It maybe not exactly what goes on, however it is one captivating screensaver all the same.

I downloaded the solar sytem saver and it was beautiful. My children were in awe, they love to watch the universe.

Well, it's not accurate to the true happenings of cells, but it's interesting to watch. Thumbs up.

kinda like what a cell would look like with a powerful scope minus the flashy colors and music. ran poorly on my xp system.

first download from GOTD and i have to say i'm impressed. took me a little while to figure out how to fix it for my larger screen size (i love to move the screen around with my mouse) but otherwise it installed and ran really smoothly.

looking forward to future downloads! especially another screensaver like this one!

~video

I love it! I'm always on the lookout for new cool screensavers and this one takes the cake! thanks gaotd for all the cool screensavers you've given away and i hope there's more to come!

Hmm. I just downloaded this and I wouldn't recommend it, to anyone. If you know how a cell works, I would doubly say that you shouldn't get it. And unlike some of the other comments, I think the music is terribly cheesy and doesn't fit the scene. =/

And it all came about by random accident...lightning striking a mud puddle. Yeah......right. For all the people who can believe that, I have a nice bridge in New York I would like to sell them. Be sure to see "Expelled - No Intelligence Allowed", by Ben Stein, unless your mind is so closed you cannot allow another idea to enter in.

#43, somebody, you're absolutely right, someone at GOTD has it in for you, personally, detects when you're doing a download, and sends you evil malware which trashes your graphics rendering, while the rest of us are unaffected. When was the last time you updated your NVidia drivers and DirectX? Did you overclock your board? Although my video card is newer than yours, the POS NVidia drivers render correctly, and while they have lots of problems, they aren't even remotely as bad as the POS AMD/ATI drivers. You might try a full uninstall of your NVidia video card drivers, including any leftover registry entries, and then install the latest stable release.

I get so tired of the same old complaints every time a screensaver is offered. Some people actually use screensavers as screensavers, they have their reasons and they have every right to do so. I only use the Blank screensaver with power management, but I like the screensaver offerings as on-demand animations, as do some other people. As for all the endless "but it's not perfectly realistic, they lied in their description"--of course it's not realistic, of course what they wrote is marketing hype. Microsoft claims to provide software, and that's a much bigger lie and marketing hype. While I like "The Inner Life of the Cell", it's also only a very limited animation of a few of the functions which occur within cells. Do any of you have even the faintest idea of what it takes to generate decent graphics? "The Inner Life of the Cell" was done by a team of graphics artists, who were paid a lot of money, and it was almost certainly rendered on a render farm, and definitely not in real-time. And then someone was complaining that Living Cell 3D doesn't use all of their cores--even many games don't, and no one would want a screensaver to use that much compute (and then you'd all really be complaining about the energy use).

#41, AxCut, I'm so impressed that you went to college and read a textbook. I've never encountered anyone else who did that. Please, do post your biography here. And the site which you so graciously provided has such amazingly realistic images of cell structures. And the author is so up-to-date on the latest theories of cosmology. And this "evolution" concept just blows my mind, why didn't they teach me anything about it while I was in school? You've really inspired me, I'm going to research everything I can about it.

I like screensavers, even some Astrogemini, but unless you're a medical student, I don't see the point to this one.

If you want something truly useful for the medical community go to Folding @ Home http://folding.stanford.edu/ this makes your computer work during it's idle time on cures for such diseases as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes. Read at the site for how this works.

#16 Thanks for the Harvard links. The absolutely beautiful "Inner Life Of A Cell" pales todays GOTD offering. After watching the Harvard renditions I had to remove todays screen saver from even the "cute" category.

kc4cop

looks pretty cool, I don't really need a screensaver right now, but I was really hoping that you could do another DVD ripper in the near future; I had to uninstall a bunch of my giveaways of the day because my dad got tired of them taking up space. we finally got a larger hard drive, and I just got a bigger iPod, so I was was hoping to rip some movies for my it. Please guys! :), anyway, love what you guys do, thanks

I forgot to mention that I don't understand why you think that the nucleus of the cell is not represented in the screensaver. At some point the screensaver goes inside a cell and all you can see, besides the unidentifiable stuff floating around the cytoplasm, is the nucleus.

