Mac OS X screen savers (382)

1 Name: !WAHa.06x36 2005-06-16 19:23 ID:/DCn4yVC [Del]

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!

201 Name: chrisee : 2008-03-06 12:23 ID:lrq7FFGV [Del]

i also in my infinite wisdom run 2 aty rage 128 and it does not work, same error message as jill (42). runs fine on my imacg5 at work

202 Name: puntomac.es : 2008-04-23 11:25 ID:yrIJ74HA [Del]

Thank you. This is my video screen saver
I love this screensaver!

203 Name: jova : 2008-04-29 08:19 ID:Y4jsfd/Y [Del]

Hi, I have a problem with my new iMac 20'' when screensaver starts the effects of lotsawater appears like thet: black screen with water falling... why didn't it happen when I set a customize image?? It just happens with desktop snapshot image... help me! :) Is there a trick to delete this anomaly?

Thanks to you all
Ciao

204 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2008-04-29 10:47 ID:Heaven [Del]

>>203

If you have the computer set to require a password to unlock the screen, that happens. This is an OS X security feature, and can not be worked around.

205 Name: Mr Wanker : 2008-05-15 10:18 ID:JbdzdmCV [Del]

Installed LotsaWater on my Intel MacBook Pro and it worked like a charm. Then tried custom image but it already bombs out at the preview. Now I cannot change it back to normal desktop setting. I already tried to remove the screensaver but that does not remove the preferences. Could you tell me how to remove the preferences so I can use the normal screensaver again?

206 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2008-05-15 11:52 ID:Heaven [Del]

>>205

Try moving the picture you specified somewhere else.

207 Name: problem : 2008-05-20 06:12 ID:a/ph0ywy [Del]

i installed lotsa water earlier this day. it worked perfectly fine. i was exchanging the background picture for the screensaver and dragged&dropped an image out of the internet, when suddently my system preferences had to close down. a popup told me this was caused by a "plugin: lotsawater". so i deleted lotsawater, restarted my mac, redownloaded the screensaver, installed it, but everytime there was the same failure notice and system preferences had to close down.

could you tell me if there is any chance for me to get that screensaver to work?

208 Name: problem : 2008-05-20 06:24 ID:a/ph0ywy [Del]

also, i wanted to mention that lotsaesher and lotsaglass work without any problems. just like lotsawater did, until after 1 hour system preferences crashed. could i maybe email you my crash report?

209 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2008-05-20 10:12 ID:Heaven [Del]

>>208

I think deleting the file named "com.apple.screensaver.(something).plist" in Library -> Preferences -> ByHost might fix it.

210 Name: problem : 2008-05-20 13:49 ID:a/ph0ywy [Del]

great. it worked. thanks!

211 Name: mauriciomaam : 2008-05-31 12:26 ID:keRYizNa [Del]

in the MB of a friend (running Tiger).. lostawater works fine with the "password to unlock screen" enabled....it takes the snapshot fine..!!!
how?

212 Post deleted by user.

213 Name: Doekman : 2008-06-11 04:36 ID:j/BRfud4 [Del]

You probably haven't heard this, but I really like LotsaWater screensaver. Normally I'm a "blank-screen-type-of-buy". Runs smooth too on my G4 700 Mhz Tiger iMac!

I have a small bugreport, and two small requests:

bug: In the finder, the versionnumber isn't correctly shown, because the key "CFBundleShortVersionString" is used instead of "CFBundleVersion", so the finder still reports it's version 1.0 (when it's not).

feature 1: report the version number on the options preference pane.

feature 2: is it possible not to use a picture, but just the live desktop? Now I need to stop the screen saver to see which song is playing in iTunes...

214 Name: Cipher : 2008-06-23 22:28 ID:9sjg3G1A [Del]

Just wanted to say lotsawater is a great screen saver.

