Hey everyone,

I've joined the MilkyWay@Home project for the semester and have heard some rumblings of people wanting some sort of visualization, or screen saver, dare I say :-). We've come up with a few ideas and would like input on which sounds the most appealing to you.

The ideas are ordered from showing the most scientific data to the least. In other words, Idea 1 will give a very clear visualization of what the work units are doing, whereas Idea 3 is more eye candy with fewer details on the science. I want to know which end of the nitty-gritty/eye candy spectrum you prefer.

Idea 1: A zoomed in view of a wedge, displaying the streams being computed for the wedge with indications of progress so far, color-coding to indicate what stars are in what stream, etc. A very good view of what really is being computed, but not much of an overall picture.

Idea 2: An alternating view of the galaxy that starts zoomed out (showing the current best model of the galaxy), followed by a zoom or similar transfer to showing the currently computing wedge. These views would alternate at some specified time interval.

Idea 3: A constant zoomed out view of the galaxy with maybe some small pictures on the sides showing a currently computing wedge and some sort of progress indicator for current work units.

Obviously it would be ideal to incorporate aspects of all different views, but given time constraints, I'd like to focus my efforts on the most popular idea. I encourage you to throw out your own modifications on the ideas and we'll hash through this.

Let 'em rip
-Eric

For most of us, a screensaver would not work as we are already using the GPU to do the actual crunching.
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Welcome to the project, Eric!

True, any graphical thing (eye candy or not) would have to be made mainly at the expense of the GPU; but as Nvidia and folding@home are concerned, they have an optimized client that shows the work being done in a very FAST way; again, at the expense of the actual processing of the data, but sure is eye candy.

Maybe we could forget the screen saver (the one boinc tries to run when you install it) thingy and go for some visualizer that you can opt to watch or not just to see what are all those mega credits doing. I'd go for idea n.ş 2 IF none of the images is like those on the main page of the project; they're colourful, but don´t create a very clear picture "galaxylly" speaking.

Hi Eric I think #2 would be a good start, maybe with our solar systems location added. But as previously noted a lot of us use our GPU's for crunching.
;-p
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I think option 2 is probably the best way forward.
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Don't drink water, that's the stuff that rusts pipes

i like all idea's Eric. but idea 2 and 3 i would love to see happen. but as said above we use gpu so u will have to balance it out to work

Yeah, the whole GPU thing is certainly a consideration. The visualization would be opt-out so that power users could choose to use the full power of their GPUs for computation.

sounds great. how fast till testing

I prefer Idea 1.
[However I am not a normal man, I am a programmer, interested in natural sciences ... and not too young. :-) ]
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Have at last a graphic showing what the project is doing is a great thing.
And Idea 2 is the best. It have a bit for every one.

The user selectable opt-out is a sensible thing.
But still exist people that think that graphic cards are mainly for graphics, and only they spear time should be for number crunching.

A fast screen saver is not needed. In my opinion the Boinc default saver is good enough for that.

And please, show us your beta developments !


Anyway, Welcome to the project.

I love the idea. I think there are a lot of people like me who, not to be rude or anything, don't really care all that much about being as much help as possible. I, and I think there's a big BOINC crowd that would agree with me, just want to feel that i'm contributing something to science and if I could see the fruits of my labor (harhar) then it would make me more inclined to this project. That said, I only care about the eye candy 3 3 3 go for it!

btw I agree with the others, a separate screen saver would probably be the best solution.

Hello ...

Idea 2

Greetings

Balmer

My choice is idea 2. I imagine a kind of Star Trek command screens where continuous data streams appear.

Idea 2 as a big Picture and Idea 1 as a small picture :D

Idea 2..... I dont have any GPU's.....too much money to buy.
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Hey, I'm trying to do work here !

My choice is idea 2. I imagine a kind of Star Trek command screens where continuous data streams appear.

My choice is idea 2. I imagine a kind of Star Trek command screens where continuous data streams appear.

