# nie:InformationElement

nie:title: Anemotaxis
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Anemotaxis demonstrates a search algorithm designed for locating a source of odor in turbulent atmosphere. The searcher is able to sense the odor and determine local instantaneous wind direction. The goal is to find the source in the shortest mean time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemotaxis Written by Eugene Balkovsky.


nie:title: AntSpotlight
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws an ant (with a headlight) who walks on top of an image of your desktop or other image. Written by Blair Tennessy.


nie:title: Apollonian
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws an Apollonian gasket: a fractal packing of circles with smaller circles, demonstrating Descartes's theorem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollonian_gasket http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes%27_theorem Written by Allan R. Wilks and David Bagley.


nie:title: Apple2
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Simulates an original Apple ][ Plus computer in all its 1979 glory. It also reproduces the appearance of display on a color television set of the period. In "Basic Programming Mode", a simulated user types in a BASIC program and runs it. In "Text Mode", it displays the output of a program, or the contents of a file or URL. In "Slideshow Mode", it chooses random images and displays them within the limitations of the Apple ][ display hardware. (Six available colors in hi-res mode!) On X11 systems, This program is also a fully-functional VT100 emulator. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_series Written by Trevor Blackwell.


nie:title: Attraction
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Uses a simple simple motion model to generate many different display modes. The control points attract each other up to a certain distance, and then begin to repel each other. The attraction/repulsion is proportional to the distance between any two particles, similar to the strong and weak nuclear forces. Written by Jamie Zawinski and John Pezaris.


nie:title: Barcode
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a random sequence of colorful barcodes scrolling across your screen. CONSUME! The barcodes follow the UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-8 or EAN-13 standards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Product_Code http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Article_Number Written by Dan Bornstein.


nie:title: Beats
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws figures that move around at a slightly different rate from each other, creating interesting chaotic and ordered patterns. Written by David Eccles.


nie:title: BinaryRing
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A system of path tracing particles evolves continuously from an initial creation, alternating dark and light colors. Written by J. Tarbell and Emilio Del Tessandoro.


nie:title: Blaster
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a simulation of flying space-combat robots (cleverly disguised as colored circles) doing battle in front of a moving star field. Written by Jonathan Lin.


nie:title: BlinkBox
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Shows a ball contained inside of a bounding box. Colored blocks blink in when the ball hits the sides. Written by Jeremy English.


nie:title: BlitSpin
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Repeatedly rotates a bitmap by 90 degrees by using logical operations: the bitmap is divided into quadrants, and the quadrants are shifted clockwise. Then the same thing is done again with progressively smaller quadrants, except that all sub-quadrants of a given size are rotated in parallel. As you watch it, the image appears to dissolve into static and then reconstitute itself, but rotated. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: BlockTube
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a swirling, falling tunnel of reflective slabs. They fade from hue to hue. Written by Lars R. Damerow.


nie:title: Boing
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This bouncing ball is a clone of the first graphics demo for the Amiga 1000, which was written by Dale Luck and RJ Mical during a break at the 1984 Consumer Electronics Show (or so the legend goes.) This looks like the original Amiga demo if you turn off "smoothing" and "lighting" and turn on "scanlines", and is somewhat more modern otherwise. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga#Boing_Ball Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Bouboule
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws what looks like a spinning, deforming balloon with varying-sized spots painted on its invisible surface. Written by Jeremie Petit.


nie:title: BoxFit
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Packs the screen with growing squares or circles, colored according to a horizontal or vertical gradient, or according to the colors of the desktop or a loaded image file. The objects grow until they touch, then stop. When the screen is full, they shrink away and the process restarts. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Bubble3D
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a stream of rising, undulating 3D bubbles, rising toward the top of the screen, with transparency and specular reflections. Written by Richard Jones.


nie:title: Bumps
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A spotlight roams across an embossed version of your desktop or other picture. Written by Shane Smit.


nie:title: Cage
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws Escher's "Impossible Cage", a 3d analog of a moebius strip, and rotates it in three dimensions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurits_Cornelis_Escher Written by Marcelo Vianna.


nie:title: Carousel
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Loads several random images, and displays them flying in a circular formation. The formation changes speed and direction randomly, and images periodically drop out to be replaced by new ones. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: CCurve
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Generates self-similar linear fractals, including the classic "C Curve". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levy_C_curve Written by Rick Campbell.


nie:title: Celtic
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Repeatedly draws random Celtic cross-stitch patterns. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_knot Written by Max Froumentin.


nie:title: Cityflow
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Waves move across a sea of boxes. The city swells. The walls are closing in. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: CloudLife
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Generates cloud-like formations based on a variant of Conway's Life. The difference is that cells have a maximum age, after which they count as 3 for populating the next generation. This makes long-lived formations explode instead of just sitting there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life Written by Don Marti.


nie:title: CompanionCube
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  The symptoms most commonly produced by Enrichment Center testing are superstition, perceiving inanimate objects as alive, and hallucinations. The Enrichment Center reminds you that the weighted companion cube will never threaten to stab you and, in fact, cannot speak. In the event that the Weighted Companion Cube does speak, the Enrichment Center urges you to disregard its advice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_%28video_game%29 Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Compass
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws a compass, with all elements spinning about randomly, for that "lost and nauseous" feeling. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Crackberg
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Flies through height maps, optionally animating the creation and destruction of generated tiles; tiles `grow' into place. Written by Matus Telgarsky.


