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Recreating the Flying Toasters screen saver for the Vision Pro
- dhosek 3y agoDefinitely a 1.0 product in the graphics, but I love the whole concept of a murmuration of flying toasters in my living room. More whimsy like this, please.
- bayeng 3y agoYep, I wanted to get something out there and iterate based on feedback. Would love to hear suggestions!
- xu_ituairo 3y agoMaybe some sort of cube mapping on the toasters to give them a reflective metallic look will make them blend with the environment more, situating them in the space and harkening to the original (The APIs don’t let you use the actual environment for reflections, right?)
- bayeng 3y agoThank you for the recommendation! I applied a "Physically Based" material to the toasters, setting the "metallic" attribute to its maximum value. The app preview/screenshots might not fully showcase the potential metallic appearance, which depends on the lighting conditions and the selection of the right emissive color. I'll experiment some more to enhance its reflectiveness under a broader range of conditions. | (The APIs don’t let you use the actual environment for reflections, right?) That's a good point..I don't know the answer to your question but maybe I just need to add a light source in the virtual world.
- lelandfe 3y agoThe video on the App Store seems to show the toasters glitching out and rotating randomly. I think it's when they interact with each other.
- Dalewyn 3y agoI definitely appreciated (and still do!) having my mind blown as a kid by the sheer sense of humor that developers have. It feels like we lost many subtlely important things in the drive starting in the 2000s to "clean up" software and their development.
- inhumantsar 2y agotoo many cooks (and too much money) in the kitchen
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- j_m_b 3y agoThis bring back memories of AfterDark. They had other screen savers in the software package, but this was definitely the most whimsical.
- bredren 3y agoThe Star Trek AfterDark screensaver was the jam! Tribbles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdQ_ekXdoqU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdQ_ekXdoqU
- laborcontract 2y agoThis is hypnotic. Literally put me to sleep
- orblivion 3y agoApple already recreated Dinosaur Adventure 3D, sort of
- exe34 3y agoMy favourite screensaver was a mac app I installed around 2009, it would randomly show a BSOD. Was quite the novelty at the time, given the laptop only really crashed twice in the 4 years I had it and then had to give it back to the department.
- rideontime 3y agoSounds like the BSOD screensaver included in XScreenSaver, which you can still install today: https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/screenshots/ https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/screenshots/ It actually fooled me once when it happened to choose a MacOS crash screen while I was in the bathroom.
- MikeTheGreat 3y agoThis link doesn't go to a screenshot of a BSOD - it goes to a picture that disses (insults) HackerNews folks (https://cdn.jwz.org/images/2024/hn.png https://cdn.jwz.org/images/2024/hn.png). Was this on purpose? Based on the rest of the comment I'm guessing you pasted the wrong link? If not - congrats on the successful Rick Rolling (or whatever it's called)
- unpixer 3y agoNo, that's probably the correct link, but jwz doesn't like the HN crowd and filters for referers.
- exe34 3y agoThat's the level of petty I aspire to, but don't have the energy to deliver on.
- inhumantsar 2y agojust imagine the hours that someone spent making that unsettling image. if someone found a way to turn spite into electricity, we would never need to build another power plant.
- alanbernstein 3y agoI want to recreate the windows Maze screensaver in VR... but with the animated fractal textures on walls, floor and ceiling.
- RobertRies 3y agoThat sounds oddly terrifying. Like gray goo devouring the world.
- starshadowx2 3y agoI'm not sure if you can change the textures but there is Screensavers VR - https://store.steampowered.com/app/881670/Screensavers_VR/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/881670/Screensavers_VR/
- serf 2y agothat's only a few elements away from a 'Serial Experiments: Lain' episode.
- rideontime 3y agoAll that effort, only to use a disgusting AI-generated app icon. That's a shame.
- Tadpole9181 3y agoThey're a developer making a cutesy little nostalgia toy, not an artist. I'm sure they'd be ecstatic for you to donate a couple hundred for them to hire a professional humam? In the interim, this works fine and looks better than what most developers can make themselves.
- talldayo 3y agoPersonally speaking, I think ugly programmer art is better-looking than an AI icon. Even if it was a two-tone vector silhouette of a slice of bread, it would be more evocative and readable to me. The app is theirs, and they should feel proud enough to make an original icon for it too. I agree with the parent, the AI-generated icon would be the first thing stopping me from spending $1.99 on this.
