Reactive Layers

What are Reactive Layers?

Reactive Layers let scene elements react to taps, finger movement, battery and charging state, time, network activity and supported device sensors. Each rule connects WHEN (source and condition), DO (the reaction) and TARGET (the affected layer). TEST shows what the rule is receiving and lets you preview it. Reactions do not overwrite the layer’s saved artwork or transforms.

Create your first Reactive Action

WHEN: Follow, While and On Event

WHEN combines Source, its contextual Behavior and any matching threshold or range. The options change with the input type; you do not have to configure generic numeric conditions for every source.

The main editor presents direct options such as React to movement, While plugged in, During selected hours or At a selected time. Advanced contains custom conditions and mapping controls such as input/output ranges, inversion, response curve, dead zone, threshold, smoothing and return-to-base.

WHEN: Available input sources

The six common sources appear first. More specialized inputs are available through Advanced. A listed source still depends on device capabilities, Android version and live source availability.

Practical source units: initial light mapping uses 0–1000 lux, acceleration 0–10 m/s², and battery temperature 20–45 °C, while their editable ranges are larger. Mobile signal uses negative dBm values. Phone receive sensitivity defaults to full response around 16 KiB/s for a new simple network FX reaction. These are editable mappings, not clipping limits on real readings.

DO: Layer animations

Select Animation in DO. The primary presets are Organic Pulse, Bounce and Spin. Shake and Wiggle are under Advanced. New animations use modern responsive motion by default; older saved animation styles retain their original behavior unless you change them.

One animation cycle uses a configurable Duration of 200–2000 ms. Strength is separate from speed. Spin always finishes complete turns (the optional Turns control ranges from 1 to 10); Strength is not a partial-turn angle slider. Depending on WHEN, an animation can play once or repeat while a condition remains active.

DO: Visibility and properties

Visibility provides Show, Hide and Toggle. Toggle is a one-shot action; it is not offered as a sustained While visibility choice. Reactive Show never bypasses authored hiding, On Unlock visibility constraints, masks or editor-only preview choices.

Primary property choices are Opacity and Scale; position and rotation are Advanced choices. Numeric properties can Follow an input, stay active While a condition matches, or be set by a discrete event when the editor offers those combinations. Several rules can target one property; the active rule priority determines the final rendered result.

DO: Reactive Layer FX and Glow

A Reactive Layer FX action addresses one exact regular Layer FX instance on the chosen TARGET. Select a configured effect, use Add Layer FX if none exists, or Replace Layer FX to change the linked instance. Selecting a new FX does not mean every effect on the layer is controlled.

FX appearance… opens the existing visual editor for the linked effect. WHEN remains responsible for input and timing. The standard Layer Effects list identifies effects linked to Reactive rules with Reactive ↗. This keeps the normal appearance controls separate from reaction strength, sensitivity and source.

Layer Glow uses the visible alpha silhouette of the target. Its normal editor offers Color, Intensity, Radius, Softness, Threshold and Blend; black produces a dark halo and supports Normal/Multiply, while other colors have additional blend modes. Reactive Actions can control supported Glow intensity, radius or advanced numeric appearance parameters. Regular masks, painted coverage and the actual rendered layer alpha affect the halo.

TARGET and TEST

TARGET chooses which scene layer receives the reaction. It can be the owner/source layer or another layer; the selector uses cropped preview cards to identify artwork even when the source PNG includes large transparent bounds.

TEST reports the selected source, whether its real value is available, real or simulated input, condition status, calculated output and target/action feedback. Use Play Preview to animate one cycle independently of a trigger. With numeric inputs, simulate values to check Follow/While, then choose Use real values to restore the actual device reading.

Practical reaction recipes

External automation (Advanced)

External automation is an optional Advanced workflow. You can create a named External Event or a numeric External Variable rule, then send an authenticated Android broadcast from a separate automation tool. Automation remains off until you explicitly enable it in the Actions editor. You do not need Tasker, Automate or any other external app to use ordinary Reactive Actions.

Compatibility, limits and troubleshooting

Reactive rules run on the active scene in Orbit/Ortho and the Sequential runtime. In Sequential, inactive scenes are suspended and actions do not freely cross scene transitions. In v1.3.80, the public Creator offers Reactive authoring through 3D Scene; new 2D/Sequential scene creation remains gated outside release. Creator preview, the installed wallpaper and lock/unlock paths have distinct lifecycles, so verify the result on the installed wallpaper as well.

Providers acquire only demanded inputs, and temporal animations cease requesting frames when settled. Rendering cost still depends on the scene, motion frequency, Glow passes and effect stack. Do not assume a constant battery or GPU cost across devices.

Old projects retain their serialized behavior and remain readable by newer ESEER builds. New Reactive rule types, animation presets and advanced FX properties are not guaranteed to work in older app releases.