nie:title: Crumbler
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Randomly subdivides a ball into voronoi chunks, then further subdivides one of the remaining pieces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voronoi_diagram https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convex_hull https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quickhull Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Crystal
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Moving polygons, similar to a kaleidoscope. See also the "Kaleidescope" and "GLeidescope" screen savers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleidoscope Written by Jouk Jansen.


nie:title: Cube21
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Animates a Rubik-like puzzle known as Cube 21 or Square-1. The rotations are chosen randomly. See also the "Rubik" and "GLSnake" screen savers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_One_%28puzzle%29 Written by Vasek Potocek.


nie:title: Cubenetic
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a pulsating set of overlapping boxes with ever-chaning blobby patterns undulating across their surfaces. It's sort of a cubist Lavalite. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: CubeStorm
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a series of rotating 3D boxes that intersect each other and eventually fill space. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: CubicGrid
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws the view of an observer located inside a rotating 3D lattice of colored points. Written by Vasek Potocek.


nie:title: CWaves
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This generates a languidly-scrolling vertical field of sinusoidal colors. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Cynosure
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Random dropshadowed rectangles pop onto the screen in lockstep. Written by Ozymandias G. Desiderata, Jamie Zawinski, and Stephen Linhart.


nie:title: DecayScreen
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This takes an image and makes it melt. You've no doubt seen this effect before, but no screensaver would really be complete without it. It works best if there's something colorful visible. Warning, if the effect continues after the screen saver is off, seek medical attention. Written by David Wald, Vivek Khera, Jamie Zawinski, and Vince Levey.


nie:title: Deco
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Subdivides and colors rectangles randomly. It looks kind of like Brady-Bunch-era rec-room wall paneling. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian#Paris_1919.E2.80.931938 Written by Jamie Zawinski and Michael Bayne.


nie:title: Demon
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A cellular automaton that starts with a random field, and organizes it into stripes and spirals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_demon Written by David Bagley.


nie:title: Discrete
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  More "discrete map" systems, including new variants of Hopalong and Julia, and a few others. Written by Tim Auckland.


nie:title: Distort
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Grabs an image of the screen, and then lets a transparent lens wander around the screen, magnifying whatever is underneath. Written by Jonas Munsin.


nie:title: DymaxionMap
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Buckminster Fuller's map of the Earth projected onto the surface of an unfolded icosahedron. It depicts the Earth's continents as one island, or nearly contiguous land masses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_map https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Endgame
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Black slips out of three mating nets, but the fourth one holds him tight! A brilliant composition! See also the "Queens" screen saver. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_endgame Written by Blair Tennessy.


nie:title: EnergyStream
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A flow of particles which form an energy stream. Written by Eugene Sandulenko and Konrad "Yoghurt" Zagorowicz.


nie:title: Engine
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a simple model of an engine that floats around the screen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_combustion_engine#Operation Written by Ben Buxton and Ed Beroset.


nie:title: Epicycle
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws the path traced out by a point on the edge of a circle. That circle rotates around a point on the rim of another circle, and so on, several times. These were the basis for the pre-heliocentric model of planetary motion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferent_and_epicycle Written by James Youngman.


nie:title: Eruption
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Exploding fireworks. See also the "Fireworkx", "XFlame" and "Pyro" screen savers. Written by W.P. van Paassen.


nie:title: Esper
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  "Enhance 224 to 176. Pull out track right. Center in pull back. Pull back. Wait a minute. Go right. Stop. Enhance 57 19. Track 45 left. Gimme a hardcopy right there." The Esper Machine was a voice-controlled forensic device used by LAPD in 2019, as documented in the 1982 film, Blade Runner. It was capable of enhancing photographs to an extreme degree, including reconstructing different viewpoints within the space from the reflections on various objects in the photograph. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: EtruscanVenus
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A 3D immersion of of a Klein bottle that smoothly deforms between the Etruscan Venus surface, the Roman surface, the Boy surface, and the Ida surface. Topologically, all surfaces are Klein bottles, even the Roman and Boy surfaces, which are doubly covered and therefore appear to be an immersed real projective plane. You can walk on the Klein bottle or rotate it in 3D. Since all the surfaces except the Ida surfaces have points where the surface normal is not well defined for some points, walking is performed on the Ida surface. Furthermore, it is possible to smoothly deform the surface between the Etruscan Venus surface, the Roman surface, the Boy surface, and the Ida surface surface while turning it. Inspired by George K. Francis's book "A Topological Picturebook", Springer, 1987, George K. Francis's paper "The Etruscan Venus" in P. Concus, R. Finn, and D. A. Hoffman: "Geometric Analysis and Computer Graphics", Springer, 1991, and a video entitled "The Etruscan Venus" by Donna J. Cox, George K. Francis, and Raymond L. Idaszak, presented at SIGGRAPH 1989. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy%27s_surface https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_surface https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klein_bottle http://mathworld.wolfram.com/BoySurface.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RomanSurface.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/EtruscanVenusSurface.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/IdaSurface.html Written by Carsten Steger.


nie:title: Euler2D
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Simulates two dimensional incompressible inviscid fluid flow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler_equations_%28fluid_dynamics%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inviscid_flow Written by Stephen Montgomery-Smith.


