FBFADE(1)

📦
version 7.44.0 · 2 versions
, in nixpkgs unstable

✨ FBFADE(1) ✨ — the fbfade page, but make it make sense 💅

okay so bestie, real talk: this is the fbfade manual page from BRL-CAD, and it's genuinely iconic — it fades frame buffer images in and out, one pixel at a time, in a random order. It's giving dissolve. It's giving main character energy. Let's get into it 🫶

🌈 NAME 🌈

fbfade — fade a frame buffer image in or out. That's the whole gig. That's the brand. 💖

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

fbfade [-H] [-s _size_] [-w _width_] [-n _height_] [-f _in_fb_file_] [-S _size_] [-W _width_] [-N _height_] [[-F] _out_fb_file_]

Yes, that's a lot of brackets. Yes, it's nesting. No, we're not scared. 😭

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So fbfade paints a frame buffer one pixel at a time, in a random order, which produces a dissolve effect. Literally the glow-up of frame buffer transitions, ngl. ✨

If you hand it an input image with -f, that image gets faded in. If you don't, the output is painted black — fading out whatever's currently on screen. Two vibes, one tool. 💅

The output frame buffer is picked by -F (or as a trailing argument), and if you don't do either of those it falls back to the FB_FILE environment variable, and after that, the default frame buffer. Chain of command, periodt. 👑

The effective area gets clamped to the smaller of three things:

  • the requested size
  • the actual frame buffer size
  • the input image size

So it never overreaches. Very self-aware. 🎀

The dissolve itself uses a shuffled-index algorithm, which means the effect is best on a frame buffer with fast single-pixel writes. Like, that's just the tea — fast single-pixel writes = chef's kiss, slow ones = sadness. 🍓

💜 OPTIONS 💜

  • -H — use the default input size of 1024x1024 instead of 512x512. Bigger canvas, bigger moment. Note that if you explicitly specify sizes, those override this default. Sizes run the show, fr fr. 👑
  • -s _size_ — set both the width and height of the input image. One flag, two jobs, efficiency queen. ✨
  • -w _width_ — set the input image width only.
  • -n _height_ — set the input image height only.
  • -f _in_fb_file_ — read the image you want to fade in from the named frame buffer. Skip this option and the output fades to black instead. iykyk 💀
  • -S _size_ — set both the width and height of the output frame buffer.
  • -W _width_ — set the output frame buffer width.
  • -N _height_ — set the output frame buffer height.
  • -F _out_fb_file_ — write to the named frame buffer instead of the one given by the FB_FILE environment variable (or the default). And here's the cute part: when it's given as the last argument, you can totally omit the -F flag. Sneaky. Love that for us. 🫶
  • -h, -? — print a usage message and exit. The classic "help me" combo. 🙈

🌸 EXAMPLES 🌸

🌟 Example 1. Slide show with fade transitions 🌟

fbclear
for i in *.pix; do
    pix-fb "$i"
    fbfade -f /dev/mem
    sleep 5
    fbfade
done

So what's happening here, bestie: each PIX image in the current directory gets displayed with pix-fb(1), then dissolved into view from the in-memory frame buffer, then it pauses for 5 seconds, then it fades back to black before the next image rolls in. Slide show with production value. 🔥

🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

brlcad(1), fbclear(1), fb-fb(1), pix-fb(1), pix(5)

Go read them. They're the supporting cast and they ate. 💅

⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

BRL-CAD Team — icons, honestly. 👑

This software is Copyright (c) 1989-2026 by the United States Government as represented by U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

🔥 BUG REPORTS 🔥

Reports of bugs or problems should be submitted via electronic mail to devs@brlcad.org. Be nice, be specific, be iconic. 🎀

Heads up bestie: the dissolve hits best on frame buffers with fast single-pixel writes — that's not me being dramatic, that's literally in the description. 💖

that's the whole page, no notes 💜 — BRL-CAD, version vibes, and yeah, dated way back to the man page itself. slay. ✨🎀🦋

📦 where this page comes from