How do you run a screensaver as desktop?

placebo

I remember a couple o' months ago, I saw something in Macworld about having a moving 'saver on your desktop instead of a static image. (Yes, I know that you can have the image change every 5 secs) I distinctly remember saying to myself "Wow! How stupid is THAT?", and closing the magazine. Well, now I can't imagine anything cooler than having a moving desktop, but I threw the Macworld out a long time ago. Does anyone remember or know how to to that through Terminal? I rather avoid using an app if it can be done throught the command line. Also, I recall that there was an UNIX argument that changed whether your computer's performance yielded to the screen saver's smoothness, and visa-versa.



Thanks. Having the Matrix code scrolling in the background would be SO cool.

rok

there are several utilities out there you can try. a quick search of versiontracker turned up this lil' piece of freeware...



Desk Effects



resexcellence linked to a very cool version once -- you might be able to search their archives. either way, make sure you have a recent machine, 'cause it will slow you down quite a bit otherwise.

airsluf

gargoyle

stick a space and an & on the end of that line then you can quit terminal... this is soo cool on my 1 Ghz iMac when surfing.. Loadsa CPU to spare.



I am using flurry and its using a massive 1.6% cpu on average

airsluf

alcimedes

Marine Aquarium is the best looking of the bunch, uses 8% tops on an 800PB G4.

cubs23

I was at version tracker and saw the exact thing you are looking for... it is called background saver.... I run a matrix screensaver, and it is a cpu hog, but it is way sweet.

pyr3

Quote:

Originally posted by Gargoyle

stick a space and an & on the end of that line then you can quit terminal... this is soo cool on my 1 Ghz iMac when surfing.. Loadsa CPU to spare.



I am using flurry and its using a massive 1.6% cpu on average

Don't need the space. '&' is a special character. It is treated as the 'background' operator anywhere that it is , unless there is a '\\' directly before it.

placebo

So does anyone remember the argument that modifies whether or not the screensaver yields performance to other processes?

menoch

Quote:

Originally posted by Gargoyle

stick a space and an & on the end of that line then you can quit terminal... this is soo cool on my 1 Ghz iMac when surfing.. Loadsa CPU to spare.



I am using flurry and its using a massive 1.6% cpu on average

Anyone know how to quit the screensaver as desktop command and go back to the desktops being desktops? *confused*

voodoodle

Quote:

Originally posted by Menoch

Anyone know how to quit the screensaver as desktop command and go back to the desktops being desktops? *confused*

if you started the screensaver in the terminal it will give you a number. that is the number of that command that just ran. just type in 'kill xxx' where xxx=the number and it'll end. if you lose this number by closing terminal then the only way i've found to get rid of it is restarting.

gammera3d

Try "Visage" works in Jag and Panther



http://www.stanford.edu/~keaka/visage.htm