I had the problem of black screen when using hot corners and desktop locking but resolved this by dragging a photo to the custom picture shot instead of using the default desktop snapshot.
Can now use a single custom picture and use desktop locking under security with lotsawater.
Running it on a macbook pro with 4g ram, running 10.5

Although one thing did puzzle me for a little while was that I didnt know you had to actually drag the picture you wanted to the little preview window. But its all good.

215 Name: Cipher : 2008-06-23 22:29 ID:9sjg3G1A [Del]

Just wanted to say lotsawater is a great screen saver.

I had the problem of black screen when using hot corners and desktop locking but resolved this by dragging a photo to the custom picture shot instead of using the default desktop snapshot.
Can now use a single custom picture and use desktop locking under security with lotsawater.
Running it on a macbook pro with 4g ram, running 10.5

Although one thing did puzzle me for a little while was that I didnt know you had to actually drag the picture you wanted to the little preview window. But its all good.

216 Name: Max : 2008-09-24 19:27 ID:Wmvd7uGd [Del]

your water screensaver is really awesome.
so awesome that i tought the effect can be merged with some sorta warp animation that would be kinda liquid givin user some really trippy (ouch!)
what do you think? maybe an inspiration
on your future projects?
cheers!!
Max

217 Name: tom : 2008-09-29 20:36 ID:/cgUa7aG [Del]

i would like to see a zoom option that allows the user to specify a zoom step (maybe percentage). the default incremental zoom step is just inconvenient as it can make the images out of frame. thanks for the great software.

218 Name: millhouse : 2008-09-30 09:30 ID:UcIWusA3 [Del]

I have seen some screencaps and vids of this screensaver, and I really want it. seriously, it just looks so incredibly cool!

but the thing is, I am running a hackintosh 10.5.3, and it doesn't seem to be compatible, as I'm always only seeing blank screens when I'm trying to use it (though I'm absolutely sure my computer can do it: after choosing a custom picture, and running the screensaver once (I get a blank screen, what a surprise), the preview picture in the screensaver menu becomes a screencapshot of a working version...)
the clock gets displayed, btw.

any idea what could be the problem and how to fix it?
if anyone has an answer, please email me at das_muno[at]yahoo.de.

thanks in advance

219 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2008-10-03 05:07 ID:Heaven [Del]

>>218

I'd imagine there's some problem with the graphics driver. I'm afraid that's the price you pay for running a hackintosh.

220 Post deleted by moderator.

221 Name: afd : 2008-12-27 11:53 ID:MpW8XTLh [Del]

if you have a mac you have to change your settings in system preferences under security and uncheck "require password to wake computer from sleep or screen saver". then the black screen will not be a problem anymore..duh

222 Name: Anonymous : 2008-12-27 17:14 ID:Heaven [Del]

>>221
i'd rather have the black screen than have someone install a rootkit if i step away from the computer for a few minutes.

223 Name: DeusExMachina : 2009-03-07 18:14 ID:NA+ePtZQ [Del]

One useful feature that I did not see anyone request would be to allow the screensaver to find out the current desktop picture automatically, and use that as the custom background. That way, none of the open windows, mounted drives, etc. while appear on the screen, just as if you had selected the desktop pic for the background. This way, if you have it set to randomly change after a specified time interval, this would be correctly reflected when the screensaver pops up.

On a side note, I use Lostawater along with Wallsaver so that LotsaWater acts as my desktop background, rather than as a screen saver. It is kinda distracting, but too cool abandon.

224 Name: Anonymous : 2009-03-22 03:36 ID:7LfcHwgH [Del]

Hello, I'd like to ask if it's possible to have multiple boards using only one MySql database and how should I do it. Thanks.

225 Name: Anonymous : 2009-03-22 19:37 ID:Heaven [Del]

>>224
yes and different tables.

226 Name: Anonymous : 2009-03-22 19:38 ID:Heaven [Del]

>>224
also, you might want to try to post in the right thread next time.