- rideontime 2y agoI'd rather see an mspaint drawing.
- sp332 2y agoAgreed. The toaster is made of a loaf of bread? And the slots are sideways.
- yardstick 3y agoWhile we’re going down memory lane, I wish someone would recreate, reimagine, or make a sequel to Johnny Castaway.
- sumtechguy 3y agomumble mumble mumble hEEEEEEEE
- thangalin 3y agoShout out to the author, Bill Stewart. https://uxfactor.ca/1151/ https://uxfactor.ca/1151/
- notbeuller 2y agoBill Stewart was by no means the author of after dark or the flying toasters[1] He did do the windows port of the screen saver engine and some modules, but that was years after they'd first shipped as part of the Mac version of After Dark. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Dark_(software) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Dark_(software)
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- nicechianti 3y ago[dead]
- rcarmo 3y agoI love that it's in the "Productivity" category in the App Store.
- Gormo 3y agoI'd love to see a full port of XScreenSaver to VR platforms. It has its own variation on flying toasters (https://youtu.be/mLGDvtbFvfg https://youtu.be/mLGDvtbFvfg) along with many, many other modules.
- SapporoChris 2y agoCan you explain the desire? Is it just nostalgia? I just don't understand the need for a screensaver for a VR device. Do people idle long enough with the VR device worn for a screensaver to come on?
- Gormo 2y agoIn addition to their functional purposes, screensavers are aesthetically pleasing, and experiencing them in 360° immersion for short periods of time is something some people would enjoy. Perhaps there's a novelty factor here, i.e. a desire to experience familiar things in a new context, but I don't see where nostalgia would apply, other than to the flying toasters imagery specifically.
- spacemadness 3y agoTangential to this, but I don’t really see any discussion about Vision Pro since launch. Is it dead on arrival?
- grecy 3y agoA lot of the articles so far are speculating it's mostly a technology demonstrator, or close to a dev kit. Everyone seems to agree it's mighty impressive, but not quite there yet. Gen 2 or Gen 3 will surely be cheaper, lighter and better, and somewhere along there I'm betting we'll see iPhone levels of adoption.
- vundercind 3y agoGen 1 iPad was a bit meh. Thick, heavy, didn’t do much. Kinda just a tech demo for a large very-responsive touchscreen device. Gen 2 was so perfect that they sold it for years and years, and launched a related product line based on its platform (the Mini).
- clintonb 3y agoI was just thinking about MOPy fish (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOPy_fish)...and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOPy_fish)...and how much it encouraged wasting paper!
- ProllyInfamous 2y ago> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOPy_fish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOPy_fish <link fixed>
- MR4D 3y agoFTA... "Check out the app previews and screenshots on the app store to get a visual: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flying-toasters/id6479964879 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flying-toasters/id6479964879 " I highly recommend watching the video on that link to the app store. The dev did a nice job.
- gimmethecookies 3y agoI would get this just to keep jumping through the portals and chilling in the toasterverse. Looking forward to what else the dev has in store!
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- NickM 2y agoCouldn't help noticing the app size is ~150MB - not sure if this is something you can avoid, or if maybe all AVP apps automatically include a lot of extra cruft, but it feels like surely an app this simple shouldn't have to be that big?
- floxy 2y agoJust as interesting, what were the requirements for the original screensaver? Certainly it ran on Windows 3.0. How many floppy disks did it come on? How much RAM did it use? It almost certainly has to be less than 1MB, probably much less. Looks like it ran on 10 MHz 80286's: https://lowendmac.com/2007/how-after-dark-came-to-windows/ https://lowendmac.com/2007/how-after-dark-came-to-windows/
- floxy 2y agoThinking about it a little more, I suppose for something like the flying toasters, the toasters were probably like 50x50 px sprites. 8 bit color per pixel. Maybe 10 frames of animation. So 25 kB, and add 5 kB for the toast sprites. And then 2 kB for the code, gives 32 kB for just the flying toasters. So ~40 different screen savers could fit on a floppy.
- einr 2y agoAfter Dark 1.0 for Windows comes on a single floppy and is 716k in total, compressed, before installation. After installation, the 34 different screen saver modules take up roughly 650k in total, for an average of about 19k per module. TOASTERS.AD is one of the more advanced ones and is roughly 27k, so your guess is pretty close!
