hilbert(6x)

💖 hilbert(6x) — the XScreenSaver manual page, bestie edition 💖

okay so you found the page for hilbert, from the XScreenSaver manual. It's a 3D Hilbert fractal and it's genuinely so pretty, I'm not even being dramatic. Sit down, hydrate, let's go. 🦋

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✨ NAME ✨

hilbert — 3D Hilbert fractal. that's it. that's the whole name. iconic brevity. 👑

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

hilbert [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--delay number] [--speed ratio] [--depth
number] [--spin] [--wander] [-2d] [-3d] [--closed] [--open] [--max-depth
number] [--thickness ratio] [--wireframe] [--fps]

just... look at all those flags. so many little levers to pull. we love options. 💅

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So what does it actually do? It draws the recursive Hilbert space-filling curve, and it comes in both 2D and 3D variants, because why choose. 🌈

It incrementally animates the growth and recursion all the way down to the maximum depth, and then it unwinds it right back. It's giving growth, it's giving decay, it's giving a tiny little loop of existence. 😭

Now the nerdy part, and I mean this affectionately: the Hilbert path is a single contiguous line that can fill a volume without crossing itself. As a data structure, Hilbert paths are useful because ordering along the curve preserves locality — meaning points that are close together along the curve are also close together in space. The converse is often, but not always, true. And yeah, the coloration reflects that. 🎀

not me explaining space-filling curves like it's gossip. but it kind of is.

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

okay bestie, here's the whole menu. no skipping, we're eating everything. 🍓

• --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.
• --delay number — Per-frame delay, in microseconds. Default: 30000 (0.03 seconds.).
• --speed number — How fast the animation should run. Less than 1 for slower, greater than 1 for faster. zoom zoom. 🔥
• --max-depth number — Max depth to descend. Default: 5, which peaks at around half a million polygons. yes literally half a million, she's ambitious. 💀
• --spin, --no-spin — Whether to rotate the object. Default: true.
• --wander, --no-wander — Whether to wander the object around on the screen. Default: false;
• -2d, -3d — Whether to draw the 2D or 3D variant. Default: random.
• --closed, --open — Whether to draw the open or closed-path variant. Default: random.
• --thickness ratio — How thick the lines should be. Default: 0.25.
• --wireframe — Render in wireframe instead of solid. skeleto-mode. 💀
• --fps — Display the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count. number-watching is a valid hobby. 👑

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✨ ENVIRONMENT ✨

the vibes the system hands you before you even ask 🌸

• 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.

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

go read these next, bestie, they're the whole friend group 🫶

• X(1)
• xscreensaver(1)

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✨ COPYRIGHT ✨

Copyright © 2011 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.

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✨ AUTHOR ✨

Jamie Zawinski. 🧚

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and that's the whole page, bestie! this shipped as X Version 11, build 6.17-1.fc44 (13-Oct-2026) — so go run hilbert, spin it, wander it, and let the half-million polygons do their thing. slay. 💜✨