227 Name: Thomas : 2009-04-08 04:19 ID:WgbVjH5r [Del]

The lotsaescher is awesome!
thanks very much

228 Name: Matt : 2009-04-13 12:56 ID:8t1lC0/a [Del]

I have the Keychain icon on the MenuBar (set by opening Keychain Access and selecting Preferences->General "Show Status in Menubar" This allows me to click the icon and "Lock Screen" Locking the screen runs the screen saver and requires a password upon a mouse move.

When Lotsawater is the screensaver and I click "Lock Screen" all that displays is a black screen and the ripples. There must be some error retrieving the snapshot when locking the screen.

"Fenetres Volantes" (another popular screensaver that depends on a snapshot) does work correctly when I select "Lock Screen"

Is there any way that Lotawater can implement the same capturing technique that Fenetres Volantes uses?

229 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2009-04-13 13:32 ID:Heaven [Del]

>>228

That is a Mac OS X security feature.

Fenetres Volantes does not capture the screen, it uses some kind of hack to capture windows, and the source is not available so I don't have any idea how it does it anyway. It is also unlikely to be useful for capturing the actual screen image.

230 Name: tuxguy : 2009-06-03 06:31 ID:+clE//uO [Del]

How difficult would it be to snap a new copy of the desktop every minute or so? Machine I am running this on is a touch screen mounted on a wall and it would be nice to see updated screenshots in the water. I guess I will dig into the src and find out.

231 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2009-06-03 08:18 ID:Heaven [Del]

As far as I know you'd have to close the whole screensaver window, as there's no way to grab an image from underneath it.

232 Name: Ozwheels : 2009-06-03 19:16 ID:q5YaOZgb [Del]

The black screen can be fixed by changing the "Dimming" setting under the Options buttons. It is not caused by the lock screen security settings.

"Dark" = black screen, mover the slider right brings back the desktop image.

233 Name: Matt : 2009-06-09 13:51 ID:lYP7zcfZ [Del]

As I said before, when Lotsawater is the screensaver and I click "Lock Screen" all that displays is a black screen and the ripples. This occurs even if the "Dimming" setting is set to normal. If clicking "Lock Screen" still allows the screensaver to work for you, what else are you doing?

234 Name: Anonymous : 2009-06-12 23:40 ID:wkPzqN27 [Del]

LotsaWater needs a Default (Reset) button just like LotsaSnow.
Thanks!

235 Name: Trevor : 2009-06-13 12:52 ID:kNZuEPxJ [Del]

Just a heads up, Lotsawater isn't working in Snow Leopard :( Not sure if you are still developing this, but it's my all time favorite screensaver, and I'd be sad to see it have to go.

236 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2009-06-14 08:49 ID:IlQnMdRg [Del]

If it's not too much work to fix, I'll probably fix it when I get Snow Leopard.

237 Name: Trevor : 2009-06-14 19:17 ID:XK6x2ae5 [Del]

Awesome :) if you need a guinea pig, you can email me, trevor.kidd -at- msn.com

238 Name: Robinthehood : 2009-06-24 17:53 ID:Q7Pwopz5 [Del]

This is by far "the" screen saver to savour! Great work!
I know I'll be getting Snow leopard when it comes in Sept. this year.
So more power to getting a fix. : >)
Thanks ahead of time.

239 Name: Boki : 2009-07-03 19:53 ID:fu7KP81m [Del]

Hi, on my computer (iMac 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard, 1920x1200 resolution screen) when LotsaWater starts, there is a colourful corrupted screen displayed for a moment. After that everything works like magic. Would it be possible to smoothen start-up (maybe with a fade in effect)?

240 Post deleted by user.

241 Post deleted by user.

242 Name: mit3y : 2009-07-14 11:40 ID:uWGSc9FU [Del]

Any chance of getting a random option on lotsaescher? Perhaps it would change the frame that is being used after a certain time interval?

Great work here!

-mit3y

243 Name: Stanislavskiy : 2009-08-23 02:11 ID:Uyw39zPH [Del]

What about OS X 10.6 compatibility? (LotsaWater 1.4j is not working)

244 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2009-08-23 05:31 ID:Heaven [Del]

>>243

When I actually have Snow Leopard I will look into it.

