[milhous]

I've been pondering this notion for quite sometime, but is there anything out there for os X or unix for that matter that can be ported to allow animated backgrounds instead of stationary wallpaper on the desktop? is it possible and is it feasible despite that it would probably use a good portion of system resources? thanks.

[davecom]

Well when you choose a picture for your background it becomes a Quicktime image file and is copied to somewhere on the system, rather than staying in the same format. Hope this helps.

------------------
Think Different.

[Dalgo]

Have oyu tried using an animated gif or motion JPEG? I don't have any with which to try setting as my desktop but if anything would animate I'd guess that a motion JPEG might.

..As for porting stuff... I know that there was a nice animated desktop available for the Window Maker window manager. (It may have been compatible with others. I'm not all too knowlegable in the world of XWindows) I think that it may have been called world clock or something like that. It was a picture of a globe that rotated in time with the earth's rotation. I don't really see how you are going to port anything from XWindows to OS X, though, because there are two totally different API's for writing to the screen.I'd think that you'd have to write most of it from the ground up in order to get it to work.

[This message has been edited by Dalgo (edited 01-16-2001).]

[absmiths]

In theory, a well-written app for one windowing environment should be easily portable to another, especially someting so simple as a background animator. The drawing API's are different, but ALL graphics API's have a remarkable amount of common code, E.G., DrawLine, DrawText, DrawImage, etc.

There is a program called XEarth for Linux which draws the Earth and it's current lighting. It has already been ported to MacOS Classic, so it should be easy.

------------------

[Dalgo]

Wow. I always thought that porting Xwindows stuff to X would be hard since the API's were different. I guess the API's can't be all that different if XEarth has been ported to classic.

[This message has been edited by Dalgo (edited 01-17-2001).]

[absmiths]

I don't mean to imply that they are the same, but rather that the concepts that drive the API's always seem to be the same, 2D graphics, controls, etc., and that a well-designed program can limit the access to those API's into one module, so simply rewriting that module's services can port an entire program to a new UI. Apps like Mame are examples - the same app is actively maintained for Mac OS, Linux, Windows, DOS, Amiga, etc.

------------------

[IamBob]

I don't much like the idea of an animated background but..

Something of a WallPaperScript(?) would be cool. It would be nice to be able to specify hot spots and their images and some way to layer/transition images would be cool.

It would take a simple syntax like AppleScript with enough abstraction from what was really going on that "anyone" could do it -or- a program that let you do it visually might be better.

Sounds like something worth asking Apple to include in Final.1 or looking into to do yourself. :-)

[3R1C]

try version tracker for:

xBack
saverlab

these two allow screensaves to act as desktop pictures (sort of)

also I remember some hack which had you make a desktop picture of a certain shade of green and then a dvd could act as your desktop.

[TheBarty]

Originally posted by 3R1C:
<STRONG>try version tracker for:

xBack
saverlab

these two allow screensaves to act as desktop pictures (sort of)

also I remember some hack which had you make a desktop picture of a certain shade of green and then a dvd could act as your desktop.</STRONG>

Yes, just fill your picture with RGB 0,16,0 (values, not %) and set it as your desktop picture. Then, insert a DVD, make it play in the player and hide the player. Only available with ATI GPU. Works with the terminal background as well (and probably every Cocoa window). Just launch a top -u in the terminal over a DVD to have real fun.

[Judge_Fire]

As a sidetrack, as the title of the thread doesn't rule this out:

Could QuickTime or .saver backgrounds be implemented in window backgrounds, too?

It could result in some funky disk images for distributing stuff

J

[TheBarty]

Originally posted by Judge_Fire:
<STRONG>As a sidetrack, as the title of the thread doesn't rule this out:

Could QuickTime or .saver backgrounds be implemented in window backgrounds, too?

It could result in some funky disk images for distributing stuff

J</STRONG>

Great idea !!!! I want that !

[Angus_D]

That's totally impossible to do unless you're a Finder developer, though. Well, not totally, just beyond the reaches of most mortals (and has an exponential time/effort requirement)

[[APi]TheMan]

Originally posted by TheBarty:
<STRONG>Yes, just fill your picture with RGB 0,16,0 (values, not %) and set it as your desktop picture. Then, insert a DVD, make it play in the player and hide the player. Only available with ATI GPU. Works with the terminal background as well (and probably every Cocoa window). Just launch a top -u in the terminal over a DVD to have real fun.</STRONG>

Wow, that's really neat. Mad props to whoever figured that one out.