OpenGL...nSaver(3pm)

💖 OpenGL::XScreenSaver 💖

okay bestie, so this is a Perl module — it's part of the User Contributed Perl Documentation situation — and its whole job is preparing the environment so you can write OpenGL-based XScreenSaver hacks in Perl. That's it. That's the vibe. It gets the GL all set up and ready to play nice with XScreenSaver so you don't have to do the boring bits yourself. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

OpenGL::XScreenSaver — prepare environment for writing OpenGL-based XScreenSaver hacks. literally what it says on the tin, no cap. 🫶

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

here's how your little program is gonna look, bestie:

use OpenGL qw(:all);
use OpenGL::XScreenSaver;

OpenGL::XScreenSaver::init();
# GetOptions(...); # parse your own options, if any

OpenGL::XScreenSaver::start();

while (1) {
    glClear(...);
    # draw your scene here
    OpenGL::XScreenSaver::update();
}

like… it's giving main character energy honestly. the eternal while (1) loop is the moment. 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

This module lets you write OpenGL XScreenSaver hacks in Perl. It's the setup babe — it prepares the GL so it'll work with XScreenSaver. 🌈

Read the synopsis for how your program might look. i said what i said. 🍓

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🧚 Description of functions 🧚

• init() — returns a true value if a window to draw on has been found, and a false value if a window will have to be created. You can totally ignore that value… unless you wanna make sure your screenhack can't be run outside XScreenSaver (like, say, your standalone version ships as an extra binary with keyboard control, which would be completely useless in a screensaver). so yeah, that's the one use case. 🙈
• start() — opens the connection to the X server and binds to the window ID, or creates a new window to draw on. which one happens depends on whether it was called standalone or from XScreenSaver. ✨
• update() — call this when you've finished rendering the frame. It flushes output and swaps the buffers. and ooh, tea: in the future it might also handle a minimal set of X events when run in standalone mode (like window deletion requests from the window manager 👀). that's a maybe tho, don't quote me.
• dimensions() — returns a list with the width and the height of the currently used window. iconic. 📐

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💜 About screenhacks 💜

okay so here's a short little rundown of how it works and what XScreenSaver expects a screenhack to do. sit with me. 🫶

XScreenSaver tells the hack on startup what window ID the hack shall draw to. This is either a small window mapping to the screen in the preview dialog, or a fullscreen window. The window ID gets passed either via the -window-id option or via the XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW environment variable. init() in this module checks both of these. both. it's thorough like that. 💅

XScreenSaver handles all user input, including exiting and pausing the screensaver. The process gets sent a SIGSTOP when the unlock screen is displayed, obviously a SIGCONT when it's dismissed, and when the pointing device is moved or the screen gets unlocked, XScreenSaver sends a SIGTERM. 💀

so what does that mean for you? it means no event handling is required by your screenhack whatsoever. none. zero. nada. and honestly? that's the whole point — it keeps the design of a screenhack dead simple. slay. 🔥

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

OpenGL

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💖 AUTHORS & COPYRIGHTS 💖

Made 2010 by Lars Stoltenow.

OpenGL::XScreenSaver is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. periodt. ⭐

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aaaand that's the whole page bestie, no notes 💅 this gorgeous piece of documentation came to you courtesy of perl v5.42.3, dated 2026-08-19. mwah 🫶✨🎀