Discussion about fractal flames, including aeflame, apophysis, and electricsheep.

If you are having trouble downloading sheep, try using BitTorrent or a sheep pack.

Before posting here, please read the FAQ. Hopefully you can find the answer to your question faster there than here.

There's also a wiki devoted to the sheep.


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Question New Shoop Res-es

Date: May 19, 06:54
From: jtibble

Ok, so we have some users at denaje.gotdns.com that want to assemble our higher-res sheep into the mpeg video clips, but apparently Shoop deletes sheep that it can't open (our higher res ones specifically).

Is there a way to get Shoop to open and load them, or is it possible to recompile Shoop to work with the 720x480 10-megabyte mpegs?

Thanks, John

Question Two Questions (variation formulas and rendering effects)

Date: May 15, 22:28
From: Gregory Zitelli

I have two quick questions, one concerning variations and the other concerning a strange effect that I've found while rendering.

My first question was where would I find a page or something which lists the specific formulas for each of the newer variation (I'd be interested in the ones added in the modded Z+ and Z+C++, but even the ones expanded in the latest beta would be nice).

My other question is about rendering "lines". When rendering at high detail I've found that there are lines appearing in the flame, which (after analyzing the transformations) shouldn't be there. I have a link to an example below (you can see what I'm talking about very clearly in the lighter, lower left section of the flame). From what I've been working with I don't think that this should be happening, and I was curious if the filter radius would have anything to do with this.

http://ic3.deviantart.com/fs17/f/2007/135/2/4/Copper_Galaxy_by_vjasper.jpg

None answers

Re: Question Two Questions (variation formulas and rendering effects) (Gregory Zitelli)
Date: May 18, 16:32
From: Scott Draves

1) expect a new version of the flame paper (http://flam3.com/flame_draves.pdf) with many more variations. there's also the wiki: http://electricsheep.wikispaces.com/Variations

2) i don't see a problem, i see lines and stripes all over the image but they look normal, prolly from the rings variation. but how could i tell without the genome?

Re: None answers (Scott Draves)
Date: May 19, 12:09
From: <Anonymous>

None Initial Coef Changes

Re: None answers (Scott Draves)
Date: May 19, 12:09
From: Gregory Zitelli

I was able to figure out the lines in the flame, but I am still curious about the actual process that all this goes through.

I'm still rather new to this all, however after doing my best to really read over the newer flame paper I think I might get it.

From what I can see, the coefficients mentioned in the document are the x and y coordinates for the points on the triangles displayed in Apophysis (with the three x coords being a, b, and c, and the three y coords being d, e, and f). The points, represented (x,y), are plugged in and generate the points (X,Y), with X = ax + by + c, and Y = dx + ey + f, where a,b,c,d,e,f are all constants specific to the transformation.

Your overall function V is taking in X and Y, and your even overall-er function F is the sum of all of your V functions, after they are multiplied to their individual values. From what I can tell (and I'm hoping someone can confirm or deny all of this), if you have a transform with, say, Linear=1 and Sinusoidal=2, then your F(X,Y) = (1 * (X,Y)) + (2 * (sin(X),sin(Y)) )

None yup

Re: None Initial Coef Changes (Gregory Zitelli)
Date: May 19, 13:49
From: Scott Draves

that's what it means

Re: None yup (Scott Draves)
Date: May 19, 14:45
From: <Anonymous>

None More

Re: None yup (Scott Draves)
Date: May 19, 14:45
From: Gregory Zitelli

Wow, I'm actually amazed that I interpreted that correctly.

I'm not really familiar with 2D map transformations, but going back to the last example, would the following be true?

F(X,Y) = (1 * (X,Y)) + (2 * (sin(X),sin(Y)) ) F(X,Y) = ( X + 2sin(X) , Y + 2sin(Y) )

That is to say, when adding/multiplying points together, does

2 * (sin(X),sin(Y)) = (2sin(X),2sin(Y))

And does

(X,Y) + (2sin(X),2sin(Y)) = (X + 2sin(X), Y + 2sin(Y))

or do the operations work differently?

Also (and I apologize for asking what I imagine are probably very basic questions), concerning multiple transforms, what part of the equation relates the transforms' effects on the image? That is to say, what variable(s) in the equation cause each transform to build off the next?

Re: None More (Gregory Zitelli)
Date: May 21, 09:28
From: <Anonymous>

More You got it

Re: None More (Gregory Zitelli)
Date: May 21, 09:28
From: Erik Reckase

Each transform contributes independent of the others, and the result of the calculation is the sum of the contributions.

Feel free to ask more questions off of this ridiculous list. flam3dev @ gmail dot com

Erik

Question Windows Vista

Date: May 15, 15:55
From: Jeff

I have a question for anyone that knows or has tried to install this on windows vista. Can anyone get electric sheep to show in the vista screen saver menu? It said in one of the news updates that electric sheep was supposed to work under vista. Can anyone help me?

btw I love this project, keep up the good work

Re: Question Windows Vista (Jeff)
Date: May 15, 20:31
From: <Anonymous>

Re: Question Windows Vista (Jeff)
Date: May 15, 20:31
From: <Anonymous>

None x64?

