(ok, this is the cheesy plain text, no frills, not even much info doc file for Xtacy. If someone is stuck by a muse and wants to write up a better one, I'd more than welcome it. -jj)
DEDICATED TO THE FAIREST ONE...
First off, the output of Xtacy -h
Xtacy Ver. 1.14 by Jer Johnson (jer@gweep.net)
Usage: ./xtacy [-lotsa flags]
Used everywhere: [-annoy] [-delay <msec>]
[-cycles <numcycles>] [-display <displayname>] [-geometry <geomtry>]
[-lock] [-r|root] [-rillybig] [-windows <number>]
Color Options: [-mono] [-multi] [-few] [-several] [-colors <num>]
[-rand|randomcolor] [-perfect] [-pal {0|1|2|3|4|5}]
Neat Effects: [-bez] [-blur] [-boxes] [-bozo] [-cells] [-circ] [-clover]
[-cube] [-dcurve] [-dline] [-dog] [-field] [-flush] [-fracrect]
[-funky] [-gravity] [-julia] [-life] [-lunch] [-mandel] [-max]
[-mixer] [-off] [-plasma] [-qix] [-qix4] [-spiral] [-star] [-static]
[-sunrise] [-swarm] [-taffy] [-test] [-tunnel] [-wander]
With kaleid: [-norect]
With bez,boxes,bozo,circ,qix,qix4:[-number <number>]
With taffy,mixer: [-number <width of bands>]
With cells: [-number <number of rows>]
With life: [-number <density of cells>]
With mandel,julia: [-number <num of iterations>
With dogplasma,plasma: [-trell] [-number <number>] determines graniness.
With gravity: [-number <num Wells>] [-part <num Particles>]
With fields: [-number <num points>]
With funky: [-number <how funky>]
and now...
a bit of explanation.
the mouse buttons:
Left Button: rotates the colormap one step, except on:
-gravity, where it places a new particle.
-wander, where it moves the pixel
-swarm, where it moves the queen
Middle Button: Resets the window, redraws whatever it was doing.
Right Button: Closes the window. If it's the last window, exits the program.
If the -lock option is on, this brings up the Keyhole Window
the command line switches:
- Options
-annoy : turns on the Zoomy Close Window thing.
-bw : Border Width. Specifies the width of the border around your window,
in Pixels.
-cycles : Instead of running forever, only runs through N times, then exits.
I've included this for those people who are using Xtacy to
test frame-buffer systems.
-delay : Delay between loops, in Microseconds.
-display : opens an Xtacy window on the given display
-geometry : sets the geometry for the Xtacy window. in the form "XVALxYVAL"
-lock : prompts you for a key, then locks the window until the key is entered
again. Caution: I don't guarantee the security of this.
-mirrors : In some modes, this will mirror the output to other
parts of the window. No, this isn't in the help screen,
it's a special feature for you, the DOC Reader. :)
-number : These two send two numbers as parameters into the functions. -opt : Use them to trigger different behaviours
-r OR -root : Runs XTacy in the Root Window
-rillybig: Runs XTacy in a really big window (1024x860)
-windows: lets you specify the number of different windows Xtacy opens
for itself.
Color Options:
-bd : lets you specify the border color of the Xtacy window
-bg : lets you specify the background color of the Xtacy window
-mono : runs with a greyscale palette
-multi : rotates the colormap on most modes.
-few : uses only 18 colors
-several : uses 72 colors
-colors : lets you specify how many colors to try for.
-rand OR -randomcolor : scrambles the colormap
-perfect : makes Xtacy very greedy about colors. You must have the cursor in
the Xtacy window to use those colors. This'll do funky things to
the rest of the screen.
-pal : lets you pick a palette. At the moment, there are 6.
palette 0: default RYGCBM. Rotating straight.
palette 1: 3 bands, 1 red, 1 green, 1 blue, each of which can rotate
independantly
palette 2: grayscale. The red,green,and blue components can rotate
independantly
palette 3: chooses 2 colors, and interpolates between them
palette 4: starts with a greyscale palette, then drops in a
random color and smooths around it
palette 5: chooses 3 random colors, and interpolates them
you can also specify a Palette File, which is just a text file
with R-G-B triples ranging from 0 to 255. A few demonstration
palette files are included in the Xtacy distribution, in the
palette directory.
Different Modes:
-bez : Bouncing Bezier curves.
-boxes : Bouncing Boxes
-bozo : Bouncing Quadrilaterals (Bozogons <G>)
-circ : Bouncing Circles. Kinda reminds me of Sesame Street
-qix : Qix
-qix4 : 4 Qixes, mirrored on each other.
with these 6, the option -number NUMBER will let you select how many
there are.
-blur : starts with randomly placed boxes, and then blurs the edges
between them.
-cells : Tile floor, cells of rotating color.
-number sets the size
-clover : Lines rotating around a center point
-cube : a spinning wireframe cube
you may want to push up the delay to slow this down on
a fast system
-dcurve : plots the colors based on the distance to the curve(s)
-dline : plots colors based on the distance to the line(s)
-dog : DogPlasma mode.
-number sets the graininess.
-field : Displays E-Fields between random points of random intensity.
-number sets the number of points
-flush : starts with randomly drawn boxes, and moves them towards
the center of the window
-fracrect : ever decreasing squares-within-squares
-funky : Shapes spiraling down to the center point
-number lets you set the shape.
0 is a straight line
1 is a square
2 is a triangle
-gravity : Gravity Well simulator
-number sets the number of wells. -part set the number of roaming
particles
-julia : Julia set fractal
-kaleid : Kaleidascope.
-norect turns off everything but the lines.
(use the -mirrors <num> options with Kaleid, it looks
neat! )
-life : Conway's game of Life
-number sets the starting density
-lunch : A reminder to go eat in the middle of the day
-mandel : Mandelbrot set fractal
-max : Max Headroom's background (Max not included)
-newton : Newton root fractal
with these three, -number sets the number of iterations
-mixer : Displays swirls of colors.
-number sets the width of the bands (try -number 20)
-off : Off the Air color test pattern
-plasma : Plasma cloud
-number sets the graniness of the cloud (high number is smoother)
-trell puts it in Trellace mode, which started as a bug, but
looked neat enough to stay.
(also try the -mirror flag with this )
-rose : Phased sine waves
-spiral : Draws a spiral
-star : runs a Starfield pattern.
-number determines the number of stars onscreen at a time.
-opt 1 will make the stars follow the mouse pointer
-static : draws static
use -mono to get Black and White static
-sunrise : umm.. kinda looks like the sunrise :)
-swarm : draws a swarm of bees playing follow the leader.
-taffy : a mod of the mixer mode
-number sets the width of the bands (try -number 20)
-tag : sort of the reverse of 'swarm' everyone avoids the leader.
and the leader tries to tag the closest bee
-test : Displays the colormap
-tunnel : Displays a tunnel
-wander : Displays a squiggly line, wandering around the screen.
Special Thanks to:
Daniel Cabeza Gras (bardo@clip.dia.fi.upm.es) for tweaking
my spiral code, and for adding the cells and mixer modes.
Steve Richardson (prefect@gweep.net) for letting me
use his computer as an FTP site, and for being a guinea pig.
Oh, and for writing the taffy mode.
Andrew Petrarca (android@gweep.net) for tweaking
my gravity and E-fields code.
Matt Cross (profesor@gweep.net ) for the starback
and tunnel code.
Noah Vawter (shifty@gweep.net) for the Rose code.