very good graphics. thanks GOTD AND ASTRO. very good work, but a littel bit solw.

Worth noting, if your PC is set up with multiple user accounts, you will need to log into each one and run setup.exe. Not the installer, you need only run that once. But setup.exe must be run before the offer expires, under each account.

Otherwise, the Screen Saver will only be registered to one user on your system, and others will only have a demo.

#53, Brett VanBenschoten, I never know what to make of posts like yours. Either your post is entirely fabricated, or you've never used a computer before. If you properly activate and install Easter 3D, there are no pop-up ad windows in your browser. If you don't like it, you just uninstall it and the screensaver manager (Windows Add/Remove Programs--that's what it's there for). If you screwed up your computer with some other software, that's your problem, not Astro Gemini's. A screensaver is just a screensaver. A screensaver manager is just a screensaver manager. It's absolutely impossible for them to destroy your Windows installation. That's analogous to saying "I put on some new shoes today, and it totally trashed Windows. Half my files are gone, and I had to reinstall Windows. I'll never buy this brand of shoes ever again." And since you said that you used some other software (Cleanse) which may have trashed your computer, you should have checked for a recent System Restore Point before reinstalling Windows (and you should set a manual System Restore Point before installing software).

Didn't like the pop-up ad window in my browser so I uninstalled it using Cleanse. Damn thing took half my Windows files with it, lost my windows explorer, couldn't access anything and had to reinstall Windows XP.

Amazingly BAD program. I will stay away from GAOTD, let alone this provider, after this fiasco.

I have downloaded and tried several utilities here, and I continue to use two of them on a regular basis. Thank you, GOTD! Personally, I would never pay a dime, let alone $20, for any screensaver. There are too many good images around that one can lawfully use as a screensaver for free (I am NOT including unlicensed, copyrighted images). It is my assumption that GOTD offers a screensaver only when they have no real program to offer. To me, GOTD's screensaver offers have ZERO value, and I would never take the time to download and activate one. This is only my opinion, and I see that some others here disagree.

I have read commentaries on this site and I want to make a few remarks. Firstly we live in a Gigabit Ethernet world today, therefore complaining about a few megabytes for a file is nonsense; if you have a slow provider that's your problem. On the other hand I agree that it's frustrating when you find out that your computing machine (pc, mac, whatever) is becoming a dinosaur. Again it's not the manufacturer of the software guilty for the situation. He make products for today's computers. That's it! When you see things like 3D, HD and so on, your computer should be able to handle them or you should check the hardware store, if you really want them. And I'm not rich and I don't have a state of the art computer, just a 1.5 GHz, 1 GB RAM and 128 MB Radeon 9200 machine running Windows XP. A lot of software are not handled and I know that perhaps a little optimization would be better, but again, a programmer may analyze what are the winnings and loosings when implementing a technology and decide what's best for his project.

OK, back to today's giveaway... The screensaver is nice with a beautiful graphics. It runs almost smooth on my computer 10-13 frames. Thats quite a performance on a 5 year computer, when there are plenty of screensavers that simply refuses to work. But I would suggest to all the screensavers makers to somehow implement a detail level setting like in games. The screensaver obtained the same fps with all the setting on (Enable Music, Enable SFX, Fur Rendering, Shadow Rendering, Bloom) as with them off. This means that the level of detail was not affected by these settings at all, therefore even older computers than mine will be unable to run it.
The user is king. Most software makers forget this. I want to choose what is installed on my machine, otherwise it is grayware. Therefore, I subscribe to the idea of making it possible to choose or not to install the screensaver manager.
Happy Easter everyone and thank you Astro Gemini and Giveaway of the Day!

To bad the scrensaver is very demanding in computer or graphic card power.

I only have a Athlon XP 1800+ with a Geforce FX 5600XT (256 MB ram), and with a setting of 1024*768 16 bits color will I only get 6 FPS regardless of what other settings is.

On the previous screensaver that was given away, (Planet Earth 3D Screensaver) can I max out everything and use 1600*1200 32bits color and get about 30 FPS, so it must be that THIS screensaver is very demanding.

#32 If you go back to the root site, http://giveawayoftheday.com and scrolldown, beneath the screensaver is the game, the blog at the top right of this page explains that they arenot separating the 2 and the game will be on the normal site below the weekends' giveaways.

