Falling Stuff

Version 1.0b6

® 2011 David Ludwig

More info at: http://fallingstuff.shorturl.com

E-Mail the developer at dludwig@pobox.com

Requirements:

Mac OS X 10.6 or higher w/ a 64-bit Intel CPU, or Windows XP or higher

Installation (for MacOS X):

Double click on the Falling Stuff.saver file.  This will launch System Preferences, which should prompt to install the screensaver.

Installation (for Windows):

Run the "Falling Stuff 1.0b6.exe" installer.

Special thanks to:

Erin Catto and the Box2D devs.  http://box2d.org

Lincoln Ramsay and the UniMotion devs.  http://unimotion.sourceforge.net

The Lua development team.  http://www.lua.org

Berkeley Systems, for making the After Dark screensavers back in the day

Darren Torpey, for support

Vern Ludwig, for wisdom

Falling Stuff is a screensaver where objects of different sizes and shapes fall downwards from the top of the screen.  A variety of pegs exist to give these shapes something to interact with.  The concept is loosely based off of the Marbles screensaver made by Berkeley Systems for their After Dark product, however inspiration is also taken from a display at the Boston science museum's Mathematica exhibit.

The simulation has a few adjustable parameters:

• Max Objects: This controls the number of physical objects that will fall before the simulation resets.  Please note that the more objects there are, the slower the simulation may run.
• Spawn Rate: This controls how quickly physical objects are created.
• Allow Screen-Blanking Battery Saver Mode: If enabled, this will cause the screensaver to blank the screen while AC power is disconnected, with all physics simulations and graphics calls being paused. Reconnecting AC power will resume the screensaver's normal operation.
• Enable Accelerometer-Based Gravity: (Supported hardware and software only)  This option uses the computer's internal accelerometer to determine which way is facing down.  The simulation's gravity is then adjusted accordingly at various intervals, making the on-screen objects appear to fall towards the "real" ground.  This is currently only supported on certain model laptops, such as MacBook Pros.
• Reverse Accelerometer Gravity on X Axis: This will reverse the direction of accelerometer-based gravity (if enabled) along the X axis.  On some laptops, tilting the computer to the left gets read in as a tilt to the right, and vice-versa.  Enabling this option on these machines should allow objects to fall in the correct direction.