Re: Question Windows Vista (Jeff)
Date: May 15, 20:31
From: <Anonymous>

I have Vista Home Premium 64 bit and have the same problem. Perhaps this was only tested on the 32 bit versions of Windows? I tried running the installer as an administrator and that didn't help. I believe I can run avast!, my antivirus software, while a screensaver is playing, and in the avast! screensaver settings, i could select "Electric Sheep *32" as my screensaver, which generally indicates a native 32 bit program. Sounds like perhaps Microsoft needs to sort out the 64 bit screen saver issue.

Re: None x64?
Date: May 16, 11:12
From: <Anonymous>

Feedback Solution

Re: None x64?
Date: May 16, 11:12
From: Jeff

Yes, I have the 64 bit version of vista. I actually figured it out, if you go to the c:\Program Files(x86)\Windows\syswow(or something along those lines) you will be able to find the electric-sheep screen saver file. if you right click on it and say install it will work. I failed to read lower in flame and found my question already answered. My only issue now is that every time the screen saver starts, vista reverts to vista basic. Apparently electric-sheep is not compatible with the new vista theme. Maybe there will be a fix in the next version? *crosses fingers*

Date: May 14, 20:28
From: <Anonymous>

Question electricsheep starts and stops inmediatly

Date: May 14, 20:28
From: Gabriel

Can anyone please help, I don't know what could be the problem. Right after downloading first sheep it looks like its gonna start but then it just stops as if i had moved the mouse. And after that it just blinks when it should start. Any help will be much appreciated.

More windowsXP

Re: Question electricsheep starts and stops inmediatly (Gabriel)
Date: May 18, 15:21
From: Gabriel

oh I forgot to say that I'm using windows XP, hope that someone can help me out. Thanks.

Re: Question electricsheep starts and stops inmediatly (Gabriel)
Date: May 18, 13:53
From: <Anonymous>

Re: Question electricsheep starts and stops inmediatly (Gabriel)
Date: May 18, 13:53
From: <Anonymous>

None same problem

Re: Question electricsheep starts and stops inmediatly (Gabriel)
Date: May 18, 13:53
From: <Anonymous>

Electric sheep works fine on my desktop, but I have the same problem on my laptop- running XP Pro w/sp2.

Angry What is up with some of these variations?

Date: May 14, 16:19
From: Zemyla

Okay, I've been reading the source code, particularly the variations, and am kind of upset.

Let me note that I'm okay with variations having parameters. It's basically kind of like an infinite number of variations in one. I'm also kind of okay with variations that use the transformation matrix. It's kind of a poor man's parameter, but I can deal with it.

However, I'm not okay with variations having state, and I am definitely not okay with variations using the weight value in horrid ways or ignoring it completely.

The two biggest offenders are the radial blur and secant variations.

Why does radial blur need to save random numbers? Not only does this make it not thread-safe, but it also makes the result less random. Also, it ignores the proper use of weight, which is to produce a *weighted average*.

Secant is an egregious offender. As the weight of that transform approaches zero, the amount that it adds to the y coordinate approaches 1. This should not happen. >_<

Arch, rays, blade, and twintarian are also terrible offenders. They should not be taking the sine of the weight. But at least they go to zero as the weight does.

Ideally, a variation should not know its weight at all. So why have these transformations been added? I'm thinking of changing those transformations so that they regard weight, and have separate parameters for what weight is being used for in them currently. It might break backwards compatibility, but it makes interpolation work in a sane way again. And the state for radial blur should be removed, in favor of simply using four random numbers. Unless there is some reason for rndG to be within .5 of the previous rndG.

Re: Angry What is up with some of these variations? (Zemyla)
Date: May 15, 16:06
From: <Anonymous>

None yes

Re: Angry What is up with some of these variations? (Zemyla)
Date: May 15, 16:04
From: Scott Draves

i agree.

None Bug and fix for OS X client

Date: May 13, 16:22
From: Michael Hohimer

I really enjoy this screensaver, much thanks to all who have worked on it.

On the OS X client, I noticed some transition sheep repeating as if they were loop sheep. I determined that if a loop sheep with no possible successors is about to be displayed, then the transition just prior to the loop will repeat (until Maximum Repeats is reached) instead of the loop sheep.

I believe the source of the problem is line 1193 of electricsheep.m (version 1.90 in the CVS repository):

 1191     // No need to reload the movie if we're going to play the
 1192     // same animation again
 1193     if ([newAnim getID] != [_nextAnim getID] || currentAnim == nil)
 1194     {
 1195         [newAnim retain];
 1196         [currentAnim release];
 1197 		currentAnim = _nextAnim;
 1198 		_nextAnim = newAnim;
 1199         loadNewMovie = YES;
 1200         nRepeats = 1;

Changing line 1193 to the following fixed the bug for me:

1193 if ([currentAnim getID] != [_nextAnim getID] || currentAnim == nil)

Please consider this change in the next release of Electric Sheep, and keep up the great work.

None thanks!

Re: None Bug and fix for OS X client (Michael Hohimer)
Date: May 14, 14:40
From: Scott Draves

thanks! i passed it on to the mac devs.

Re: None Bug and fix for OS X client (Michael Hohimer)
Date: May 13, 21:52
From: <Anonymous>

Re: None Bug and fix for OS X client (Michael Hohimer)
Date: May 13, 21:52
From: <Anonymous>

None Not quite like that ...

