[HN Gopher] Recreating the Flying Toasters screen saver for the ...
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Recreating the Flying Toasters screen saver for the Vision Pro
Author : bayeng
Score : 119 points
Date : 2024-04-02 15:31 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (abhipray.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (abhipray.com)
| dhosek wrote:
| Definitely 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 wrote:
| Yep, I wanted to get something out there and iterate based on
| feedback. Would love to hear suggestions!
| xu_ituairo wrote:
| Maybe 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 wrote:
| Thank 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 wrote:
| The 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 wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| too many cooks (and too much money) in the kitchen
| j_m_b wrote:
| This bring back memories of AfterDark. They had other screen
| savers in the software package, but this was definitely the most
| whimsical.
| bredren wrote:
| The Star Trek AfterDark screensaver was the jam! Tribbles
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdQ_ekXdoqU
| laborcontract wrote:
| This is hypnotic. Literally put me to sleep
| orblivion wrote:
| Apple already recreated Dinosaur Adventure 3D, sort of
| exe34 wrote:
| My 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 wrote:
| Sounds like the BSOD screensaver included in XScreenSaver,
| which you can still install today:
| 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 wrote:
| This 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). 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 wrote:
| No, that's probably the correct link, but jwz doesn't like
| the HN crowd and filters for referers.
| exe34 wrote:
| That's the level of petty I aspire to, but don't have the
| energy to deliver on.
| inhumantsar wrote:
| just 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.
| exe34 wrote:
| Spite is the greatest motivator. Many a book have I
| finished reading because damn it, I'm not folding.
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| _rideontime_ 's link is cromulent; _jwz_ does that if you
| follow it from HN.
| avhon1 wrote:
| Copy the link and open it in a new tab. Works fine.
| sumtechguy wrote:
| There is one from MS too.
|
| https://learn.microsoft.com/en-
| us/sysinternals/downloads/blu...
| pryelluw wrote:
| OT: check out my annoying screensaver based on the bouncing DVD
| logo. https://github.com/pryelluw/mac-dvd-screensaver
| alanbernstein wrote:
| I want to recreate the windows Maze screensaver in VR... but with
| the animated fractal textures on walls, floor and ceiling.
| RobertRies wrote:
| That sounds oddly terrifying. Like gray goo devouring the
| world.
| starshadowx2 wrote:
| I'm not sure if you can change the textures but there is
| Screensavers VR -
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/881670/Screensavers_VR/
| rideontime wrote:
| All that effort, only to use a disgusting AI-generated app icon.
| That's a shame.
| Tadpole9181 wrote:
| They'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 wrote:
| Personally 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.
| sp332 wrote:
| Agreed. The toaster is made of a loaf of bread? And the slots
| are sideways.
| yardstick wrote:
| While we're going down memory lane, I wish someone would
| recreate, reimagine, or make a sequel to Johnny Castaway.
| sumtechguy wrote:
| mumble mumble mumble hEEEEEEEE
| thangalin wrote:
| Shout out to the author, Bill Stewart.
|
| https://uxfactor.ca/1151/
| notbeuller wrote:
| Bill 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)
| rcarmo wrote:
| I love that it's in the "Productivity" category in the App Store.
| Gormo wrote:
| I'd love to see a full port of XScreenSaver to VR platforms. It
| has its own variation on flying toasters
| (https://youtu.be/mLGDvtbFvfg) along with many, many other
| modules.
| SapporoChris wrote:
| Can 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 wrote:
| In addition to their functional purposes, screensavers are
| aesthetically pleasing, and experiencing them in 360deg
| 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 wrote:
| Tangential to this, but I don't really see any discussion about
| Vision Pro since launch. Is it dead on arrival?
| laweijfmvo wrote:
| it might seem silly, but this "flying toaster" sort of thing
| was exactly the type of first apps being developed for the
| iphone. we know what eventually happened. so time will tell.