It is represented by another 'membrane' and the camera goes inside it. This nucleus contains a double helix, a few chromosomes and the same stuff that is present inside the cytoplasm seems to exist also in the nucleoplasm. What is that stuff supposed to be anyway?

AxCut

Italy,

You don't seem to understand the role of screen savers. The problem with screens is that, if they display the SAME image for a long period of time, that image may become 'burned' in the screen. Screen savers are created to make the screen change the content of its display continuously therefore avoiding the 'burning' effect.

You mention that you are a Biology student, so as a PostDoc I feel the need to set the record straight. The family of proteins known as polymerases are incapable to unzip DNA, assemble other copies and/or assembling them into chromosomes by themselves.

You are doing the same very thing that makes today's GiveAway so unappealing, you oversimplify processes that are responsible for mitosis, meiosis and transcription all of which require access to the DNA strands and therefore 'unzip' the chromosomes. Those processes combined require more than 20 protein complexes to occur.

I'll be delighted to talk about this with you if you want, but this is really not the place. Head over to the forums and start a thread on the Talks Forum, or, if you want a more private conversation, send a private message to my account.


AxCut

Impressive screensaver. Its a keeper for me, however I deleted all but one of the shortcuts it installs.

Steel

It may save your screen, but at the expense of shortening the life of your CPU and/or graphics card. What a waste!

I have been visiting this website for a while, and have never downloaded a screen saver before, since I've always thought them to be a huge waste of space and resources. Despite my feelings, I decided to try this one out since I am taking biology. I must say that I am impressed by the graphics and the quality. However, I will not be keeping this software. Why, you may ask? Well, for a couple of reasons. First of all, 3D screen savers go against the purpose of a screen saver itself, which is to "save the screen," by reducing strain on the LCD, battery and HDD when the user is not using the computer. Secondly, the sequence gets boring after a short time.
BTW, as I was reading the comments, I would like to clarify what actually happens inside a nucleus (which is not present in the representation). Technically, DNA-polymerase "unzips" the DNA and then assembles another copy of it. Then, it assembles into chromosomes and cell division takes place soon after.
If the software was a screen saver with the entire sequence of mitosis, or all of the cell functions such as cellular respiration and photosynthesis, then it may be something worth paying for.
Oh, and I agree with #44, ww2vet56, in that the screen saver manager's auto installation can be quite a nuisance.
Thanks GAOTD and Astro Gemini for offering us this software.

Cheers

OK children. Harrasment time is over. If you don't like it, uninstall it. Just because you bore easily is your problem, not GOTDs'.

And yes, SS where originally desgined for a 'real' purpose, which has absolutely nothing to do with its 'functionality'. I use SS's as timers (on every X mnutes). I also use mine when I'll be away from the desk for a while (user defined), so no one, including me, has to look at my data page, or email manager, etc., etc., etc. .

Use it or not, I want reviews to tell me: did it install ok, and on what OS; ditto for uninstall; any glitches and / or 'speed' (fps, mps);, and my favorite help, alternative freeware programs with URL / address.

Thanks fo reading.

Not bad, you should be thankful that we are getting it for free, unless you get a virus. So just don't download it if it's not what you are looking for. I check the site of the program and see if it's safe using mcafee site advisor and WOT and Linkscanner. Thanks :)

Nothing at all special about todays offering unless, you have young children in the house. Fact of the matter is (only an opinion) none of the screen savers by AstroGemini are what I'd call good. More like cheap knock offs of the few truly good screen savers there are and that means very few! Sub standard graphics, audio and it lacks the options I like in the couple that I use. Not to mention using up electricity and burning an LCD monitor. All this and I haven't even mentioned the screen saver manager it installs and I don't care that it's independent of the screen saver and can be uninstalled. The install alone is a crude way to advertise.
I've already tried a half dozen by this vendor and none remain installed on any computer we have, even the kids. I do appreciate GAOTD and all but no thanks on this screen saver. Just a waste of time bothering to install it qas it will almost be uninstalled in most cases.!