245 Name: Chris : 2009-08-28 01:32 ID:ee3o9GM8 [Del]

Go download a torrent bitch. We want snow leopard compatibility now... Get it??????

246 Name: __geof__ : 2009-08-28 03:30 ID:KPg3SC7o [Del]

Please. Could you make it (lotsawater) work on snow leopard?

247 Name: Rosenlund : 2009-08-28 13:56 ID:22FaMqhC [Del]

Yes, i realy want the screensaver to work on my Snow Leopard!
:)

lotsawater is the best screensaver ever made!

248 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2009-08-28 15:58 ID:Heaven [Del]

Tell you what, somebody donate me the money for Snow Leopard and I'll be on it in a flash.

249 Name: Zurich fan : 2009-08-28 16:42 ID:sMKowEJP [Del]

What's your paypal account? ;-)

250 Name: Zurich fan : 2009-08-28 16:42 ID:sMKowEJP [Del]

What's your paypal account? ;-)

251 Name: oio : 2009-08-29 07:04 ID:j/JazI2t [Del]

Did someone find lotawater for snowleopard?
I really love this screensaver and i'd like to have it again!

252 Name: yyb : 2009-08-29 10:40 ID:smfIfbdm [Del]

I would pay the $29 for you to get snow leopard and fix lotsawater... my mac doesn't feel complete with out it!

253 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2009-08-29 16:40 ID:Heaven [Del]

254 Name: Jp : 2009-08-30 21:09 ID:437f9aQO [Del]

I'll donate you
if you can make LotsaWater to work on Snow Leopard
I do love that.
:)

255 Name: Paolo : 2009-08-31 10:45 ID:tGeMr8mN [Del]

Please, make LotsaWater run on SnowLeopard....

256 Name: Paolo : 2009-08-31 10:46 ID:tGeMr8mN [Del]

Please, let LotsaWater run on Snow Leopard...

257 Name: Mark : 2009-08-31 13:33 ID:IOip/jP+ [Del]

Just chipping in my vote for Snow Leopard support in LotsaGlass.
Many thanks!

258 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2009-08-31 14:55 ID:IlQnMdRg [Del]

Well, since apparently nobody wanted to put their money where they mouth is, I had to get Alexander Strange to help out with compiling and testing, but we did finally get them working. Maybe. Not much testing has been done, so proceed at your own risk.

http://lotsablankers.googlecode.com/files/LotsaEscher1.4.zip
http://lotsablankers.googlecode.com/files/LotsaGlass1.3.zip
http://lotsablankers.googlecode.com/files/LotsaSnow1.4.zip
http://lotsablankers.googlecode.com/files/LotsaWater1.5.zip

259 Name: tom : 2009-09-01 02:14 ID:jfQiLM4R [Del]

Please serve us the "leaves falling screen saver" for autumn version modified the Lotus Snow .

260 Name: Martin : 2009-09-01 12:14 ID:2cjcg/FV [Del]

Thanks a lot for the good work ;-)

They are all working fine...

261 Name: xja : 2009-09-01 13:51 ID:ck/xGCf0 [Del]

I also have the black screen problem with screen locking on MacBook (1,1) OS X 10.5.8 and LotsaWater 1.5, I deactivated asking for password in order to exit the screensaver and worked with the snapshot.
It used to work as intended under Tiger, even with password on exit, but I really would like it back to work, I need the password on exit and still love this screensaver.

Bye

262 Name: Trevor : 2009-09-01 20:59 ID:XK6x2ae5 [Del]

HEY!! Glad to see LotsaWater working in SnoLeo.

I assume that your paypal addy is the one from the donate link on the main page, but how would you prefer your donation, in USD, CAD, EUROs, etc? I can't quite spare enough for a copy of SnoLeo, but I'd be happy to send $10 USD to go towards it. It's not much I know, but that's all I can really spare at the moment.