- peddling-brink 2y agoCould be really bloated assets. Or really bloated tracking sdks. I see this a lot with spammy iOS apps, size is either a handful of megabytes or hundreds.
- netruk44 2y ago> maybe all AVP apps automatically include a lot of extra cruft I'm making a simple physics playground app for the vision pro and it clocks in at 7.8 MB total in the app store. Granted, my app doesn't have any assets in it unlike this one. So maybe vision pro assets are heavy for some reason.
- geocrasher 2y agoFlying Toasters are great and everything, but can somebody recreate the Opus 'n Bill screensaver? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP26kghndkE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP26kghndkE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DywBp3U2hQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DywBp3U2hQ
- btown 2y agoThe original Flying Toasters may be the classic, but the singing Flying Toasters from After Dark 3.2 will always have a special place in my heart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjlusi_h_XA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjlusi_h_XA Flying out of the sun / The smell of toast is in the air / When there's a job to be done / The flying toasters will be there. And it's flap! Flap! Flap! / Now help is on the way. / This vict'ry song they sing: We pop up to save the day / On mighty toaster wings!
- tecleandor 2y agoSomething kicked in my memory when I started that video and for a second I couldn't temember properly if I was hearing the Flying Toasters song or Ever Onward IBM [0]. I remember having a DOS program with a PC Speaker karaoke version of that song, maybe on a disk that also included Alley Cat by IBM too. 0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9oh3gqOEKU
- ethbr1 2y agoThis makes me feel old. Number of things that need explaining now: - Computers used analog CRT monitors - CRTs had burn-in if left static - Screen savers showed dynamic images - After Dark / flying toasters was a classic screensaver - Software was sold on floppy disks - Purchased at physical computer stores - After Dark-era floppy disks were hard, not floppy - "Screen Savers" is also not to be confused with the TechTV show - TechTV merged with G4 in 2004, then closed in 2014, then restarted in 2020, then reclosed in 2022 I think that brings us back to modern times. Also, has anyone recreated Snake for the AVP yet? And I don't mean fancy-Snake: I mean Nokia Snake.
- msmith 2y ago- “G4” the TV network, not to be confused with the series of Mac computers
- thebruce87m 2y ago- People didn’t care about power usage as much Also, with OLED monitor screens becoming more popular maybe they will make a comeback? My OLED TV has a screensaver.
- halfnormalform 2y agoThe small floppy disks were still floppy disks. Thick plastic does not make a hard disc!
- notbeuller 2y agoThe youtube video linked has the toasters going north west to south east - they canonically travel from north east to south west. Did they flip the video to avoid a copyright claim?
- pugworthy 2y agoVoodoo Lights was my go to back in the day
- readyplayernull 2y agoThis is exactly the kind of first apps developed for devices. Since history repeats, I'm waiting for my Vision miner headlamp.
- diroussel 2y agoA missing feature of the App Store is that it does not support screen savers. You can only download an app that spits out a screen saver. I would love the ability to download free and paid screensavers from the App Store that are sandboxed and would update automatically. How can it be that apple makes its own screen savers so prominent each year, yet doesn’t support screen savers in the App Store?
- mcfedr 2y ago> Initially, my plan was to employ gaze tracking to identify moments when a user might be “zoned out”. Due to privacy considerations, Apple restricts access to such sensor data. First thing I see here, again, Apple with, here is a great bit of hardware, but you can only use it in the 3 ways we thought of, nothing else is valid.
- silentsanctuary 2y agoI get your point, but this feels like an odd place to make it. The idea that all application developers could examine, record, analyse, and eventually abuse something as personal as your gaze tracking data is truly terrifying, and the fact that Apple doesn't allow it is something that makes me feel more comfortable buying a headset of theirs that has the feature in the first place.
- NBJack 2y agoAre you saying you are OK with Apple themselves being privy to this information? Honestly, I'm not sure I find their access to it any less terrifying.
- silentsanctuary 2y agoWell, if I don't trust them at all with it, then I simply wouldn't buy the headset (it's inoperable without it). But at the moment, one of the biggest selling points for Apple is privacy and the responsible handling of your data, so out of most other similar organisations I believe they have an immense financial incentive to safeguard the data. And I think their actions so far speak to this being a critical strategy to the success of their business. Regardless, whether or not I trust Apple with it, it's certainly a lot easier to trust just Apple, rather than Apple plus hundreds/thousands/hundreds of thousands of others whose incentives are much less clearly aligned.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]