I downloaded this screensaver and it is just as i suspected, unrealistic and boring. It is also very repetitive and the music sucks. It runs at 120-250 fps on my 7900gs at 1280x1024, 4xAA, high settings, so most of people that don't have an integreted graphics card should be able to run it smoothly. I'm kinda new to GAOTD and this is the second program i downloaded from here. First one was Saga MMORTS, and the thing is that both of them run on my computer with heavily corrupted textures. Here are a few screenshots of how it looks like:
1
2
3
4
5

That hasn't happened yet on any other 3d program on my computer. This seems kinda suspicious to me since the only 2 programs that i downloaded from here have the same glitch. Can anyone explain?

Thought: not using screensavers (they're not needed any longer anyway) and having your screen shut down is more "green", yes? It'll reduce the power consumption in your home. Can't we all contribute in some little way? At the very least this is one of them. Lets use a little less electricity and what we use, for better purposes. Just because it's free, doesn't make it a good deal. :-) Just a reminder.

Looking forward to more "useful" software on this site. And thanks in the past for all of your input.

I am sorry to say that this screensaver is very, very misleading. It may be pretty, but there is no realism whatsoever on the 3D images it shows.

I have a Bachelor's degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) from UofA (I had a 3.98 GPA) and the Cellular Biology textbook we used was Alberts-Bray-Lewis-Raff-Roberts and Watson (as in James D. Watson), second edition (it was 20 years ago). I know what I am talking about.

There are many things missing. Where is the endoplasmic reticulum? Golgi apparatus? Lysosomes and peroxisomes? Mitocondria (which has its own DNA)? Believe or not cells have skeletons (called cytoskeletons).

There are thousands of different glycoproteins that are embedded in the cytoplasmic (outer) cell membranes that stick out like antennas which are commonly known as cell receptors. These receptors are the 'locks' that open 'doors' on the cytoplasmic membrane so that things they need can get inside (Viruses fool cells by mimicking these 'keys' and enter the cells without a full scale cell attack against it).

Having decided to portrait eukaryotic cells, the authors of today's screensaver have made the nucleus look as if it only contains DNA.
Nothing further from the truth and to top it off, the DNA that is contained inside the nucleus never, ever looks like the famous double helix the Dr. Watson and Dr. Crick discovered.

DNA has at least six orders of packing, from the double helix to the chromosome and the way DNA is packed into chromosomes is awesome. There are specialized proteins that are able to open very very small regions of the chromosomes to access the DNA that codes for proteins. I also don't see any of the many types or RNA.

This screensaver makes cells look extremely simple. Don't be fooled, a living cell is more complex than anything humans have ever built. This is crap and it is getting uninstalled. I am afraid somebody may see it and believe that it is the way living cells really are!

You want to see what living cells really look like? Head to this site and click on the various links on the right.

For a very good view of evolution, the same author has created this other site . When you open it, slide the little arrow that point upwards to the right, make sure it goes all the way to the right.

I am very disappointed, but I don't know why I expected anything better.

AxCut

sorry BuBBy. meant to add

my video:Sapphire RADEON 9600 Atlantis.

And my computer is always in use in bkgd by some BOINC projects. an idle computer is a waste of a part of an independent SuperComputer.

;-)

Crashes on my system: AMD Phenom, Gigabyte m/b with 770 chipset, ATI 2600 pro graphics -- using Vista Home Prem. 32 bit SP1 & latest ATI drivers (8.4). Just a word of warning because it could just be my system or settings. Uninstall leaves behind -- even after System Restore -- data at: Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Astro Gemini Software

Umm... couldn't you get folding@home? Sure, it might not be as flashy, but it actually does something...

thumbs up for this.

