Not to be confused with the Mac OS X widgets thread, this is the Mac OS X screen savers thread (this one's even more useless!).

So, way back in the day, I made some screen savers for the Amiga named "LotsaBlankers". Later on, I ported some of them to Windows, and created some new ones, but I never managed to make a stable and functional enough screen saver under Windows that I'd feel like releasing it. But now that I've got Mac OS X, I've started porting some of this old code over, since making screen savers for OS X is pretty easy and fun. First one I've got running is this one:

http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaEscher.zip

It's based on the work presented on this site, http://escherdroste.math.leidenuniv.nl/, and it is liable to BLOW YOUR MIND, MAAAAN. I've been too lazy to figure out how to make a preferences GUI for it yet, so even though the code supports all the possible different transformations of the image (Some listed here: http://escherdroste.math.leidenuniv.nl/index.php?menu=im&sub=escher), you can't actually pick which one you want yet.

There's likely to be more to come. Enjoy!

I love the Lotsawater screensaver so much I just want one feature added please. Can you add an option to use a custom image and not just a screengrab?? This way I can run the screensaver on the desktop (using Backlight 2) and that would be just perfect for me!!!

Many thanks.

Hehe!! I was just about to ask the same as Nickdj here (an option to use a custom image instead of the screen). What for? 1) When you lock your machine, you can still enjoy the screensaver by using a custom image... 2) For using with Backlight 2 to make an awesome desktop background!! Thank you for this great screensaver!! :-D

This is a feature I've been thinking of implementing. When I get back from doing other stuff, I'll probably add it.

Although I'd have to say that Backlight 2 idea sounds like the most frivolous use of processing power I ever heard of. Great idea!

I thoroughly enjoy LotsaWater, but it drives my wife nuts and I had to remove it. Now I am running your new LotsaSnow, that she has not seen yet, but should enjoy. Thanks for the great screensavers!

This is the second time somebody's stopped using one of my programs because it drove their girlfriend or wife nuts. This is a worrying trend.

Actually, this means of female persuasion could have it uses, like when my wife wishes to dominate our studio where the computers are located. Hmmm...

>this means of female persuasion could have it uses

english translation plz

"This method for persuading females..."

I get an Error when loading the Lotsawater ScreenSaver,
"Screen saver “LotsaWater” did not load properly. Please select another screen saver.
Error: Can’t load bundle"
The console says:
2005-12-06 19:43:21.831 System Preferences[258] *** -[NSBundle load]: Error loading code /Users/jill/Library/Screen Savers/LotsaWater.saver/Contents/MacOS/LotsaWater for bundle /Users/jill/Library/Screen Savers/LotsaWater.saver, error code 2 (link edit error code 0, error number 0 ())
2005-12-06 19:43:21.832 System Preferences[258] ScreenSaverModules: can't get principalClass for /Users/jill/Library/Screen Savers/LotsaWater.saver

I've seen this error mentioned elsewhere, but I really have no idea what causes it, and I can't really reproduce it anywhere. What version of OS X are you using?

I really like LotsaWater.saver
It was shown to me at work, so I downloaded it for my laptop at home. The problem is that it doesn't show the desktop through the raindrops, it goes all grey with ripples on top of the gray. Any reason for this?

I'm using Tiger 10.4.3 on a G3 iBook. The LotsaSnow ScreenSaver works fine.

>>44

Probably because you have an older mac with an ATI Rage 128 graphics card. LotsaWater doesn't support it. Sorry.

>>45

That's really strange. I can't think of a difference between the two that would cause that. I'll have to look closer at it.

I'm using 10.3.9 and a... ATI Rage card darn it. Yeah my comp is a first gen Titanium G4 Powerbook. Guess I'll have to wait until I get a newer Mac.

So instead of doing anything useful lately, I've been playing around with another screensaver. This time I'm shamelessly ripping off http://www.arawareru.com/index.cgi?glass&shuffle. The saver displays some sort of glass-looking substance that flows and deforms in various patterns.

http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaGlass1.0.zip

I hoped that LotsaGlass would work, but I get the same error...
I wonder if it would work if I compile your Screensaver on my iBook.

Maybe you could send me a test screensaver with source. If it doesn't work, it could compile the source, see what error I get and know what the problem is.

Wouldn't really help, I'm afraid.

