BugMirror The bugs are watching... -download here-

What is it?

BugMirror is a different screen saver; as its packed with bugs!

Nowadays screens are made out of pixels. What if they were made of living creatures instead?

That's what BugMirror tries to explore, as it proposes a screen made of thousands of little bugs.

The bugs react to camera input, trying to mimic what the camera sees. They are free to walk around and change their color.
This creates a low-precision slow-reacting mirror, giving it a very organic and unique feeling.

Every single Bug thinks locally, reacting to its surroundings. But by having thousands of them, all thinking on their own, makes the whole bug community work as a single entity.

Media

How to use it?

Double click to install the screen saver.
The level of detail can be adjusted under the options sheet.

The bugs will do a better job at recreating what your isight sees when the scene is well lit. Might be difficult to recognize the scene if it's too dark.

Remember that it's a bunch of bugs doing their best to recreate an image, don't expect High Definition.

Known Issues

On Dual display setups it will only work on the main screen. Sharing a single camera connection between multiple screens is in my "To Do" list.

Requirements

BugMirror requires a camera, and a G5 or higher is recommended to achieve high framerates. It's been tested on Mac OS X 10.4.11, and Mac OS X 10.5.1.

Is it free?

Nope! This time I decided to step into the shareware world. Many hours have been spent on the development of BugMirror.
Read the next paragraph to learn how to get a copy.

How do I buy it?

To purchase Bugmirror click on the paypal button below, and follow the process. BugMirror costs 7,99 euros. Once I receive the payment, I will email you a serial number as soon as possible (sometimes this can take up to a day, sorry I have a life too).
BugMirror is intended to be use as a personal screen saver. For other (comercial) uses, please contact me.


As of today, BugMirror doesn't work in Snow Leopard due to ScreensSaver Engine running under 64bit mode (on newer macs). The solution relies on releasing a 64bit version of BugMirror; but I've just found out that some technologies BugMirror relies on (Sequence Grabber) don't have a 64bit version. This is a big show stopper; I will be investigating soon but I can't promise anything.

If you are planning on moving to Snow Leopard soon, please hold your purchase.

When using paypal, please double check that your email is valid and current, otherwise I won't be able to send you the serial number!
Please make sure you like the product before buying it, as refunds are quite a hassle.

Version History

UPDATE: Bugmirror is now featured on Serial Box! What an honor! ;)

v1.12 - 22/03/2008

	-Optimized parts of the drawing code, should feel faster
	 (especially on lower end graphic cards).


v1.11 - 11/12/2007

	-Fixed a bug where settings could be lost when no camera was found.

v 1.1 - 29/11/2007

	-Added more "skins" to choose from.
	-Tweaked the bug's behavior.
	-Fixed a bug on the Registration Pop-up delay. (Sorry!)

v1.02 - 27/11/2007

	-Extended Register Message pop-up time.

v1.01 - 26/11/2007

	-Fixed possible incompatibilities with other screen savers.
	-Tweaked compiler flags, should be a little faster.
	-Updated slightly the bug's brains.

v1.0  - 23/11/2007

	-First Release