Re: None Bug and fix for OS X client (Michael Hohimer)
Date: May 13, 21:52
From: Tom Lane

I'm unsure whether currentAnim really can be nil at this point in the code, but if it were then your proposed test would crash trying to invoke getID on a nonexistent object. Test it the other way round instead:

if (currentAnim == nil || [currentAnim getID] != [_nextAnim getID])

This is not to express any opinion on the overall merit of the change, just to point out that the nil-test is quite useless where it is ...

None Untitled

Re: None Not quite like that ... (Tom Lane)
Date: May 13, 23:09
From: Michael Hohimer

Ah, I see. Thanks for pointing that out.

Question Multimonitor implementation

Date: May 12, 10:54
From: Ehamby

Just wondering how to run the screen saver at 2560 x 1024. I looked through the faq but didn't see anything. I'm running windows xp.

Date: May 10, 19:31
From: <Anonymous>

Idea Request: Stop showing video after N minutes

Date: May 10, 19:31
From: Michael

On many computers, the monitor powers off after a period of time. There's no sense wasting electricity and overheating computer components by displaying the animations after the monitor has powered off. Even if your CPU is off-loaded by your graphics card, it is still using power and generating almost as much heat.

I'd suggest adding an option to specify a number of minutes after which video is no longer displayed. Perhaps the Electric Sheep logo can be placed on the screen and moved every 30 seconds instead, just in case the monitor is still on.

The screensaver can continue to aid in creating new animations. There are screensaver managers that will turn off a screensaver after N minutes, but they all cost money (for Windows anyway) and that would stop the generation of new frames for the animation.

Question Not rendering frames

Date: May 07, 10:29
From: molas

I just started using Electric Sheep -- it's a very cool program!

My computer doesn't seem to be rendering any frames, though. The CPU usage of the screen saver is very low while it is running (less than 10% - just what it takes to playback the mpgs). My "cp_0.xml" control points file is occasionally updated while the screensaver is running, but the xml file remains empty, with only this line at the top: <get gen="202"/>. Am I correct that this file should contain instructions for my computer to render new jpg frames?

Is this an issue with the server being overloaded? I think my computer is requesting a control points file, but I am getting nothing back from the server.

Thanks, molas

Re: Question Not rendering frames (molas)
Date: May 07, 10:45
From: <Anonymous>

Ok now it's working

Re: Question Not rendering frames (molas)
Date: May 07, 10:45
From: molas

OK, my computer seems to be rendering frames now.

Was that long wait before I started rendering any frames expected behavior? Or is it a sign of a problem?

molas

Idea Wanting to download older, incorrectly downloaded sheep, no torrent file.

Date: May 07, 10:19
From: Tomasz

There are some mpegs that appear to have a slight jump in them as if a frame were missing. I can find the flame easily enough in the archive but obviously I cannot download it from anywhere. Could there maybe be a torrent with suggested incompleted sheep, where users can seed and dload off each other. Maybe the original render was screwed...

anyhow, the file is in flock 202, in the folder 830 the sheep is "00202=21806=21806=21806.mpg"

theres a few more I have that jump too. I'll post more when I find them. Likewise I'd be happy to seed any sheep that others dont have completely.

Re: Idea Wanting to download older, incorrectly downloaded sheep, no torrent file. (Tomasz)
Date: May 07, 19:01
From: <Anonymous>

None defect

Re: Idea Wanting to download older, incorrectly downloaded sheep, no torrent file. (Tomasz)
Date: May 07, 18:57
From: <Anonymous>

the defect is more likely in the original rather than in your download, see http://draves.org/blog/archives/000484.html

None MPEG\202 folder

Date: May 07, 08:44
From: rasqual

Elsewhere I read that downloaded sheep packs should go directly into the mpeg folder. But I note that the application itself seems to create subfolders named with the four digit convention.

What is the difference between parking mpegs in the root of the mpeg folder, versus parking 'em in numbered subfolders?

Also, is there any sane way to prune the collection of sheep to only those I like? As I understand it, for any given sheep I'm going to also have possibly several transition files, at least. 

Frankly, I'm not sure WHAT I'm looking for. Is the sheep naming convention documented anywhere? Is there some good guidance on how to develop utils to work with the sheep?

TIA!

Re: None MPEG\202 folder (rasqual)
Date: May 07, 18:50
From: <Anonymous>

None file format

Re: None MPEG\202 folder (rasqual)
Date: May 07, 18:50
From: <Anonymous>

it doesn't matter much where you put the sheep they all get played.

the file format is an FAQ the answer is here: http://electricsheep.wikispaces.com/Filename+format

a number of other utilities: http://electricsheep.wikispaces.com/Accessories

None Voting: eliminate from lineup on own machine?

Date: May 07, 08:40
From: rasqual

I vote three ways. Upsheep for stuff I REALLY like, downsheep for stuff I REALLY don't like, and no vote for stuff I'll defer to others votes on.

This means that I'd like to eliminate the stuff I downsheep from local presentation. I mean, if I vote it down, why would I want to see it again on my own machine?

Any chance of having a feature like that added to a future version?

A sane companion feature would be to double-weight the up-sheep for display probability. 

How about this weighting:

Upsheeped: 2
New or unvoted sheep: 1
Downsheeped: 0

Alternatively, give new sheep a weight of 3 for a week. That would give them more exposure to the likelihood of being voted on. After a week they'd drop to 1.

