Screen Saver Desktop- Mac OS X Trick

January 31, 2010
Mac Tutorials
2 comments

Terminal Code- /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background

I’ve always wanted to have a desktop image that was a live music visualizer. This is how I did it. As far as I can tell (by Googling the techniques that have been detailed elsewhere), this is the only start-to-finish instruction to accomplish responsive music visualization on the desktop.

Before you begin, note that the major issue with this hint is that it requires you have the visualizer running in iTunes in order for the desktop visualizer to work. I have a Quad dual-core, so I don’t notice a hit in performance, but I’d prefer this to work cleaner. Read on for the how-to if you’d like to see how I did it…

First, I copied a visualizer (for example, Lathe.qtz) from the Compositions folder in the /System » Library » Compositions folder, and modified it heavily in Quartz Composer (part of XCode) to make it unique.

Still in Quartz Composer, go to Editor » Edit Protocol Conformance, and click both Screen Saver and Music Visualizer. Then save the edited composition into the Screen Savers folder in your user’s Library folder.

Then open the Desktop & Screen Saver System Preferences pane, and set your newly-created screen saver as your screen saver. After doing that, in Terminal, issue this command.

This sets your selected screen saver as your desktop background. Press Control-C to quit the overlay, or simply close the Terminal window the command is running in, to exit the background screensaver. (I made a new entry into my bash profile to simplify the long command into a more memorable and simpler command, Visualize.)

Nothing will happen until you turn on the visualizer in iTunes. You can use any one the visualizers, except for iTunes Visualizer or iTunes Classic Visualizer. All the rest use the Quartz engine, and will send the audio output to the correct listener (for lack of a better word.)

Two improvements that could be made to this technique. First, as noted earlier, is the need to have to run the iTunes visualizer alongside the desktop visualizer.

The other improvement that could be made is that this solution paints the compostion directly between your desktop icons and your current desktop pattern. I set my desktop so a simple color from the Desktop tab of the Desktop & Screen Saver System Preferences panel, in order to save some processor cycles by not painting two large JPGs accross my two displays.

http://www.yourapplestop.com

Terminal Code- /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background
I’ve always wanted to have a desktop image that was a live music visualizer. This is how I did it. As far as I can tell (by Googling the techniques that have been detailed elsewhere), this is the only start-to-finish instruction to accomplish responsive music visualization on the desktop.
Before you begin, note that the major issue with this hint is that it requires you have the visualizer running in iTunes in order for the desktop visualizer to work. I have a Quad dual-core, so I don’t notice a hit in performance, but I’d prefer this to work cleaner. Read on for the how-to if you’d like to see how I did it…
First, I copied a visualizer (for example, Lathe.qtz) from the Compositions folder in the /System » Library » Compositions folder, and modified it heavily in Quartz Composer (part of XCode) to make it unique.
Still in Quartz Composer, go to Editor » Edit Protocol Conformance, and click both Screen Saver and Music Visualizer. Then save the edited composition into the Screen Savers folder in your user’s Library folder.
Then open the Desktop & Screen Saver System Preferences pane, and set your newly-created screen saver as your screen saver. After doing that, in Terminal, issue this command.
This sets your selected screen saver as your desktop background. Press Control-C to quit the overlay, or simply close the Terminal window the command is running in, to exit the background screensaver. (I made a new entry into my bash profile to simplify the long command into a more memorable and simpler command, Visualize.)
Nothing will happen until you turn on the visualizer in iTunes. You can use any one the visualizers, except for iTunes Visualizer or iTunes Classic Visualizer. All the rest use the Quartz engine, and will send the audio output to the correct listener (for lack of a better word.)
Two improvements that could be made to this technique. First, as noted earlier, is the need to have to run the iTunes visualizer alongside the desktop visualizer.
The other improvement that could be made is that this solution paints the compostion directly between your desktop icons and your current desktop pattern. I set my desktop so a simple color from the Desktop tab of the Desktop & Screen Saver System Preferences panel, in order to save some processor cycles by not painting two large JPGs accross my two displays.

http://www.yourapplestop.com

Tags: background command control c desktop desktop background desktop image folder library library folder music visualization protocol conformance read s library Saver screen System system library Terminal terminal code visualizer visualizers

2 Comments

leugimgil says:

January 31, 2010 at 12:20 am

application “wallsaver” can also do that

Reply
AppReviewMan says:

January 31, 2010 at 6:21 am

Haha that is a lot easier than doing what I did. It probably uses that code but you don’t need terminal open. Thanks!

Reply