metaballs(6x)

💖 metaballs(6x) — the XScreenSaver manual, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, welcome to metaballs(6x), aka the XScreenSaver manual page for this little blob hack — and yes it lives in section 6x because it's an X11 demo, iykyk ✨

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🌈 NAME 🌈

MetaBalls — literally draws 2D metaballs. that's the whole vibe. blobs. on your screen. slay 💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

MetaBalls [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--ncolors number] [--count number]
[--delay number] [--cycles number] [--radius number] [--delta number]
[--fps]

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🫶 DESCRIPTION 🫶

so this hack draws 2D metaballs onto your screen, and the way it does it is genuinely iconic: for every single pixel, it calculates the sum of the colors of all the metaballs covering that pixel. that's it. that's the whole algorithm. blob math. no cap 💀

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• --visual visual — picks which visual to use, bestie. legal values are either the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual. pick your fighter 💖
• --window — draws on a newly-created window. this one is the default, so it's kinda the main character 👑
• --root — draws on the root window. living rent free on your desktop, as one does ✨
• --window-id number — draws on the specified window. you point, it blobs 🫵
• --ncolors number — Number of Colors. Default: 256. so many colors, so little time 🌈
• --count number — Number of MetaBalls. 2 - 255. Default: 10. that's your blob squad, your little friend group 🦋
• --delay number — Per-frame delay, in microseconds. Default: 5000 (0.005 seconds.). yes microseconds, everybody stay calm 😭
• --cycles number — Duration. 100 - 3000. Default: 1000. how long this whole thing goes on for ⭐
• --fps — Display the current frame rate and CPU load. the diagnostics girlies are eating this one up 🔥

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🌸 ENVIRONMENT 🌸

• DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number. where am i, where are my blobs, etc 💜
• XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property. the override era 🙈
• XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — The window ID to use with --root. important detail, don't skip her 🎀

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

X(1), xscreensaver(1), http://demo-effects.sourceforge.net/

go read those too, bestie, they're linked for a reason 💅

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👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Copyright © 2002-2003 by W.P. van Paassen. 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.

fr fr read that license, it's giving generous but also "as is, no warranty," so don't come for anyone if it breaks 💀

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⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

W.P. van Paassen

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okay that's the whole page, mwah 🫶 — this was X Version 11, 6.09 (07-Jun-2024), and you can find it filed under metaballs(6x) whenever you need her. now go watch some blobs, you've earned it 💖✨🎀