Get the actual image or video out of any Wallpaper Engine wallpaper. Point it at your Steam Workshop folder, pick a wallpaper, click extract. You get a normal PNG/JPG/MP4.
⬇ Download WallpaperExtractor.exe · single file, no install, no Python needed
Workshop wallpapers come packed as scene.pkg archives with textures in Wallpaper Engine's own .tex format, so you can't just open them. This tool unpacks them for you, with:
- A GUI, with drag and drop
- Auto-detection of every installed wallpaper via Steam, with thumbnails, so there's no digging through numbered folders
- Video wallpapers (
.mp4/.webm) handled in the same place - "Only keep images and videos" mode that throws away shaders, scripts and JSON and keeps just the wallpaper
- A CLI too, if you'd rather script it, including a whole Workshop folder at once
It decodes every texture format Wallpaper Engine uses: DXT1/3/5, RGBA8888, RG88 and R8, LZ4 compression, embedded PNG/JPG, animated sprite sheets (also saved as a .gif) and video textures.
- Open
WallpaperExtractor.exe - Click Find in Steam and pick a wallpaper, or drop its Workshop folder (or a
scene.pkg,.texor video file) onto the window - Click Extract, then Open folder
Each wallpaper gets its own folder, named after its title, inside Wallpaper Extracted on your Desktop (you can change where). "Only keep images and videos" is on by default, so you get just the wallpaper, not its shaders and scripts.
Web-type wallpapers show up in the list but can't be extracted, they don't have a fixed asset to pull.
The exe isn't code signed (a certificate costs money every year, hard to justify for a free tool), so Windows treats it as coming from an unknown publisher.
- Blue "Windows protected your PC" screen: click More info → Run anyway.
- Blocked by Smart App Control, no "run anyway" option (some Windows 11 installs): run from source instead, see below. Don't disable Smart App Control for this, turning it back on means reinstalling Windows.
Each release ships a checksums.txt to verify the download: Get-FileHash WallpaperExtractor.exe -Algorithm SHA256.
Needed for the CLI, on Linux, or when the exe is blocked. Requires Python 3.10+ (check "Add Python to PATH" during install).
git clone https://github.com/uKeps/wallpaper-engine-extractor.git
cd wallpaper-engine-extractor
pip install -r requirements.txt # optional, see below
python main.py # opens the GUIpip install is optional. Without it everything still extracts: textures that need decoding are saved as BMP instead of PNG (slower, a few seconds for a large one), animated textures come out as the sprite sheet without the .gif, and drag & drop is disabled.
# list installed wallpapers (title, ID, type, asset path)
python main.py --list-wallpapers
# extract, outputs to scene_extracted/ next to the .pkg
python main.py "path/to/scene.pkg"
# custom output folder
python main.py "path/to/scene.pkg" -o "C:/Users/YourName/Desktop/output"
# a standalone .tex file or a video wallpaper works the same way
python main.py "path/to/texture.tex" -o out
python main.py "path/to/video.mp4" -o out
# a folder: every wallpaper under it, each into its own subfolder named after its title
python main.py "C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/workshop/content/431960" -o outpositional arguments:
input Path to a scene.pkg, a .tex file, a video wallpaper (.mp4/.webm), or a folder
(every wallpaper found under it is extracted into its own subfolder)
options:
-h, --help Show this help message and exit
-o, --output PATH Output directory (default: <name>_extracted next to a .pkg or folder,
the input's own folder for a .tex or video)
--no-tex-convert Keep .tex files as they are instead of converting them to images
--all-mipmaps Extract all mipmap levels, not just the highest resolution
--no-cleanup Keep all extracted files (shaders, JSON, scripts, etc.)
--gui Force launch the GUI even when arguments are provided
--list-wallpapers List installed Wallpaper Engine Steam Workshop wallpapers and exit
You normally don't need this, auto-detection finds them. But if you want to look manually:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\431960\<wallpaper_ID>\
| File | What it is |
|---|---|
scene.pkg |
Package with the wallpaper's assets |
preview.jpg |
Preview thumbnail |
project.json |
Wallpaper metadata |
.pkg: binary archive. A version string (PKGV0024-style), a uint32 file count, then entries (name, offset, size), then all file data concatenated.
.tex: a TEXV version tag, then TEXI (pixel format, flags, padded texture size and real image size), then a TEXB container (TEXB0001 to TEXB0004) with one or more images, each a list of mipmaps. Mipmaps are either raw pixels in the TEXI format (DXT1/3/5, RGBA8888, RG88, R8), often LZ4-compressed, or a complete embedded file (PNG, JPG, MP4). Animated textures add a TEXS section describing frames on a sprite sheet. The output is cropped from the padded texture to the real image size.
Video: no .pkg involved, the .mp4/.webm already sits loose in the Workshop folder. "Extracting" is just a copy.
.\build.ps1Installs PyInstaller if needed, writes dist\WallpaperExtractor.exe (~17 MB, single file, no console). Python, Tk, Pillow and the tkdnd Tcl package all get bundled in.
Pushing a v* tag builds it on GitHub Actions and attaches the exe plus checksums.txt to the release (.github/workflows/build.yml). Can also be run manually from the Actions tab.
Builds are unsigned. SignPath Foundation gives free signing certs to open source projects that build in public CI, that's the only route that clears SmartScreen and Smart App Control without paying yearly.
For personal use, like recovering the image of a wallpaper you already own. Respect creators' copyright, don't redistribute extracted assets without permission.
MIT © uKeps