Freeware, Version 1.0.4
Ephemeral is a screen saver that draws animated IFS fractals, giving an ever-changing display of complex, natural shapes. It uses OpenCL (a new feature of OS X introduced with Snow Leopard) to harness the power of your GPU to efficiently perform the IFS calculations.
This screen saver is an evolution of my Windows-only Ephemera screen saver that I first released way back in 1997.
Requirements: OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), and a GPU that has support for OpenCL and allows OpenCL to access OpenGL images. Ephemeral will tell you your system does not meet the OpenCL requirements.
New in Version 1.0.4
This version focuses on improved error reporting:
- If your Mac doesn’t support everything required by Ephemeral you will see an orange screen with a message that describes the incompatibility. This will most likely be the case for all Macs using ATI Radeon GPUs (including brand new iMacs) because the drivers for those GPUs do not yet allow OpenCL to access OpenGL images. Until Apple or the GPU vendor release updated drivers there is nothing Ephemeral can do to run on these machines.
- If any other error occurs then you will see a red screen with a message stating the nature of the problem, along with an invitation to send an error report. This is now as easy as clicking on a “Send Error Report” link in Ephemeral’s configuration options.
Download (OS X)
Screenshots
