hidden; memory and CPU charts in the app.
- Display modes: one object at a time, a random mix, or one object per row / column.
- Stream the show live: MJPEG over HTTP (plays in a browser) or RTSP (H.264, like a network camera), on this PC or to other devices.
- Preset schedule: saved presets one after another, each for its own time; the next one's images are prepared ahead, so there is no loading screen.
- Export video (H.264) and Capture (a PNG of what is on screen, Ctrl + G).
- Editor mode: click images on the screen to delete them or edit them in Paint.
- Presets, a speed schedule, transitions, flip / mirror / rotate, fullscreen.
- Image downloads from DuckDuckGo and Bing, duplicates skipped; no account or key.
- Updates itself (Update now), keeping your images, settings and presets.
- Portable: no installer; everything stays in the app's folder.
See it
The show
Changing settings while it runs
How fast it follows your settings (click to enlarge)
Recorded from the app, in real time: the main window's settings on the left, the show on the right. Every change shows in the next frames; changes that need new images (a new layout, another object) take a moment while they are prepared.
Images in the clips: Fluent Emoji by Microsoft (MIT License).
Screenshots (click to enlarge)
Download
Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit. Each release has two zips; unzip one and start Objects Slideshow.exe. Your settings, images and presets are kept in that folder.
One file
A single exe. Simple to move around; it unpacks itself at every start, so it starts a little slower.
DownloadFolder
The exe next to its libraries. Starts faster and is flagged less often by antivirus programs.
DownloadUpdating
The app tells you when a new version is out (automatically once a day, or Help > Check for updates). Click Update now: it downloads the new version, restarts, and keeps your images, settings and presets. From a version before 2.0.0: unzip the new zip into the same place as before and let it replace the files; your images and settings stay.
Network blocks this website? From version 2.0.1 the app checks for updates on github.com instead, and the downloads are on the GitHub releases page.
About downloaded images
The app searches DuckDuckGo and Bing image search together, taking turns between them, so one download gets the results of both (there is nothing to choose or set up). Both are free, with no account, key or daily limit. Google is not used: its search API no longer takes new users and is being shut down (January 2027).
- After many downloads in a short time, an engine may refuse searches for a while: the other one goes on, and later the first one works again.
- The results are the engines': some images may be off-topic or poor. Remove them in Editor mode.
- Images belong to their owners: use them for your own work only.
- You can also use your own folders of images instead of downloading.
Why 2.x: what it does better than 1.x
Version 2 was rebuilt for speed and steadiness, and 2.1 adds streaming and a preset schedule. Measured on test PCs; your numbers depend on your PC, screen size and settings.
Frame rate
- Up to 60 fps, with even frame pacing (1.x: about 30-35 fps, uneven).
- Plain show at 1920×1080: 25 → 60 fps.
- Flip, mirror, info text and effects at 1920×1080: 18 → 40-45 fps; 60 fps at 1280×720.
- Info text 51 → 0.25 ms a frame; flip / mirror 9.6 → 0.6 ms; background 9.4 → 0.5 ms.
CPU
- Effects run in their own process, so the show never waits for them.
- Effects only for the images on screen: a full CPU core → about a quarter (7,900 → 2,500 images drawn a second).
- All 16 effects together: 128 → 58 ms a pass; the camera movements 80 → 18 ms.
- The show pauses while its window is hidden: almost no CPU. Optional: effects at 30 fps.
Memory
- A slow leak in long runs fixed (1.x grew by about 50 MB an hour); 2.0 stays flat.
- Effect results are freed when no longer shown: the effects' memory 405 → 220 MB in a heavy-effects run.
- After Stop: 383 → 307 MB. A memory chart in the app shows it live.
Preparing images
- Big photos are decoded at the size they are shown: a 4000×3000 photo 160 → 33 ms, with a fraction of the memory.
- First picture of a show or a video export: 0.96 → 0.33 s.
- Background color changes repaint at once (90 images: 33 ms) instead of preparing all images again; dragging a slider prepares them once, when you let go.
Downloads
- DuckDuckGo and Bing (1.x: DuckDuckGo only), 12 phrasings of the name, several result pages each: more images, fewer downloads that stop short.
- 16 images at a time (1.x: 8); a slow site no longer holds the download up.
- Too small, too big or broken files are skipped before they are saved; a summary says what was skipped and why.
Everyday use
- Update now: new versions install themselves, keeping images, settings and presets.
- Videos in H.264: smaller, and they play everywhere.
- Capture (Ctrl + G), many new camera effects with a live preview, the show on the monitor you choose, a Settings window.
New in 2.1
- Stream the show to VLC, a browser, OpenCV or a detector: MJPEG (10-20 ms of delay on the same PC) or RTSP / H.264 (the graphics chip encodes it when it can).
- The show keeps its frame rate while streaming; several viewers cost little more than one.
- Preset schedule: presets one after another, each for its own time, with no loading screen between them.
- A CPU chart next to the memory chart; Copy for the logs.
What's new
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Feedback and bug reports
Questions, ideas, problems: write below, no account needed. For a bug, please add the app version (Help > About > Copy app version) and what you did before it happened.