Today's game can be found here - http://giveawayoftheday.com/bookstories

Never seen as much negative comments as now :)
Pretty good screensaver, much better then other products from the same developer.
Won't install it because of using 3Planesofts 'Western Railway'. Bought it, so I would like to enjoy it.
For them who are in doubt about download it (or not): give it a try. Perhaps it'll make you happy :)

LOL "Easter 3D Screensaver" would have been a clue for those who don't want another screen saver to close the browser tab and move on. :)

First of all, I did download it and view it, even considering all the thumbs down! I thought it was lovely! The music is very pretty and the colors are geat. I enjoy listening to the birds and watching the butterflys. I found it quite enjoyable. And...it worked fine on my computer!

I found some software which was able to transcode my 1920x1440 screen captures from this to target file sizes (necessary for my photo host). If you haven't tried this screensaver yet, some of the images include samples of the quotes, facts, and news. I also included excerpts from my firewall and web logs, so you can see where the data is coming from and that the web activity of the Astro Gemini Screensaver Manager 2.0 and Easter 3D is harmless.
http://forum.bladedthoth.com/viewtopic.php?p=286#286

I waited all week for a game, and it turned out to be a screen saver. :-(
Screen savers were never posted on the Game Of The Day website. ? ? ?

1. for those fan boys and girls of Vista
You might disagree but the rest of the world knows that Vista is crap. Want proof that it is crap, then you only have to look at the problems that come with the recently released service pack for it.

2. for those people that have no common sense but are so full of themselves because they happen to have a fairly brand new machine with a very recent video card : just wait half a year and you'll notice that your top of the line machine won't be good enough for the newest games.
FYI, a screensaver that needs a heavy duty video card to work properly while at the same time only shows graphics that could have be done, and done better, on a 15 year old homecomputer, signifies that it is written by someone without a gift for programming or any proper schooling

3. a screensaver that you can use for a period of what... a couple of days a year to celebrate some old fertility feast (after all, bunnies and eggs have absolutely nothing to do with the J.C. fairy tale) does that truly seem like something to download a 25MB badly programmed piece of junk for ?

4. installing a screensaver manager without asking, as per usual

5. anyone who thinks like Hadeda that one doesn't have a right to voice critic about the screensaver offered: grow up! The last time I checked I didn't see mentioned anywhere that only sycophants were allowed to give comments.

I DL'd it and it ran crappy.It was annoying more than anything.And I love cute fuzzy bunnies :)I un installed it about a min after I tweaked it to its top performance.Which wasnt high.Thumbs down.And just because something is free doesnt mean we cant complain.It just means we didnt pay for it.

thank you for this screensaver . even if its good for once a year its free so don't complain

So much negativity for something you paid nothing for: for the record, my kids (4 and 2) love this, made their day; thanks GOTD!

(Installed flawlessly in Windows XP Pro, fwiw; have numerous other screensavers, many from GOTD, no problems)

I am a first-time downloader. So far, I love this screensaver.
Love the colors and the graphics. Music is pleasant.

Very "spring-y."

Thanks GAOTD!

Quote # 22

Yes, I know… “Don’t look a gift-horse in the mouth.” Meaning, it’s free; don’t complain.

Having said that, here is my comment. The graphics were great, even outstanding. I couldn’t really enjoy them though because of the ‘nag’ screen that popped up in front of the display. I’ll probably delete the screensaver for that reason.

I understand you want to sell the product. Put your sales pitch at the end, or limit the time it displays, so your potential customers are not turned off by the “in your face” approach. Sorry, thumbs down on this one. Quoted text from # 22

Good example of what I see all to often on this site and then they bash GAOTD. If all yous would only just read the blanking screen you will always, always, find the read me file in every single download from any and all of the free give aways offered on this site. Instead of being all click happy, just read the little read me text that takes all of what ? 2 to maybe 5 seconds to read ?
If no one follows the simple directions, YES!!!! your going to see a nag screen and a 30 day free trial.
Try going back and read or re read the, read me text before bashing the give away of the day team or the software maker/s.

Happy passover everyone.

Easter 3D screensaver is unreal. Where is Jesus rising?
That is the real meaning of Easter. "He is Risen"

If you have been hanging around the GAOTD site for any length of time, you should be aware of the fact that the Saturday and Sunday giveaways are often screen-savers or games.
Get used to it.
I don't download them, but others do. Similarly, some people don't use the DVD/video programs that are offered. I really enjoy and appreciate the variety of softwares offered here although I likely only try stuff out for a week or two. If I find that I don't use the software regularly, I uninstall it. My computer, my choice.
Do the same with your computer. GAOTD can't decide whether you want to use this screensaver, only you can.

