mirrorblob(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 10 versions
, in fedora 44

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

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're about to talk about a wobbly blob that distorts the image behind it. yes fr. it's from the XScreenSaver manual and it's giving ✨liquid mirror✨ energy.

🫧 NAME 🫧

mirrorblob — Draws a wobbly blob that distorts the image behind it.

like. a blob. that wobbles. and the stuff behind it gets all squiggly. no cap.

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

mirrorblob [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--wire] [--delay number] [--fog]
[--walls] [--colour] [--texture] [--offset-texture] [--blend]
[--antialias] [--resolution number] [--bumps number] [--fade-time
number] [--hold-time number] [--zoom number] [--fps]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So what this does is: it draws a wobbling blob, and it pulls off this whole look with alpha blending, fog, textures, and lighting — the full glam squad. 💅 It also hands you a "frames per second" meter so you can clock exactly how fast your graphics card is... which, honestly, is main character behavior for a screensaver.

⚠️ okay important: Requires OpenGL. no OpenGL, no blob, periodt.

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • --visual visual — Pick which visual to use. Legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual. yes you can flex hex, we support you.
  • --window — Draw on a newly-created window. This is the default, bestie. 🪟
  • --root — Draw on the root window.
  • --window-id number — Draw on the specified window. --wire Render in wireframe instead of solid.
  • --delay number — Per-frame delay, in microseconds. Default: 10000 (that's 0.01 seconds.).
  • --fog | --no-fog — Whether to enable fog. 🌫️ spooky. mysterious. atmospheric.
  • --walls | --no-walls — Add walls for blob to hit. the blob gets to bonk 🧱
  • --colour | --no-colour — Draw coloured blob. If also textured, the texture will have color mixed in.
  • --texture | --no-texture — Whether to wrap a texture image on the blob. blob gets an outfit change 🧣
  • --offset_texture | --no-offset_texture — Whether to offset the texture calculations to only use a region of the image under the blob. This works well with a semi-transparent blob. iykyk 🫶
  • --blend | --no-blend — Whether to draw a transparent blob. (see also offset_texture above — they're besties, they work together)
  • --antialias | --no-antialias — Whether to antialias lines. smooth those edges, slay ✨
  • --resolution number — Resolution of the tessellation used to calculate and draw the blob. Larger numbers give a smoother blob but increase calculation times exponentially. so like... be cute but be careful, that's a lot of math 😭
  • --bumps number — Number of bumps used to distort the blob. the more bumps, the more chaos 👑
  • --hold-time number — Time until loading a new image.
  • --fade-time number — Time taken to transition between images.
  • --zoom number — Size multiplier for blob. big blob era 🔍
  • --fps — Display the current frame rate, CPU load, and polygon count. stats girlies rise up 📊

🌸 ENVIRONMENT 🌸

  • 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 🦋

X(1), xscreensaver(1)

go read those too, they're iconic in their own way 💜

Copyright © 2003 by Jon Dowdall. 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 💅

Jon Dowdall.

and that's the whole page, bestie — blob understood, blob documented, blob loved. this lil writeup came from X Version 11, build 6.17-1.fc44 (13-Oct-2026), so if you're reading this from the future... hiiii 🫶 mwah 💖

📦 where this page comes from