Something like that.

But my main concern is to completely eliminate sheep I don't like -- without having to dive into the mpgs.

Re: None Voting: eliminate from lineup on own machine? (rasqual)
Date: May 07, 18:55
From: <Anonymous>

None beta client does that

Re: None Voting: eliminate from lineup on own machine? (rasqual)
Date: May 07, 18:55
From: <Anonymous>

the beta windows client does that. it's at the bottom of the regular download page.

Re: None beta client does that
Date: May 07, 21:59
From: <Anonymous>

None Untitled

Re: None beta client does that
Date: May 07, 21:58
From: rasqual

Nuts. I had some problems with the beta when last I tried it, so I'm holding off for now. Nice to see that feature coming, though.

In general, the ability to MANAGE sheep -- let us say the ability to SHEPHERD them -- would be good. An independent view that lets one select and rate sheep apart from the scr itself would be good -- an app that handles the transitions automatically based on ratings/selection/deselection without the user needing to consider them.

Date: May 05, 11:29
From: <Anonymous>

Question johan de bocks' build - sporadically multicore?

Date: May 05, 11:28
From: maciej simm

I was excited to learn about the optimized flam3 bins by Johan, but could not find any documentation on his changes. Is there a contact/Webpage for his work?

Specifically, I've noticed sometimes the binary runs on 4 cores, but sometimes only on 1.5-2 cores. What determines the level of threading of this build?

Question Smooth change between the sheeps?

Date: May 04, 00:39
From: Sven

Hi there!

I just installed the Screensaver - it's awesome! And very very beautiful. But one thing disturbes me: Is there any possibility to get the change between the sheeps smoother? Some kind of fade maybe? Cause now the one sheep ends and the next starts like a cut in a movie.

Have a good time out there, - Sven.

oh, ps: Im using the mac-version and have about 200 mb of sheeps installed.

None Patience...

Re: Question Smooth change between the sheeps? (Sven)
Date: May 05, 19:19
From: Tom Lane

You just need to accumulate more sheep. Once you've got a bunch (several gig worth) you won't often see jarring jumps. But right now you just haven't filled in enough of the sequences, and so the screensaver finds itself compelled to jump to an unrelated sheep because the one(s) that should come next aren't there.

Something that might be interesting to work on someday is to make the download code smart enough to fill in continuous sheep sequences first. AFAIK it doesn't currently pay any attention to that.

Re: None Patience... (Tom Lane)
Date: May 07, 03:39
From: <Anonymous>

None Aye

Re: None Patience... (Tom Lane)
Date: May 07, 03:38
From: Sven

Allright. Thanks for the answer - im gonna get some more sheep =)

Re: Question Smooth change between the sheeps? (Sven)
Date: May 04, 00:46
From: <Anonymous>

None Untitled

Re: Question Smooth change between the sheeps? (Sven)
Date: May 04, 00:45
From: Sven

Aye,

it's a bug, isn't it? Just scrolled thru the board an it seems that many mac-users have this "no-loop" Problem... Is there a fix planned? Bug is known since few months, as far as i've read.

Question Introduction and Server Question

Date: May 02, 00:15
From: Liz

Hello, my name is Elizabeth and I recently signed up for the e-mail that gives information about posting sheep. It said that I need to introduce myself and ask for the password. I do not know where exactly to ask, as it seemed a little vague. I thought I would start here and see where that leads me. thanks for your help.

None welcome

Re: Question Introduction and Server Question (Liz)
Date: May 02, 12:29
From: Scott Draves

send an email to the list you signed up for.

Question flam3-render GIMP plugin no longer works in grayscale, other probs

Date: May 01, 13:12
From: ExecutorElassus

okay, so according to the gentoo wiki here:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/TIP_GIMP_Fractal_Backgrounds

i can generate rendered flame backgrounds. i did this fine by starting with a grayscale image, then switching to RGB when i added the color.

now, though, there are two things that seem new to the latest version of electric sheep (which owns the flam3-render GIMP plugin):

1) the plugin isn't available if the image is grayscale. i have to set it to RGB first.

2) when i do go through all the steps given, the rendering takes really way less time than it used to, and doesn't appear to change the image. the preview window shows an image, but it never gets rendered.

can anybody give me some tips on how to fix this? is there some image setting i'm not setting right?

thanks,

EE

None not supported?

Re: Question flam3-render GIMP plugin no longer works in grayscale, other probs (ExecutorElassus)
Date: May 01, 14:24
From: Scott Draves

the GIMP plugin version of Fractal Flames has been abandoned. it needs someone to maintain it, and especially to integrate the latest version of the renderer, which is so so much better.

it's not much work if you already have a setup for compiling GIMP plugins.

good luck, -spot

Re: None not supported? (Scott Draves)
Date: May 01, 15:37
From: <Anonymous>

More ambitious newbie

Re: None not supported? (Scott Draves)
Date: May 01, 15:37
From: ExecutorElassus

i have exactly zero programming experience, but i do run a gentoo box, which can compile pretty much anything. i'd like to help, but i might not be equipped to do so.

there's a pretty big contingent of gentoo geeks out there, though, who might. if you point me in a direction, i can take a crack at it, and see if i can get some help.

so: where would i start?