Thank you very much GAOTD. I always enjoy your screensavers.

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(") Happy Easter!

the highly anticipated weekend is finally here, I get to check out my new game for the weekend and it's a screen saver?
not complaining to all of those who like to complain back to complainers... just an observation. My screen saver is slide shows of pictures I have taken, so I really don't ever use SS anymore. But for those of you who do, enjoy.

well i did not download this for the main fact it was a screen saver and i like the current one i use..... however i installed it on my little sisters PC, and will be installing it on my little cusins PC tonight, and i must say my sister really like it, so even thought i didnt get it my self i must say thankyou :)

What a gorgeous screensaver. Though the Easter theme depicted is more like a fantasy cartoon; it's nevertheless a nice heart warming screensaver to add to the kids computers. The added bonus of a re-vamped screensaver manager now means you can switch off any screensavers that you deem not appropriate for the season; which is something you can't do with the windows screensaver manager. (There are freeware alternatives, but so far I've found the Astro manager has been the easiest to use) What I like about Astro Gemini's manager is the ability to rotate all the screensavers you have selected and the ability to control how many times each screensaver is shown before you rotate to the next screensaver. The only down side is the usual advertising, but a click of a button soon gets rid of that. It's a pity you can't save the manager so that it always opens on the screensaver manager as opposed to the advertising. :(

I personally have quite a large collection of screensavers, not, just ones given away here, but freeware ones (most of which come nowhere near the quality of the screensavers we've been given via the giveaway project - if you search for free screensavrs make sure you check each file you download for viruses as many of the freeware sites that offer free screensavers come with a nasty surprise)as well as some purchased such as G-Force a brilliant program that can also be used for your media players visualizations.

G-Force

http://www.soundspectrum.com/g-force/screenshots.html

I've also purchased several fish screensavers the most noteworthy being the Aquazone screensavers that allow you a 360 degree view of the oceans of the world as well as places such as an Amazonian river environment.

Aquazone:

http://my.smithmicro.com/win/aquazone/openwater/index.html


Images:

http://search.msn.co.uk/images/results.aspx?q=aquazone+fish&go=Search+Images&form=QB

Wow, nice graphics. It looks like a cartoon almost. It runs smooth for me on Vista, however i am running a top shelf system. Thank you, GOTD.

Hello All,

A good holiday to those who celebrate it as I do. This is a very nice screensaver for those who use screensavers and my visiting grandkids loved it. Thank you for this one to both Astro Gemini and GOTD!

I would like it more if the links to Astro Gemini were optional but I have found out in the past that you can uninstall the Astro Gemini add-on's without harming the screensavers at all.

Take Care and Be Well,
Michael

This is a wonderful screen saver. True only once a year, but how often do you use the same screen saver:). So glad it worked on my computer, some of the screen savers call for shadow rendering, I think it was.
Thank you again for all your giveaways great to try and then buy.
Mstormy

#5.. EXACTLY!!

@#14
I can give this one a thumbs down, because it is also possible to make such a screensaver WORK with my system. For the fact that one NEEDS expensive video cards... thumbs down.

I play lots of games, and have directx9 and such... all works. so, therefore I think this screensaver sucks, even if I could do with a better video card.

Expanding a little on above comment:

A product doesn't have inherent value just because it's free. It's value is in the usefulness. It isn't useful to have a sales pitch on the screen blocking what was offered as free. That's just offensive abuse of my time.

If I like your screen savers, and want to spend money on more of your products, I don't need your reminders to do so. I would do it without the nag-screen.

Until the sales pitch was displayed, I did think your product was one of the finest I've seen. Too bad you blew me away on the marketing approach.

This is a spectacularly gorgeous Screensaver that everyone, ESPECIALLY those who hate screensavers, should download. Why? Because astonishingly, somehow the developers have encaptured the enchanting atmoshphere of childhood excitement and awe at the world and watching it genuinely takes you back to the magic of those days. This may sound extreme but it is so well done with the realisticness of even smaller things like the new Spring day's light that would cast excitement into the hearts of all those hoping the Easter Bunny had arrived - to get such an atmosphere of morning light and its colour of sky into a screensaver is quite sensational.

