NAME

xtacy - an X11 trippy color-cycling toy

SYNOPSIS

xtacy [ -option ... ]

DESCRIPTION

xtacy generates trippy patterns in an X window and cycles the color palette. Without any arguments, xtacy will open a window and display a random effect.

OPTIONS

-annoy: Turn on the Zoomy Close Window thing.
-bw width: Border Width. Specifies the width of the border around your window, in pixels.
-delay msec: Delay msec microseconds between loops.
-display displayname: Opens the xtacy window on the displayname display.
-geometry geom: Opens the xtacy window with geom geometry.
-h: Print out a help message.
-lock: Lock the window. When given the -lock flag, xtacy prompts you for a key, then locks the window until the key is entered again. There is no true security guaranteed by this option.
-mirror: Mirrors the pattern on the window
-norect: Used in conjunction with -kaleid to turn off everything but the lines.
-number num: Used in conjunction with different effect options to specify special qualities of the effect. See the effect options below.
-opt num: Also used like -number to feed a secondary option into xtacy
-part num: Used in conjunction with -gravity to specify the number of roaming particles.
-r
-root: Run xtacy in the root window.
-rillybig: Run xtacy in a really big window (1024x860).
-trell: Used in conjunction with -plasma to put it in Trellace mode.
-windows n: Tell xtacy to open n windows for itself.

COLOR OPTIONS

-bd color: Set the border color of the xtacy window to color.
-bg color: Set the background color of the xtacy window to color.
-mono: Run with a greyscale palette.
-multi: Rotates the color map on most effect modes.
-few: Use only 18 colors.
-several: Use 72 colors.
-colors num: Try to use num colors.
-rand
-randomcolor: Scramble the colormap.
-perfect: Use a private colormap. This will let xtacy have perfect colors when the cursor is in that window, but will do funky things to the rest of the screen.
-pal num|filename: Uses predefined palette num:

0: Default RYGCBM, rotating straight.
1: Three bands (red, green, and blue), each of which can rotate independantly.
2: Like palette 1 but in greyscale.
3: Chooses 2 random colors and interpolates between them.
4: Starts with a greyscale palette, drops in a random color and smoothes around it.
5: Chooses 3 random colors and interpolates between them.

you can also specify a Palette File, which is just a text file with R-G-B triples ranging from 0 to 255. A few demonstration palette files are included in the Xtacy distribution, in the palette directory.

EFFECT OPTIONS

-bez: Bouncing Bezier curves. The -number option specifies how many curves to display.
-boxes: Bouncing boxes. The -number option specifies how many boxes to display.
-bozo: Bouncing quadrilaterals (bozogons). The -number option specifies how many bozos to display.
-circ: Bouncing circles. The -number option specifies how many circles to display.
-qix: Qix. The -number option specifies how many qix lines to display.
-qix4: Four qix lines, mirrored on each other. The -number option specifies how many qix lines to display.
-blur: starts with randomly placed boxes, and then blurs the edges between them.
-cells: Tile floor, cells of rotating color. The -number option specifies how many cells on a row.
-clover: Lines rotating around a center point.
-cube: A spinning wire-frame cube. You may want to push up the delay to slow this down on a fast system.
-dcurve: plots the colors based on the distance to the curve(s)
-dline: plots colors based on the distance to the line(s)
-dog: DogPlasma mode. The -number option sets the graininess.
-field: Displays e-fields between random points of random intensity. The -number option specifies how many points to display.
-flush: starts with randomly drawn boxes, and moves them towards the center of the window
-fracrect: ever decreasing squares-within-squares
-funky: Shapes spiraling down to the center point. The -number option sets the shape:

: 0: A straight line.
1: A square.
2: A triangle.

-gravity: Gravity well simulator. The -part option sets the number of roaming particles and the -number option sets the number of wells.
-julia: Julia set fractal. The -number option sets the number of iterations.
-kaleid: Kaleidascope. The -norect option turns off everything but the lines.
-life: Conway's game of life. The -number option sets the starting density.
-lunch: A reminder to go eat in the middle of the day
-mandel: Mandelbrot set fractal. The -number option sets the number of iterations.
-max: Max Headroom's background (Max not included)
-newton: Newton root fractal. The -number option sets the number of iterations.
-mixer: Display swirls of colors. The -number option sets the width of the bands.
-off: Off the Air color test pattern.
-plasma: Plasma cloud. The -number option sets the graininess of the cloud (higher is smoother) and the -trell option puts it in Trellace mode, which started as a bug but looked neat enough to stay.
-rose: Phased sine waves
-spiral: Draw a spiral.
-star: Starfield simulation. The -number option determines the number of stars on the screen at a time.
-static: Draw static. Use -mono to get black and white static.
-swarm: Draw a swarm of bees following a queen.
-taffy: A modified mixer mode. The -number option sets the width of the bands.
-tag: sort of the reverse of -swarm everyone avoids the leader, and the leader tries to tag the closest bee
-test: Display the colormap.
-tunnel: Display a tunnel.
-wander: Display a squiggly line, wandering around the screen.

MOUSE BUTTONS

Button Action	Description
Button 1 click	Rotates the colormap one pixel, except on: -gravity , where it places a new particle, -wander , where it moves the pixel, and -swarm , where it moves the queen.
Button 2 click	Resets the window and redraws the effect
Button 3 click	Closes the window. If it's the last window, exits the program. If the -lock option is on, this brings up the keyhole window.

AUTHOR

Jer Johnson <jer@gweep.net>

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This program is dedicated to The Fairest One.

Special Thanks to:

Daniel Cabeza Gras <bardo@clip.dia.fi.upm.es> for tweaking my spiral code, and for adding the cells and mixer modes.

Steve Richardson <prefect@gweep.net> for letting me use his computer as an FTP site, and for being a guinea pig. Oh, and for writing the taffy mode.

Andrew Petrarca <android@gweep.net> for tweaking my gravity and e-fields code.

Matt Cross <profesor@gweep.net> for the starback and tunnel code.

Raun Nohavitza <raunn@tamu.edu> for writing the manpage.

COPYRIGHT

xtacy is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.

xtacy is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with xtacy; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

AVAILABILITY

The most recent released version of xtacy is always available for anonymous ftp from sidehack.gweep.net in the directory pub/gweep_progs.