Thanks again for your hard work, and if you ever need a guinea pig for testing, feel free to let me know.

[email protected]

Trevor ;)

263 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2009-09-02 07:43 ID:Heaven [Del]

>>262

EUR. Also, you can just use the buttons on http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/lotsablankers/.

264 Name: Rosenlund : 2009-09-04 08:43 ID:bIjNvQwT [Del]

Thank you! my Snow Leopard is complete with lotsawater!

265 Name: seb : 2009-09-08 23:45 ID:BVM+AyFq [Del]

lotsawater runs with snowleopard perfectly … in preview. with my macbook the screen goes black when the saver is activated and the rain drops on a black screen. in preview it takes the actual screen image. what did i do wrong? thank you!

266 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2009-09-09 07:00 ID:Heaven [Del]

>>265

That's a Mac OS X security feature when you have screen locking turned on.

267 Name: boki : 2009-09-12 17:07 ID:fu7KP81m [Del]

Hi, just wanted to let you know, that the new version of LotsaWater no longer has the corrupted screenshot issue that was present on Leopard. Huzzah for that! The greatest screensaver of all time is back in action!

268 Name: Jay Carr : 2009-09-18 19:42 ID:Vdkhz9HG [Del]

It seems to be running faster under snow leopard, did you use GCD while you were making the new version? I just wonder.

269 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2009-09-19 11:08 ID:Heaven [Del]

>>268

No, it's pretty much exactly the same code. Funny that.

270 Name: MAC MAN : 2009-10-06 17:17 ID:r6ChKGBV (Image: 2048x1536 jpg, 822 kb) [Del]

src/1254874671685.jpg: 2048x1536, 822 kb

HOW DO I GET LOST OF WATER TO WORK WITH THE LOCK? HAS THIS BEEN FIGURED OUT YET?

271 Name: Shaz : 2009-10-28 21:52 ID:ZfhEIR57 [Del]

SAME HERE!!! can we fgure out how to mka eit work with the lock on? please!!!

272 Name: Shaz : 2009-10-28 21:53 ID:ZfhEIR57 [Del]

SAME HERE!!! can we fgure out how to mka eit work with the lock on? please!!!

273 Name: Shaz : 2009-10-29 06:38 ID:ZfhEIR57 [Del]

i have an idea. we can make a script that automatically goes off right when the screen saver starts! it will take a snapshot of the screen and it will use that as background!! ok how do we do this?

274 Name: Shamguy4 : 2009-10-30 10:54 ID:mu92qPkl [Del]

ok so i have made the fix!!!!
its kinda a workaround...
so you need lotsawater (obviously) and a screensaver called scriptsaver. it will allow you to play a script as screensaver turns on.

using this i set it up as follows:

go into preferences and screensaver
in lotsawater set it to use custom screen. mine is in my documents
go to scriptsaver and options. set it to use my script, which youll just have to copy paste somewhere.... (change 'paths' to your computer settings.)

tell application "Finder"

if exists file "Macintosh HD:Users:'paths':Documents:screen.jpg" then
set var1 to minutes of (get modification date of (file "Macintosh HD:Users:'paths':Documents:screen.jpg"))
set var2 to minutes of (current date)
if var1 is var2 then return
end if

end tell

tell application "ScreenSaverEngine" to quit
delay 1
do shell script "screencapture /Users/'paths'/Documents/screen.jpg"
tell application "ScreenSaverEngine" to activate

well what this does is stops the screen saver checks the last time it was captured (otherwise it will just loop over and over) and takes the capture and resumes screensaver

275 Name: Anonymous : 2009-11-05 17:33 ID:Heaven [Del]

>>274
is that some kind of COBOL?

276 Name: Anonymous : 2009-11-07 11:01 ID:Heaven [Del]

>>275
It's AppleScript, which tries very hard to be COBOL.