The screensaver displays fine in the preview pane, and even when i click the "test" button, but when it kicks in after the alotted amount of time the glassblob displays untextured/unmapped (just a white surface). ?

That is very weird. What OS and hardware? Also, are you using any funny background programs that could mess with OpenGL?

Is there any chance of giving LotsaWater the option to display a selected image under the water (instead of the current desktop). It's a minor thing, but would really help for those of us who use screensavers for privacy.

It's something I'm planning to do at some point, when I get around to it.

I have the same problem as Kevin with LotsaGlass on my iMac G5 2.1 GHz 20", OSX 10.4.3. In the preview pane and with the testmode LotsaGlass works fine but as screensaver it shows just only a white surface :(.

Could you start up /Applications/Utilities/Console.app and see if the screensaver reports any errors?

This is the one and only report about screensaver:
Succeeded authorizing right system.login.screensaver by process /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app for authorization created by /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app.
No error is reported.
On my Titanium Powerbook LotsaGlass runs fine.

All right, those of you who've had problems, could you try and see if these versions work better? I'm taking some wild guesses at what might be wrong, but I can't tell if I fixed it, since it's always worked on my machine:

http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaEscher1.2beta.zip
http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaGlass1.1beta.zip
http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaWater1.3beta.zip

Hi, LotsaEscher works fine, no problem found.
With LotsaGlass I get the "Error: can't load bundle",
*** -[NSBundle load]: Error loading code /Users/jill/Library/Screen Savers/LotsaGlass.saver/Contents/MacOS/LotsaGlass for bundle /Users/jill/Library/Screen Savers/LotsaGlass.saver, error code 2 (link edit error code 0, error number 0 ())
2006-01-11 11:02:31.222 System Preferences[329] ScreenSaverModules: can't get principalClass for /Users/jill/Library/Screen Savers/LotsaGlass.saver

With LotsaWater my System Preferences crash O.o
Could you write me an email so I can send you the crash report?
This board says it's too long.

All right, found some real weirdness in the Xcode setup for LotsaGlass - I don't even know how it could have worked anywhere. Try this one:

http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaGlass1.1beta2.zip

More attempts at bugfixing:

http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaEscher1.2beta3.zip
http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaGlass1.1beta3.zip
http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaWater1.3beta3.zip

LotsaEscher still works fine,
LotsaGlass gives Error and LotsaWater crashes System Preferences.
Same as before, sorry
Maybe this helps: (taken from crash report)
Exception: EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (0x0002)
Code[0]: 0x00000002
Code[1]: 0x04795a50

Thread 0 Crashed:
0 cx.c3.LotsaWater 0x04795a50 water::calculate(float) + 0 (water.cpp:100)
1 cx.c3.LotsaWater 0x047938e4 -[LWLotsaWaterView animateOneFrame] + 104 (LotsaWaterView.mm:160)
2 com.apple.ScreenSaver 0x9b1cf368 -[ScreenSaverView _oneStep:] + 132
3 com.apple.Foundation 0x928e149c __NSFireTimer + 116
4 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x90770aec __CFRunLoopDoTimer + 184
5 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x9075d464 __CFRunLoopRun + 1680
6 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x9075ca18 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 268
7 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x931861e0 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 264
8 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x93185874 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 380
9 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x931856e0 BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode + 96
10 com.apple.AppKit 0x93684904 _DPSNextEvent + 384
11 com.apple.AppKit 0x936845c8 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 116
12 com.apple.AppKit 0x93680b0c -[NSApplication run] + 472
13 com.apple.AppKit 0x93771618 NSApplicationMain + 452
14 com.apple.systempreferences 0x00002d04 0x1000 + 7428
15 com.apple.systempreferences 0x0000a348 0x1000 + 37704

Thread 1:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9002b8a8 semaphore_wait_signal_trap + 8
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9003001c pthread_cond_wait + 488
2 com.apple.Foundation 0x928e5840 -[NSConditionLock lockWhenCondition:] + 68
3 com.apple.AppKit 0x937214dc -[NSUIHeartBeat _heartBeatThread:] + 324
4 com.apple.Foundation 0x928de6d4 forkThreadForFunction + 108
5 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9002b200 _pthread_body + 96

Oh wait, duh. The G3 probably doesn't handle the Altivec code correctly... I guess I need to put in some better checks to choose the right code to run.