Oooh, you mean the LCARS interface look?
http://www.lcarscom.net/

My choice is idea 2. I imagine a kind of Star Trek command screens where continuous data streams appear.

Oooh, you mean the LCARS interface look?
http://www.lcarscom.net/

Only with appropriate sound effects!!

And please, show us your beta developments !

I go for a version of two as well.

I like this screen with the numbers on the right.
http://lcarscom.net/gallery.htm

Pure eye candy, BUT they make it LOOK like the computer is doing a hell of an amount of work. Make sure to allow for multiple GPU's / CPU's or you will give the game away! Perhaps, a translucent colour for slices of the Galexy that have been work on, with red for the units currently being crunched on a project wide basis. Plus the eye candy above.
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I like Idea #2.

I'll go for Idea #2 also...

Seems more "balanced" among the other two approaches.

I like Idea # 2 as well. Welcome to the project
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Proud Founder and member of BOINC@AUSTRALIA

I go for 2 or 1 but not 3.

Hello.

I would like either #1 or #2. but since most of the respondents have stated their desire for screensaver #2, I will support Item #2, as long as there is, at the zoomed-in level, the same data that is present in #1, and there should be a preference to determine whether it zooms in and how long it stays at either level, so both groups can be satisfied. It seems like the best of both worlds. Also, it would be really cool to have a LCARS-style interface : )

Thank you, and welcome to the project!

Thank You!

Live long and prosper, and may the Great Bird of the Galaxy bless your planet!

—©mg


Fleet Commander [Name Classified]
USS Vanguard • NX-136000, Commanding
1st Expeditionary Defense Fleet
Starfleet • United Federation of Planets

Door number two for me.
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<-- I finally fixed my computer.

Hi, As I don't have an all singing all dancing state of the art computer, my graphics card is doing sweet fanny addams, so a little eye candy would be nice as long as the option is there to switch it on and off is there. As for options, number two sounds excellent. Thansks very much for allowing us imput on this and for making the effort. Paul
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Hello.

I would like either #1 or #2. but since most of the respondents have stated their desire for screensaver #2, I will support Item #2, as long as there is, at the zoomed-in level, the same data that is present in #1, and there should be a preference to determine whether it zooms in and how long it stays at either level, so both groups can be satisfied. It seems like the best of both worlds. Also, it would be really cool to have a LCARS-style interface : )

option 2 seems ideal.

idea 2 please. :)

I prefer idea 2.

Thanks for all you're doing!

My choice is idea 2. I imagine a kind of Star Trek command screens where continuous data streams appear.

Oooh, you mean the LCARS interface look?
http://www.lcarscom.net/

Option 2 :D

I like idea 1 the best
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Idea 2 in LCARS style would be awesome!

Definately idea 2, right balance of both and with the zoomed out view of the galaxy it's probably easier to see what's going on within each work unit.

Yes, I would love to see your Idea 2 up and running. I think it would be inspiring to see what is happening and maybe more people would be that much more interested in joining us. Word of mouth and showing other people what we are doing.

Another vote for #2 (and as a Star Trek fan -- LCARS is a plus).
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In my opinion, I would like to see #2...Best of both worlds!

I've been thinking about this recently. People on the computing end of the stick need some sort of visualisation, it's the whole 'have to see to believe' thing. Thank god you showed up, huh? :D

Idea #2 seems to be the best one. It shows both everyone's and your own progress in enough detail. It gives a sense of accomplished teamwork, doesn't it?

Looking forward to the final product. Good luck :)

- Domagoj

Hi Eric,

I would like idea 1, but #2 is very often mentioned...
I wil not use it as a screensaver but look at it from time to time for a few minutes, as I do with einstein@home, by clicking "play graphics".
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Greetings from,
TJ

I would LOVE to see the Idea No2!
But the other would be great too!
Is there a need to help you with this extension?

i would also like number 2... i would like from time to time "see" what i'm helping with in a format that make sence to "average Joe".

