Goat 1000

Older news…
2006 30/09/2006 - Version 3.1.2 of JPEG Saver supports adding borders to the list of items to be displayed. Older versions supported displaying a border too, but you could only configure it by editing the jpegsaver.cfg file. The new border item is more flexible, since you can add as many as you like and change some aspects of where the border is placed. This version also adds the option of formatting Exif date fields using the same placeholders as the clock item - see the documentation PDF for more details. 11/09/2006 ~ 12 hours later... - Looks like I got the download link for version 3.1.1 wrong. It should be working now. 11/09/2006 - Version 3.1.1 of JPEG Saver contains a bugfix for Exif data being kept between images. It also changes the delay input to display the time in hours, minutes and seconds, and lets you input the time in h:m:s format. 20/07/2006 - JPEG Saver 3.1 is available from the downloads page. This version adds support for JPEG comments and Exif data fields in the Image Info item, auto-rotation of digital camera images that have the Exif Orientation field set (check your camera manual), and better compatibility with multi-monitor systems (everything should render on the primary screen now - unless you disable DirectX in jpegsaver.cfg, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader). There are also a couple of minor code improvements in places, which might speed some things up a bit. 20/05/2006 - JPEG Saver 3.0 released! I've finally got around to cleaning it up and releasing it. The ugly GUI I promised back in January is in there, but a bit less ugly than I was thinking about back then. That's part of the reason it has taken me so long to finish it. As usual, you can get it from the downloads page. For anyone who thinks version 3.0 is too bloated, I plan to add the relevant bugfixes from 3.x into the 2.x branch. There are a few fixes to the BMP loading code that should be appearing soon in version 2.1.3. 10/01/2006 - CRCDropper 3.0.1 fixes some bugs that made version 3 give incorrect results under various circumstances. I can't have done much testing when I released that. Back in the screensaver department, JPEG Saver version 3 is getting closer, but I've got to add some changes to the dialog. I hate doing GUI stuff. With a bit of luck I might get a preview version up on the site by the end of the month. With a really ugly GUI. 2005 30/06/2005 - Version 2.1.2 of JPEG Saver fixes a bug that prevented the images being displayed - all you would see would be the "Finding images..." text bouncing around the screen. Oops. I've also fixed a bug in the installer, where configuring JPEG Saver could make it sluggish or even crash. In other news, you can now double-click on an entry in the folders tab to enable/disable it, and adding folders to the list should be much more responsive. 22/06/2005 - The new timer in JPEG Saver 2.1 seems to be a bit buggy - version 2.1.1 reverts to using the Windows timer. If the blocky-fading transitions are crashing or the delay between images is totally wrong, this version is for you. 18/06/2005 - JPEG Saver 2.1 is here, and it contains a whole load of changes. The only really visible change is a new background mode, "Pile," which leaves the previous image on the screen and displays the new image over the top of it. The other changes are a couple of bugfixes, a HUGE rewrite to the code that decides where everything goes and how big it should be, and a new timer that should be a bit more responsive than the old one. These latter changes are required for what I am going to be working on next: more and better text options, an optional clock that will update between images, and being able to control all these things from the dialog. 20/05/2005 - I'm finally releasing the "small utility" I mentioned below. It's called Shuffler and it will save and restore window positions and sizes. There are plenty of other utilities around that do a similar job, but after trying a few and not liking any of them I decided I should write my own. You can get it from the downloads page. Then when you don't like it, you can write your own too. This release is also the first since I upgraded my compiler from Visual C++ 6 to Visual C++.NET 2003, so I'm not expecting Shuffler to work on Windows 95. Is anyone still using Windows 95? If you are, WHY? 02/05/2005 - JPEG Saver 2.0.4 - considering it's been three months since the last version, it doesn't seem like a lot has changed. I've changed the way transitions work, added a few new transitions, fixed a few bugs and added some support for systems with multiple monitors. Hopefully I'll find some time to start work on the bigger changes soon. 23/03/2005 - I'm releasing CRCDropper3 - I wouldn't call it completely finished, but it works OK and does more than CRCDropper and CRCDropper2 (multiple files, MD5, MD4, MD2, SHA1 support, command line options). I had planned to do more to it, but I've been working on JPEG Saver and another small utility that will be appearing here when I get around to documenting it. 24/01/2005 - JPEG Saver 2.0.3 released... There's another background type, "Image Copy", a few new transitions based on fading stuff, and another option in the Background tab for blending background images with the first background colour. Also, the fading transitions should now work on 24-bit DirectX screens - but I haven't got a 24-bit screen to test with. 2004 25/10/2004 - Version 2.0.2 of JPEG Saver fixes a couple of bugs and there's a new background type, "Noise." The only other interesting change is that I've used NSIS to create an installer and uninstaller for it. Unless someone can provide me with a good reason to do otherwise, I will be releasing future versions like this instead of as zip files. The next version of JPEG Saver is likely to take me a while, as it involves some big (internal) changes and I would like to get started on a new version of CRCDropper first. Having said that, if you spot any bugs in 2.0.2, please let me know and I will do my best to fix them. 28/08/2004 - Version 2.0.1 of JPEG Saver is a bugfix release - JPEG Saver was totally failing to find any files on Windows 98 (and presumably on Windows 95 and ME.) I've also taken the opportunity to update the version of libpng to 1.2.6. 10/08/2004 - JPEG Saver version 2.0 is complete. At first glance it doesn't look much different to version 1.9, but here's a list of the most obvious changes: DirectX gamma correction options - I finally took this off the to-do list. Then I got rid of the to-do list, since it no longer resembles what I have planned. DirectX display mode option - so the screen saver can run in a lower or higher resolution than the desktop. Desktop background mode option - takes a snapshot of the screen when the screensaver starts, and uses it as a background image. JPEG 2000 image support - this uses the JasPer library to load .jp2 and .jpc JPEG 2000 images. Aspect ratio option - for changing the shape of images to match your display mode (see the Readme file, this option is not on the dialog yet). 01/06/2004 - There are loads of internal changes in JPEG Saver version 1.9, some weird bugs are fixed, and there are a few new options to play with: Caching of the image list - this should improve startup times since otherwise a lot of effort goes into searching through the list of folders to find the supported image types. "Remember last image" option - this stores the last image that is shown when JPEG Saver exits, so the next time it starts up it will continue with the same sequence. (Though this doesn't have much use for random or shuffled modes.) Two new image change modes: "Sequential/Shuffled" and "Random/Shuffled". 04/03/2004 - Version 1.8.3 of JPEG Saver is here... This one fixes bugs with Shuffled mode and the background image "Browse..." button. The text display options have been overhauled so you can display them all at once, change their positions, change the border around the text, and blend the text into the background/image. And now you can add your own logo image to the screen - see the `logo*` options in the Readme file for details.