Well, I decided I've done all I can do for now. The blankers that need Altivec still won't run on a G3, since I figured they'd be too slow anyway. Sorry.

http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaEscher1.2.zip
http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaGlass1.1.zip
http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaWater1.3.zip
http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaWater1.1.zip

All contain bugfixes, and LotsaSnow has some more options now, and LotsaWater lets you pick a custom image.

Also, if anyone wants to hack on them, or port them somewhere, the source for the current versions is in here:

http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaBlankers_src.zip

No copyright claimed, knock yourselves out.

Oops, messed up that list of links. Here's the right one:

http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaEscher1.2.zip
http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaGlass1.1.zip
http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaWater1.3.zip
http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaSnow1.1.zip

Is there a way for the LotsaEscher SS to random the images when the screensaver comes on? I may have missed it if there is.

Just to let you know that I am also having the same problem as Kevin (LotsaWater works on preview screen but displays white skin when activated as a screen saver). Running on a G5 iMac. I love your screensaver and look forward to being able to use it in the near future. Still, thank you for the fantastic work so far.

I meant LotsaGlass, sorry!

>>70

Is that still happening with the new versions?

It seems to be a problem of the G5 iMacs, but also LotsaGlass 1.1 doesn't run on this machine. :'(

I love Lotsa Water, but the custom image does not work. The picture is selected, but the screen goes white everytime.

I would be very happy for you to fix this. I am using Tiger.

I am using a G4 eMac by the way...

I'm really running out of ideas as to what causes this... A random thought, though: Do you people who have problems with it have Quartz Extreme enabled?

"White rects" are what you get when it runs out of VRAM and starts silently failing to load textures (among other possible causes, anyway). Sometimes people tell me this shouldn't happen because OS X pages stuff in and out of regular RAM, but I think they're lying. Did you mipmap it?

No, at least not the LotsaWater one because it's GL_TEXTURE_RECTANGLE_EXT. Anyway, white textures happen on pretty much any little OpenGL failure when uploading textures, but it's kind of hard to figure what exact error it is. Especially when it works elsewhere...

How about combining LotsaWater and LotsaEscher, so you have this slowly spinning sketch beneath a layer of water...

I have a PowerBook G4 running os 10.4.4 and lotsaescher comes up with a blank white screen every time. When I am in the screensaver configuration dialog, and I click Test, it shows full screen no problem. Something buggy about that program, what a shame it looks like such an AMAZING screensaver - nice work and i hope you find the cause of this bug. :-)

How about a debug version? I don't have a 10.4 system... so I couldn't test it there even if I can build LotsaBlankers on 10.3? Perhaps one of the people with the problem could try downloading the source and poking at it themselves?

Yes, Quartz Extreme is enabled. My monitor preferences:

>>82

What if you disable it? If you have installed the developer tools, you can use Quartz Debug in /Developer/Applications/Performance Tools/ to do this.

It doesn't help, if I disable Quartz Extreme. In test mode in the screensaver preference pane LotsaGlass runs fine, but not in the screensaver mode.

Well, I'm sort of stumped. Any Mac OpenGL hackers around who would like to look at the source and tell me what's going on?

well the funny thing for me is lotsaglass and lotsawater work great for me in screensaver mode and test mode under display prefs. Unfortunately, the one I want to work is lotsaescher which works in test mode and blanks out in proper screensaver mode. Hope you find a fix! thanks again

Okay... So I LOVE the LotsaWater screensaver. It worked fine on my G4 machines, but I just got an Intel iMac and it wont run. Any plans to get it to run on the new processor. It would help a lot with overcoming my inner feelings of betrayal for owning a machine that has Intel inside. Thanks!

>>87

The second I have a machine to test them on, all the savers will be fixed up for the Intel machines. However, there's no cheap test machine to buy yet, and I'm not sure I want to shell out for an iMac just yet.

Although I heard that Rosetta is supposed to emulate Altivec too now, so I'd have thought it would work, even if only through emulation. What does it do, exactly?

Good news about LostaGlass on my iMac G5. Today I used Tinker Tool System from Marcel Bresink ( http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerToolSys.html ) to repair the Launched Services. Since this time LotsaGlass runs fine in the screensaver mode. I'm happy.

>>89

Well, that's good, but it just makes me even more confused. But maybe someone else can try the same thing and see if that helps?

"Can't load screen saver
You cannot use the screen saver LotsaWater on this computer. Contact the developer of this software for a newer version."