| randomdata wrote:
| The iPhone was already a smashing success before third-party
| apps (jailbroken ones included) were ever developed.
|
| It took the Newton to get there, though. Vision Pro may be
| this generation's Newton, perhaps. Time will tell, indeed.
| nebula8804 wrote:
| >we know what eventually happened.
|
| So what you are saying is that I need to develop an app which
| is just a ruby and when you touch it, it displays the
| following text
|
| I am rich
|
| I deserv [sic] it
|
| I am good,
|
| healthy & successful
|
| Hmm wonder what would be the good price for such an app? I
| guess $999.99 will have to do.
| grecy wrote:
| A 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 wrote:
| Gen 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).
| grecy wrote:
| Same story for the iPod, same story for the MacBook Air,
| same story for the iPhone.
|
| I think we'll see the same story play out once there are a
| few "killer" apps for it, and some of the features are
| refined (pass through sharpness, for example), and it gets
| a bit cheaper.
| thomastjeffery wrote:
| It's grounded on launch with it's own concrete shoes.
|
| Apple released a VR headset that you can't use to play video
| games _or_ watch porn with, and priced it at ~2-6x the price of
| competitive hardware.
| astrange wrote:
| You can watch porn all you want, and it costs less than
| Microsoft HoloLens did.
|
| (Similar to Bing where Bing Maps is worse than Apple Maps,
| but nobody reported on it because nobody remembers it
| exists.)
| xp84 wrote:
| It may well become more successful in some niche market
| than HoloLens (another niche product) too. But it's not a
| serious consumer product at $3500 (just kidding, better
| upgrade that non-upgradeable storage from the 0.25TB, so at
| least $3700) unless it can, at bare minimum, replace
| another expensive device (iPhone or Mac) while also doing
| those things better. Or if some killer app is developed.
| Which I wouldn't hold my breath too hard for based on their
| relationship with developers. A killer app like: multiple
| sports league partnerships which allow you to strap on AVP
| and be courtside/front row/etc at every game for some
| monthly subscription -- and all your friends who are also
| watching the same game are visble and audible via their
| Personas like they're right next to you. Suddenly, when
| compared to season tickets or going to 10 games a year, AVP
| looks great. But I am not necessarily confident that
| something like this will emerge for this product. Because a
| lot of content related stuff, which is the only 'proven'
| consumer use for VR, is dependent on getting content owners
| to play ball, and content owners don't want to help cement
| Apple into a dominant position in yet another industry,
| after seeing how cutthroat their behavior is in music and
| smartphone apps.
| threeseed wrote:
| > But it's not a serious consumer product
|
| That's why it's called Vision Pro.
|
| And Apple today added support for spatial personas
| allowing developers to create the experience you are
| talking about:
|
| https://www.uploadvr.com/apple-vision-pro-spatial-
| personas-l...
| avhon1 wrote:
| Is that an accurate way of characterizing it? I've understood
| The Apple Vision to be augmented reality headset, not a
| virtual reality headset -- that Apple intends it to be used
| for applications more like HoloLens was envisioned for,
| rather than what Quest, Index, or PSVR are currently used
| for.
| droopyEyelids wrote:
| The hololens isnt used for anything, the only mainstream
| uses are games and pornography
| threeseed wrote:
| You can play all sorts of video games from Apple Arcade,
| XBox/PS5, Mac, PC etc.
|
| There's loads of options courtesy of apps like MirrorPlay.
|
| And this is the Vision Pro not Vision. So the mainstream
| price will be significantly cheaper.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Are the games 2D or 3D? I'm not a big gamer but I'm
| curious.
| threeseed wrote:
| Almost everything is 2D because of the iPad support.
|
| There are some launch 3D games but most are being
| built/ported right now.
| frozenport wrote:
| Yeah.
|
| Basically you can use it as an TV and that's about it. The
| gesture interface is incompatible with any efficient data
| manipulation and the screen underperforms compared to a
| computer monitor.