nie:title: Extrusion
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws various rotating extruded shapes that twist around, lengthen, and turn inside out. Written by Linas Vepstas, David Konerding, and Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: FadePlot
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws what looks like a waving ribbon following a sinusoidal path. Written by Bas van Gaalen and Charles Vidal.


nie:title: FilmLeader
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Displays a looping countdown based on the SMPTE Universal Film leader on a simulation of an old analog television. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_leader Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Fireworkx
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Exploding fireworks. See also the "Eruption", "XFlame" and "Pyro" screen savers. Written by Rony B Chandran.


nie:title: FlipFlop
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a grid of 3D colored tiles that change positions with each other. Written by Kevin Ogden and Sergio Gutierrez.


nie:title: FlipScreen3D
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Grabs an image of the desktop, turns it into a GL texture map, and spins it around and deforms it in various ways. Written by Ben Buxton and Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: FlipText
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws successive pages of text. The lines flip in and out in a soothing 3D pattern. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Flow
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Strange attractors formed of flows in a 3D differential equation phase space. Features the popular attractors described by Lorentz, Roessler, Birkhoff and Duffing, and can discover entirely new attractors by itself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attractor#Strange_attractor Written by Tim Auckland.


nie:title: FluidBalls
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Models the physics of bouncing balls, or of particles in a gas or fluid, depending on the settings. If "Shake Box" is selected, then every now and then, the box will be rotated, changing which direction is down (in order to keep the settled balls in motion.) Written by Peter Birtles and Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Flurry
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This X11 port of the OSX screensaver of the same name draws a colourful star(fish)like flurry of particles. Original Mac version: http://homepage.mac.com/calumr Written by Calum Robinson and Tobias Sargeant.


nie:title: FlyingToasters
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A fleet of 3d space-age jet-powered flying toasters (and toast!) Inspired by the ancient Berkeley Systems After Dark flying toasters. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Dark_%28software%29#Flying_Toasters Written by Jamie Zawinski and Devon Dossett.


nie:title: FontGlide
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Puts text on the screen using large characters that glide in from the edges, assemble, then disperse. Alternately, it can simply scroll whole sentences from right to left. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Galaxy
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws spinning galaxies, which then collide and scatter their stars to the, uh, four winds or something. Written by Uli Siegmund, Harald Backert, and Hubert Feyrer.


nie:title: Gears
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws sets of turning, interlocking gears, rotating in three dimensions. See also the "Pinion" and "MoebiusGears" screen savers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involute_gear http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicyclic_gearing Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Geodesic
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Animates a mesh geodesic sphere of increasing and decreasing complexity. A geodesic sphere is an icosohedron whose equilateral faces are sub-divided into non-equilateral triangles to more closely approximate a sphere. The animation shows the equilateral triangles subdivided into four coplanar equilateral triangles; and then inflated outward, causing the sub-triangles to no longer be equilateral, but to more closely approximate the surface of a sphere. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesic_dome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: GeodesicGears
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A set of meshed gears arranged on the surface of a sphere. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesic_dome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involute_gear Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Gibson
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Hacking the Gibson, as per the 1995 classic film, HACKERS. Cereal Killer: "Oh yeah, you want a seriously righteous hack, you score one of those Gibsons, man. You know, supercomputers they use to like, do physics, and look for oil and stuff?" Phantom Phreak: "Ain't no way, man, security's too tight. The big iron?" Zero Cool: "Maybe. But, if I were gonna hack some heavy metal, I'd, uh, work my way back through some low security, and try the back door." Cereal Killer: "Yeah but oh man, wouldn't you just love to get one of those Gibsons, baby? Ooooh!" Phantom Phreak: "Yo, who ate all of my fries?" Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: GLBlur
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws a box and a few line segments, and generates a radial blur outward from it. This creates flowing field effects. This is done by rendering the scene into a small texture, then repeatedly rendering increasingly-enlarged and increasingly-transparent versions of that texture onto the frame buffer. As such, it's quite GPU-intensive: if you don't have a very good graphics card, it will hurt your machine bad. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Gleidescope
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A kaleidoscope that operates on your desktop image, or on image files loaded from disk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleidoscope Written by Andrew Dean.


nie:title: GLHanoi
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Solves the Towers of Hanoi puzzle. Move N disks from one pole to another, one disk at a time, with no disk ever resting on a disk smaller than itself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Hanoi Written by Dave Atkinson; 2005. 	


nie:title: GlitchPEG
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Loads an image, corrupts it, and then displays the corrupted version, several times a second. After a while, finds a new image to corrupt. Written by Jamie Zawinski; 2018.


nie:title: GLKnots
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Generates some twisting 3d knot patterns. Spins 'em around. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knot_theory Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: GLMatrix
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws 3D dropping characters similar to what is seen in the title sequence of "The Matrix". See also "xmatrix" for a 2D rendering of the similar effect that appeared on the computer monitors actually *in* the movie. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: GLPlanet
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a planet bouncing around in space. The built-in image is a map of the earth (extracted from `xearth'), but you can wrap any texture around the sphere, e.g., the planetary textures that come with `ssystem'. Written by David Konerding.


nie:title: GLSchool
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Uses Craig Reynolds' Boids algorithm to simulate a school of fish. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boids Written by David C. Lambert.