...That is what I get for all of them (water, glass, etc...) on my intel mac

That's weird, isn't it even trying to emulate them? If I had a machine to test on, I'd make proper versions, but...

If it helps, my G3 iBook 700mhz gives me the exact same "Can't load..." message. I have no such issues on either the G4 powerbook or the G5 iMac I owned before exchanging for the new intel. I had assumed that the G3 just didn't have the balls to run the screen savers... but the intel iMac obviously does, and since the video card is the same on the latest G5 iMac and my new intel, it has to be something to do with the way the screensavers are seeing the processor. Then again, I have an associates degree in programming that focused on COBOL... So I have a better chance of figuring out the secret of life. lol

Well, some of them use Altivec, so I guess there might be a flag somewhere in the executable that informs the OS about that, making it refuse to run on the G3. Older versions of Rosetta didn't emulate Altivec, so those wouldn't work either, but I was under the impression that newer version do emulate it.

Anyone want to fill me in on the details here?

lots of glass works fine in system preferences and when i go to test screensaver

but when it actually comes in its just a milky blod, none of the cool glass textures

it still looks cool like that but i like the glass part better, is it just my computer being slow?

Try reading >>89 and see if that helps you at all.

Same problem with LotsaEscher screensaver over here. Runs fine in test mode, blanks out in screensaver mode. Version 1.2 didn't help, repairing launch services with TinkerTool System didn't help. BTW mine is a 800Mhz G4 iMac, 512M. Running Tiger 10.4.4.

An awesome screensaver, though. I hope a bugfix will come out soon.

Made couple of verifications on my machine (/Application/Utilities/System Profiler). It now appears that my iMac doesn't support Core Image. That's why there were no "ripple" effect when placing a widget on Dashboard. :(

Anyway. I wonder if LotsaEscher needs this functionality in order to work properly. I dearly hope it's not the case, but if it is, then I'm afraid I'll have to say good-bye to this wonderful screensaver. Could you please check this out?

FYI, http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301347 from Apple Support.

Core Image isn't required. All my screensavers use OpenGL directly for their effects. However, I still have no idea what causes the white textures, though. My own machine is a Mac Mini, which is similar in specs to your iMac.

What kind of graphics card does your machine have?

The graphic card installed on my machine is: nVIDIA GeForce4 MX, 32M, AGP.

So there's still a chance to run LotsaEscher on my machine. :) Guess I'll try other Lotsa- to see if they work. just in case.

Oh yeah: I found out a program running native code can't load emulated plugins. This means the screensavers won't work at all on Intel machines.

This is unfortunate, so I think I will put together test versions that are universal binaries soon, and hopefully someone with an Intel processor can test them for me.

I had the same problem as others have mentioned with LostaEscher 1.2 showing the preview correct but only a white screen when actually running. I ended up grabbing LotsaEscher 1.1 from your /old/ directory and it works fine.

I'm running 10.4.5 on a 1.25ghz G4 dual, radeon 9600

True. I've just tried lotsaEscher 1.1 and it worked fine. No blank screen on actual screensaver mode, unlike it did on version 1.2. FYI, LotsaGlass 1.0 didn't work, though. Blank glass texture just as in version 1.1. Now I wonder what differences could there exist beteween LotsaEscher 1.1 and 1.2? :)

I think I'll stick to LotsaEscher 1.1 until matters settle down. A great relievance anyway.

Wishlist for LotsaEscher.

For the next version, would it be possible to include a random selection capability (image + to_and_fro + hither_and_thiher) to this control panel? A predetermined display time setting could also help switch between random images during screensaver session, for eg. if screensaver was configured to last for 30 min and LotsaEscher random display time for 5 min, we could expect to see 6 random images displayed during all session.

You can safely discard this idea in case you consider it unnecessary. Cheers. :)

No one work here.
I tried lotsaEacher, lotsaWater and lotsaGlass and all work fine in preview bur when screen saver really start didn't work.
lotsaEacher show a white screen, lotsaGlass show the texture white and lotsawater show a black screen.
This is very wierd, because all work fine before I erase my hard disk .

Please, help me fix this problem, i love the lotsaWater screen saver.

My computer is a iMac 2.1GHz , Mac OS 10.4.5.

