interaggregate(6)

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

💖 interaggregate(6) — the XScreenSaver manual, but make it fashion 💖

✨ NAME ✨

interaggregate — visualize the momentary and aggregate intersections between slowly moving circles. That’s the whole vibe: circles, intersections, and slow-motion main-character energy. 💫

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

Here’s the exact spell, bestie — copy it character for character:

interaggregate [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual]
[--window] [--root] [--window-id number] [--foreground color]
[--background color] [--num-circles disc count] [--growth-delay delayms]
[--max-cycles maxr] [--percent-orbits percent] [--base-orbits percent]
[--base-on-center] [--draw-centers] [--fps]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

The Intersection Aggregate is a fun visualization defining the relationships between objects with Casey Reas, William Ngan, and Robert Hodgin. It was commissioned for display at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Museum-approved circle chaos, no cap. ✨

A surface filled with 100 medium to small sized circles. Each circle has a different size and direction, but moves at the same slow rate. The display is giving two things:

  1. A. The instantaneous intersections of the circles.
  2. B. The aggregate intersections of the circles.

Two layers of intersection lore, one slow circle situation. 🌀

💅 OPTIONS 💅

interaggregate accepts the following options:

  • --num-circles disc count — Number of slowly moving and growing discs to use. Default: 100. The more discs, the more CPU power. 🔥
  • --growth-delay delayms — Delay in ms between drawing cycles. Default: 18000. More delay = slower, but smoother and less CPU intensive. The page also says art. at the end of that thought, so we’re keeping it, periodt. 🎨
  • --fps — Display the current frame rate and CPU load. 📊
  • --visual visual — Specify 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. 🪟
  • --root — Draw on the root window. 🌱
  • --window-id number — Draw on the specified window. 🪟✨

Also, the synopsis above name-drops these exact options: --display host:display.screen, --foreground color, --background color, --max-cycles maxr, --percent-orbits percent, --base-orbits percent, --base-on-center, and --draw-centers. This page does not give them separate option descriptions, so I’m not inventing any — they’re just here so nothing goes missing. 💅

🌈 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. 🪟

💀 BUGS 💀

Setting the background to anything besides black confuses the intensity algorithm and will look terrible. 😭 Like… genuinely terrible. The page said it, not me. So that’s the warning, bestie — believe it. 🫶

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

Copyright © 2003 by J. Tarbell <complex@complexification.net>. XScreenSaver port: David Agraz, 2005.

👑 AUTHOR 👑

  • J. Tarbell <complex@complexification.net>, Jun 2003.
  • David Agraz <dagraz@mindspring.com>, Apr 2005.

💌 X Version 11 • 6.15 • (30-Mar-2026) — that’s the source/version and date, bestie. Bye! 💌

📦 where this page comes from