News archive
JPEG Saver 4.19.3
JPEG Saver 4.19.3 is another version with very few changes in it. Very few visible changes, anyway. This is the first version compiled using Visual Studio 2017 and its updated toolset, which shouldn't change how JPEG Saver looks or works but does mean I can use more up-to-date language features.
One important change that might be visible to some users is that JPEG Saver will now exit if it “loses” the Direct3D device, instead of carrying on with a black screen. Losing the device means that another process has accessed the screen for whatever reason, and JPEG Saver no longer has exclusive access. The recommended response to losing the device is to reallocate all the Direct3D resources and reset, but since JPEG Saver is first and foremost a screensaver I thought exiting would make more sense. In fact, I couldn't even think of a way to test JPEG Saver losing the device that wouldn't have made it exit anyway. But it was possible.
There are a couple of slightly more useful updates in this version too - I've added another new transition, “Unfold Push”, and some new format options for the process info item to show the elapsed time.
SVGGraph 2.25
“Improve the 3D pie slices” has been on the top of my SVGGraph to-do list for quite a long time. Version 2.25 of SVGGraph improves the 3D pie slices.
Version 2.24 added the ability to draw partial pie graphs by setting the
end_angle option, but it didn't look at all right for the 3D pie
graphs. If the example below had been drawn using version 2.24 the flat inside
faces would be missing and the gradient over the curved sides would continue
through the gap. Not good.
The improvements to the 3D pie slice drawing code means that some of the other pie graph types can be drawn in 3D now as well, so there are these two new graph types available:
The PolarArea3DGraph is just the PolarAreaGraph with the 3D code added, but I have made some changes to the existing ExplodedPieGraph as well as adding the ExplodedPie3DGraph. The code for calculating the explosion for both is in a separate file now, with the direction calculated better (because I could see from the 3D version of the exploded pie graph that the slices could sometimes end up overlapping.) There isn't a 3D version of the DonutGraph yet, but it is on the to-do list (the internal curves make it a bit more tricky).
SVGGraph 2.24.1
SVGGraph 2.24.1 exists to release some changes I have made over the last few months while I have been concentrating on other projects. The main change in this version is the addition of a StackedBarAndLineGraph to go with the existing BarAndLineGraph:
The StackedBarAndLineGraph supports all the usual options for stacked bar
graphs and multi-line graphs, with one exception: the dataset_axis
option can only be used to put line datasets on the second axis. This is
because bars stacked on top of each other must use the same scale or the graph
will not make sense.
TrayBlank 1.9
TrayBlank 1.9 actually adds something new for a change - options to start the screensaver directly. I've also updated the code that draws the tray icon to make it look clearer, and made the progress bar a lot more likely to be accurate.
The new option to start the screensaver directly is in a submenu called “Screensaver start” along with the existing delay option and another new option, “Directly after timeout”. What a direct start does differently is starting the screensaver as a new process instead of sending a message to Windows telling it to start the screensaver.
This means that the screensaver is run the same way as if you double-clicked on the screensaver icon itself. It will run on your main desktop instead of the empty desktop that Windows creates for screensavers to run on, so it has access to Windows Explorer and any other windows running there. Microsoft don't separate things out for no reason - if you don't trust your screensaver, don't run it directly! Actually, if you don't trust your screensaver you shouldn't run it at all. Uninstall it and run a virus and malware scan.
JPEG Saver 4.19.2
JPEG Saver 4.19.2 is another bugfix release. The main bug fixed in this version is a crash when using the “Desktop” or “Desktop Pile” backgrounds. I've also fixed the items editor not remembering the item name or its enabled/disabled state when creating a new item.
There are two new transitions in this version, “White Out” and “Colour Fade”. They both fade the current image out then fade the new image in, with “White Out” fading to white in between and “Colour Fade” fading to the colour in the centre of the first screen in between.
The new version is available from the downloads page.