nie:title: GLSlideshow
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Loads a random sequence of images and smoothly scans and zooms around in each, fading from pan to pan. Written by Jamie Zawinski and Mike Oliphant.


nie:title: GLSnake
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a simulation of the Rubik's Snake puzzle. See also the "Rubik" and "Cube21" screen savers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubik%27s_Snake Written by Jamie Wilkinson, Andrew Bennetts, and Peter Aylett.


nie:title: GLText
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Displays a few lines of text spinning around in a solid 3D font. The text can use strftime() escape codes to display the current date and time. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Goop
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws set of animating, transparent, amoeba-like blobs. The blobs change shape as they wander around the screen, and they are translucent, so you can see the lower blobs through the higher ones, and when one passes over another, their colors merge. I got the idea for this from a mouse pad I had once, which achieved the same kind of effect in real life by having several layers of plastic with colored oil between them. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Grav
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws a simple orbital simulation. With trails enabled, it looks kind of like a cloud-chamber photograph. Written by Greg Bowering.


nie:title: Halftone
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws the gravity force in each point on the screen seen through a halftone dot pattern. The gravity force is calculated from a set of moving mass points. View it from a distance for best effect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halftone Written by Peter Jaric.


nie:title: Halo
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws trippy psychedelic circular patterns that hurt to look at. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moire_pattern Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Headroom
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  "Back in my day, we used to say 'No future'. Well. This is it." -- Blank Reg "I can dump down all the information in the mind. Then I can eliminate any information I don't want. My parrot squawks in much the same way. For the moment, the computer power is only enough to generate a human head." -- Bryce Lynch Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Hexadrop
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a grid of hexagons or other shapes and drops them out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiling_by_regular_polygons Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Hexstrut
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A grid of hexagons composed of rotating Y-shaped struts. Waves of rotation and color changes randomly propagate across the plane. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Hilbert
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws the recursive Hilbert space-filling curve, in both 2D and 3D variants. It incrementally animates the growth and recursion to the maximum depth, then unwinds it back. The Hilbert path is a single contiguous line that can fill a volume without crossing itself. As a data structure, Hilbert paths are useful because ordering along the curve preserves locality: points that close together along the curve are also close together in space. The converse is often, but not always, true. The coloration reflects this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert_curve Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Hopalong
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws lacy fractal patterns based on iteration in the imaginary plane, from a 1986 Scientific American article. See also the "Discrete" screen saver. Written by Patrick Naughton.


nie:title: Hydrostat
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Wiggly squid or jellyfish with many tentacles. A muscular hydrostat is a biological structure used to move its host about, consisting of muscles with no skeletal support. It performs its hydraulic movement without fluid in a separate compartment, as in a hydrostatic skeleton. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscular_hydrostat Written by Justin Windle and Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Hypertorus
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This shows a rotating Clifford Torus: a torus lying on the "surface" of a 4D hypersphere. Inspired by Thomas Banchoff's book "Beyond the Third Dimension: Geometry, Computer Graphics, and Higher Dimensions", Scientific American Library, 1990. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-sphere http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_torus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_polytope Written by Carsten Steger.


nie:title: Hypnowheel
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a series of overlapping, translucent spiral patterns. The tightness of their spirals fluctuates in and out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moire_pattern Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: IFS
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This one draws spinning, colliding iterated-function-system images. Note that the "Detail" parameter is exponential. Number of points drawn is functions^detail. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iterated_function_system Written by Chris Le Sueur and Robby Griffin.


nie:title: IMSMap
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This generates random cloud-like patterns. The idea is to take four points on the edge of the image, and assign each a random "elevation". Then find the point between them, and give it a value which is the average of the other four, plus some small random offset. Coloration is done based on elevation. Written by Juergen Nickelsen and Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Interaggregate
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A surface is filled with a hundred medium to small sized circles. Each circle has a different size and direction, but moves at the same slow rate. Displays the instantaneous intersections of the circles as well as the aggregate intersections of the circles. Though actually it doesn't look like circles at all! Written by Casey Reas, William Ngan, Robert Hodgin, and Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Intermomentary
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A surface is filled with a hundred medium to small sized circles. Each circle has a different size and direction, but moves at the same slow rate. Displays the instantaneous intersections of the circles as well as the aggregate intersections of the circles. The circles begin with a radius of 1 pixel and slowly increase to some arbitrary size. Circles are drawn with small moving points along the perimeter. The intersections are rendered as glowing orbs. Glowing orbs are rendered only when a perimeter point moves past the intersection point. Written by Casey Reas, William Ngan, Robert Hodgin, and Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: JigglyPuff
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This does bad things with quasi-spherical objects. You have a tetrahedron with tesselated faces. The vertices on these faces have forces on them: one proportional to the distance from the surface of a sphere; and one proportional to the distance from the neighbors. They also have inertia. The resulting effect can range from a shape that does nothing, to a frenetic polygon storm. Somewhere in between there it usually manifests as a blob that jiggles in a kind of disturbing manner. Written by Keith Macleod.


nie:title: Jigsaw
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This grabs a screen image, carves it up into a jigsaw puzzle, shuffles it, and then solves the puzzle. This works especially well when you feed it an external video signal instead of letting it grab the screen image (actually, I guess this is generally true...) When it is grabbing a video image, it is sometimes pretty hard to guess what the image is going to look like once the puzzle is solved. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Juggler3D
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  3D simulation of a juggler performing with balls, clubs and rings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siteswap Written by Brian Apps.


