rocks(6x)

💫 rocks — flying through an asteroid field, but make it a vibe 💫

okay bestie, so this is a page from the XScreenSaver manual (that's the 6x bit, iykyk) and honestly? it's giving "we're in space and nobody's driving." 🚀✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

rocks — literally an animation of flying through an asteroid field. that's it. that's the whole thing. 🪨💫

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

rocks [--display host:display.screen] [--foreground color] [--background
color] [--window] [--root] [--window-id number][--mono] [--ncolors n]
[--install] [--visual visual] [--count integer] [--delay usecs] [--speed
integer] [--norotate] [--nomove] [-3d] [--fps]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so rocks draws an animation of an asteroid field moving past the observer — or, plot twist, the observer moving past the asteroid field (vice versa, bestie, it's mutual). and sometimes the observer picks up spin on Z axis. no cap, it just starts rotating. main character energy fr. 💅

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

rocks accepts the following options, and yes we're going through all of them, don't test me:

• --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, so like, if you do nothing, this is what happens. 💖
• --root — draw on the root window. going full wallpaper mode.
• --window-id number — draw on the specified window. you pick the window, you get the rocks.
• --mono — make all the rocks the same color. monochrome moment. 🖤
• --ncolors colors — how many different colors to use. default 5. colors are chosen randomly — so it's a little surprise every time, obsessed. 🌈
• --install — install a private colormap for the window. fancy.
• --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. yes, decimal or hex, she's flexible. 💅
• --count integer — maximum number of rocks to draw on the screen at once. default 100. that's a whole lotta rocks 🪨🪨🪨
• --speed integer — a measure of the speed with which the observer and the rocks pass each other, from 1 to 100. default 100, meaning ``very fast.'' If you're on a slow display connection (the animation looks jerky) then try making this number smaller, and/or decreasing the number of rocks. this is your friendly reminder that you can just... turn it down. 🐢
• --delay microseconds — number of microseconds to delay between each frame. default 50000, meaning about 1/20th second. Compare and contrast with --speed, above. they're different knobs, bestie, don't confuse them. ⏱️
• --norotate — don't rotate the observer; just fly through the field on the level. no spinning. grounded behavior. 😌
• --nomove — don't turn the observer; just fly straight ahead through the field. straight line, zero drama.
• -3d — do red/blue 3d separations: if you look at the screen with 3d glasses, the rocks will be jumping right out at you. Oooooh, scaaary! 👻💀 (their words, not mine, but honestly iconic)
• --fps — display the current frame rate and CPU load. numbers! on screen! we love a diagnostic. 📊

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🌱 ENVIRONMENT 🌱

• DISPLAY to get the default host and display number. this is how it knows where to put the rocks. 🖥️
• XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property. (big words, but it's just "where do I find the override file" energy.) 🗂️
• XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root.

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

X(1), xscreensaver(1)

like, go read those too if you want the full lore. iykyk. 💜

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🍓 BUGS 🍓

okay so there are some known wishes, and i'm just gonna say them plainly:

• There should be an option to display doppler shift (a gravity rainbow.) 🌈 — there is not. we want it. we don't have it.
• Speed of rotation should be settable. — nope, not currently.
• Default speed of rotation should be relative to forward velocity. — also not currently. it's a whole wishlist, bestie. 😭

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👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Copyright © 1992 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.

(translation: it's free to use, just keep the notice, and no promises that it works for anything — as-is, no warranty, fr fr.) 🫶

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🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

• Based on Lisp Machine code copyright 1988 John Nguyen <johnn@hx.lcs.mit.edu>.
• Ported to C and X by Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 13-aug-92.
• Steering code by Jeremie Petit; 3D code by theiling@coli.uni-sb.de.

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💖 cute sign-off 💖

this whole page is from X Version 11, version 6.09 (07-Jun-2024) — and that's the rocks(6x) manual, done and dusted. now go stare at some asteroids. slay. 🪨✨🎀