I like option 2 the best, but I also share the same GPU concerns - maybe it will give me a reason to SLI hehe.

I also really like Bruce's idea (Message 36515) of highlighting our solar system somehow.

Rather than showing anything in realtime, how about having a slide show of calculated work?

That way it is a pretty dumb screen saver, but it does at least show what has been done rather than what is currently going on.

Regards,

Richard.

P.S. Just completed my first few units!

Thanks for all the input guys - I've been silent for a little while but it's all very useful. We have meetings today and tomorrow at which I'm going to pin down the details on this, and I'll let you know what's decided. It'll be an iterative process, of course, and intermediate releases will come out whenever possible.

We've gotten some emails asking about a visualization - there currently is nothing, hence this thread. Sit tight, there'll be something out. I'm an undergrad/grad student (long story, just search "coterminal degree rpi" on google) and so am doing this in addition to a full class load - it won't be coming out as quickly as if I was working 40 hours/week, since I won't be.

I would LOVE to see the Idea No2!
But the other would be great too!
Is there a need to help you with this extension?

I like Idea 3 because it sounds less processor intensive to have a constant view instead of zooming in and out of the galaxy all the time. Raw data from Idea 1 should be on the side in LCARS interface or whatever. I prefer raw data than too much eye candy.

Here are some details on the visualization:

Zoomed out view: This view will show the spiral of the Milk Way galaxy along with highlighted wedges which are currently computing. I'm not sure how much each of you understand regarding the science, but the wedges are very large and easily visible from a galaxy-wide view. My initial post in this thread mentioned showing the "best current model" of the galaxy - I didn't word that very well, as, truthfully, in a zoomed out view where you could (potentially) see over a million stars, a perfectly accurate scientific view is visually indiscernible from a randomly generated star field. Not to mention, theres no need to require more computation or data transfer than is necessary. The overall view won't be based on specific data points from the project, BUT, the wedges will be accurate to the project data.

Zoomed in view: This is the more interesting view, which will show the current work being done. The screen will zoom into a wedge, and you can think of a wedge as a pizza slice - they have a large surface area along one plane, but are very thin. As such, this view will be orthogonal to the face of the main plane (the top of the pizza slice). As each star in the wedge is processed, it will be shown in the wedge. Thus, visually, you will see the wedge filling up with stars.

Now, in reality, there are 100,000 stars in a wedge and showing each one individually would just lead to a mess of color. As such, a sort of heat map will be shown, where red may indicate a high density of stars and blue indicates a low density. After these computations are finished, we then determine what stars are part of the background and which are part of the star stream. At this point, the background will fade and the stream will be shown in a brighter color in the foreground.

That's the basic gist of things - I didn't go into deep deep detail, e.g. there can be multiple streams per wedge which would be dealt with by coloring each stream differently. Hopefully this gives you a good idea of where the visualization is headed.

Sounds like it'll be very interesting! Do you intend to show us screenshots or video clips during development, so we can give more specific feedback?

Hi I like option 2 maybe the big picture with shaded areas showing looks of current work done and in progress on an overlay of the generalized structure with the location of the solar system and the option to turn it off and on when checking it. Maybe to have a one level zoom with the processed data (not the high resolution but like a thumbnail version)the brightest. That should be simple enough but get the data expressed quickly. Use like a snapshot process maybe once a day. Hope this helps. I think most of us just want a basic view of the progress. Have the more intensive stuff on the website page as an option later.

Hope I helped!

John

I think that #2 is the best idea, except #3 would most likely consume the least CPU or GPU time, because it is not constantly switching between modes. I think that the user should possibly have a choice between different screen savers, depending on their wants and needs.

I personally like the idea of having a visualization about what we are doing. I like it as a recruiting tool as well. Folding@home has one that I can show my friend and that alone has peaked a bit of interest in my less tech oriented friends. Gotta sell it to a certain degree. Having a graphic that incorporates the galaxy view and a interval of zooming in to the wedge that we are working on. The galaxy should spin as well then fast spin and zoom to the wedge. Also having the specific graphics on hand to tell us what is actually happening would be nice. Of course this could be set as a screen saver but I would prefer that the default be off so we aren't using to many extra cycles when we don't want to.