nie:title: Julia
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Animates the Julia set (a close relative of the Mandelbrot set). The small moving dot indicates the control point from which the rest of the image was generated. See also the "Discrete" screen saver. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_set Written by Sean McCullough.


nie:title: Kaleidescope
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A simple kaleidoscope. See also "GLeidescope". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleidoscope Written by Ron Tapia.


nie:title: Kaleidocycle
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draw a ring composed of tetrahedra connected at the edges that twists and rotates toroidally. When a series of tetrahedra are joined at the edges in a loop, it is possible for them to rotate continously through the center without deforming. This only works with an even number of tetrahedra, and there must be eight or more, or they don't fit. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Klein
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws a visualization of a Klein bottle or some other interesting parametric surfaces. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klein_bottle Written by Andrey Mirtchovski.


nie:title: Kumppa
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Spiraling, spinning, and very, very fast splashes of color rush toward the screen. Written by Teemu Suutari.


nie:title: Lament
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Animates a simulation of Lemarchand's Box, the Lament Configuration, repeatedly solving itself. Warning: occasionally opens doors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemarchand%27s_box Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Lavalite
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a 3D Simulation a Lava Lite(r). Odd-shaped blobs of a mysterious substance are heated, slowly rise to the top of the bottle, and then drop back down as they cool. This simulation requires a fairly fast machine (both CPU and 3D performance.) "LAVA LITE(r) and the configuration of the LAVA(r) brand motion lamp are registered trademarks of Haggerty Enterprises, Inc. The configuration of the globe and base of the motion lamp are registered trademarks of Haggerty Enterprises, Inc. in the U.S.A. and in other countries around the world." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava_lamp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaballs Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: LCDscrub
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This screen saver is not meant to look pretty, but rather, to repair burn-in on LCD monitors. Believe it or not, screen burn is not a thing of the past. It can happen to LCD screens pretty easily, even in this modern age. However, leaving the screen on and displaying high contrast images can often repair the damage. That's what this screen saver does. See also: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88343 http://toastycode.com/blog/2008/02/05/lcd-scrub/ Inspired by the like-named program by Daniel Sandler. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Lockward
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A translucent spinning, blinking thing. Sort of a cross between the wards in an old combination lock and those old backlit information displays that animated and changed color via polarized light. Written by Leo L. Schwab.


nie:title: Loop
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Generates loop-shaped colonies that spawn, age, and eventually die. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langton%27s_loops Written by David Bagley.


nie:title: m6502
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This emulates a 6502 microprocessor. The family of 6502 chips were used throughout the 70's and 80's in machines such as the Atari 2600, Commodore PET, VIC20 and C64, Apple ][, and the NES. Some example programs are included, and it can also read in an assembly file as input. Original JavaScript Version by Stian Soreng: http://www.6502asm.com/. Ported to XScreenSaver by Jeremy English. Written by Stian Soreng and Jeremy English.


nie:title: Maze
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This generates random mazes (with various different algorithms), and then solves them. Backtracking and look-ahead paths are displayed in different colors. Written by Jim Randell and many others.


nie:title: MemScroller
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws a dump of its own process memory scrolling across the screen in three windows at three different rates. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Menger
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws the three-dimensional variant of the recursive Menger Gasket, a cube-based fractal object analagous to the Sierpinski Tetrahedron. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menger_sponge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpinski_carpet Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: MetaBalls
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws two dimensional metaballs: overlapping and merging balls with fuzzy edges. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaballs Written by W.P. van Paassen.


nie:title: Moebius
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This animates a 3D rendition M.C. Escher's "Moebius Strip II", an image of ants walking along the surface of a moebius strip. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moebius_strip http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurits_Cornelis_Escher Written by Marcelo F. Vianna.


nie:title: MoebiusGears
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a closed, interlinked chain of rotating gears. The layout of the gears follows the path of a moebius strip. See also the "Pinion" and "Gears" screen savers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involute_gear http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moebius_strip Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Moire
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  When the lines on the screen Make more lines in between, That's a moire'! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moire_pattern Written by Jamie Zawinski and Michael Bayne.


nie:title: Moire2
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Generates fields of concentric circles or ovals, and combines the planes with various operations. The planes are moving independently of one another, causing the interference lines to spray. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moire_pattern Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Molecule
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws several different representations of molecules. Some common molecules are built in, and it can also read PDB (Protein Data Bank) files as input. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_Data_Bank_%28file_format%29 Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Morph3D
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Platonic solids that turn inside out and get spikey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_solid Written by Marcelo Vianna.


nie:title: Munch
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  DATAI 2 ADDB 1,2 ROTC 2,-22 XOR 1,2 JRST .-4 As reported by HAKMEM, in 1962, Jackson Wright wrote the above PDP-1 code. That code still lives on here, some 46 years later. The number of lines of enclosing code has increased substantially, however. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAKMEM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munching_square Written by Jackson Wright and Tim Showalter.


nie:title: NerveRot
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws different shapes composed of nervously vibrating squiggles, as if seen through a camera operated by a monkey on crack. Written by Dan Bornstein.


