 |
Author |
Topic: Screensaver?? (Read 3752 times) |
|
flight404
 
|
Screensaver??
« on: Jan 14th, 2004, 10:28pm » |
|
Is it possible to make screensavers directly from Java applets? If so, is it stable/accepted/easy/platform-independant? Any information would be appreciated.
r
|
|
|
|
|
TomC
|
Re: Screensaver??
« Reply #1 on: Jan 14th, 2004, 11:46pm » |
|
I think if you can make a Windows executable, you can just rename it to .scr to make it into a screen saver. Never tried it, not sure how you hook in to the preferences button, or the preview window. Might just be programmer urban legend?
This looks useful from my bookmarks...
http://www.iseran.com/Win32/Articles/screen_savers.html
I seem to remember searching for a java/windows screen saver wrapper some time ago, probably where I found that. Ideally, there'd be a feature in processing which hooked in to the screen saver list and cycled through sketches. That would be great.
|
|
|
|
|
flight404
|
Re: Screensaver??
« Reply #2 on: Jan 15th, 2004, 5:08pm » |
|
I ask because I am supposed to make some Flash eye-candy screensavers for a client, and find myself constantly pissed at how Flash cannot handle the math load that I need from it. I can get away with 6 or 7 frame-independent circle-circle collision detections and reactions within Flash every frame before it slows. I want 30 to 50. Thought maybe if I could make the whole thing with Processing and hit a magic button for 'make screensaver' .......
And then there is the whole Mac AND Windows debaucle....
r
|
| « Last Edit: Jan 15th, 2004, 5:08pm by flight404 » |
|
|
|
|
mKoser
|
Re: Screensaver??
« Reply #3 on: Jan 20th, 2004, 1:12pm » |
|
i can confirm that renaming an .exe file into a .scr file and copying it into your windows library works fine on PC's... (i've done quite a few times with director projectors on windows 2000).
sadly i can't help out on the Mac-issue.
(now all we need for the PC version to work is the 'Export to Application' to get working!.. uhh, waiting for 006 
_mikkel
|
| « Last Edit: Jan 20th, 2004, 1:13pm by mKoser » |
|
mikkel crone koser | www.beyondthree.com | http://processing.beyondthree.com
|
|
|
lunetta
 
|
Re: Screensaver??
« Reply #4 on: Mar 24th, 2004, 6:36am » |
|
Hi
This is a topic that interests me a lot too.
Most cool mac os X screensavers are written in Objective C, but theoretically you can write them in java... I found this info:
----
Mac OS X includes a complete J2SE implementation. The Swing implementation generates native OS X GUI elements for a uniform look and feel. JAR files are treated as shared libraries. Note that Cocoa includes Java packages that let you create a Cocoa application using Java as the programming language.
----
a little more info:
http://cocoadevcentral.com/articles/000011.php
on this page there's a link "java bridge" as well...
so, with a little research and knowledge, one can port a P5 program to a cocoa screensaver. Unhapply, I lack this knowledge...
|
| « Last Edit: Mar 24th, 2004, 6:44am by lunetta » |
|
|
|
|
TomC
|
Re: Screensaver??
« Reply #5 on: May 12th, 2004, 10:37am » |
|
On the Wotsit file formats page:
http://www.wotsit.org/search.asp?page=3&s=windows
I found this:
Windows .SCR screen savers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SCR files are nothing more complex than .EXE files with the
extension SCR. Windows calls the .SCR file with two command-line
options:
/s to launch the screensaver
/c to configure the screensaver
For the windows control panel to recognise the screensaver, the
program's module description string must begin with SCRNSAVE:
(in uppercase). So, if writing a Visual Basic screensaver,
simply set the application title to something like
"SCRNSAVE:Test Screensaver"
To create a new screen saver simply write a program that checks the
command-line option when starting and performs the appropriate
action. The display should use a full-screen window (usually with a
black background) and should end when any key is pressed or when the
mouse is moved.
When the program is compiled, rename the .EXE to .SCR and put it
into the Windows directory so it can be found by the screensaver
selection dialog in Windows.
Happy screensaving!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Oliver with thanks to Michael Poxon.
8th December 1996
So now all we need (for windows) is an exe wrapper that can launch a jar file. There are lots of ways to do this, I've used this one before: http://jsmooth.sourceforge.net/
It should even be possible to write a file which uses the configuration option to point at a sketchbook folder, and then runs any jar files found in a cycle.
|
|
|
|
|
|