It shouldn't be difficult to deactivate processing for the graphic altogether when it's not currently on-screen. This should be something nice to study once in a while, and maybe as a screensaver to interest others for PCs that don't contribute using their GPUs anyway - serious crunchers will always keep these things off.

Hi gang,
The potential screensaver work has encouraged me to re connect to the project. I would be happy with anything that displays the progress that has been made. Feedback is worth its weight in gold, other projects should take note.
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Ivor
My Webpage

The first thing I have to say is "THANK-YOU" for the screen-saver work!!

I don't understand how the project actually works so I can't contribute much on to how to show the progress. Is there a "Milkyway@Home for Dummys" primer?

I am guessing (WAG) position refinement occurs by taking views from different positions of earth's orbit and measuring the miniscule shift of closer stars against more distant stars? Then modeling the expected movement within the galaxy and comparing to subsequent observations?

I think shifting the .scr from the galaxy big picture to the wedge should happen slowly and only once, discarding the processing needed to "semi-render" the full galaxy. And since the wedge itself still has too many stars to render, zoom in to 200 - 300 of the closest neighbor stars of the current target and blink the target(s) being refined, maybe showing an alternate blink of the previously computed position if an adjustment is made.

My suggestions are obviously out of ignorance, so please excuse my lame opinions.

p.s. As much as I love SciFi and Star Trek, please don't cheapen the project by imatating the LCARS. Again, IMHO.

Idea 2 sounds great. Showing everyone the big picture helps people grasp what this is all about. Then showing a detail is equally interesting. The juxtaposition of both is definitely what we need.

I think I like the second idea the best, unless there is an idea 1.5 or something.
-Zeke Becker, musician

1 vote for Idea 2.

Idea number 2 sounds great to me.

No personal vested interest here since I run Linux and I must assume u r talking about a Windoze screensaver.

What's the purpose of a screen saver... eye candy. Maybe actually causing someone to ask what it is and get some interest in crunching. It seems to me the option that fulfills that best is #3.

So, to fulfill it's function #3

Welcome aboard Eric!
I like the idea of what we see now, then zoom out to an outside view of the milkyway/galaxy, point where we are, location that's currently getting calculated.

Try to avoid static pictures since that defeats the purpose of a screensaver.

You could have a table of major markers (similar to Einstien's globe), and the whole thing fits in a fractional integer table. Fractional integer math is not that labour intensive for a CPU (for people all concerned about taking-away crunching from their GPUs). ...besides, the point is to attract people into the project since the many will still do more than the few with fast GPUs).

If you're up to the challenge of getting a linux screensaver up, that would be excellent (you'd probably need to base it on the older X-screensavers to be cross-compatible across different desktops). I think I also saw some basic KDE examples somewhere too.
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http://www.joescat.com/boinc/

You will have an OS X/Universal version, correct?

Thank You!

Live long and prosper, and may the Great Bird of the Galaxy bless your planet!

— The Phoenix

Fleet Commander [Name Classified]
USS Vanguard • NX-136000, Commanding
1st Expeditionary Defense Fleet
Starfleet • United Federation of Planets

I like #2, best of both worlds. It will be cool to see the wedge up close, but it will be nice to see it in the larger context. For me even the sugariest eye candy still has to convey some sort of information.

Of course they'll make the screensaver opt-out.

i would like to see option #2 ;]

This is just a post to let everyone know that this visualization project is still ongoing. In truth, I haven't started on it beyond this initial design phase, as I've been working on something else that you'll hear about at some point. That's very vague, but I don't want to give a time estimate or any details since I can't guarantee much accuracy on either front.

Stay tuned.