nie:title: NoseGuy
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A little man with a big nose wanders around your screen saying things. Written by Dan Heller and Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Pacman
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Simulates a game of Pac-Man on a randomly-created level. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man Written by Edwin de Jong.


nie:title: Pedal
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This is sort of a combination spirograph/string-art. It generates a large, complex polygon, and renders it by filling using an even/odd winding rule. Written by Dale Moore.


nie:title: Peepers
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Floating eyeballs. Anatomically correct, and they also track the pointer. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Penetrate
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Simulates (something like) the classic arcade game Missile Command. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_Command Written by Adam Miller.


nie:title: Penrose
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws quasiperiodic tilings; think of the implications on modern formica technology. In April 1997, Sir Roger Penrose, a British math professor who has worked with Stephen Hawking on such topics as relativity, black holes, and whether time has a beginning, filed a copyright-infringement lawsuit against the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, which Penrose said copied a pattern he created (a pattern demonstrating that "a nonrepeating pattern could exist in nature") for its Kleenex quilted toilet paper. Penrose said he doesn't like litigation but, "When it comes to the population of Great Britain being invited by a multinational to wipe their bottoms on what appears to be the work of a Knight of the Realm, then a last stand must be taken." As reported by News of the Weird #491, 4-Jul-1997. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_tiling Written by Timo Korvola.


nie:title: Petri
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This simulates colonies of mold growing in a petri dish. Growing colored circles overlap and leave spiral interference in their wake. Written by Dan Bornstein.


nie:title: Phosphor
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a simulation of an old terminal, with large pixels and long-sustain phosphor. On X11 systems, This program is also a fully-functional VT100 emulator! Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Photopile
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Loads several random images, and displays them as if lying in a random pile. The pile is periodically reshuffled, with new images coming in and old ones being thrown out. Written by Jens Kilian.


nie:title: Piecewise
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws a bunch of moving circles which switch from visibility to invisibility at intersection points. Written by Geoffrey Irving.


nie:title: Pinion
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws an interconnected set of gears moving across the screen. See also the "Gears" and "MoebiusGears" screen savers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involute_gear Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Polyhedra
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Displays different 3D solids and some information about each. A new solid is chosen every few seconds. There are 75 uniform polyhedra, plus 5 infinite sets of prisms and antiprisms; including their duals brings the total to 160. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_polyhedra Written by Dr. Zvi Har'El and Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Polyominoes
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Repeatedly attempts to completely fill a rectangle with irregularly-shaped puzzle pieces. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyomino Written by Stephen Montgomery-Smith.


nie:title: Polytopes
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This shows one of the six regular 4D polytopes rotating in 4D. Inspired by H.S.M Coxeter's book "Regular Polytopes", 3rd Edition, Dover Publications, Inc., 1973, and Thomas Banchoff's book "Beyond the Third Dimension: Geometry, Computer Graphics, and Higher Dimensions", Scientific American Library, 1990. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercube http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_polytope Written by Carsten Steger.


nie:title: Pong
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This simulates the 1971 Pong home video game, as well as various artifacts from displaying it on a color TV set. In clock mode, the score keeps track of the current time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong Written by Jeremy English and Trevor Blackwell.


nie:title: ProjectivePlane
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This animates a 4D embedding of the real projective plane. You can walk on the surface of the real projective plane or rotate it in 4D or walk on it while it rotates in 4D. Inspired by Thomas Banchoff's book "Beyond the Third Dimension: Geometry, Computer Graphics, and Higher Dimensions", Scientific American Library, 1990. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_projective_plane http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_surface http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_cap http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moebius_strip http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RealProjectivePlane.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RomanSurface.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Cross-Cap.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MoebiusStrip.html Written by Carsten Steger.


nie:title: Providence
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  "A pyramid unfinished. In the zenith an eye in a triangle, surrounded by a glory, proper." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_Providence Written by Blair Tennessy.


nie:title: Pulsar
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws some intersecting planes, making use of alpha blending, fog, textures, and mipmaps. Written by David Konerding.


nie:title: Pyro
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Exploding fireworks. See also the "Fireworkx", "Eruption", and "XFlame" screen savers. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Qix
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Bounces a series of line segments around the screen, and uses variations on this basic motion pattern to produce all sorts of different presentations: line segments, filled polygons, and overlapping translucent areas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qix Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: QuasiCrystal
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A quasicrystal is a structure that is ordered but aperiodic. Two-dimensional quasicrystals can be generated by adding a set of planes where x is the sine of y. Different complex aperiodic plane tilings are produced depending on the period, position, and rotation of the component planes, and whether the rotation of the planes is evenly distributed around the circle (the "symmetry" option, above) or random. See also the "RD-Bomb", "CWaves" and "Penrose" screen savers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasicrystal Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Queens
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Solves the N-Queens problem (where N is between 5 and 10 queens). The problem is: how may one place N queens on an NxN chessboard such that no queen can attack a sister? See also the "Endgame" screen saver. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_queens_puzzle Written by Blair Tennessy.


nie:title: RazzleDazzle
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Generates an infinitely-scrolling sequence of dazzle camouflage patterns. Dazzle Ships, in addition to being the best album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, were military vessels during World War I and early in World War II that were painted not to conceal but to confuse: with these Cubist overlapping stripes, it was very hard to estimate their size, range and heading. This was a big deal before the invention of Radar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_camouflage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_Ships_%28album%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_mirror https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: RDbomb
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a grid of growing square-like shapes that, once they overtake each other, react in unpredictable ways. "RD" stands for reaction-diffusion. Written by Scott Draves.