|
| Unlike the iPhone Apple can't simply software patch or enable
| an App Store to fix these issues.
| t888 wrote:
| What are you basing this on?
| astrange wrote:
| It works with Bluetooth keyboards and trackpads.
| eddieroger wrote:
| It's got its use cases that don't align with the kind of topics
| here, so it's not discussed. Doesn't make it dead, just
| unpopular with the HN crowd. Maybe even fair to say unpopular
| with the mainstream crowd. But so was the first, Mac-only iPod,
| and here we are. I have one. I use it every day for a handful
| of things, but I don't come on here and talk about it.
| dartos wrote:
| It's pretty dead :/
|
| But I think this was the classic strategy of pricing out
| everyone except for those who will build on it or be excited
| by it, then make a polished v2 with wider appeal once there's
| content.
| matt_s wrote:
| I would counter that people adopted iPods en masse a lot
| faster than they will ever adopt a VR headset. VR is only
| ever going to be a niche use case. I think those use cases in
| entertainment realm are the only use cases that could get
| wide adoption and even then its someone wearing it for 1-2
| hours.
|
| I think this might suffer from a product class that needs
| widespread adoption to fund development in order to get
| smaller form factors and it will never get the widespread
| adoption.
| eddieroger wrote:
| I agree that the iPod was adopted faster, but that
| definitely wasn't version 1, and the early versions were
| heavily mocked before they were adopted. It was too
| expensive, it was Mac only, it used FireWire, which was not
| widely available, things like that. Not the challenges that
| the Vision Pro (and VR) will face, but still challenges.
| Apple figured out how to get Windows support, then how to
| shrink the form factor when it made sense. I imagine
| they'll do that again.
| mattl wrote:
| FireWire was very widely available on Macs of the era,
| which is why it made sense amongst other things. (USB 1.1
| is very slow, FireWire could also provide power, Apple
| invented FireWire)
| threeseed wrote:
| I knew a lot of people who bought the original iPod.
|
| And every single one justified it with it being a high-
| quality 5GB hard drive that just happened to play music.
|
| It definitely wasn't this breakout music player hit.
| Alupis wrote:
| People who spent the money on a Vision Pro are the most
| likely people to try to convince others it's some amazing
| future device...
|
| VR has been around for years and years, and still has not
| become mainstream. The core issues remain, and Apple did
| nothing to resolve them - nor do I suspect they are
| capable of resolving them.
|
| Untold fortunes have been thrown down the VR rabbit hole
| by some of the most heavily invested companies, and still
| today it's a mediocre experience after the novelty wears
| off.
| dylan604 wrote:
| the switch to iPod from Walkman/Discman was as obvious as
| VHS to DVD. it was something everybody wanted even if they
| didn't know it until they were shown the new thing. not
| everybody wants knowingly or not a VR headset. that's not a
| solve of an everyday problem for anybody but a fraction of
| people.
| spacemadness wrote:
| I didn't mean to center it on HN. I simply don't see it
| discussed anywhere even though it was front and center on
| most social media feeds. Discussion of it vanished seemingly
| within a week.
| laidoffamazon wrote:
| I've been using it daily, it's excellent. I'm on a trip and
| don't have access to it and I'm seriously missing it.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I guess Adam Savage thinks it's one of the better ways to
| experience movies.
| laidoffamazon wrote:
| Absolutely. It's also a good work tool - in certain cases I
| prefer it to multiple monitors as I usually work. You get
| full focus in the environment as well.
| qarl wrote:
| Dune part 1 in 3D blew my mind. IMHO.
| t888 wrote:
| Have you seen any positive discussion of Apple here?
| Sharlin wrote:
| Yes, lots and lots.
| t888 wrote:
| I think you're mistaken. Care to link to a single post
| where the commentary is positive about Apple?
| Sharlin wrote:
| The _null hypothesis_ is that there is no particular bias
| either for or against Apple on HN. The burden of proof is
| on you if you claim such a bias exists.