This is just a final comment on #32, finishing what I started. I have seen the saver in action. It may be repetitive, but it is Beautiful and the music meets my needs too. It will be used.

Thanks too #25 Jerry D for the little DesktopOK file. Works very nicely. New easy tool for my Tool chest. Now Big Fish Games won't hurt me so much either. :-)

I appreciate the comments here. I won't be installing/trying this software, primarily because a "screen saver" isn't really NEEDED anymore (a good CRT isn't as susceptable as in years past) and when I am "idling", I want my computer to "idle" rather than be graphic/processor intensively using more electrical power and heating up my room. If I WANT to see a simulation of cellular biology, there are programs around that will DO this "live" (not meant as a screen saver). Because I didn't install and try this, I'm not going to vote negative on it though.

My computer is in my living room and I have found that screensavers add some extra decor so I am fairly picky about what I put on for them. This is a very nice looking screensaver. Whether you are interested in DNA or cells or even if you know nothing about biology, it was pleasant to look at. The configuration tab let me shut off the music and allow exist on mouse movement which I find to be a necessity in screensavers.

A side note, my teenage daughter noticed it and asked what the graphics were about so she got a short science lesson---a subject to which she has shown little interest in the past.

In XP, once the screensaver came up, I was unable to get it to go away. I wiggled the mouse, hit alt-ctl-delete (repeatedly when it didn't work right away), tried control-esc, and hit the Windows key. The only way I was able to get my screen back was to put the computer in sleep mode and bring it back out. I'm going to go back now and get rid of the screensaver manager and hope that that helps somehow.

I love checking the savers out because, as a moderate insomniac and extreme computer (but not Web) user, my machine is always on. I like to see if the accompanying music is an alarm clock or a sleep aid. I use a 90 min timer before a saver pops up, using Astro Gemini's manager because it works for me, and therefore learn, when I am distracted away from my desk, about how long I've been otherwise engaged.

"How living cells work" is a very bad description of the visuals. I was dissappointed because the Earth 3D used the Earth. If the big picture had been a trip through a "real cell", That would have been spectacular, and Astro Gemini has the resources to do that correctly.
I like the visuals, but wish they had been less enthusiastic about the educational value. And the artistic rendition Is fairly short in preview mode. When I see and hear it in real mode, I'll know for sure. I think the music will Not wake me up and is pleasant enough to appeal to the cat.

Several Giveaways ago, someone referenced a freeware site called Jackass JoeJoe's, which had a very small openGL screensaver you stick in the windows directory and voila! a lovely, silent screenful of pleasant chains of balls moving semichaotically . . . equally pretty to look at and Never wakes me up. Get it at:

http://www.joejoesoft.com/cms/showpage.php?cid=118

I am on a 1.58GHz AMD Sempron 2300+ with 1Gb RAM and Win XP Pro Sp2

#23, Jerry D, this is an old issue which I have addressed many times. Some types of LCD's (both monitors and TV's) are far more prone to image retention than CRT's ever were, but the effect isn't permanent (plasma displays can also be much more prone to burning than CRT's). Many Samsung LCD owner's manuals (which you can download) address this in great detail. They recommend the use of a screensaver, or long periods with the monitor off. Screensavers are completely compatible with Windows power management. Also, a screensaver (which may be blank) may be preferable to aggressive monitor power management, to provide the user with warning that the monitor is about to be powered down. Cycling the power unnecessarily on CRT's and fluorescent LCD backlights will shorten their lives, and it takes a lot of energy and resources to replace them.

#22, Dixie Melodie, if using a Direct3D screensaver is messing with your icons, then there must be a problem with your video drivers or DirectX support. Some games and screensavers can switch video modes incorrectly, which can mess with your desktop (Windows will move things to keep them on-screen), but I haven't seen that problem with any of the Astro Gemini screensavers which GOTD has offered (at least, not any which I've installed).