277 Name: Chris : 2009-11-18 16:20 ID:F53jZLRl [Del]

It seems not to work with snow 10.6.2...

278 Name: Jim : 2009-12-23 16:34 ID:ilvwJJfD [Del]

Lotsasnow is very nice! Next time you're playing around do you think you could create an irregular breeze, i.e., one that affected snowflakes differently depending on their size? or that affected all snowflakes equally (in a horizontal direction), but the flakes fell at different rates depending on their size? or both?

279 Name: Hawkeye : 2009-12-26 01:21 ID:gJcFTKPZ [Del]

Was wondering that for security, there could be a stand alone option for just using the background for the SS rather than a screen snap shot.

I have earthdesk running in the background and would prefer that to be used.

This is a small bu8t significant security issue and it would be easier if just the background as present.

Cheers Hawkeye

280 Name: Richard : 2010-01-02 17:45 ID:T37yJrP9 [Del]

Thanx for the superduper screensaver LotsaWater!!

Though, it seems not to work with Snow.. update - 10.6.2. :(

/R

281 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2010-01-04 12:05 ID:Heaven [Del]

>>280

Are you using the newest version of LotsaWater?

282 Name: Jigme : 2010-01-07 01:14 ID:3s6ulewi [Del]

hi -

the issue whereby the screenshot just renders a black screen for the Lotswater background when you have Require Password to wake from Sleep enabled in 10.6 - is it fixed yet?

many thanks for your work!

j x

283 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2010-01-07 10:02 ID:Heaven [Del]

>>282

For the millionth time, that is an OS X security feature, and there is not really anything LotsaWater can do about it.

284 Name: 124.226.151.26 : 2010-02-09 10:05 ID:UJBFuQ4F [Del]

what does it mean ?

285 Name: dano : 2010-02-23 18:02 ID:KMAbbexe [Del]

hmm... my girlfriend loves lotsawater, and so does her roommate. I don't know what's wrong with the rest of the female population!

I'm looking around for a fix on the OS X side for the black screen issue, and I'll post if I come up with anything.

286 Post deleted by moderator.

287 Post deleted by user.

288 Post deleted by moderator.

289 Name: ultrasawblade : 2010-04-01 14:37 ID:14luDMjK [Del]

Sorry if this has been answered before. I searched as best as I could but could not find a specific answer to this.

Most "profressional" imageboards have a root page containing links to subboards. So I want to make one, but have it read the user's cookie and obey the display settings. I'm asking:

  • Is there a template around that everyone uses to do this?, or
  • Is the root page on most live boards just another board, but with config.pl set to disallow non-admin edits and look different?

290 Name: Ic3 : 2010-04-03 16:03 ID:NJtKd+91 [Del]

Hi, thanks for the great screen savers!

For the idea to see the actual Desktop and not a screenshot of it:
It's just a thought coming to my mind by fooling around with the custom images.
I don't know if this will work, but since the formats png and tga are allowed, isn't it possible to allow alpha maps for these formats to make the actual image transparent? Or will this also make the water drop effects transparent?

Anyway, it's a great screen saver.

Regards

291 Name: Ic3 : 2010-04-03 16:06 ID:NJtKd+91 [Del]

>>290

Sorry forget to mention.
I was speaking of LotsaWater.

Regards

292 Post deleted by user.

293 Post deleted by user.

294 Post deleted by user.

295 Name: Bez : 2010-04-21 10:31 ID:duX+W7fc [Del]

My screen goes to black then lotsawater starts. I prefer it would do the effect using whatever is on the desktop. How do I fix it please?

296 Post deleted by moderator.

297 Post deleted by moderator.

299 Post deleted by moderator.

300 Name: jwgh : 2010-06-15 19:31 ID:RTSm/laJ [Del]

Pretty belated, but just wanted to say I downloaded all of the screen savers on my Intel mac running Mac OS X 10.6.3 and they all work great. Thanks!

Name: Link:
Leave these fields empty (spam trap):
More options...
Verification: