Star Field Plasma Wallpaper

Plasma 4 Extensions

Source (link to git-repo or to original if based on someone elses unmodified work): Add the source-code for this project on opencode.net

6
5.0
Description:

This plasma wallpaper draws an animated starfield in the background of your
desktop. It was inspired by the star field chrome experiment -
www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/starfield/

INSTALLATION
------------
Firstly make sure you have the KDE workspace development files installed. For ubuntu run: sudo apt-get install kdebase-workspace-dev

If the source came in a zip then unzip it first. To install run install.sh:
Open up a terminal, navigate to the the starfield directory which has
install.sh then type:

./install.sh

You may be asked for your root password during installation.

After installing log out and then log back in. Then right click on your
desktop, go to 'Desktop Settings'. Then in wallpaper type you should see
'Star Field'.

CONTROLS
--------
- Dragging the starfield with the left mouse button will change it position
- Middle clicking on the wallpaper will pause the animation
- Mouse wheel scrolling will change the perspective of the view.

CPU USAGE
---------
This wallpaper can be quite CPU intensive. To reduce the CPU usage you may try
the following:
- Pause the wallpaper. This should make the wallpaper use 0% CPU
- Enable 'Pause when desktop loses focus' in the advanced options
- Reduce the frames per second. This is THE main factor in deciding the CPU
usage. 15 FPS gives a somewhat smooth animation.
- Reduce number of stars
- Use a blank background (Leave the background path empty)
- Reduce trail length
- Use a lower quality
- Turn off antialiasing
- Use plasma in raster mode. To do this first quit plasma then restart it with
-graphicssystem raster argument:
For KDE 4.2:
kquitapp plasma
plasma -graphicssystem raster

For KDE 4.3:
kquitapp plasma-desktop
plasma -graphicssystem raster

However be warned that this method has not been thoroughly tested.

NOTE: Star speed does not affect CPU usage.


ENJOY!!
-------
Last changelog:

8 years ago

+ New features
- Removed features
% Changes
* Bugs fixed

v0.4.2 - 20/01/13
* Made wallpaper work on new versions of KDE

v0.4 - 25/08/09
+ Starfield pauses when a window is maximised on the current desktop
+ Added option to pause starfield when desktop loses focus (off by default)
% Reduce initial settings for lower CPU usage
% Large star size is now slightly smaller
* Stars now move smoother in lower speeds
* Zooming is much smoother now

v0.3.1 - 14/07/09
% Tweaked the UI
* Increasing the number of stars no longer crashes Plasma


v0.3 - 12/07/09
+ Added pause option
+ Added star size option
+ Added foreground option
+ Starfield view can now be dragged to move around
+ Added some tooltips and whatsthis to settings dialogs
% Middle click now pauses instead of resetting view
% Changed the look of the configuration window
% Keep basic settings in main configuration window and move
advanced settings to a seperate dialog
* Some drawing bugs fixed. Other plasmoids no longer corrupt the
starfield drawing.
* Preview screen now works better

47 comments
Comments/Ratings

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C

priomsrb

11 years ago

Thanks for making a video! BTW I like your desktop layout ;)

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chrissu

11 years ago

cool! I'm using it with Yuri_Planet background.
Only if it was a bit less cpu-consuming ... even on rather low detail it takes my dualcore 3,2GHz at about 30% when "idle" ...

Keep it on :-)

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C

priomsrb

11 years ago

In the next version I'm hoping to add the ability to pause the animation. That way when it not visible or you don't need it to be animated, it won't eat up your CPU :).

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chrissu

11 years ago

Funny - yesterday I was just thinking about proposing the same idea ...
Would be great if you implemented this function soon!
Thx for your efforts!!!

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dglent

11 years ago

rpm i586 update

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zkmnnryln23/plasma-wallpaper-startfield-0.2-1mdv2009.1.i586.rpm

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C

priomsrb

11 years ago

Thanks again :)

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mck182

11 years ago

Looks awesome, but I must join those above me, too high cpu usage :(

But great work otherwise, keep it up!

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D--

11 years ago

this is so kool :D

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dridk

11 years ago

So nice!! This preview show the powerfull of plasma!

I suggest you to use openGL. I will try to do something like that with GLUON.

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C

priomsrb

11 years ago

I'm currently trying to port over to openGL, but it keeps crashing ;). Once I get that done it should be much better.

Good luck with your project :)

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cherusker

11 years ago

Hi!

Cool thing :-)

I made a PKGBUILD for Arch Linux:
http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=26928

Greetz

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C

priomsrb

11 years ago

Thanks for the package!
Greetz

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cherusker

11 years ago

Updated to 0.3
Thanks for your efforts!

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C

priomsrb

11 years ago

Thanks again! :) I very much appreciate package contributions, because most users probably don't have development files installed.

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cherusker

11 years ago

Updated to 0.4
Great work! :-)

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madsheytan

11 years ago

If you could add a space background, or user could do it, it would be amazing :D

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C

priomsrb

11 years ago

Yeah :). One of the features I have planned for the next version is to have a image as a background.

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madsheytan

11 years ago

Good. ;]

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ttread

11 years ago

This is really cool, but it pegs my CPU at 100% so I can't use it.

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C

priomsrb

11 years ago

The current code can probably be made more efficient. In later versions I might use openGL instead (if its possible). Once the efficiency issues are resolved it might be ready for everyday use.

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dglent

11 years ago

For me makes the plasma proccess going up to 48% and the fan turns alltime

for the mandriva users : http://www.mediafire.com/file/dozeud4kmld/plasma-wallpaper-startfield-0.1-1mdv2009.1.i586.rpm

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C

priomsrb

11 years ago

Thanks for the package!

Hopefully if I can port it to openGL then it should drastically reduce the CPU Usage

Report

8 years ago

+ New features
- Removed features
% Changes
* Bugs fixed

v0.4.2 - 20/01/13
* Made wallpaper work on new versions of KDE

v0.4 - 25/08/09
+ Starfield pauses when a window is maximised on the current desktop
+ Added option to pause starfield when desktop loses focus (off by default)
% Reduce initial settings for lower CPU usage
% Large star size is now slightly smaller
* Stars now move smoother in lower speeds
* Zooming is much smoother now

v0.3.1 - 14/07/09
% Tweaked the UI
* Increasing the number of stars no longer crashes Plasma


v0.3 - 12/07/09
+ Added pause option
+ Added star size option
+ Added foreground option
+ Starfield view can now be dragged to move around
+ Added some tooltips and whatsthis to settings dialogs
% Middle click now pauses instead of resetting view
% Changed the look of the configuration window
% Keep basic settings in main configuration window and move
advanced settings to a seperate dialog
* Some drawing bugs fixed. Other plasmoids no longer corrupt the
starfield drawing.
* Preview screen now works better

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AngelBlue01
Aug 24 2009
Phobeus
Jul 15 2009
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Jul 10 2009
madsheytan
Jul 06 2009
chrissu
Jul 03 2009
mck182
Jun 10 2009
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0.4.2
updated Jan 20 2013
added May 31 2009
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