A while ago I posted a test to my first screensaver to test my new model file-format. I recently programmed another one that is more advanced. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated :)... its called Elements.... i learned all my openGl from this site 2 years ago :). http://www.visucraft.com -Jim

I couldnt get it to run. When I go to ScreenSavers a command prompt pops up and says Error with sound initialization, File not found. The music directory is present and the Dance.mid file is in it and works fine when played with Winamp.

hmmm... i think i ran into the same problem... the program uses external files such as images and music files and when you preview in the screensaver box, it gives those errors, but it will run just fine if you wait the screensaver wait time... i just dont know enough about screensavers to do it right.. but u can try it on its own by just running the scr file like you would an exe.

When I run it on its own like an exe, it loads the files (it says "loading textures/..."), but then it just quits. Does the saver use any OpenGL extensions?

hmmm... no extentions... but it IS meant to be a screensaver and any mouse movement or key hits will exit the program... you might even need to try to update your graphics drivers.

Right clicking on the .scr file and selecting "test" works great.
Installing it... "Display Properties/Screen Saver/preview" button works great too!

However, from now on, things start to go a little wonky :/

Setting the screensaver to the default selection, setting the time to 1 minute, clicking apply and waiting for Ooo, I dunno, 60 seconds :)... the screen saver tries to kick in, the system seems to load the resources, but then, although the mouse cursor dissapears, the screensaver's window does not appear and the desktop is still visible.. I then move the mouse and the system seems to de-activate the screen saver (With no weird error messages).

Finally, clicking on the "settings" button starts the screensaver as expected, yet I move the mouse to close it.. it does so, great! .. But then the screensaver is started a second time! Crazy stuff :) ... It does not startup a third time however.

I found some screensaver framework, example source code some years ago and made a little screensaver from it... I no longer have the original framework, but I do have the screensaver I made using for download, along with the Visual C 6.0 source code for it.
It can be found at BinaryStudio(It's in the projects section)
Hopefully, by reading through the mess which is my sourcecode, you'll be able to get an idea how to get the Settings button to work :)

Goodluck,
Dave.

I wrote two screen saver tutorial articles which may help with some of the problems:

Screen savers - Starting with Win32

and

Screen savers - starting with MFC