None start

Re: More ambitious newbie (ExecutorElassus)
Date: May 02, 12:28
From: Scott Draves

get the source for the gimp including the flame plugin: http://gimp.org/source/#source compile and test it. then get the source for the latest version of FLAM3: http://flam3.com/index.cgi?&menu=download and modify the plugin to link with this new libflam3.a. this does require some light programming, but mostly it's building navigation... thanks for your enthusiasm!

Date: Apr 30, 16:26
From: <Anonymous>

Question resolution conflict

Date: Apr 30, 16:26
From: tom

I understand that the sheep have a set resolution of 640x480. I can see this with the mpeg animations in my cache (as well as the grainy animations when the screensaver is running). If this is the resolution of the sheep, then why are the images I render with my installation at 1920x1080? Do I have a bogus installation that's rendering someone else's sheep for their personal use? Are the higher resolution sheep available to anyone? I shouldn't be rendering something if it's not available for everyone to enjoy.

None working fine

Re: Question resolution conflict (tom)
Date: Apr 30, 17:06
From: Scott Draves

it's working correctly and as advertised. the 1920x1080 sheep are for this: http://hifidreams.com, which is how we fund the free version. this is explained on the website and the click-through in the installer. best, -spot

Re: None working fine (Scott Draves)
Date: May 01, 11:18
From: <Anonymous>

Ok OK

Re: None working fine (Scott Draves)
Date: May 01, 11:18
From: tom

OK. That sounds fine. I guess I was a little overconcerned. Thanks!

None no problem

Re: Ok OK (tom)
Date: May 01, 13:51
From: Scott Draves

no problem. here's the text for the click-through, btw: http://electricsheep.cvs.sourceforge.net/electricsheep/client_windoze/installer/Instructions.txt?revision=1.1&view=markup

None Idea, electricsheep - moving wallpaper

Date: Apr 30, 04:32
From: Petter

It would be cool to render a couple of suitable sheeps in really really slow & low motion, for using as wallpapers with XGL or the new Vista video-wallpaper feature. High res sheeps with very small changes happening slowly would make an awesome backdrop for your desktop.

/ Petter

Re: None Idea, electricsheep - moving wallpaper (Petter)
Date: May 03, 12:40
From: <Anonymous>

None Drempels

Re: None Idea, electricsheep - moving wallpaper (Petter)
Date: May 03, 12:40
From: Brad

While it's not the same as electricsheep, there is already a similar program out there, called Drempels http://www.geisswerks.com/drempels/ It's free, and very customisable because it just uses images you add on your own, so it can make some really cool wallpapers.

Date: Apr 27, 08:35
From: <Anonymous>

Question Updates?

Date: Apr 27, 08:34
From: Aaron Staley

Are there any updates in the works for either Flam3 or Apophysis?

Not looking for a release date or anything, just curious.

None Why am I not rendering?

Date: Apr 26, 10:45
From: mugwump67

I've been using electricsheep for several months now, I just checked the stats log to see how many sheep I've rendered and I"m not listed yet. I'm using Ubuntu linux, and checked my command string and it includes '-nick mugwump67'

I'm not so much interested in the credit as whether or not I'm rendering.

I'm downloading my sheep with azureus and an rss feed. Is that having an effect? I hate to think that my computer is not contributing its fair share.

Date: Apr 21, 05:49
From: <Anonymous>

Angry throttling not having an effect

Date: Apr 21, 05:49
From: plonk420

my internet speeds are getting killed, even to the point where IRC and AIM gets disconnected. i throttle download to 100kBytes/sec and uploads to 30kBytes/sec (i normally throttle bittorrent thru uTorrent to 120 and 50 respectively)

any ideas as to why ElectricSheep isn't obeying limits?

i've experienced this in XP and Vista.

Re: Angry throttling not having an effect (plonk420)
Date: Apr 25, 15:51
From: <Anonymous>

Idea Naughty Sheep

Re: Angry throttling not having an effect (plonk420)
Date: Apr 25, 15:51
From: Naughty Sheep

Naughty Sheep

Date: Apr 19, 08:32
From: <Anonymous>

Question Common issue with Linux but no solution - it worked once

Date: Apr 17, 23:12
From: Bryan

I am looking for some help. I finally got ElectricSheep running on my fresh Fedora 6 install. I got rid of the gnome-screensaver and just use the xscreensaver. I am not sure exactly how it started working only the last thing I did was to run the following command that someone had posted in the many postings:

 mplayer -vo xv -fs ~/.sheep/*.mpg

Today, I ran mplayer to watch a video .wmv and since then my sheep dont work as a screen saver. They work fine by themselves, in the xscreensaver-demo, and in the mplayer, but not in the screensaver. My xconf.org has the correct Options added to it. One thing I noticed, when I run it without the --mplayer 1, then I get:

X Error of failed request:  BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
  Major opcode of failed request:  140 (XVideo)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  19 ()
  Serial number of failed request:  102
  Current serial number in output stream:  102

I really miss my sheep!

None Untitled

Re: Question Common issue with Linux but no solution - it worked once (Bryan)
Date: Apr 26, 10:35
From: mugwump67

Did you try changing the -mplayer 1 string to -mplayer 0? This will tell electricsheep to use the built-in mpeg engine.

I'm pretty sure the -mplayer default is 1, so removing the mplayer string would have no effect.

Date: Apr 17, 00:17
From: <Anonymous>

Question Advanced options - documentation?

