quasicrystal(6)

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

💎 quasicrystal(6) — the aperiodic plane tiling one 💎

okay so this is the quasicrystal page from the XScreenSaver manual, and bestie, it's giving math-but-make-it-pretty. buckle up 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

quasicrystal [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual]
[--window] [--root] [--window-id number] [--delay number] [--speed
number] [--count number] [--contrast percent] [--no-wander] [--no-spin]
[--asymmetric] [--fps]

like, that's the whole summoning ritual 💅

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so real talk: a quasicrystal is a structure that is ordered but aperiodic — which is such a mood, honestly. it's got rules but it refuses to repeat itself. main character energy fr 🔥

two-dimensional quasicrystals can be generated by adding a set of planes where x is the sine of y. yes that's the actual sentence, no I'm not making it up 😭

different complex aperiodic plane tilings are produced depending on:

  • the period of the component planes
  • the position of the component planes
  • the rotation of the component planes
  • and whether the rotation of the planes is evenly distributed around the circle (that's the "symmetric" option, above) or random 🎀

also go check out the "RD-Bomb", "CWaves" and "Penrose" screen savers — they're the same friend group, iykyk ✨

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • --visual visual — specifies which visual to use. legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual. no cap, decimals and hex are both valid, she's flexible 💅
  • --window — draws on a newly-created window. this one is the default, so like, it's already happening unless you say otherwise 🫶
  • --root — draws on the root window. going full wallpaper mode 👑
  • --window-id number — draws on the specified window. you pick the window, she draws on it, simple as that 🍓
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, in microseconds. default: 30000 (0.03 seconds.). yes microseconds, she's precise like that ⭐
  • --speed number — animation speed. 2 for twice as fast, 0.5 for half as fast. math, slay 🔥
  • --contrast contrast — contrast. sort of. default 30%. the "sort of" is doing so much heavy lifting here and I respect it 💀
  • --count number — how many planes to use. default 17. seventeen planes, iconic number honestly 🌈
  • --wander | --no-wander — whether the planes should displace horizontally and vertically. wander = they roam, no-wander = they stay put 🦋
  • --spin | --no-spin — whether the planes should rotate. spin = rotation time, no-spin = stillness 🎀
  • --asymmetric — allows each plane to rotate freely instead of being constrained to an even distribution around the circle. chaotic, independent, lowkey freeing 🌸
  • --fps | --no-fps — whether to show a frames-per-second display at the bottom of the screen. for the numbers girlies 📊

💜 ENVIRONMENT 💜

  • DISPLAY — used to get the default host and display number.
  • XENVIRONMENT — used 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 🦋

X(1), xscreensaver(1)

Copyright © 2013 by 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: go off, just keep the notice, and no promises that it'll be perfect 💖)

🌟 AUTHOR 🌟

Jamie Zawinski.

and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 this came from the XScreenSaver manual, X Version 11, 6.15 (30-Mar-2026) — so like, respect the vintage and the version number, she's an icon and she knows it 💅✨

📦 where this page comes from