Yes, this screensaver is only for once a year but so what? The most magical things are not things that happen everyday anyway and if we all dismissed things that are only once a year then there would be no Easter as we know it at all - why buy Easter Eggs as it is only for one day? Why buy Christmas Crackers as it is only for one day? Do you stop people from sending you Birthday Cards/ Gifts as it is only for one day? Exactly - this logic is irrational.

The music and sound effects are lovely and it is more than a Screensaver as it can be left on as a backdrop to Easter Day proceedings. As ever, the addition of the clock is a practical touch that also serves a special use this time in telling you at what rate you are consuming chocolate...!!

Gorgeous for children but also, I feel, necessary for us all as adults to watch. It is so easy to get caught up in the stress of events that were once enchanting and are now nothing more than fighting through hoards of people trying to get to the Easter Egg shelf that only has a Spider-Man egg left on it. A smashed one at that. Put this on and reminisce over the magic of Easter and the enchantment of all the newness that Spring creates. It truly is almost hypnotic.

Yes, I know... "Don't look a gift-horse in the mouth." Meaning, it's free; don't complain.

Having said that, here is my comment. The graphics were great, even outstanding. I couldn't really enjoy them though because of the 'nag' screen that popped up in front of the display. I'll probably delete the screensaver for that reason.

I understand you want to sell the product. Put your sales pitch at the end, or limit the time it displays, so your potential customers are not turned off by the "in your face" approach. Sorry, thumbs down on this one.

deleted

I forgot to say Happy Easter to those who celebrate it :)

Yay a screensaver :)

I got it working perfectly on my Vista, I'm using Vista Home Premium

I agree with #10 they should give you a option to not to install the screen saver manager

P.s. This is directed at the complainers - If you complain then I suggest try and make a screensaver like this yourself. As I'm a programmer I know all the hard work(or I think I do) that goes on in the background

To 9 Fabian

I am sure that developer like feedback on their product.
But in order to call it feedback, you must tell about the product. What is missing, What happen when you installed, did it cause any error and so on.
A statement like this is just junk:
This sort of screensaver is good only once a year

thanks but no thanks GAOTD.

Fabian23
Because it gives the developer nothing and GAOTD are much much more then you.....but you are not alone about such statement....one should believe all you who complains this way have spent a lot of money....from my point of view..everything here is voluntary and if you hit programs you like 5% of the time....well then you are doing a gooooood Deal!

A developer have no use about : I don't like screensavers, other screensavers are much better, if you not at the same time gives out a reason.
Someone like the daughter, other like the mother....none of them need to be bad...it is just that we have different opinions, as with everything else here in life.

Tried once again to run an Astro Gemini screen saver and as always I get a jerky movement no matter what I do to correct it. I tried their settings, lowering screen resolution (Which helps), and changed my Nvidia video card settings. I'm running a 3GHz processor with a 256MB video card and 1 and a half GB's of ram and it's still jerky. I don't have this problem with more demanding savers that I use at times, or with games. It seems to me the problen lies with Astro Gemini and not my system because it's only their savers that behave this way. Un-installed the whole frickin mess. Thanks anyway GAOTD

more of what people don't want and always vote down every week.

the reason it does not work properly in Vista is that Vista ITSELF does not work properly, trash that piece of crap...

To # 6


How can you give this a thumbs down when you know for sure that your computer sucks? It's your fault, it's not the scrensaver.

#11, Danish, as #1 noted, it works fine in Vista (I'm also running this on Vista). The problem is probably with your video drivers.

#10, Lori, it sounds like you have a Windows security permissions issue, perhaps because of the level of your user account. Using the standard Windows screensaver manager is fine, you still have access to all the settings. You can update your shortcuts to point directly to the screensaver (for most people, C:\Windows\System 32\Easter 3D Screensaver.scr).

One thing I don't like is that this won't let me use another screen-capture utility. The included capture is very unreliable, extremely slow, and has no settings. I should also note that what some people said about Image Compressor 2008 Pro is true--apparently, it's using a non-deterministic algorithm (there must be some randomness, unless it's a problem with an uninitialized variable), and it's not using the filesize limit; I may uninstall Image Compressor 2008 Pro.

I just love screensavers!!! Thanks for this one!

Not working properly in Windows Vista.

Love it...as usual! The only problem I have with the Astro Gemini savers is that when I try to run the savers through their screen saver manager, I get an error as soon as it starts to load that says "cannot create process". I didn't find anything about it in the forum or by googling, so I guess maybe it is something just on my computer causing the conflict? Anyhow, if I just go into the windows desktop settings & select the specific screen saver, then all of them run without issues.