nie:title: Ripples
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws rippling interference patterns like splashing water. With the -water option, it manipulates your desktop image to look like something is dripping into it. Written by Tom Hammersley.


nie:title: Rocks
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws an animation of flight through an asteroid field, with changes in rotation and direction. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: RomanBoy
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A 3D immersion of the real projective plane that smoothly deforms between the Roman surface and the Boy surface. You can walk on the surface of the real projective plane or rotate it in 3D. Furthermore, it is possible to smoothly deform the real projective plane between the Roman surface and the Boy surface while turning it or walking on it. Inspired by François Apéry's book "Models of the Real Projective Plane", Vieweg, 1987. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy%27s_surface https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_surface http://mathworld.wolfram.com/BoySurface.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RomanSurface.html Written by Carsten Steger.


nie:title: Rorschach
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This generates random inkblot patterns via a reflected random walk. Any deep-seated neurotic tendencies which this program reveals are your own problem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorschach_inkblot_test http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_walk Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Rubik
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a Rubik's Cube that rotates in three dimensions and repeatedly shuffles and solves itself. See also the "GLSnake" and "Cube21" screen savers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubik%27s_Cube Written by Marcelo Vianna.


nie:title: RubikBlocks
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Animates the Rubik's Mirror Blocks puzzle. See also the "Rubik", "Cube21", and "GLSnake" screen savers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combination_puzzles#Irregular_Cuboids Written by Vasek Potocek.


nie:title: Scooter
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Zooming down a tunnel in a star field. Originally an Amiga hack. Written by Sven Thoennissen; 2001. Ported by EoflaOE.


nie:title: ShadeBobs
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws smoothly-shaded oscillating oval patterns that look something like vapor trails or neon tubes. Written by Shane Smit.


nie:title: Sierpinski
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws the two-dimensional variant of the recursive Sierpinski triangle fractal. See also the "Sierpinski3D" screen saver. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpinski_triangle Written by Desmond Daignault.


nie:title: Sierpinski3D
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws the Sierpinski tetrahedron fractal, the three-dimensional variant of the recursive Sierpinski triangle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpinski_triangle#Analogs_in_higher_dimension Written by Tim Robinson and Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: SlideScreen
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This takes an image, divides it into a grid, and then randomly shuffles the squares around as if it was one of those "fifteen-puzzle" games where there is a grid of squares, one of which is missing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteen_puzzle Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Slip
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This throws some random bits on the screen, then sucks them through a jet engine and spews them out the other side. To avoid turning the image completely to mush, every now and then it will it interject some splashes of color into the scene, or go into a spin cycle, or stretch the image like taffy. Written by Scott Draves and Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Sonar
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws a sonar screen that pings (get it?) the hosts on your local network, and plots their distance (response time) from you. The three rings represent ping times of approximately 2.5, 70 and 2,000 milliseconds respectively. Alternately, it can run a simulation that doesn't involve hosts. (If pinging doesn't work, you may need to make the executable be setuid.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping#History Written by Stephen Martin and Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: SphereEversion
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Turns a sphere inside out: a smooth deformation (homotopy). During the eversion, the deformed sphere is allowed to intersect itself transversally, however, no creases or pinch points occur. Inspired by the following paper: Adam Bednorz, Witold Bednorz: "Analytic sphere eversion using ruled surfaces", Differential Geometry and its Applications 64:59-79, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_eversion https://mathworld.wolfram.com/SphereEversion.html Written by Carsten Steger.


nie:title: Spheremonics
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  These closed objects are commonly called spherical harmonics, although they are only remotely related to the mathematical definition found in the solution to certain wave functions, most notably the eigenfunctions of angular momentum operators. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_harmonics#Visualization_of_the_spherical_harmonics Written by Paul Bourke and Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: SplitFlap
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Simulates a split-flap display, an old style of electromechanical sign as seen in airports and train stations, and commonly used in alarm clocks in the 1960s and 1970s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-flap_display https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_clock Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Spotlight
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a spotlight scanning across a black screen, illuminating the underlying desktop (or a picture) when it passes. Written by Rick Schultz and Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Sproingies
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Slinky-like creatures walk down an infinite staircase and occasionally explode! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slinky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q%2Abert http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Madness Written by Ed Mackey.


nie:title: Squiral
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a set of interacting, square-spiral-producing automata. The spirals grow outward until they hit something, then they go around it. Written by Jeff Epler.


nie:title: Stairs
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Escher's infinite staircase. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurits_Cornelis_Escher Written by Marcelo Vianna.


nie:title: Starfish
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This generates a sequence of undulating, throbbing, star-like patterns which pulsate, rotate, and turn inside out. Another display mode uses these shapes to lay down a field of colors, which are then cycled. The motion is very organic. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: StarWars
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a stream of text slowly scrolling into the distance at an angle, over a star field, like at the beginning of the movie of the same name. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_opening_crawl Written by Jamie Zawinski and Claudio Matauoka.


nie:title: StonerView
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Chains of colorful squares dance around each other in complex spiral patterns. Inspired by David Tristram's `electropaint' screen saver, originally written for SGI computers in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Written by Andrew Plotkin.