Date: Apr 17, 00:16
From: <Anonymous>

Can't find any documentation for some of the newer 
config options: 

Fuse?
History?

Re: Question Advanced options - documentation?
Date: Apr 17, 03:42
From: <Anonymous>

Feedback Docs

Re: Question Advanced options - documentation?
Date: Apr 17, 03:42
From: Tav

Do you mean this ???

http://electricsheep.org/index.cgi?&menu=doc

History depth: It remembers which sheep are played back and tries to avoid playing them again. This is the length of memory, measured by number of sheep. Default is 30.

Reset fuse length: After playing this many sheep, jump to a new one at random. Default is 300.

None coral CDN back

Date: Apr 12, 23:04
From: Scott Draves

the coral network seems to be back in operation. the sheep are flowing once again. thanks michael :)

More the sheep must flow

Re: None coral CDN back (Scott Draves)
Date: Apr 13, 13:33
From: <Anonymous>

The sheep are not yet flowing for all: Error when attempting to use the Coral Content Distribution Network (http://www.coralcdn.org/).

The hostname specified in the Coralized URL is currently over its hourly quota. Please try back later.
I am sure it will clear itself up though.
Will the client correctly handle getting an HTML file when it expects an mpg?

Date: Apr 12, 22:19
From: <Anonymous>

Question Looking for an old sheep

Date: Apr 12, 22:18
From: Alain Zimmermann

Can someone send it to me ? I have a screenshot (from the archived sheeps) that I can email . Thanks Alain

Date: Apr 11, 12:59
From: <Anonymous>

None There does seem to be a downloading problem...

Date: Apr 07, 21:26
From: Tom Lane

I just noticed that my machine hasn't downloaded any new sheep since Apr 2, and there are boatloads of gripes like this in its log: Download failed in DownloadThread : can't find host http://sheep.arces.net.nyud.net:8080/202/76748/sheep.mpg

A bit of playing with "dig" says that nothing under nyud.net is resolving ...

None CoralCDN hosed

Re: None There does seem to be a downloading problem... (Tom Lane)
Date: Apr 09, 13:13
From: Scott Draves

The Coral CDN, which is used to deliver the mpg files by http, has gone down. They are working on it. Now would be a good time to getdownloading by BitTorrent working. I recommend using azureus to subscribe to the RSS feed.

Re: None There does seem to be a downloading problem... (Tom Lane)
Date: Apr 08, 09:19
From: <Anonymous>

None No Sheep seem to be downloading

Re: None There does seem to be a downloading problem... (Tom Lane)
Date: Apr 08, 09:19
From: Ted Hoeffler

Hey again,
    My logs show no new sheep are downloading.  In my log I'm getting the following message, "} : Download failed in DownloadThread : Couldn't resolve host 'sheep.arces.net.nyud.net'"  Don't know what that means.  I'm only able to manually download sheep.  Have tried to figure out Bit torrent but to no avail.  Any suggestions? - Ted

Question Sheep don't seem to be downloading

Date: Apr 07, 09:51
From: Ted Hoeffler

Hey I'm minimally tech savey and have a new Imac. I downloaded the ES software and have waited over 24 hrs for sheep to download. My screensaver says, "please be patient while the first sheep is downloaded" I figure 24hrs is pretty patient. I've changed the cache size to 1000. I've downloaded bittorrent and tried to download from there. I've downloaded the mpg files from sheep pack to a folder,(that I created in Application support) called Electric sheep. Is there something I'm doing wrong or haven't set right? Please advise. - Ted

Re: Question Sheep don't seem to be downloading (Ted Hoeffler)
Date: Apr 07, 16:56
From: <Anonymous>

Ok Problem resolved

Re: Question Sheep don't seem to be downloading (Ted Hoeffler)
Date: Apr 07, 16:56
From: Ted Hoeffler

I finally resolved the problem by going into the options section of the screensaver properties. Under the download, I made sure my save to file was /library/Application Support/ElectricSheep. Thanks to Dave and all of you for your help...This is too cool!!! - Ted

None well something is wrong

Re: Question Sheep don't seem to be downloading (Ted Hoeffler)
Date: Apr 07, 10:25
From: Scott Draves

the most reliable way to get it working is via the sheep packs. but you shouldn't have to create that directory. look for "~/Library/Application Support/ElectricSheep" exactly. that's in your home directory (is the tilde understandable to Mac users?)

Re: None well something is wrong (Scott Draves)
Date: Apr 07, 14:15
From: <Anonymous>

Feedback Untitled

Re: None well something is wrong (Scott Draves)
Date: Apr 07, 14:15
From: Tav

"(is the tilde understandable to Mac users?)"

In OS X, yes, it is.

Sad getting to the ES server..

Date: Apr 04, 11:23
From: T'sarveK

Morning all; I live in the Washington state, and have not been able to get to any of the Server pages for ES this morning. Has anyone else had the problem?

My computer hangs about halfway there, but I can reach the CRF site (here) with no problems.

T'sarveK

None How often do new torrents gbet released?

Date: Apr 03, 22:02
From: macca

Ok, i'm an addict. 6.6gig of sheep in 2 days. 1339 files, but i can't download anymore. How often does a new torrent get put up for download? Is there anywhere i can download old herds?