Older news…

2006

30/09/2006 - Version 3.1.2 of JPEG Saver supports adding borders to the list of items to be displayed. Older versions supported displaying a border too, but you could only configure it by editing the jpegsaver.cfg file. The new border item is more flexible, since you can add as many as you like and change some aspects of where the border is placed.

This version also adds the option of formatting Exif date fields using the same placeholders as the clock item - see the documentation PDF for more details.

11/09/2006 ~ 12 hours later... - Looks like I got the download link for version 3.1.1 wrong. It should be working now.

11/09/2006 - Version 3.1.1 of JPEG Saver contains a bugfix for Exif data being kept between images. It also changes the delay input to display the time in hours, minutes and seconds, and lets you input the time in h:m:s format.

20/07/2006 - JPEG Saver 3.1 is available from the downloads page. This version adds support for JPEG comments and Exif data fields in the Image Info item, auto-rotation of digital camera images that have the Exif Orientation field set (check your camera manual), and better compatibility with multi-monitor systems (everything should render on the primary screen now - unless you disable DirectX in jpegsaver.cfg, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader). There are also a couple of minor code improvements in places, which might speed some things up a bit.

20/05/2006 - JPEG Saver 3.0 released! I've finally got around to cleaning it up and releasing it. The ugly GUI I promised back in January is in there, but a bit less ugly than I was thinking about back then. That's part of the reason it has taken me so long to finish it. As usual, you can get it from the downloads page.

For anyone who thinks version 3.0 is too bloated, I plan to add the relevant bugfixes from 3.x into the 2.x branch. There are a few fixes to the BMP loading code that should be appearing soon in version 2.1.3.

10/01/2006 - CRCDropper 3.0.1 fixes some bugs that made version 3 give incorrect results under various circumstances. I can't have done much testing when I released that.

Back in the screensaver department, JPEG Saver version 3 is getting closer, but I've got to add some changes to the dialog. I hate doing GUI stuff. With a bit of luck I might get a preview version up on the site by the end of the month. With a really ugly GUI.

2005

30/06/2005 - Version 2.1.2 of JPEG Saver fixes a bug that prevented the images being displayed - all you would see would be the "Finding images..." text bouncing around the screen. Oops. I've also fixed a bug in the installer, where configuring JPEG Saver could make it sluggish or even crash.