nie:title: Strange
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws iterations to strange attractors: it's a colorful, unpredictably-animating swarm of dots that swoops and twists around. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attractor#Strange_attractor Written by Massimino Pascal.


nie:title: Substrate
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Crystalline lines grow on a computational substrate. A simple perpendicular growth rule creates intricate city-like structures. Written by J. Tarbell and Mike Kershaw.


nie:title: Surfaces
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws a visualization of several interesting parametric surfaces. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/DinisSurface.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enneper_surface http://mathworld.wolfram.com/EnnepersMinimalSurface.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/KuenSurface.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moebius_strip http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Seashell.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SwallowtailCatastrophe.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/BohemianDome.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_umbrella http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PlueckersConoid.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HennebergsMinimalSurface.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/CatalansSurface.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/CorkscrewSurface.html Written by Andrey Mirtchovski and Carsten Steger.


nie:title: Tessellimage
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Converts an image to triangles using Delaunay tessellation, and animates the result at various depths. More triangles are allocated to visually complex parts of the image. This is accomplished by first computing the first derivative of the image: the distance between each pixel and its neighbors (which is essentially edge detection or embossing). Then the Delaunay control points are chosen by selecting those pixels whose distance value is above a certain threshold: those are the pixels that have the largest change in color/brightness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaunay_triangulation Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: TimeTunnel
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws an animation similar to the opening and closing effects on the Dr. Who TV show. Written by Sean P. Brennan.


nie:title: TronBit
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws an animation of the character "Bit" from the film, "Tron". The "yes" state is a tetrahedron; the "no" state is the second stellation of an icosahedron; and the idle state oscillates between a small triambic icosahedron and the compound of an icosahedron and a dodecahedron. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Tron_characters#Bit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_polyhedra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellation Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Truchet
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This draws line- and arc-based truchet patterns that tile the screen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessellation Written by Adrian Likins.


nie:title: Unicrud
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Chooses a random Unicode character and displays it full screen, along with some information about it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: UnknownPleasures
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  PSR B1919+21 (AKA CP 1919) was the first pulsar ever discovered: a spinning neutron star emitting a periodic lighthouse-like beacon. An illustration of the signal received from it was published in Scientific American in 1971, and later in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy in 1977, where it was seen by Stephen Morris, the drummer of Joy Division, and was consequently appropriated by Peter Saville for the cover of the band's album "Unknown Pleasures". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSR_B1919%2B21 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unknown_Pleasures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Saville_%28graphic_designer%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Division Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: VFeedback
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Simulates video feedback: pointing a video camera at an NTSC television. Written by Jamie Zawinski; 2018.


nie:title: VidWhacker
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This is a shell script that grabs a frame of video from the system's video input, and then uses some PBM filters (chosen at random) to manipulate and recombine the video frame in various ways (edge detection, subtracting the image from a rotated version of itself, etc.) Then it displays that image for a few seconds, and does it again. This works really well if you just feed broadcast television into it. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Vigilance
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Security cameras keep careful track of their surroundings. You can trust them. Everything is completely under control. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Voronoi
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a randomly-colored Voronoi tessellation, and periodically zooms in and adds new points. The existing points also wander around. There are a set of control points on the plane, each at the center of a colored cell. Every pixel within that cell is closer to that cell's control point than to any other control point. That is what determines the cell's shapes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voronoi_diagram Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: Wander
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a colorful random-walk, in various forms. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_walk Written by Rick Campbell.


nie:title: WhirlWindWarp
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Floating stars are acted upon by a mixture of simple 2D forcefields. The strength of each forcefield changes continuously, and it is also switched on and off at random. Written by Paul 'Joey' Clark.


nie:title: WindupRobot
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  A swarm of wind-up toy robots wander around the table-top, bumping into each other. Each robot contains a mechanically accurate gear system inside, which you can see when the robot's shell occasionally fades to transparency. Also, sometimes a cartoony word bubble pops up above a robot, full of random text. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: XAnalogTV
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  XAnalogTV shows a detailed simulation of an old TV set showing various test patterns, with various picture artifacts like snow, bloom, distortion, ghosting, and hash noise. It also simulates the TV warming up. It will cycle through 12 channels, some with images you give it, and some with color bars or nothing but static. Written by Trevor Blackwell.


nie:title: XFlame
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a simulation of pulsing fire. It can also take an arbitrary image and set it on fire too. Written by Carsten Haitzler and many others.


nie:title: XLyap
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  This generates pretty fractal pictures via the Lyapunov exponent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyapunov_exponent Written by Ron Record.


nie:title: XMatrix
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws dropping characters similar to what is seen on the computer monitors in "The Matrix". See also "GLMatrix" for a 3D rendering of the similar effect that appeared in the movie's title sequence. Written by Jamie Zawinski.


nie:title: XRaySwarm
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Draws a few swarms of critters flying around the screen, with faded color trails behind them. Written by Chris Leger.


nie:title: XSpirograph
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Simulates that pen-in-nested-plastic-gears toy from your childhood. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirograph Written by Rohit Singh.


nie:title: Zoom
nie:mimeType: application/x-desktop
nie:comment:
  Zooms in on a part of the screen and then moves around. With the "Lenses" option, the result is like looking through many overlapping lenses rather than just a simple zoom. Written by James Macnicol.


