fluidballs(6)

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

💖 fluidballs(6) 💖

okay so bestie, we're gonna talk about fluidballs — it's part of the XScreenSaver manual and honestly it's lowkey the most satisfying screensaver to just watch. 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

fluidballs — the physics of bouncing balls. that's it. that's the whole vibe. 🎾

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

fluidballs [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--count number] [--size number]
[--gravity number] [--wind number] [--elasticity number] [--delay
number] [--nonrandom] [--no-shake] [--fps]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so what does it actually do? it models the physics of bouncing balls — or, if you're feeling sciency, particles in a gas or fluid, depending on the settings you pick. it's giving "physics homework but make it iconic." 💅

and here's the fun part: if "Shake Box" is selected, then every now and then the box gets rotated, which changes which direction is down. why? so the settled balls stay in motion instead of just... sitting there like a group chat with no replies. 😭 basically chaos maintenance. 🔥

🎀 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.
  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, bestie. ✨
  • --root — draw on the root window instead.
  • --window-id number — draw on the specified window. you pick, i support. 🫶
  • --count number — how many balls to display. default: 300. that's a LOT of balls and yes it's amazing.
  • --size number — maximum size of each ball. default: 25.
  • --gravity number — coefficient of gravity. useful values are < 0.1. default: 0.01.
  • --wind number — wind. useful values are < 0.1. default: 0.00.
  • --elasticity number — coefficient of elasticity. useful values are 0.2 to 1.0. default: 0.97. lower numbers make less bouncy balls, so crank it if you want maximum bounce energy. 🏀
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, in microseconds. default: 10000 (0.01 seconds.).
  • --nonrandom — make all balls be the same size. uniform. matchy. cohesive. 🎀
  • --no-nonrandom — make the balls be random sizes. this one's the default and honestly? chaos slays.
  • --shake | --no-shake — whether to shake the box if the system seems to have settled down. and what does "shake" mean exactly? it means "change the direction of Down." iconic definition ngl.
  • --fps — display the current frame rate and CPU load. performance check bestie. 💀

🧚 ENVIRONMENT 🧚

  • DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number.
  • XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Copyright © 2002 by Peter Birtles and Jamie Zawinski. 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.

(translation: it's free, just keep the notice, and no promises it's perfect. 💖)

⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

Peter Birtles, Jamie Zawinski, and Steven Barker.

and that's the whole page bestie, no cap, nothing skipped. 🫶

okay so this was X Version 11, version 6.15 (30-Mar-2026) — see you in the next manpage, mwah 💋✨🍓

📦 where this page comes from