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Andrew's CodeProject Screen Saver

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5.00/5 (8 votes)

May 20, 2002

3 min read

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(Yet) another screen saver for the Code Project competition, with code in C# and (coming soon) some details about how certain aspects of the code involved work.

Introduction

Options panel

Yes folks, my secret is out! I've been developing a screen saver for the competition. "Huh?" I hear you all say. Well, I've been really busy of late, so didn't want to make a big fuss about it and then not deliver. Luckily, after several weeks of my C# screen saver sounding more like an F natural (groan), I managed to kick the little baby into touch in time to catch the voting form being put up.

Before I go any further, may I just give a big thanks to Chris, firstly for grabbing onto such a great idea for a CP competition, and secondly for building the final .exe on his machine to save me from those Beta 2 blues (oh, they just keep coming!).

Here's a rundown of the main features of the screensaver:

  • Downloads data in a separate thread so as not to block user interface
  • Detects if a user is offline
  • Will retry after five minutes should the connection to the server fail
  • Hair raising graphics
  • Customisable animation speed for users with slower machines etc.

Installation

Installation is as easy as pie:

  1. Copy CP Screensaver.scr into your Windows system folder.
  2. Copy the Images folder as a sub-folder of your Windows system folder.
  3. Select the CP Screensaver from your Display properties.

Done like a dinner!

How it works

Check back soon! Major areas to be covered will be:

  • Double buffering
  • Alpha blending (the fade effect)
  • State management
  • Multiple monitor support (presuming it actually works as I intended, see below).

Multiple Monitors

Unfortunately, I don't run a multi-monitor system, which means that, whilst I have added support for multiple monitors (not particularly efficient support, granted), I have been unable to test the saver on such a configuration. If you have been able to try the saver out with multiple monitors, I'd be interested to hear your successes/failures in the comments section at the bottom of the article.

To do

The screensaver certainly has some way to go in the future but I simply don't have time to do anything with it just yet; here is a list of stuff I plan to do, off the top of my head:

  • Subtly animated background with alpha blending on lights of lift platform
  • Caching of local data so if the user isn't connected they can still see a list of posts etc. from the last time the saver managed to connect.
  • Better handling of really high and really low resolutions (maybe utilise extra space somehow?)
  • Better multiple monitor support
  • Some bits of optimisations (there are a few loop invariants that need sorting out, but nothing that's too big of a problem)

Conclusion

Okay - so I hope you enjoy what is already here. The code isn't in the neatest of forms by any means because I used this project as a learn-C#-as-you go, so there may be the odd rough edge here and there, though on the whole it's pretty reasonable.