Really Slick XScreenSavers

1. Description

Really Slick XScreenSavers (rsxs) is an X11 port of the Really Slick Screensavers collection by Terry Welsh (http://www.reallyslick.com/).

This collection of screensavers is designed to integrate with Jamie Zawinski's XScreenSaver package. Alternatively, the screensavers can be run as stand-alone applications.

As of 6 July 2002, rsxs contains the following eye-candy:

rs-cyclone: Simulates tornadoes on your computer screen.
rs-fieldlines: A simulation of electric field lines between charged
particles. Zap!
rs-flocks: 3D swarms of colorful bugs.
rs-flux: Draws a particle system based on strange attractor equations.
rs-euphoria: Don't look at this if you suffer from motion sickness.
rs-helios: Particles explode onto the screen through smooth Helion
surfaces.
rs-lattice: Fly through an infinite lattice of interlocking rings.
rs-plasma: Draws gooey colorful plasma stuff. Crank up the speed and
make it psychadelic!
rs-skyrocket: The mother of all fireworks screensavers.
rs-solarwinds: Another color and movement particle effect.

2. Requirements

rsxs has the following requirements:

A C++ compiler and standard C++ library (including STL). The `configure' script has some support to work around broken compilers, but if at all possible try to use one that's standards-compliant (g++ 2.95 and onwards should be fine).
An accelerated graphics card.
An X server with GLX extensions. To test for this, run `xdpyinfo' and look for GLX in the list of extensions.
You will also want direct rendering enabled, otherwise the screensavers will run extremely slowly. To find out if this is enabled, use `glxinfo' (it
should say "direct rendering: Yes".)
X development headers and libraries. If you've got them, `configure' should find them.
OpenGL development headers and libraries. The names of these vary from system to system. If `configure' doesn't find them, please email me with your system type and the correct names via the bug-reporting address below.

rsxs also has the following optional requirements:

XScreenSaver -- preferably version 4, though it should work fine on earlier versions. `configure' will try to determine the correct paths to install files. If XScreenSaver isn't found, the screensavers will simply be installed in the standard binary directory (usually /usr/local/bin), just like any other program.
libpng development headers and libraries. `configure' should have no trouble finding these if you've got them, as the filenames are standardised.
If you do not have libpng (or choose to disable it through a `configure' option), the screensavers that load textures at run-time will not be built or installed.
OpenAL development headers and libraries. Only one screensaver (rs-skyrocket) has a dependency on these; if they are missing then sound will be disabled. OpenAL can be obtained from http://www.openal.org.
OpenAL is still heavily in development, and its API is changing rapidly, so you may find the most recent version does not work correctly with rsxs. The latest version known to work correctly is kept at the rsxs website (http://rsxs.sourceforge.net).
libvorbisfile development headers and libraries. The rs-skyrocket screensaver, when built with OpenAL sound support, requires this to load OGG audio files. Again, if these are not available then sound will be disabled.
libvorbisfile is part of the OGG Vorbis libraries, available at
http://www.xiph.org.

3. Installation

In general, the standard

$ ./configure
$ make
<switch to root>
# make install

will do what you want. To get any currently running xscreensaver daemon to see the new screensavers you will need to restart it:

$ xscreensaver-command -restart

The configure script accepts a large range of command-line options. These are described in the accompanying INSTALL document -- please read this if you wish to disable specific screensavers or disable one of the optional packages described above.

4. Usage

Each of the rs-* screensavers can be run independently. Providing no arguments will run them with default parameters in a window. Each screensaver can also accept the following arguments:

  --root                           Draw on the root window
  --geometry GEOM                  Draw on a window of the specified geometry
                                     (WxH+X+Y)
  --fullscreen                     Draw on a maximized window

For more information on the parameters an rsxs screensaver takes, run it with the --help option.

5. Known Issues

Probably. Please mail reports to <foonly@users.sourceforge.net> and include:

What the bug does
What you did to make the bug appear
Whether it is reproducable or not

If the program dumped a core file, please also include a backtrace.

6. Legal Stuff

rsxs is released under the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License version 2. Please read the COPYING file carefully.

-- Michael Chapman <foonly@users.sourceforge.net>