-Eric

Idea number 2 is the best in my opinion too :)

And the Star Trek style, something like that could be amazing, keep the hard work :)

I prefer Idea 2 switching between the zoom in / zoom out views at the same interval as the BOINC screensaver.
[/url]
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Hi Eric!

I like the zoom-in / zoom-out intervals idea presented in option #2.

A couple things to add:
I strongly support the addition of a graphical screen-saver;
the interval between view changes should be user configurable;
the interface should NOT be modeled after LCARS--LCARS was designed to look static & unexciting, and there are many Fictional User Interfaces available for use as inspiration;
the best-current galaxy model used in the zoom-out mode should be displayed in much the same statistical-color code fashion as the wedges;
the screen-saver should definitely show current, previous, and available work in near-real time;
and it might be nice to have an extreme-zoom-in mode as well, showing only the objects within ~500 ly of Terra.

That last is much less relevant to the project, I know. Sorry. But it seems likely that at least a few of the objects in the SDSS will fall into that range, and a good 3-D local map would be a very interesting recruiting piece.

Idea number 2 is the best in my opinion.

Hey Eric!

How's the screensaver work going? Any progress?

I'd give a lot more time to this project if it had a decent screen saver. Saw your notice a couple of months ago and am eagerly awaiting what you come up with.

Thanks for your work.

Hey,

I'm sorry to say that the screensaver work is stalled currently, but I can tell you why.

Lately, we've been putting a lot of time into getting some n-body simulation code running on BOINC. You'll hear about it when it's finished. This has proven non-trivial, since the code base we have to use (the NEMO Stellar Dynamics Toolbox) is very linux specific but needs to be ported to run on the many architectures that BOINC supports. Even if we were to only run it on linux, it's proving more and more complicated as we discover some interesting things, e.g. it compiles and runs things using system("make whatever whatever") during program execution. It's pretty hairy at some spots.

Travis, as you can tell, has been very busy for awhile, so when this came up (a week after the screensaver idea did), we decided I should take on this project since he's pretty busy balancing the world on his shoulders :)

We didn't mean to mislead anyone or create a little instant hype with this post a few months back, and if you feel that way we apologize. We've just reallocated resources given a change in goals and this n-body stuff has taken much longer than expected. The complexity of the code base is greater than average and thus greater than I expected.

I'm leaving when the summer starts for a software gig in Boston, but as I understand another student will be hired full time. I can't promise that he'll be working on the screensaver, but from my understanding once this n-body stuff is finished, the screensaver will once again be a top priority. I'm not in a position to guarantee that that's the next step in the course of the project, though.

I hope that clarifies things well for you - I appreciate your interest in the project, and we're doing our best with the man-hours we have.

-Eric

I like the idea of option #2, with some of the #3 elements if not too hard to add - hard to visualise what I'm contributing to. While I have MWay running on GPU, I still have CPU cycles that run it as well. Plus, if a screensaver came up that used Gflops of resources, that would kind of detract from doing the science piece.

OK thanks Eric....Looks like the screensaver project is dead in the water again.

This won't be the first time Milkyway has mentioned doing this and it doesn't happen. I realize you folks have bigger fish to fry but it always seems this gets put off. Then months later it's mentioned as being started again only to be put off again. That's the problem of not having enough people to manage the project properly. Most projects wouldn't be allowed to run with such a minimal staff in the business world but it seems all too common on BOINC. (Not your fault, though.)

But in the meantime I'll crunch some of the other projects that do reward their users with a nice looking screensaver that show the stats and entertains a bit. No boring blank desktops for me. Having one included gives all the people the option of choosing whether to run it or not. Not having it forces all running projects using BOINC screensavers to go blank during the time the non-screensaver WU is running. That's unfortunately a BOINC manager failure not yours. They should skip the non-screensaver projects from displaying instead of blanking the screen.

Thanks for the info though, rather than just leaving us hanging. It's appreciated. Communications is important with the users even if the news is bad news for some. It's good you're keeping us up to date and are honest about it instead of stringing us along.