None a gig of sheep packs

Re: None How often do new torrents gbet released? (macca)
Date: Apr 06, 14:27
From: Scott Draves

http://draves.org/blog/archives/000470.html a new torrent is released every several hours, though the server is running slow lately, they are still coming. there's no big archive of mpgs. i should put some stuff up on archive.org....

Date: Apr 03, 07:41
From: <Anonymous>

Idea Untitled

Date: Apr 03, 07:41
From: Jongoo

Hi you all.

The power of sheeps is (for me) the hypnotic attitude. Therefore the movement of the sheeps is highly to fast for me. And the mpeg-algorithm is not working very well with rapid movement. I would love to see a electric-sheep-version in HD (1280x960 would be great) and with three or four times more frames each animation. And surely I would love as well to use the power of rendering in the sheep-grid for own animations. Is here is anybody to participate in this project? Or maybe these HD-sheeps are to find anywhere in internet? Thanks,

Jongoo.

None HiFiDreams

Re: Idea Untitled (Jongoo)
Date: Apr 06, 14:40
From: Scott Draves

that's what Dreams in High Fidelity is: http://hifidreams.com

Date: Apr 02, 22:00
From: <Anonymous>

Question voting on linux

Date: Apr 02, 22:00
From: chris

I am trying to run electricsheep from the commandline:

/usr/bin/electricsheep --zoom 1 --logfile /tmp/sheep.log --max-megabytes 3500 --mplayer 1 --debug 1

It works fine, but I never see electricsheep-voter start, and I can't seem to vote. Eventually I would like to use the electricsheep-voter with the (undocumented; but it looks like it should work) Griffin Powermate. This will run fulltime, xscrensaver is not involved. Any idea why this might be, and how I could further diagnose it?

If I watch it with strace, I never see the voter even get called.

Also an example syntax of both the electricsheep-voter usage, and the corresponding CGI script call (which at its core is all the voter seems to do) would be helpful.

Also mpeg2dec_onroot is dieing with an "Illegal Instruction" on my VIA C3 based system. I have tried to set the march to even i486 to no avail. Newer versions of mpeg2dec seem to work fine.

Thanks,

-Chris

Idea Smoothen sheep changes

Date: Apr 02, 09:03
From: homac

There are a lot of sheeps, which are sequals to other sheeps. It would be nice, if the screensaver uses a rating algorithm for the selection of the next sheep to be shown and rates those sheeps higher, which are a sequal to the last sheep.

This demands an algorithm, which calculates a value for the similarity of the end of one sheep and the start of the available sheeps (using a fourier transformations, for example).

I hope it's understandable...

What do you think about it?

homac

None it does this

Re: Idea Smoothen sheep changes (homac)
Date: Apr 02, 10:54
From: koogs

it does this - it knows which sheep fit after the current one because of the numbering system. it will choose one of these if at all possible. if it can't find one that follows on then it'll pick another at random.

Disagree Not really

Re: None it does this (koogs)
Date: Apr 03, 14:30
From: Beremat

Not really. The program almost never makes them smooth on my computer, and I have 20GB< of sheep.

Angry Crapola

Date: Apr 02, 08:11
From: <Anonymous>

Arrived here from Google looking for a message from 2005, May but it's not here.All messages prior to March 2006 have been deleted from the server or are not accessible.
 Thanks guys.

None Hm?

Re: Angry Crapola
Date: Apr 02, 08:57
From: Dan Nelson

Maybe you need to wait a little longer and let the entire page load. On my system http://draves.org/HyperNews/get.cgi/flame.html goes all the way back to message #1:

1. [News] Welcome! by Scott Draves, 1999, Sep 30

Question mpeg location inside electricsheep-cache?

Date: Apr 01, 22:10
From: alex

Do the sheep mpg files need to be in the electricsheep-cache\mpeg directory directly, or can they be in subfolders of electricsheep-cache\mpeg?

None Windows Client

Re: Question mpeg location inside electricsheep-cache? (alex)
Date: Apr 02, 20:13
From: Radnelac

I know the windows client allows both .mpg and .mpeg extensions in any directory structure under mpegs/

More Untitled

Re: Question mpeg location inside electricsheep-cache? (alex)
Date: Apr 02, 08:26
From: alex

Such as in:

electricsheep-cache\mpeg\202\2236
electricsheep-cache\mpeg\2170
electricsheep-cache\mpeg\2252
etc...

None patches for mac os x version from Tom Lane

Date: Mar 31, 07:57
From: <Anonymous>

i'm putting this here so it doesn't get lost.
thanks tom!  -spot
-----------------------------
A few more small patches proposed against CVS tip:

In DownloadThread.m: I've been seeing the attempt to delete an old anim
file fail every so often.  I'm not sure why; I added a
shouldProceedAfterError callback to try to find out, and so far all it
gives me is

2007-03-29 23:08:00.950 ScreenSaverEngine[372] File deletion error: Error removing with file: /Users/tgl/Library/Application Support/ElectricSheep/00202=65681=65620=65181.mpg

which isn't real informative.  But the problem is that DownloadThread
locks up when it happens because it goes into an infinite loop.  I have
also seen it escape out of that section, leaving the cachedAnims lock
held which of course brings the whole thing to a halt.  The patch adds
the callback (for what it's worth), puts in an @try/@finally construct
to ensure the lock is released, and tweaks the loop to not repeat after
a deletion failure.