Cheers

Happy to hear you are working on a universal binary version of Lotsawater. (Lotsawater is the first screensaver that made activate the sreensaving option ever). If I can help testing it, please send an email: lieven.baeten at gmail.com

hey bluejay, i am having a similar problem with the milky blob, where it only works in test mode but not real time.

could you explain how you fixed the problem with that tool you mentioned?

thx

well I´ve got the same problem..., when activating the screensaver from hot corner...screen goes black.., and doesn´t work in the normal way either..., I´m ruuning an Imac G5 with Tiger 10.4.5....I just love this!!!!!

lotsa water desktop option works fine now i upgraded to 10.4.5, thank you. how about an option where only the desktop picture gets put under water leaving the menu and dock the same. this makes for a much more realistic effect i think especially if the desktop is of a blocked drain or bath etc.... Anyway, just a suggestion.

keep up the good work.

>>110

I tried to add an option to load just the desktop background, but just that turned out far more complex than I though, due to the desktop image seldom being the same size as the screen, and there being several different resizing and tiling modes, so I kind of lost interest.

The way around this problem for me was to use Xback which lets you use any screensaver as a desktop.It gave me the effect I wanted.

So thanks again for your great work.

Hi,
I got this this(see image) in the preview window. How is this possible.
comp. is a Computer-model: Power Mac G4 (AGP-video)
Processor-type: PowerPC G4 (2.9) 400 MHz
video-card is : ATY,Rage128Pro: 16 MB
I guess Quartz Extreme does not work.
Is that the problem? Only a g4 with altivec was needed?

>>114

You didn't say which screensaver it is, but I'm guessing the ATI Rage128 Pro is the problem, especially if it's LotsaWater.

The screensaver is LotsaWater yes.
Is ATI Rage128 Pro and its 16 Mb of memory the problem?
What a pity. I have seen LotsaWater on a G5 and it looked swell.

Thanks

Well, it sure took me some time, but I've finally managed to both create universal binaries for all the screensavers, and produce what I hope is a fix for the white-texture bug!

http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaEscher1.3.zip
http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaGlass1.2.zip
http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaSnow1.2.zip
http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/mac/LotsaWater1.4.zip

The Intel versions are however not yet optimized for SSE. This shouldn't be too big a problem, since the Intel Macs should be fast enough to run them without much trouble even without optimizations, but do report problems, if any.

There are some more release notes for some minor features listed here: http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/lotsablankers/

The new version of LotsaGlass is now working on my iMac G5. No more white blobs. I love you!

Just in case any screen saver programmers ever have the same problem with white textures, and manage to Google up this thread: The problem was that

[NSImageRep imageRepWithContentsOfFile:path];

for some reason doesn't work, and returns nil when run by ScreenSaverEngine (but does work when run by System Preferences). However,

[NSBitmapImageRep imageRepWithData:[NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:path]];

does work just fine in both cases. This makes no sense whatsoever, and is most likely an OS X bug.

I just installed Lotsa Water...and it is completely amazing. Great Job. Thanks!!

I wanted to install Lotsawater on my Intel iMac but it won't work. Is that due to the new intel processor?
I've seen it on my friend's (older) iMac and it looks fantastic!!!!

I've just installed LotsWater on my brand new Intel MacBook, and when I ask the screensaver to use a custom image, I just get a blank screen with waves on top of it (it works ok when using the desktop picture, but as I lock the screensaver, I would just get a black screen then)...

Did you give it a picture to use?

Great screensavers and work perfectly under Intel (macbook pro).

A feature request: :-)
Allowing a folder of pictures to be used for LotsWater. It gets pretty boring seeing myself all day swiming.. ;)

Reading this thread is amazing. Some of you commented that your wife/girlfriend can't stand the screensaver.

My girlfriend hates it. Wierd huh! This is by far the coolest screensaver I've ever seen.
Cheers

I have only this to say:

LotsaGlass is the coolest thing ever created by a human.

Really enjoying LotsaWater thanks!
Is it possible to have an option to recapture the desktop at selectable timed intervals (say every 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, etc). This way one could see new emails coming in, that type of thing, without having to deactivate the screen saver.

Really enjoying LotsaWater thanks!
Is it possible to have an option to recapture the desktop at selectable timed intervals (say every 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, etc). This way one could see new emails coming in, that type of thing, without having to deactivate the screen saver.

>>131

I don't think there's a way to do this without first deactivitating the screensaver. That would look horribly distracting so I am not so keen on doing it.

If somebody can prove me wrong on that, I'd be most interested in hearing it, though.