In response to the "Don't screensavers slow down the processing?" type of questions earlier....

If crunching the most possible or racking up points the fastest is important to you in BOINC projects just don't use the windows screensaver or click the graphics button. It's that simple.

No processing time will be taken from the BOINC work if you don't run the screensaver or use your PC for anything other than BOINC. Screensavers don't use any crunching time if you don't run the screensaver.

The power crunchers who want everyone to run all their CPUs 100% of the time on BOINC and to continously upgrade to faster machines seem to forget that BOINC is not the main reason most people use their PC. Many of us aren't in for the points or the scores. It's just nice doing some science work while our PCs are otherwise IDLE. Most people run screensavers when their PC is idle whether thats a BOINC one or not. The power crunchers would have you believe you are doing some great injustice to the system by not dedicating your PC to BOINC. It's not the way most people use their PCs nor is it the main purpose of BOINC to run your PCs on it all the time. It's great that those persons contribute so much, but they often have no understanding of those of us who have other interests.

Also screensavers do immense good work at getting non BOINC people to sign up to a project and get more crunchers. Look at a blank screen. Would you ask what the person is running? Probably not. Look at an active screensaver with status remarks and people want to know what you are doing and how to also get started crunching too.

There is some slowdown in the work if you use the non-GPU versions of the apps with the screensaver turned on in Windows. That's any screensaver not just BOINc's. You'll see a big reduction in processing if you are using the GPU apps with the screensaver turned on. But the point is still the same. If you want the most processing, don't run a Windows screensaver or click on the graphics button in the BOINC manager. But if you aren't as concerned about whether you finish a project in 6 CPU hours or 8 CPU hours then you might want to use a screen saver to make your PC look nicer.

It's all personal choice when the project developers give you a screensaver option. Having that option does nothing to deter from the processing. If you don't want to use it just don't turn on the Windows Screensavers.

That was certainly true of the early SEI Classic WUs. Not using the screen saver, when crunching on CPUs increased the overall WU crunching speed by between 40% and 50%.
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Go away, I was asleep

Yes Classic SETI was a unique beast. It was almost entirely designed to use graphics and was the first of its kind that got me started with grid computing. I've come and gone to doing work on BOINC and in sone ways I miss the old classic SETI. But at least since they've gone to BOINC more options are now available and a wide variety of projects allows me to hop around to others when one goes off-line or isn't quite what I want.

The BOINC world has become a very unique (and sometimes frustrating) place.

I got onto the old seti almost the day it started. once it went to BIONC I stopped since I hated the way it looked, I missed the cool screen saver. I just restarted doing seti about a year ago. I hope they get something to look at on Milkyway asap.

I hope that also they can get some kind of cool images to use as the their BOINC icon rather than just the big boring 'B'. And some cool images to go by in the BOINC window like the Help Fund Childhood Cancer project does.

Why has this not been done a long time ago?
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32bit Windows XP Home
AMD Opteron 180
ASUS A8N-SLI Motherboard
Nvidia 450GTS GPU
4GB DDR Memory

Another vote for this one! Option #2
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32bit Windows XP Home
AMD Opteron 180
ASUS A8N-SLI Motherboard
Nvidia 450GTS GPU
4GB DDR Memory

Hi All,

You'll forgive my resurrecting this thread from the dust bin, but being a newcomer around these parts I have been taking some time to get familiar with things around here and seeing what folks have talking about.

From the looks of things the whole screensaver/visualization project appears to be on indefinite hold as of now. Hopefully the kind folks here at MWAH will reconsider this–resources allowing–as I'd like to put my vote towards having such such a nicety. Count me in with the camp of folks that like to get some visual feedback as to what the work is all about!

I'd like to touch on a few items being discussed here using DGG's earlier post as a sounding board...

In response to the "Don't screensavers slow down the processing?" type of questions earlier....

If crunching the most possible or racking up points the fastest is important to you in BOINC projects just don't use the windows screensaver or click the graphics button. It's that simple.

