Doom 3 Screensaver

By rec_kris
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Grand Master

Nexus-

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new version shouldnt have a reason to connect to the internet. find another screensaver that uses the "screen time for flash" (shouldnt be too hard since lots of movies and games use it for screensavers on their website) and let me know if it connects to the internet. Cant see a reason it would be connecting to the internet. Im using the sharware version of the program (not the full) but i dont think that would have any effect. :( My advice is block it in your firewall. Remember this program that makes screensavers from flash (.swf) is an industry accepted program I dont see why it would be connecting to the internet. Oh and the name of it is "Screen time for flash"

Yeah i noticed it was kinda slow on my machine but i may have a bit faster comp then some of you guys. will work on getting it to speed up some.

DirtyLarry: looks great but if i may say something from what i can see in the screenshot. the 2 pieces in that you are making move as one and they move from right to left. they move around the circle and the letters UAC. (feel free to use my screensaver as a reference) sorry if you already knew all that you may have fixed it by now and that may have just been an old screenshot. anyway it looks very nice :yes:

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mikey

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I have already converted the main UAC logo into 3D using the program Swift that I PM'd you about.

Now it is just a matter of animating it spinning, the main outside piece and inside piece are going to spin in the opposite directions, which I have actually already started. I also may do a cool camera animation as well... then I have some ideas with playing around with some other stuff. ;)

Holy crap thats gona look sweet :)

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Grand Master

DirtyLarry Veteran

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Yeah i noticed it was kinda slow on my machine but i may have a bit faster comp then some of you guys. will work on getting it to speed up some.

DirtyLarry: looks great but if i may say something from what i can see in the screenshot. the 2 pieces in that you are making move as one and they move from right to left. they move around the circle and the letters UAC. (feel free to use my screensaver as a reference) sorry if you already knew all that you may have fixed it by now and that may have just been an old screenshot. anyway it looks very nice  :yes:

Real quick because alot of people are asking:I dont know exactly how or why, but I do know that Flash screensavers will definitely tend to run slower on older comps, just so people who are asking know. It is commonplace as Flash uses a different way to render on Screen objects than your normal screensaver would.

And divertom, I definitely do know about the letters and the circle, and I also already do have your file for reference, so let me say thanks now for that. (Y)

I opened the current flash file originally,hoping to just export out the current shape as an EPS, but Flash when it exports simple shapes for some strange reasons adds way to many points, for no apparant reason at all, so when I got the 1st EPS from Flash into Swift, it wound up creating an insanely huge Flash file that was incredibley slow when animated Full Screen. So I had to redraw the main shape completely from scratch in Adobe Illustrator, then export it from there as an EPS. It was easy enough though and definitely well worth it though, because I knocked off something like 257 points by recreating it.

Anyway getting back to the cirlce and UAC letters, I am going to do a few versions of it all, definitely 1 including spinning it the right way as you suggest, but I am also going to bend the rules a little and have the 2 pieces move in different directions around the circle and UAC letters, as I think it will make it a little more dynamic, and really just look cooler as 2 objects will be spinning independent of each other, but in perfect complimentary unison, around 2 static objects.

I am aslo going to include some more "action" going on, so it is more of a moving screensaver. I think I am definitely keeping the lines, and right now I am thinking I will have it appear to turn itself on and off every once in a while... What I mean by turn itself off is the effect that you would get if you turned off a really old TV... everything looks like it disappears into the center kind of, if that makes sense. Only problem is this might be to much going on, getting back to how I mentioned Flash does handles screen savers slow on older comps in the 1st paragraph.

I am also thinking I may do a "widescreen" version as well, with the standard widescreen black stripes (maybe even white???) on the top and bottom, and an almost black, but actually really, really dark grey, background.

It's going to take me some time, but like I said I hope to have something by Friday, next Monday the latest, and much sooner if possible.

So thanks to everyone who has said something positive about the idea already, cause I am really busy with my freelance clients, and then add in the fact I am being really lazy lately, so although I really want to and I will do this, seeing encouraging words just makes me that much more motivated, so Thanks. (Y)

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Neowinian

carnifex

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Just a note - the screensaver is great, I loaded it at home last night, and put it on my work PC this AM, which has dual monitors, and it does display on both monitors.

It does seem to rotate at different speeds, which is kinda neat, and it is a little slow, but I have a crappy vid card on the work so not unexpected.

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Grand Master

DirtyLarry Veteran

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version 1.d3 progress report

I have some free time so I am working on the screensaver right now.

