| There are a number available although I can't remember the names. Most
of them are available on EOT or Fish disks. Madblanker and StarBlanker
(or something like that come to mind). After trying everyone I could
find, I'm back to a plain screen blanker. Remember that screen
blankers which move pictures across the screen take CPU cycles. For a
MAC user that isn't a big deal, then when he's not sitting at his MAC,
it usually means his MAC isn't doing anything anyway. I used to load
up 10-12 songs in Dr. T and let them play. As soon as the graphics
based screen blankers kicked in, the songs slowed down. It dawned on
me that my renderings and other things I left running while I was away
were also slowing down (considerably), so I'm back to just a screen
blanker.
Terry,
|
| DMouse is a combination screen/pointer blanker, mouse accelerator and
CLI popper :-). I use v1.07, though later versions do interesting
graphic displays. AmigaDOS v2.0, coming soon to a dealer near you, has
a screen blanker built in.
Wes
|
| I've just put the beta version of "SuperSaver" on BIX.
SuperSaver is a modular screen blanker (ala DMouse), only it's _easy_
to add new blankers. Unless the code is a disaster, converting a given
graphics hack into a blanker can be done in an evening, and if it's
well written, in less than an hour. It also allows utilities that
sit between SuperSaver and the blankers, allowing things like the "guard"
utility, which doesn't really start a blanker if the mouse is in a
designated corner, and "random", which selects a random blanker from a fixed
list (and restarts it at fixed intervals if you want it to).
The freely distributable version only comes with a few blankers, including
the original "starblanker" and a black screen. The current collection can
be had for a small contribution - including a working blanker or utility
module. I want to encourage people to build more modules for it.
I'm planning on doing a Rexx utility, that allows Rexx scripts (or things
built by application builders that can send Rexx messages, aka CanDo) to
be used as blanker modules, as well as an anim player utility.
Unlike After Dark, it won't let you run multiple savers at once. The MAC
doesn't have variable screen formats, so they don't have to worry about
how to combine a blanker running on a standard lores screen one running
on a max overscan hires screen. SS will do somethings that AD won't,
though - like let you run the same blanker with different configurations
out of the same random list.
For those worried about CPU cycles, all the saver modules put up an ID screen,
drop their priority to 100, then blank the screen and start the saver proper.
If you're running CPU intensive in the background, you get the ID screen,
or a black screen, or one with very jerky graphics, depending on what you're
doing. During long compilers, the starblanker module usually shows immobile
stars, that jump a little when the compile goes to disk for something.
The catch is that it requires 2.04. The facility that interconnects the
modules while making them trivial to write (as opposed to DMouse) didn't
exist prior to 2.0. Other less important features used didn't work right
in 2.0x for x < 4, hence the .04 requirement.
Because the FD version calls for people to contribute to the full version
(though it's fully functional - the only differences between it and the
full version are the distribution document and the modules with associated
files), I'm not comfortable putting it on the ENET. It'll wind up there
eventually, as it's going to Fred Fish after the beta phase. However, if
someone wanted to fetch the beta copy and make it available here, I wouldn't
object.
<mike
|