Update (8/9/04) If the testers haven't found any problems by this weekend, I will go ahead and post the new version. If you are anxious to try it, you can download the beta version here. Please let me know if you find any problems. Thanks.

Last Updated: August 9, 2004

Version 1.13

New Features:

  • Maximum zoom distance slider for controlling the maximum amount that the screen saver will zoom in on a particular image. Setting this to "Small" will display the largest possible amount of the picture.
  • Added feature to force the screen saver to always pan across the entire image. This works very well if important parts of an image are not being displayed, or if you are viewing panoramic images.

Description:

This screensaver is essentially a Windows version of the Mac OS X screensaver. When I first saw the screensaver, I had to have a copy of it, but unfortunately I didn't have a Mac. Instead of buying a new computer, I sat down and wrote my own version for the PC.

The screensaver displays a cinematic slideshow of jpeg images. The cinematic motion includes zooming in, zooming out, and panning. This motion adds a suprisingly effective mood to each image. In addition, I added a feature that allows you to specify music files to listen to while the images are being displayed. The music can either be directly off a CD, or files in mp3 format.

Download MotionPicture Screen Saver

This screensaver is free, but if you like it enough to donate money, please use the following button. I will be very appreciative.

Requirements:

  • GeForce2 or better graphics card (I know this seems unnecessary but a partiticular implementation issue has only been supported since the GeForce2).
  • DirectX 8.1 or higher (If you don't currently have this or have no idea what it is, you can download it here).
  • Windows 95/98, XP, 2000

Installation:

  1. Download MotionPicture.scr.
  2. Copy MotionPicture.scr into the c:\windows directory. Depending on the operating system this directory might be the c:\winnt directory. If for some reason this doesn't work, put the file in the c:\windows\system32 directory.
  3. Right click on the desktop and select properties.
  4. Select the "Screen Saver" tab.
  5. Select the MotionPicture screen saver and click "Settings".
  6. Specify the Motion Properties, Transition Ordering, and File Settings.
  7. Motion Properties:
    • Time per image specifies how long each image will be displayed.
    • The Zoom Speed slider controls the speed of the zoom motion for each picture. Note that adjusting the time per image will also affect the zoom speed.
    • The Max Zoom Distance slider controls the maximum amount that the screen saver will zoom in on a picture. Setting this slider to "Small" will ensure that the largest possible amount of the picture will be displayed. If parts of the image are still not visible on the "Small" setting, then the image has an aspect ratio that does not match the current resolution, and therefore can't show the whole image. If this is a problem, select the "Always pan across entire image" setting.
    • The Maximum Pan Speed slider controls the maximum possible speed used for panning an image. The actual pan speed for each image is randomly selected between no panning and the maximum pan speed. This slider will do nothing if the "Always pan across entire image" is selected. Note that adjusting the time per image will also affect the pan speed.
    • The "Always pan across entire image" checkbox forces the screen saver to always pan across the entire image to ensure that most of the image is displayed. This works well if important regions of the image are not being displayed or if panoramic images are being used.
    • The quality slider can be lowered to shrink large images, in order to improve performance or reduce memory usage.
    • Vertical Bias can be used to force the screen saver to always show the upper half of images. This feature works well when displaying images of people whose faces are generally on the top of the picture.
  8. Transition Ordering:
    • Sequential selects images and music in alphabetic order by file name.
    • Random selects images and music randomly.
    • Random (No Repeats) selects files randomly but will not repeat until every file has been used.
  9. File Settings:
    • Picture directory is the base directory that contains jpeg images to be displayed. The screen saver will find all jpegs stored in this directory and any subdirectories (so DO NOT select c:\ unless you want to wait a while for the program to search your entire hard drive for images).
    • Specify the music settings that you prefer. You can either read directly off a CD or specify a location of MP3 files. The screensaver will find all MP3s in the specified directory and any subdirectories.
  10. Test the screen saver with either the "Preview" button, or click "ok" and wait for the screen saver to start.



Uninstalling:

Simply delete MotionPicture.scr from the directory that you installed it to. This directory should either be "windows", "winnt", "windows\system", or "windows\system32".

Suggestions:

If the screen saver runs too choppy, or if images are not being displayed correctly, try using smaller images or lowering the quality slider. Although the screen saver may seem simple, it is actually quite computationally expensive.

Contact Info

If have any questions regarding the use of MotionPicture screen saver, or have discovered a bug, please send me an email at greg_stitt@hotmail.com. Also, I would appreciate any suggestions that would make the screen saver better. Just make sure to include something about MotionPicture in the Subject of the email, otherwise it may be deleted.

Terms of Usage:

By downloading MotionPicture screen saver, you must agree to use the screen saver at your own risk. I claim no responsibility for damage done to your system as a result of running the screen saver. I also claim no reponsibility for any harm done to any person watching the screen saver.

Known Isses:

  • Occasionally, images are not loaded into memory correctly. This can cause several graphical issues. Depending on the device and drivers, this could result in a white screen, or in some cases the screen will flash red. This issue seems to arise from low performance machines or from using images that are too large.
  • Reading MP3s over a network may cause a DirectX Assertion error, or MP3s may just never play.
If you experience these or any other problems, please email me at greg_stitt@hotmail.com, and give me a description of what happened. I will do my best to fix these problems.

Version Information:

  • Version 1.1 : Improves on version 1.0 by removing support for WAV music files and adding support for MP3s and CDs. If anyone wants WAV support, let me know and I will put it back in.
  • Version 1.11 : Fixed bug that causes crash the first time you run the screen saver.
  • Version 1.12 : Fixed several bugs that caused crashes. Added features for random transitions, quality, vertical bias, and zoom/pan speed.
  • Version 1.13 : Added "Max Zoom Distance" slider and the "Always pan across entire image" checkbox.

Recommended Pictures:

The following sites have pictures that look extremely good with MotionPicture screen saver. I highly recommend downloading them.
  1. Digital Blasphemy
  2. The Art of Craig Mullins
  3. Visual Paradox
  4. Savinoff.com
  5. ANS Graphics
  6. MikeBonnell.com
  7. Vision Afar
  8. Astronomy Picture of the Day
  9. NASA Image Galllery
  10. Visible Earth, pictures of Earth from space.

Useful Tools:

  1. mp32wav (converts mp3s into wav files. This isn't really needed after version 1.1 since there is direct support for MP3s and CDs).

Other Screen Saver Sites:

  1. www.freesaver.com
  2. www.screensaver.com
  3. www.top100screensavers.com
  4. Screen Savers A2Z
  5. www.screensaverguide.com/
This many people have visited this page: