Usage

CLI

To use xplanetFX execute the following command:

xplanetFX [OPTION]

while [OPTION] is one of the following:

 --help          show the help.
 --setup         configure xplanetFX step by step
 --start         start in the background. A running script will be stopped.
 --stop          stop a running instance.
 --toggle        display a window asking for starting/stopping xplanetFX
 --autostart     start xplanetFX with the autostart delay
 --single [file] create one single image and exit
 --template [template] [style] activate an installed template
 --log           show the latest log file.
 --clearlog      remove all log files
 --gui           open a GTK userinterface
 --rclouds       remove a corrupt clouds image
 --install [file] install a template file (use absolute path)
 --geometry [WIDTHxHEIGHT] set xplanetFX to specified size
 --update-templates convert all templates for version >= 1.1
Without any option xplanetFX will run in the terminal.

GUI

The graphical user interface is multilanguage (english and german by now) whatever the screenshots may tell you ,)

The interface is completely independent from a running xplanetFX. Closing the window won’t stop a running xplanetFX-daemon.

The graphical user interface comes with four tabs, Themes, Display, Settings and Tools. At the bottom of the window there are two buttons to handle the xplanetFX-daemon. If you want to restart a running instance clicking the run-button is enough. The status is displayed right of the buttons.

Themes

The main tab where you can select installed themes. Click on “activate” or double-click an entry in the list to set the selection as the current theme. A running xplanetFX will be stopped and restarted. Please note that activating a theme may take a moment because there are some image conversions computed in the background.

You can install new themes by clicking “add”. In the file chooser select the *.tar.gz file you downloaded. Or you may simply drag’n'drop the packages into the list to install or update. If you updated the actual selected theme you have to hit the button to activate a theme so the images xplanetFX is using are updated.

Removing themes with “remove” always removes the complete theme with all of it’s styles!

Display

This tab provides a preview with the ability to place the earth with a mouse click or by drag’n'drop. The backgrounds and overlays are taken from the actual template but the earth itself is just a static image. All settings have to be saved first before they will take effect.

The other settings will affect the special effects part of xplanetFX like corona, specular f/x and post f/x. These settings are essential for the CPU usage of xplanetFX.

The button bottom left to the canvas displays some marker lines for easier orientation.

Clicking on the “reset” button will load all settings of the chosen template without converting the images (like (re-)activating of a template would do).

Settings

This tab contains some settings for xplanetFX. They are described in short words there. Switching the language happens immediately and will remain over a restart, the same goes for the autostart toggle button. The other settings must be explicitely saved with the button below. Please note that switching the screen size may take a moment because there have to be some images converted in the background.

Selecting a city only sets the values in the latitude/longitude entries and does not automatically save or activate the settings. Please Note: If you want to display a city on the northern hemisphere it’s prettier not to set the real latitude but a value closer to zero. Otherwise you’ll see a lot of the northpole.

You can activate the date and time setting to render a specific date.

The button for the screen size tries to fetch the current display size from X and fills the entries with the values.

The button for the field of view opens a browser with a google-maps-engine to find your exact latitude and longitude.

Tools

On the third tab you can remove a distorted clouds image. This may become neccessary if a download was corrupted. A new image will be fetched with the next rendering cycle of xplanetFX. To see the changes immediately please restart xplanetFX by hitting the run button at the bottom of the window.

A log is displayed on this tab, too. Here you can see what xplanetFX is actually doing or when the next rendering will take place. The button deletes the log file from your disk. If the log grows bigger than 500 kB it is compressed and stored in the log folder to save disk space.

The Record button opens a file chooser dialog to specify a file xplanetFX will render a single image to. Please note that a sleeping xplanetFX will be killed (stabbed in the back insidiously while dreaming) and you have to restart it manually after the rendering is done.

If you encounter problems with incompatible versions between xplanetFX and the templates (as described in the “known issues” section) you can update your templates here. Up-to -date templates won’t be affected by this function. Your acutal settings will be updated if neccessary, too.

Known issues

• KDE > 4.3

  KDE has stripped the dcop service and replaced it with dbus. The new interface doesn’t have any option to switch the wallpaper to a specific one by now so these versions are unsupported at the moment until I found a workaround or KDE implements this (webwide heavily demanded) feature again.

• Templates between old and new versions <> 1.0

  The templates prior to version 1.1 aren’t compatible with versions >= 1.1 . The problem shows in clouds only rendering on the moon when he’s in front of the earth like shown in the image. It occours in both cases – an old version of xplanetFX with newer templates or vice versa. If you have the newest version of xplanetFX you may a) download the templates again or b) have a look in the tools tab of the GUI, there’s a neat function to update your templates or c) call “xplanetFX –update-templates” on the command line to fix the problem.

• Templates prior to version 1.0

  If  you had a xplanetFX installed with verison prior to 1.0 (the first time a GUI was implemented) and you install a version <= 1.0 there could appear some problems. One of the reported ones is that the GUI won't open anymore. In this case you have to remove the hidden folder ~/.xplanetFX in your home directory first like mentioned in the installation instructions. a simple rm -R ~/.xplanetFX should do the trick.

Version history

Version 1.1.0 (05.09.2010 – 23:19) | TAR.GZ | RPM | DEB
Version 1.0.11 (05.09.2010 – 03:14) | TAR.GZ | RPM | DEB
Version 1.0.10 (05.09.2010 – 01:12) | TAR.GZ | RPM | DEB
Version 1.0.9 (03.09.2010 – 04:10) | TAR.GZ | RPM | DEB
Version 1.0.8 (02.09.2010 – 12:53) | TAR.GZ | RPM | DEB
Version 1.0.7 (24.08.2010 – 02:18) | TAR.GZ | RPM | DEB
Version 1.0.6 (21.08.2010 – 04:01) | TAR.GZ | RPM | DEB
Version 1.0.5 (14.08.2010 – 05:59) | TAR.GZ | DEB
Version 1.0.4 (13.08.2010 – 20:14) | TAR.GZ | DEB
Version 1.0.3 (13.08.2010 – 04:16) | TAR.GZ | DEB
Version 1.0.2 (10.08.2010 – 05:23) | TAR.GZ | DEB
Version 1.0.1 (10.08.2010 – 01:13) | TAR.GZ | DEB
Version 1.0.0 (08.08.2010 – 21:02) | TAR.GZ | DEB

Credits

This program was originally inspired by xplanetconfig, a german project, and some ideas around the net about xplanet. The project xplanetconfig has some more features in settings compared to the limitations of xplanetFX, try it if you prefer other constellations rather than the earth in HQ with themeing and GUI.

Another inspiration was the documentary “Global Brain” by Peter Russel [de] [en] every human being should have watched.

License

Once again – licensing is completely overrated – my wiener is long enough to give a shit for. Instead of asking for donation or something like that please spend some bucks to the next best rough sleeper you’ll meet or to some of the guys our governments have beaten the shit out of in Afghanistan. Thank you.

Der Beitrag wurde am Sonntag, den 27. Juni 2010 um 20:58 Uhr veröffentlicht. du kannst die Kommentare zu diesen Eintrag durch den RSS 2.0 Feed verfolgen. du kannst einen Kommentar schreiben, oder einen Trackback auf deiner Seite einrichten.