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1 - I want Hyperspace, but I can't find the right file to download. Where can I get it?
1 - I want Hyperspace, but I can't find the right file to download. Where can I get it? It is available on the downloads page like everything else. Read the very first part of that page again. Then download the file that contains all the screensavers, including Hyperspace. 2 - How do I install this screensaver? Read the instructions that came with the saver. If you didn't get any instructions with it then you probably didn't download it from this website. 3 - I don't want your screensaver anymore. How do I uninstall it? Delete it. I don't provide an installer with these savers because each of these savers is one file, and you don't need an installer for one file. These savers should be installed by simply copying them to the directory that contains your other screensavers. Therefore, to uninstall them, you should just delete them. Some people tell me that installers are necessary because some people don't know how to use compressed files or navigate their file system, but if you're using a computer these are really good things to learn. 4 - This screensaver is broken. You write rotten software. That's a comment; not a question. You most likely need to update your graphics driver. Find out who manufactured your graphics card and download the most current driver from their website. Then install the driver and try the screensaver again. If that doesn't work, and if you're a programmer, you can always download the source code and try to debug it yourself. 5 - I only get about one frame per second. Why is this screensaver running slowly? You probably just need to update your graphics driver. If that doesn't work, it probably means that your computer is too slow and you need to replace it with a modern one. It is probably impossible to buy a computer without hardware accelerated OpenGL anymore, so any current computer should run these savers at a tolerable frame rate if not better. Some of these screensavers are very demanding of your CPU and graphics card. If you want a screensaver that will go easy on your computer, you should look someplace else. 6 - This saver is running slowly, and I am using Intel graphics. First, read this. In a nutshell, Intel disables hardware acceleration for OpenGL screensavers. I would like to believe that they have a good reason for doing this, but I cannot think of one. I have written to Intel a couple times to ask about this, but they have never responded. One kind user reported a workaround: Try renaming your OpenGL savers from ".scr" to ".sCr". It appears the Intel driver does not check all variations on capitalization when it deactivates hardware rendering. 7 - Will you turn these savers into visualizations for my mp3 player? No, but you can download the source code and do it yourself if you want. 8 - Will you make an interface in Skyrocket that lets me script my own fireworks shows and write words in the sky with glowing balls of fire? See previous answer. 9 - This saver only appears on one of my monitors. Will you make it work on multiple monitors? These savers should display across multiple monitors if you use only one graphics card with multiple outputs and have set up your monitors using Windows's span mode. This type of configuration should give you a single framebuffer that spans all your monitors. Some driver-specific multiple monitor setups will create a separate framebuffer for each monitor. These savers do not support multiple framebuffers, but you can always download the source code and modify it yourself. 10 - I want to know how fast this saver is running. What is the frame rate? To display statistics, press 's' while the saver is running. 11 - I can see horizontal lines on my monitor when the screensaver is running. How do I get rid of the lines? Those horizontal lines are caused by your graphics driver copying images to the display while the monitor is in the process of drawing an image. Enable the "vertical sync" or "vsync" option in your graphics driver to prevent this visual problem. 12 - This screensaver runs too fast. How do I slow it down? There are two ways to limit the frame rate on these savers. The easiest way is to enable the "vertical sync" or "vsync" option in your graphics driver. This will make the frame rate slow down to the monitor refresh rate. The other way is to use the saver's internal frame rate limiter, which can be accessed through its configuration dialog box. The animation in most of my savers is time-based, but the animation in Flux, Plasma, and Solar Winds is frame-based. These three savers use iterative math, which means the state of the animation each frame depends on the state from the previous frame. Unbound, these three savers often run much too fast on modern computers, which is visually unappealing. Their internal framerate limiters are set to reasonable values by default. In the other savers that use time-based animation, the limiters are off by default. 13 - Your saver uses 100% of my CPU. How do I make it use less? Limit the frame rate. See previous answer. 14 - How can I pay you for this magnificent screensaver? Thank you, but there is no method of payment available. Originally, I tried to distribute these savers as donation-ware, but almost nobody was honest enough to pay for them. (Thank you to the few who did.) Instead of being paid for savers, I think I will try putting some Google ads on this site to help finance my saver programming addiction. If you are trying to pay for this saver, then you are a very nice person and deserve a treat. Go spend your money on ice cream instead. I recommend Dr. Bob's Scharffen Berger Black Raspberry Chip. 15 - Will you make a version of this screensaver with my company logo on it? I can pay you US$100. I hate to tell you this, but most people don't want to look at your company logo. Flying logo screensavers usually get looked at once and then deleted. Your money would be better spent on some other type of marketing campaign. Besides, US$100 is not nearly enough. 16 - Skyrocket is broken. I see the explosions and then hear the sounds a few seconds later. Speed of sound at sea level = 344 m/s. Speed of light = 299,792,458 m/s. You need to get away from your computer for a while. Go out and see a real fireworks show. 17 - How do I learn to make my own screensavers? First you need to know how to program. For my savers, I use C++ as the main programming language, OpenGL for graphics, and OpenAL for sound. Google is a great source of information if you need tutorials on making savers and programming with OpenGL. The OpenGL wiki and OpenGL forums are great places to find solutions to difficult OpenGL problems. You can download the source code for these savers and use it to learn by example. You might want to start by using the included rsWin32Saver library as the base for your saver. It opens an OpenGL window and provides prototypes for the necessary functions that your saver needs to provide. To find easy examples of how to use the rsWin32Saver library, have a look at the code for some of my simple savers such as Flux or Flocks. |
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