distort - distort the content of the screen in interesting ways

distort [-root] [-window] [-mono] [-install] [-noinstall] [-visual visual] [-window-id window-id] [-delay usecs] [-radius pixels] [-speed int] [-number int] [-swamp] [-bounce] [-reflect] [-vortex] [-magnify] [-blackhole] [-slow] [-shm] [-no-shm]

The distort program takes an image and lets circular zones of distortion wander randomly around it, distorting what is under them. The mode of distortion and the overall behaviour of the zones can be influenced in various ways.

The image that it manipulates will be grabbed from the portion of the screen underlying the window, or from the system's video input, or from a random file on disk, as indicated by the grabDesktopImages, grabVideoFrames, and chooseRandomImages options in the ~/.xscreensaver file; see xscreensaver-demo(1) for more details.

distort accepts the following options:

-root

Draw on the root window.

-window

Draw on a newly-created window. This is the default.

-mono

If on a color display, pretend we're on a monochrome display.

-install

Install a private colormap for the window.

-noinstall

Don't install a private colormap for the window.

-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.

-window-id window-id

Specify which window id to use.

-delay usecs

Specify the delay between subsequent animation frames in microseconds.

-radius pixels

Specify the radius of the distortion zone in pixels.

-speed int

Specify the speed at which the distortion zone moves, where 0 is slow, higher numbers are faster (10 is pretty fast.)

-number int

Specify the number of distortion zones.

-swamp

Instead of letting zones wander around, let small zones pop up like bubbles in a swamp and leave permanent distortion. WARNING: this option uses a colossal amount of memory: keep the -radius small when using -swamp.

-bounce

Let zones wander around and bounce off the window border. This is the default.

-reflect

Mode of distortion that resembles reflection by a cylindrical mirror.

-vortex

Whirlpool-shaped distortion. Way cool.

-magnify

This mode of distortion looks like a magnifying glass.

-blackhole

Suck your pixels beyond the event horizon. Favourite mode of Dr Stephen Hawking.

-slow

Make the zone wander slower.

-shm

Use shared memory extension.

-no-shm

Don't use shared memory extension.

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.

X(1), xscreensaver(1), xscreensaver-demo(1), xscreensaver-getimage(1)

Copyright © 1998 by Jonas Munsin and 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.

Jonas Munsin <jmunsin@iki.fi> and Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>. This manual page by Matthias Warkus <mawa@iname.com>, 17-Oct-1999.