No processing time will be taken from the BOINC work if you don't run the screensaver or use your PC for anything other than BOINC. Screensavers don't use any crunching time if you don't run the screensaver.

The power crunchers who want everyone to run all their CPUs 100% of the time on BOINC and to continously upgrade to faster machines seem to forget that BOINC is not the main reason most people use their PC. Many of us aren't in for the points or the scores. It's just nice doing some science work while our PCs are otherwise IDLE. Most people run screensavers when their PC is idle whether thats a BOINC one or not. The power crunchers would have you believe you are doing some great injustice to the system by not dedicating your PC to BOINC. It's not the way most people use their PCs nor is it the main purpose of BOINC to run your PCs on it all the time. It's great that those persons contribute so much, but they often have no understanding of those of us who have other interests.

Also screensavers do immense good work at getting non BOINC people to sign up to a project and get more crunchers. Look at a blank screen. Would you ask what the person is running? Probably not. Look at an active screensaver with status remarks and people want to know what you are doing and how to also get started crunching too.

There is some slowdown in the work if you use the non-GPU versions of the apps with the screensaver turned on in Windows. That's any screensaver not just BOINc's. You'll see a big reduction in processing if you are using the GPU apps with the screensaver turned on. But the point is still the same. If you want the most processing, don't run a Windows screensaver or click on the graphics button in the BOINC manager. But if you aren't as concerned about whether you finish a project in 6 CPU hours or 8 CPU hours then you might want to use a screen saver to make your PC look nicer.

It's all personal choice when the project developers give you a screensaver option. Having that option does nothing to deter from the processing. If you don't want to use it just don't turn on the Windows Screensavers.

You'll forgive my resurrecting this thread from the dust bin, but being a newcomer around these parts I have been taking some time to get familiar with things around here and seeing what folks have talking about.

From the looks of things the whole screensaver/visualization project appears to be on indefinite hold as of now. Hopefully the kind folks here at MWAH will reconsider this–resources allowing–as I'd like to put my vote towards having such such a nicety. Count me in with the camp of folks that like to get some visual feedback as to what the work is all about!

I prefer Idea 1 oder 2, or a posibility to chose between them.
So, two years left now, please create a visualizer....it would be great! :)
So i would leave my graphic cards run on milky way even more! ;-)

greetings from Germany

Th' BOINC screensaver dae it pure dead brilliant. Closes anyway by switchting tae th' black screen after ah braw few minutes. Sounds very good with all th' graphic disco lookalike lights, but feel it is important tae use th' machines power for process data, rather than looking good.
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Alba Gu Brath! Alba Nuah Gu Brath!

I agree with most here: hybrid of Idea 1 and Idea 2. I'd like to see real-time information regarding what data my infrastructure is crunching, and real-time progress, along with correlations between that and how it is assisting MilkyWay@Home... while it might be taxing on some GPUs, I do think some kind of rudimentary simulation running (that is rudimentary) would suffice just to show the basics. I'd like to see this, and look forward to it. Just make sure it runs on both Windows and Linux/*nix.
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Silicon Wolves Computing Society LLC
214 Central Ave Unit 218
Dunkirk, New York 14048
e: admin@siliconwolves.net
p: +1(714)681-2501

2, please

Are there any graphics that are currently usable at this time? or is this something being worked on? Sorry if I'm asking a redundant question. I've been crunching for a couple of years here but never really have visited because there's nothing to look at to interest me and which can tell me how much we've done already, etc., like Seti@home has. I've been with them for years and love the graphics and screensaver. Just wanted to throw my two cents in and support the idea! Thanks!

Hallo !

Are there any graphics that are currently usable at this time? or is this something being worked on?

Aside from consuming resources that could otherwise be used for science, there is the distinct possibility that any graphic display could be pretty lines on a screen and have nothing to do with the actual work being done.

Hallo!

....consuming resources that could otherwise be used for science