I just finalized the overall most Complex Animation, meaning at the absolute most what is going to happen with just the logo itself.

As I said I will probably make several versions, all with different animations, but for now this is the "Main" animation.

All 3 main objects in the logo, including the circle, are going to spin independent of each other:

  • The Main Outer Piece - Right To Left
  • The "Triangle" Inner Piece - Left To Right
  • The Circle - Vertically Up

The Circle will also be moving twice as fast. It really is dynamic and makes for a really kick ass animation. :woot:

I also have shadows enabled on the file, and the one and only light source is coming up from the bottom. Think if you had a flashlight on your foot pointed up 45 degrees. Because of the light, I have the UAC logo slightly closer to the viewer in the 3D perspective, as a result shadows will hit the UAC text and the other objects slightly different as well, adding more depth hopefully.

So now I have to wait for Swift 3D to render the 21 frames I need, which should take about 3-4 hours or so. I am not sure if I can work it on much longer tonight, but I am still hoping to have it done really soon. I have some ideas for the text though as well, so that might wind up making things a little bit longer than I thought, but possibly well worth it. ;)

To give an overall idea of where things are heading, here is Frame 4 rendered during my Test phase. Off to render every frame. DL

post-78-1094068225.gif

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Grand Master

dreamsINdigital

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Wow, I really like 1.2

Will there be something to remove the old version when installing a new version of the screensaver?

You can uninstall it from Add/Remove Programs.

Nice to see this is still in development, but yeah, v1.2 is pretty slow for me. :(

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Grand Master

Evil Dragon

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Not slow for me..I have a Radeon 9800 Pro :D

Maybe for another one with the UAC logo one with static and red "SYSTEM OFFLINE" text?

I have a 9800XT and it's slow for me... Maybe it's cuz it's on dual monitors, though.

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Grand Master

DirtyLarry Veteran

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How's the progress so far?

Progress is slow, and relatively steady. :D I am now looking at a mid next week deliverable instead of the end of this weekend, because honestly when I said end of the weekend earlier this week I forgot this weekend is Labor Day. It will be done though as soon as humanly possible.

Slight Update in regards to "Slow" Animation on certain machines.

After testing out the Flash Files I am working on, I can say without a doubt that many of the people who are experiencing a "slow" screensaver, that it is because of the scan lines added to the latest version. I just automatically included them in my version because they truly are kick ass, but tests with and without the scan lines show without a doubt it is the scan lines that Flash is working hardest on when rendering the file Full Screen, hence causing the slow down. Aslo from my experience over the last few years with Flash, I should have realized this right away, because the big problem with the scan lines is they are a PNG image, and although yes, Flash can obviously animate and render PNG images, it is working much harder than usual because it is optimized to animate and render Vector art first and foremost. And PNG's are the worse out of the bunch because they do allow for the most dynamic use of transparancies in a rasterized image. This not handling PNG's to well though is one of those things though that is rarely ever mentioned or even known by everyone, because some could say it is a slight flaw in the product itself.

As a result of this finding, I am trying to recreate the Scan Lines as Vector art using gradients, or come up with a similar effect as it is very cool, because with my new 3D version of the logo, Flash is already working pretty hard at animating that, and I have not even started my idea with the text yet, so anything that can be done to optimize the file overall is definitely needed.

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Grand Master

DirtyLarry Veteran

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this screensaving device is quite nice. runs smooth. hey dirty larry why not jump on the ball and finish yours. im stoked to get a look.

my friend, just cause part of your very first post on Neowin (which by the way welcome to) was pushing me to get my act together, tomorrow on Labor Day I am going to do my very best to have it all completed (Y)

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Grand Master

Nexus-

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1.2 Screensaver says it has expired, WTF?  :blink:

SOB yeah i just noticed it too :( uh well ill rebuild it and host it again this time making it a bit faster i didnt think i set it to expire but looks like it did anyway without asking me :cry:

dirtylarry: AMAZING WORK. I should NOT have left this thread like a did for a few days :woot: (Y) (Y) oh and i do look forward to seeing it finished. maybe since you have me and mikey beat with your work i may make a logon screen or wallpaper or something to go along with it screensavers you got us beat ;) :p

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Jimmerz28

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I was playing and I thought of another saver since its very similar. The PDAs you find everywhere have a red version thats very similar to the station locked, so if you get bored and wanna crank out another one that may be a kewl one. But again can't wait to see 1.3 i have 1.2 on my computer now, my friends are all impressed :rolleyes: :rofl:

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