protophore(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 4 versions
, in fedora 44

✨ protophore ✨

okay bestie, you found it — the protophore page from the XScreenSaver manual (section 6x, screensaver land, we love it here). it's a screensaver. it is SO much cooler than that sentence makes it sound. stay with me 💖

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

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

look at all those little flags. we're gonna go through every single one, no skipping, because that's what besties do 🫶

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

it's a reflective metal fractal. that's it. that's the whole vibe. it's giving chrome geometry having a main character moment, and honestly? obsessed. ✨

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • --visual visual — tells it which visual to use, iykyk. the legal values are either the name of a visual class, or the id number of a specific visual — and that id can be in decimal or hex, your call, periodt.
  • --window — draws on a newly-created window. this one is literally the default, so if you change nothing, this is what you get 💖
  • --root — draws on the root window instead. whole desktop, no window, just fractal.
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, measured in microseconds. the default is 20000, which is 0.02 seconds, in case you were wondering how tiny that is 👀
  • --speed number — animation speed. 2.0 means twice as fast. 0.5 means half as fast. math but make it slay.
  • --scale number — frame buffer resolution. 0.5 halves the resolution for better performance but lower quality output. default is 1.0, which is full quality, which is the one you want unless your GPU is crying 😭
  • --fps | --no-fps — whether to show a frames-per-second display at the bottom of the screen. yes or no, bestie, pick one 🌈

🌸 ENVIRONMENT 🌸

  • DISPLAY — used to get the default host and display number. this is the quiet hero of the whole operation fr fr.
  • XENVIRONMENT — used to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property. yes it's a whole chain of authority, don't think about it too hard 💀
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root. that's the entire description. iconic brevity 👑

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

the shadertoy link is the origin story btw, go be nosy, you deserve it 🧚

Copyright © 2015 by Otavio Good. 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.

(that's legalese for "go off, just keep the receipt" 🙈)

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Otavio Good. legend behavior.

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this shipped as X Version 11, release 6.17-1.fc44, dated 13-Oct-2026 💖✨ go run it, go stare at the shiny metal fractal, be free 🦋🌸

📦 where this page comes from