flipscreen3d(6)

📦
version 6.15 · 2 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, nixpkgs unstable

💫 flipscreen3d — the XScreenSaver manual, bestie edition 💫

okay so real quick: this is page flipscreen3d(6) from the XScreenSaver manual, and it is genuinely one of the most "wait, it does WHAT" hacks in the whole collection. buckle up 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

flipscreen3d — rotates an image of the screen through 3 dimensions. yes. your actual desktop. through three whole dimensions. slay 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

flipscreen3d [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual]
[--window] [--root] [--window-id number] [--delay number] [--no-rotate]
[--wireframe] [--fps]

like, that's the whole invocation. no cap, it's that simple 🫶

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

bestie. listen. it grabs an image of the desktop, turns it into a GL texture map, and then spins it around and deforms it in various ways.

that's the vibe. that's the whole hack. your screen becomes a little texture, and then it gets yeeted through 3D space. iconic behavior honestly 🔥

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • --visual visual — tells it which visual to use. legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual. decimal or hex, she's flexible 💜
  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, so if you do nothing, this is what you get ✨
  • --root — draw on the root window. main character energy, taking over the whole background 👑
  • --window-id number — draw on the specified window. you pick the window, it does its thing. iykyk
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, in microseconds. default: 20000 (that's 0.02 seconds.) 🕐
  • --rotate | --no-rotate — whether to rotate. yes it's literally just "do we spin or not." that's the whole toggle 🌀
  • --wireframe — just render boxes instead of textures (for debugging). lowkey the debug mode lowkey hits different 💀
  • --fps — display the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count. for the stats girlies 📊

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

  • DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number. the classic 🌍
  • XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property. fancy resource overrides, we love to see it 💅
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root. 🪟

🔍 SEE ALSO 🔍

X(1), xscreensaver(1) — go read these too, bestie, they're the lore 🧚

Copyright © 2002 by Ben Buxton.

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. No representations are made about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

fr fr read that before you go shipping it anywhere. "as is," no warranty, periodt 💀

💖 AUTHOR 💖

Ben Buxton.

and that's the page!! cute lil sign-off from me to you: this beauty ships as part of X Version 11, version 6.15, dated 30-Mar-2026 — so go spin your screen through some dimensions, you earned it 🌸🫶💜

📦 where this page comes from