flow(6) XScreenSaver manual flow(6)

NAME

flow - strange attractors.

SYNOPSIS

flow [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--window-id number] [--count number] [--cycles number]
[--periodic|--no-periodic] [--search|--no-search]
[--rotate|--no-rotate] [--ride|--no-ride] [--box|--no-box]
[--dbuf|--no-dbuf] [--ncolors number] [--delay number] [--fps]

DESCRIPTION

Strange attractors formed of flows in a 3D differential equation
phase space. Features the popular attractors described by Lorentz,
Roessler, Birkhoff and Duffing, and can discover entirely new
attractors by itself.

OPTIONS

--visual visual
Specify which visual to use. Legal values are the name of a
visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific
visual.

--window
Draw on a newly-created window. This is the default.

--root Draw on the root window.

--window-id number
Draw on the specified window.

--count number
Number of particles in the flow. Default: 3000

--size number
Length of particle trails. Negative values indicate
randomness. The computational load of a given flow depends
on (particle count) * (trail length). Default: -10

--cycles number
Timeout before changing objects. 0 - 800000. Default:
10000.

--periodic

--no-periodic
turn on/off periodic attractors. These are flows in 2
dependent variables, with a periodic dependence on a third
independent variable (eg time). Flow will sometimes choose
to start all the particles in the same phase to illustrate
the flow's cross-section. Default: on

--search

--no-search
turn on/off search for new attractors. If this is enabled, a
fraction of the computing cycles is directed to searching a
60-dimensional parameter space for new strange attractors.
If periodic flows are enabled, these can be searched too.
Watch carefully - you are quite likely to see mathematical
objects that have never been seen before, and since the
parameters are not recorded, you'll probably never see them
again! Default: on

--rotate

--no-rotate
turn on/off rotating around attractor. Default: on

--ride

--no-ride
turn on/off ride in the flow. Default: on

If both -rotate and -ride are enabled the viewpoint will
occasionally fly between the two views.

--box

--no-box
turn on/off bounding box. Default: on

--dbuf

--no-dbuf
turn on/off double buffering. If Flow runs slowly in full
screen, but fast in a smaller window (eg on old graphics
cards with too little memory), try turning this option off.
Default: on

--ncolors number
Number of Colors. Default: 200.

--delay number
Per-frame delay, in microseconds. Default: 10000 (0.01
seconds.).

--fps Display the current frame rate and CPU load.

ENVIRONMENT

DISPLAY to get the default host and display number.

XENVIRONMENT
to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global
resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.

XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW
The window ID to use with --root.

SEE ALSO

X(1), xscreensaver(1)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1996 by Tim Auckland <Tim.Auckland@Procket.com>
Incorporating some code from Stephen Davies Copyright (c) 2000

Search code based on techniques described in "Strange Attractors:
Creating Patterns in Chaos" by Julien C. Sprott

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,
provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and
that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in
supporting documentation.

This file is provided AS IS with no warranties of any kind. The
author shall have no liability with respect to the infringement of
copyrights, trade secrets or any patents by this file or any part
thereof. In no event will the author be liable for any lost revenue
or profits or other special, indirect and consequential damages.

Adapted from swarm.c Copyright (c) 1991 by Patrick J. Naughton.

Adapted from xswarm by Jeff Butterworth. (butterwo@ncsc.org).

AUTHOR

Tim Auckland

X Version 11 6.09 (07-Jun-2024) flow(6)