In other news, you can now double-click on an entry in the folders tab to enable/disable it, and adding folders to the list should be much more responsive.

22/06/2005 - The new timer in JPEG Saver 2.1 seems to be a bit buggy - version 2.1.1 reverts to using the Windows timer. If the blocky-fading transitions are crashing or the delay between images is totally wrong, this version is for you.

18/06/2005 - JPEG Saver 2.1 is here, and it contains a whole load of changes. The only really visible change is a new background mode, "Pile," which leaves the previous image on the screen and displays the new image over the top of it. The other changes are a couple of bugfixes, a HUGE rewrite to the code that decides where everything goes and how big it should be, and a new timer that should be a bit more responsive than the old one.

These latter changes are required for what I am going to be working on next: more and better text options, an optional clock that will update between images, and being able to control all these things from the dialog.

20/05/2005 - I'm finally releasing the "small utility" I mentioned below. It's called Shuffler and it will save and restore window positions and sizes. There are plenty of other utilities around that do a similar job, but after trying a few and not liking any of them I decided I should write my own. You can get it from the downloads page. Then when you don't like it, you can write your own too.

This release is also the first since I upgraded my compiler from Visual C++ 6 to Visual C++.NET 2003, so I'm not expecting Shuffler to work on Windows 95. Is anyone still using Windows 95? If you are, WHY?

02/05/2005 - JPEG Saver 2.0.4 - considering it's been three months since the last version, it doesn't seem like a lot has changed. I've changed the way transitions work, added a few new transitions, fixed a few bugs and added some support for systems with multiple monitors. Hopefully I'll find some time to start work on the bigger changes soon.

23/03/2005 - I'm releasing CRCDropper3 - I wouldn't call it completely finished, but it works OK and does more than CRCDropper and CRCDropper2 (multiple files, MD5, MD4, MD2, SHA1 support, command line options). I had planned to do more to it, but I've been working on JPEG Saver and another small utility that will be appearing here when I get around to documenting it.

24/01/2005 - JPEG Saver 2.0.3 released... There's another background type, "Image Copy", a few new transitions based on fading stuff, and another option in the Background tab for blending background images with the first background colour. Also, the fading transitions should now work on 24-bit DirectX screens - but I haven't got a 24-bit screen to test with.

2004

25/10/2004 - Version 2.0.2 of JPEG Saver fixes a couple of bugs and there's a new background type, "Noise." The only other interesting change is that I've used NSIS to create an installer and uninstaller for it. Unless someone can provide me with a good reason to do otherwise, I will be releasing future versions like this instead of as zip files.
The next version of JPEG Saver is likely to take me a while, as it involves some big (internal) changes and I would like to get started on a new version of CRCDropper first. Having said that, if you spot any bugs in 2.0.2, please let me know and I will do my best to fix them.

28/08/2004 - Version 2.0.1 of JPEG Saver is a bugfix release - JPEG Saver was totally failing to find any files on Windows 98 (and presumably on Windows 95 and ME.) I've also taken the opportunity to update the version of libpng to 1.2.6.

10/08/2004 - JPEG Saver version 2.0 is complete. At first glance it doesn't look much different to version 1.9, but here's a list of the most obvious changes:

DirectX gamma correction options - I finally took this off the to-do list. Then I got rid of the to-do list, since it no longer resembles what I have planned.
DirectX display mode option - so the screen saver can run in a lower or higher resolution than the desktop.
Desktop background mode option - takes a snapshot of the screen when the screensaver starts, and uses it as a background image.
JPEG 2000 image support - this uses the JasPer library to load .jp2 and .jpc JPEG 2000 images.
Aspect ratio option - for changing the shape of images to match your display mode (see the Readme file, this option is not on the dialog yet).

01/06/2004 - There are loads of internal changes in JPEG Saver version 1.9, some weird bugs are fixed, and there are a few new options to play with:

Caching of the image list - this should improve startup times since otherwise a lot of effort goes into searching through the list of folders to find the supported image types.
"Remember last image" option - this stores the last image that is shown when JPEG Saver exits, so the next time it starts up it will continue with the same sequence. (Though this doesn't have much use for random or shuffled modes.)
Two new image change modes: "Sequential/Shuffled" and "Random/Shuffled".

04/03/2004 - Version 1.8.3 of JPEG Saver is here... This one fixes bugs with Shuffled mode and the background image "Browse..." button.
The text display options have been overhauled so you can display them all at once, change their positions, change the border around the text, and blend the text into the background/image.
And now you can add your own logo image to the screen - see the logo* options in the Readme file for details.

History

2006

2005

2004