In ElectricSheep.m: add a check on _nextAnim == nil; prevents a crash
I've seen occasionally.

In VoteThread.m: voting is broken in CVS tip, when you try you get this
in the log:

2007-03-30 20:49:45.042 ScreenSaverEngine[465] Vote: http://(null)/cgi/vote?id=73215&vote=1&u=7AED3C973039EBD5&v=OSX_2.7b1

I suppose this is because the recent changes for v2d7 are incomplete.
It works for me after applying the patch.  I believe that uploadFlame
in RenderThread.m has got the same problem, but I have not seen it fail
because my machine doesn't seem to want to render anything at all ---
some other recently-introduced bug, I think, but haven't found it.

			regards, tom lane




Index: DownloadThread.m
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/electricsheep/client_osx/DownloadThread.m,v
retrieving revision 1.34
diff -c -r1.34 DownloadThread.m
*** DownloadThread.m	1 Dec 2006 07:31:49 -0000	1.34
--- DownloadThread.m	31 Mar 2007 01:38:42 -0000
***************
*** 640,645 ****
--- 640,654 ----
  }
  
  
+ - (BOOL)fileManager:(NSFileManager *)manager shouldProceedAfterError:(NSDictionary *)errorInfo
+ {
+   NSLog(@"File deletion error: %@ with file: %@",
+ 	[errorInfo objectForKey:@"Error"], 
+ 	[errorInfo objectForKey:@"Path"]);
+   return NO;
+ }
+ 
+ 
  // expungeAnim
  // Removes an animation from the disk cache and from the list of cached animations
  // Returns YES if removed successfully, NO if the animation does not exist or could not be
***************
*** 660,666 ****
          if (debug)
              NSLog(@"deleting %@", path);
  
!         deleteResult = [fm removeFileAtPath:path handler:nil];
          if (deleteResult == YES) {
              [anim setDeleted:1];
              [anim setChecked:0];
--- 669,675 ----
          if (debug)
              NSLog(@"deleting %@", path);
  
!         deleteResult = [fm removeFileAtPath:path handler:self];
          if (deleteResult == YES) {
              [anim setDeleted:1];
              [anim setChecked:0];
***************
*** 708,713 ****
--- 717,723 ----
          NSLog(@"begin delete cached");
  
      [cachedAnims lock];
+     @try {
      numAnims = [cachedAnims numberOfAnims];
      do {
          worstDate = [NSDate distantFuture];
***************
*** 738,749 ****
              BOOL deleteResult = [self expungeAnim:worstAnim];
              if (deleteResult == YES)
              {
!                 total = total - worstAnimSize;
                  numAnims--;
!             };
!         };
      } while (maxCacheSize != 0 && total > maxCacheSize);
      [cachedAnims unlock];
  
      if (debug)
          NSLog(@"end delete cached");
--- 748,765 ----
              BOOL deleteResult = [self expungeAnim:worstAnim];
              if (deleteResult == YES)
              {
! 		// adjust total to avoid an extra trip through the loop
!                 total -= worstAnimSize;
                  numAnims--;
!             }
! 	    else
! 	      break;		// to avoid infinite loop
! 	}
      } while (maxCacheSize != 0 && total > maxCacheSize);
+     }
+     @finally {
      [cachedAnims unlock];
+     }
  
      if (debug)
          NSLog(@"end delete cached");
Index: ElectricSheep.m
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/electricsheep/client_osx/ElectricSheep.m,v
retrieving revision 1.90
diff -c -r1.90 ElectricSheep.m
*** ElectricSheep.m	1 Dec 2006 07:31:49 -0000	1.90
--- ElectricSheep.m	31 Mar 2007 01:38:42 -0000
***************
*** 1827,1833 ****
      [loopSuccs clearSet];
      
      // If fuse is out, reset fuse and pick random animation
!     if (resetFuse-- <= 0 || nRepeats >= max_repeats || [self check_for_eddy]) {
          if (debug) printf("reset nrepeated=%d reset_fuse=%d\n", nRepeats, resetFuse);
          [self initCurrentAnim];
      } else {
--- 1827,1833 ----
      [loopSuccs clearSet];
      
      // If fuse is out, reset fuse and pick random animation
!     if (resetFuse-- <= 0 || nRepeats >= max_repeats || _nextAnim == nil || [self check_for_eddy]) {
          if (debug) printf("reset nrepeated=%d reset_fuse=%d\n", nRepeats, resetFuse);
          [self initCurrentAnim];
      } else {
Index: VoteThread.m
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/electricsheep/client_osx/VoteThread.m,v
retrieving revision 1.14
diff -c -r1.14 VoteThread.m
*** VoteThread.m	1 Dec 2006 07:31:50 -0000	1.14
--- VoteThread.m	31 Mar 2007 01:38:42 -0000
***************
*** 167,177 ****
          [data getBytes:&vote range:NSMakeRange(0, sizeof(int))];
          [data getBytes:&animID range:NSMakeRange(sizeof(int), sizeof(int))];
          [voteQueue removeObjectAtIndex:0];
          
          // Create URL
          NSString *url = [NSString stringWithFormat:
                                  @"http://%@/cgi/vote?id=%d&vote=%d&u=%@&v=%@", 
!             [[sheep defaults] stringForKey:DreamServerK