downfall(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 3 versions
, in fedora 44

💧 NAME 💧

okay so bestie, meet downfall(6x) — it's a screen saver, and it lives in the XScreenSaver manual. that's the whole name section, slay, moving on 💅

🌊 SYNOPSIS 🌊

downfall [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--delay number] [--speed number] [--scale number] [--fps]

that's it. that's the whole summoning ritual. ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so like — imagine you're zoomed ALL the way in on a waterfall. but make it grayscale. no colors, no rainbow, just vibes and falling water, super close up. that's literally the entire thing. it's giving "art gallery but it's your monitor and it's saving your screen." 🎀

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

here's where you get to customize. every single one, no skipping, i would never 🙈

  • --visual visual — pick which visual you wanna use. legal values are either the name of a visual class, or the id number of a specific visual (and yes, you can write that number in decimal OR hex, your call bestie).
  • --window — draw on a brand-new window that gets created just for this. this one is the default, so if you don't say anything, this is what you get. main character energy 💅
  • --root — draw directly on the root window instead.
  • --delay number — the per-frame delay, measured in microseconds. default is 20000, which is 0.02 seconds, if you were wondering. it's giving "chill frame pacing."
  • --speed number — how fast the animation goes. 2.0 means twice as fast, and 0.5 means half as fast. math is math. 🔥
  • --scale number — the resolution, and it has to be between 0.1 and 1.0. default is 1.0. so like, dial it down if you want it crunchy ✨
  • --fps | --no-fps — whether or not to show a frames-per-second display at the bottom of the screen. want the numbers? --fps. don't? --no-fps. simple as. 👑

🌸 ENVIRONMENT 🌸

these are the env vars it peeks at, no cap:

  • 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 that are stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use alongside --root.

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

go read these too, i'm obsessed with them fr fr:

Copyright © 2025 by Matt Vianueva. and here's the legal bit, keeping it exact because that's how licenses work, bestie:

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.

🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Matt Vianueva <diatribes@gmail.com>. 💖

and that's the whole page!! X Version 11, 6.17-1.fc44 dated 13-Oct-2026, and yeah the page title is downfall(6x) in case you forgot already. go forth and watch that grayscale water fall, you absolute icon 🦋🌸💅

📦 where this page comes from