So the only suggestion I have - would be nice to have the option not to reinstall the screen saver manager with each saver downloaded. (Unless of course someone can direct me to a fix for this problem?)

to #5, Gem

because the developers must know what we think of the product. we must review it or use it as though we have bought it ourselves. atleast thats what i think.

Fabian23

"Don't complain when it is free" is probably what I see the most on the comments whenver it is a screensaver.

Activation & Installation: Like the game, this comes with an extra Activate file. You must activate it before you install it.

Graphics: This screensaver has very nice 3D graphics. This seems very life-like with the rabbits. They don't just sit there; they actually hop around.

Options: The options are basically the same as the rest of the Astro Gemini Screensavers. This one also has three extra options. These options are whether or not to show you Easter fun facts, quotes, and BBC breaking news. You can push the "F" key to bring up/cycle through the facts.

Conclusion: It is a very nice screensaver that fits the upcoming holiday Easter. Thanks for the nice screensaver Astro Gemini & GOTD.

The Verdict: Two Thumbs Up, 4/5, 8/10.

Today, there will be all the usual idiotic comments from the screensaver-haters who post their bile without trying the screensaver or reading any of the comments.

"What good are screensavers? They're useless and destroy the environment." Screensavers are fully compatible with Windows power management. A lot of people like them. Some LCD's are far more prone to image retention than CRT's ever were, but the effect isn't permanent on LCD's.

"What good is this? No one will ever see it because they'll be away from their computer." Screensavers can be run standalone (that's the only way I use them, other than the Blank screensaver). This screensaver has interactive features, and options to display interesting and up-to-date information of various types.

"Bah, this screensaver is only good for one day out of the year." Actually, this is a pleasant and optionally informative screensaver. Yes, it has Easter baskets, but no religious symbols, and can be used any time of year.

"This has that horrible spyware Astro Gemini Screensaver Manager." If it concerns you, uninstall it, and update the shortcuts to point directly to the screensaver instead of launching via the screensaver manager.

"This looks terrible, slow, jerky, etc." This is realtime 3D software, if you have an ancient computer with a crappy video card and out-of-date drivers, or run at a very low display resolution, then you probably won't like this. With a low-midrange video card, by today's standards, this runs smoothly with a high framerate at 1920x1440 on my PC.

This is a pleasant DirectX 8 screensaver with a number of interesting options. It has the usual options for resolution, music, sound effects, gamma, FPS, time, and exit on mouse move. The additional video effects are fur rendering (on the rabbits), shadow rendering, bloom, and widescreen. The information options are Easter facts, famous quotes, and BBC world news (Internet connection required).

This screensaver has a pleasant although rather limited environment with a nice tree, lots of grass, some flowers, butterflies, rabbits, and Easter baskets. The graphics are decent for DX8, the music is pleasant. If you opt to have information displayed, it will show up occasionally as an overlay (the information changes). You can also interact with it, controlling what is displayed, and manually cycling the information. A print option is available (I didn't test that).

One thing that doesn't seem very useful is that this generates a large log of the graphics operations (some games also do this). It may take advantage of the arithmetic capabilities of better CPU's, and the graphics capabilities of better video cards. The reason I find such logs questionable is that they are of no value to the average user, and no one knows about them to send them to the product support staff if it doesn't function properly on their computers (which is probably due to an inadequate video card or drivers, anyway, which isn't something support can fix).

I'll post some high-resolution screenshots later (oh, well, another night without sleep).

I have downloaded and installed this easter screen saver.

I am not happy with it.
First of all, after installing and choosing to make a desktop shortcut, I found it had given me two more shortcuts. Screensaver manager and their website for more screensavers.

But, okay, I decided to test it.
I have windows xp, with 1gb ram, nothing else running and a horrible video card. I only have onboard stuff. so, naturally, this screensaver gave me hell.

In the settings menu, one can set lots of things. One of which is the resolution. I tried them all. I had several funny effects, like finally getting some color, but then the entire screensaver had turned 90 degrees to the left... making me crick my neck to see it. ( it was the only one that had color! )

Every other setting I tried, gave me dark green background and bright yellow clock. I vaguely can see the bunnies hopping and the image turning... but that's about it.

If you get this one to work,... if you have a good video card... you might have fun with it.

I did not. sorry, thumbs down and uninstall.

I need a better pc :-)))