The future of the Dopefish Screen Saver

Hello,

For those not aware, I am the author of the Dopefish Screen Saver.

I know that many, many people have e-mailed me over the years (okay, maybe not that many people) and have inquired as to the ever elusive version 2.0 of the screen saver.

The truth is, I don't have enough spare time to be able to develop a professional quality screen saver for free.

HOWEVER, that is why I am writing this post.

I have been milling around the idea in my head to do a little open source development for the screen saver for all those budding programmers out there. After all, the Dopefish Screen Saver that I did in my late teen years and into the early 20's is what helped me understand a lot of the facets of the early Microsoft Visual Basic programming language days.

Today, we have Visual Studio .NET 2005, an extremely super powerful programming language of which I use on a daily basis for my career and there are also many new and emerging technologies that are extremely valuable for learning for the "real world".

So, what I'm looking for is people to post, or to e-mail me who would be interested in this venture. I would like to be a part of the open source project, but I most likely can not devote a large amount of time to coding.

I am willing to provide all previous source code and other miscellaneous Dopefish items that I have collected over the years.

I would be most able to assist and code in the .NET languages of C# or VB, however by no means am I trying to limit the production of a future release to one platform or language.

So... I am open to options. Let me know what programming languages you would like to use... what open source community to use (SourceForge as an example)... let me hear what you have to say about it.

Anyone interested in heading up this idea or do you just want to be part of the goodness that is the screen saver?

I am looking to release any new versions under the GNU Public License. Due to copyright reasons, the Dopefish Screen Saver can not ever be a money maker. The Dopefish is owned by id Software, and they are kind enough to allow the free use of their prior creations.

Feel free to spread the word about this... repost in other boards or newsgroups.

Thanks for reading!

[Stingray]

<bump>

Since the board was moved, I'll try to see if I can garner more interest in this now that there is more readership.

[Dopefish7590]

Hey, I didn't even know that this was on, I just joined the 3drealms forums about a month ago. If I figure out to program better then I can now (I can understand code, I just can't type it) I could give it a shot

[Dreams]

what kind of screensaver are you thinking of? 3D? Something like flying toasters would be fun

[Stingray]

Originally, I had envisioned a version 2.0 of what is currently available now... something with better backgrounds (the option to do gradient backgrounds, static images, a "transparent option" which would allow the desktop to show through and allow a "translucent" option to make it look like you could see the desktop through water).

The original version of the screen saver was started in Visual Basic 3.0 way back in the day, and as time went by, it was upgraded to Visual Basic 5.0 and "32 bit compatibility". Heh.

Today, we have Windows XP with Vista on the way, Visual Studio 2005, and the ability to make something work in 64 bits.

I'm not saying it has to be created in a Microsoft environment, but I always have envisioned the screen saver to be a learning tool of the programming language (as it was for me back in the day). Today I earn a living writing code, and I do credit a part of that to my curiousity in making a big, green, bucktoothed fish burp on the screen.

I really want to leave it up to the future successors of the program. It would be completely awesome if someone made a Dopefish Screen Saver look like something in the Serene Screen Marine Aquarium... maybe even just make a 3D model of the Dopefish to fit into the program as a 3rd party hack.

There are no real limits and the ideas I have are endless, however the time I have to code it all is not. I'd hate to think that other people are not stepping up in creating something just because I already have made something.

I can use some of my web space to keep an open source repository available.

Anyway... just attempting to open up some dialog about the subject.

- Andre

[Dreams]

It sounds like a very nice idea! Well, if someone could make a 3d model of a dopefish.. I can program Direct3D in C++ a little bit. Not very much but enough to make some models fly around the screen

I would like to help with the project, if needed

[Stingray]

Great...

As soon as I get my web sites revamped (it's slowly but surely coming together), I'll put some space on there for a Dopefish open source area to create a central area for it.

- Andre

[Karmus]

I remember I emailed you about the compability (the W32 version actually didn't work in WinXP but rather the W16-version) ages ago, hehe. It's great you have reconsidered the screensaver. But as I moved to Linux a half year ago I cannot use it anymore, unfortunately. But it will still be interesting to have, at least my laptop still has Windows installed. Good luck with the development.