interference(6)

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

💫 interference — decaying sinusoidal waves 💫

okay so this is a page from the XScreenSaver manual, bestie, and today's main character is interference(6) ✨ she's a screensaver hack, she's gorgeous, and she's about to make your whole screen vibe. let's go 🫶

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

interference [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual]
[--window] [--root] [--window-id number] [--count number] [--gridsize
number] [--delay number] [--speed number] [--radius number] [--ncolors
number] [--color-shift number] [--hue number] [--no-db] [--fps]

literally just run her, she does the rest 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so picture this: it's another color-field hack (the genre is iconic, no notes), and the way it works is genuinely so cool — it computes decaying sinusoidal waves and then lets them interfere with each other as their origins move around 🌊✨ like ripples meeting ripples, except they're colored and they're living their best life on your screen. obsessed.

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

okay bestie, here's the full menu. every single one, we're not skipping, that's not the vibe 🙈

  • --visual visual — picks which visual to use. legal values are either the name of a visual class, or the id number of a specific visual — and that number can be decimal or hex, flexible queen 👑
  • --window — draws on a newly-created window. this one is the default, so she's already doing it 🫶
  • --root — draws on the root window instead 🌍
  • --window-id number — draws on the specified window (you hand her the number, she moves in) 🏠
  • --count number — Number of Waves. range is 0 – 20. default is 3 🌊
  • --gridsize number — Magnification. range is 1 – 20. default is 2 🔍
  • --delay number — Per-frame delay, in microseconds. default is 30000, which is 0.03 seconds ⏱️
  • --speed number — Wave Speed. range is 1 – 100. default is 30 🏃‍♀️
  • --radius number — Wave Size. range is 50 – 1500. default is 800 🎈
  • --ncolors number — Number of Colors. default is 192 🌈
  • --color-shift number — Color Contrast. range is 0 – 100. default is 60 🎨
  • --hue number — Hue of the base color (0-360, as in HSV space). default is 0, and 0 means random 🎡
  • --db | --no-db — whether to double buffer 🪞
  • --fps — displays the current frame rate and CPU load 📊

🌸 ENVIRONMENT 🌸

the env vars she's checking for, bestie, in full:

  • 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 🔥

go read these too, they're the supporting cast: X(1), xscreensaver(1) 💜

Copyright © 2002 by Hannu Mallat.

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. so like, she's giving ✨no promises✨ and that's on periodt 💀

⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

Hannu Mallat. 🫡 an icon, a legend, the moment.

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🧚💖 this version of interference(6) is from X Version 11, release 6.15 (30-Mar-2026) — date-stamped and everything, slay 🎀✨💅

📦 where this page comes from