What the project says it does
Lively documents an automatic pause when a fullscreen application is detected. While paused, wallpaper playback is supposed to release CPU and GPU work so the foreground game can use those resources. This site does not publish independent FPS measurements.
How to verify it on your PC
- Apply a live wallpaper and confirm it is moving on the desktop.
- Start a game or any app in exclusive or borderless fullscreen.
- Alt-tab back to the desktop after you quit or minimize. The wallpaper should resume if pause-on-fullscreen is enabled.
- Open Lively settings and review pause rules if the wallpaper kept running during the game.
The official app lets you set global pause, per-display pause, or pause when specific applications are in the foreground. Use those controls if automatic detection misses a title.
When pause might not trigger
- The game is in a small windowed mode, not fullscreen.
- A second monitor still shows a wallpaper by design in per-display mode.
- A custom rule excludes that application.
If performance is still poor, switch to a 1080p video wallpaper or a lighter shader before blaming the pause feature. See Lively vs Wallpaper Engine for how the two apps differ on community size and cost, not on unpublished benchmarks.