|
| My counter-hypothesis is that HN has a pro-Apple bias on
| average simply because it's an American tech-focused
| site, and Apple is an American tech company. If everybody
| on HN were European or Asian, the average opinion might
| be less favorable. But it's just a hypothesis, one I'm
| not particlarly inclined to defend.
| t888 wrote:
| 1. I'm not the one making the claim without evidence. You
| are.
|
| 2. I see absolutely no reason why the null hypothesis
| should be that a randomly selected social group would be
| unbiased about any particular issue by default. If you
| think about it for any length of time you should see that
| as implausible on its face.
|
| 3. You've just made up a weird 'counter hypothesis' of
| pro Apple bias of your own and thrown it into the
| discussion for no apparent reason, while claiming not to
| be willing to defend it. That seems underhanded.
|
| 4. Why not just provide some evidence? I'm even more sure
| you're wrong now that you've chosen to defend your
| position using these tactics, since it would be trivial
| for you to provide a link if you actually do remember
| such a discussion.
| Sharlin wrote:
| _You_ started this by asking
|
| > Have you seen any positive discussion of Apple here?
|
| strongly implying that you think there's no positive
| discussion of Apple here.
|
| > I see absolutely no reason why the null hypothesis
| should be that a randomly selected social group would be
| unbiased about any particular issue by default. If you
| think about it for any length of time you should see that
| as implausible on its face.
|
| Wikipedia: "The null hypothesis is a default hypothesis
| that a quantity to be measured is zero (null)."
|
| You're looking for an effect, in this case "bias for or
| against Apple", and claim not only that it's nonzero but
| that it has a certain sign. The only reasonable null
| hypothesis is that there's no bias, because without doing
| an actual study, there's no way to say whether any bias
| that might exist is pro- or contra-Apple. And "I never
| see anything good said about Apple" only counts as
| extremely weak evidence, given how incredibly prone to
| confirmation bias humans are.
| t888 wrote:
| Right, but you made a claim that you had actually seen
| lots of positive discussions, yourself. That's not just a
| question with an implied direction. _You claim to have
| seen the evidence with your own eyes._
|
| I think there is no such evidence, otherwise you would
| have presented it.
|
| Why else would you be so fiercely defending your right
| not to have to present evidence that _you claim is
| plentiful_?
|
| You can't produce the evidence, because there isn't any.
| You made your claim without regard for evidence, because
| even a trivial search for Apple related material shows an
| overwhelmingly negative view of Apple here:
|
| https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false
| &qu...
| ethbr1 wrote:
| Sure, before circa-butterfly keyboards. Then it was only "the
| recent OS version has bugs" gripes.
| huytersd wrote:
| I don't see any discussion of Apple products at all on here
| outside of the reveal.
| dylan604 wrote:
| You must not consider the App Store an Apple product??
| clintonb wrote:
| I was just thinking about MOPy fish
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOPy_fish)...and how much it
| encouraged wasting paper!
| ProllyInfamous wrote:
| > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOPy_fish
|
| _< link fixed>_
| MR4D wrote:
| FTA...
|
| "Check out the app previews and screenshots on the app store to
| get a visual: 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.
| jmbwell wrote:
| And the sleeping cat has no idea what's going on right behind
| it!
| gimmethecookies wrote:
| I 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!
| NickM wrote:
| Couldn'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 wrote:
| Just 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/
| geocrasher wrote:
| Flying 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=4DywBp3U2hQ
| btown wrote:
| The 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
|
| 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!
| ethbr1 wrote:
| This 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 wrote:
| - "G4" the TV network, not to be confused with the series of
| Mac computers
| thebruce87m wrote:
| - 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.
| notbeuller wrote:
| The 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 wrote:
| Voodoo Lights was my go to back in the day
| readyplayernull wrote:
| This is exactly the kind of first apps developed for devices.
| Since history repeats, I'm waiting for my Vision miner headlamp.
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