I really look forward to the screen saver days! True they are not "necessary" for saving your screen. but they are necessary for my entertainment. :)

This is one of the few 3D screen savers by Astro Gemini that don't seem to be a cheap knock off of one from 3plainsoft's screen savers. Still not up to their quality, but a unique idea and a keeper in my book. Thanks and keep those screen savers comming!

A truly great screensaver on my huge office monitor is a nice background to an office meeting - I can tell who's paying attention to the subject at hand.

In this case, I'm frustrated by three unsuccessful download attempts. The service shows 50-60kB/s but slows and stops at 70-80%. I'll try again later, but...

This has got to be the most annoying screensaver in the history of screensavers. I found the music totally obnoxious

Well, I usually at least try out the Asto Gemini savers just to see if they get any better. Then uninstall when I see that they're not.

But, this is an exception to that rule! This is got to be their best one in my opinion.

First off, my system is as follows:

Gateway desktop GM5442 running Vista Home Premium with an Intel 2 Core Duo 64bit processor at running at 2.0Ghz each, 2GB ram, Nvidia 8600 GTS overclocked video card.

The motion is very fluid, no "jumpy" movement. Graphics are top notch & very colorful, not "cartoony" like others from the same company. Did not see "multiple scenes", this one just keeps going & going, moving to the next thing to see.

As for the extra screensaver manager, just unistall it, you'll still have the actual saver.

Enjoy! :)

I'm pleasantly surprised. I generally think fancy screensavers are dumb, and an easy way to waste electricity rather than let your system sit idle.

But the other positive comments here made me try it, and I've got to report that this produces some gorgeous graphics, and it does so using only about 20% CPU on my system.

#22: Although you posted before me, I wonder if your comment was awaiting moderation as I typed. In any case, I missed it. I, too, have lots of icons on my desktop, all carefully arranged, and it drives me crazy when an application rearranges them. Sometimes, it's unavoidable, though, as when changing the screen resolution.

Here's a freeware solution! DesktopOK. It allows you to take a snapshot of your desktop and restore it if it gets scrambled. Enjoy!

I downloaded, installed, then experienced what I would call a bad screensaver, I think it sucks. Thanks anyway, was expecting something more realistic? Gotta pass on this.

#16: I don't think #10 is out of line. Screen savers were necessary for CRTs, but I wonder the extent to which they are *harmful* for LCDs. If nothing else, they have the potential to keep the LCDs backlight on, running down the battery on laptops and causing the backlight to dim fail prematurely on any screen. I prefer no screen saver. I'd rather the power settings for my monitor simply blank it and turn off the backlight.

First, thanks to GAOTD for many nice downloads...

I'm going to pass on this one - I have found that using the AstroGemini screensavers caused my icons to lock into position on my desktop (could not move them) on one XP machine and on another XP machine actually moved a block of icons up or down a row, causing my carefull placement to be thrown asunder. I didn't research why but I enabled them and icons got relocated for me, disabled them (used a simple screensaver) and the icons stopped being mucked with.

Melodie

I liked the look of the screen saver, even know it wasn't "exactly" real. That being said, was wondering why it has to access the internet every time the screensaver is activated? Is it collecting information about my computer, namely screensavers?

I've mentioned this three times in the past that you can uninstall the Astro-Gemini screensaver manager which is seperated from the screensaver and keep only the screensaver.
Uninstalling the manager will in no way effect the working or settings of the screensaver(s) from Astro-Gemini.
Have a good weekend.

A few months ago you guys put up a screensaver by Rixane Interactive with an incredible Moon scene. That one was incredibly realistic and didn't involve any extra programs or screen saver managers. I wish you could grab a few more of theirs like the Earth or Mars (or even the Moon again since I have a new computer now).

runs perfectly and smoothly on my vista home premium laptop. nice graphics too. thanks GAOTD!!!

I installed this screensaver, it ran poorly with the graphics jumping intermittantly from image to image, I went back into the configuration options, changed the setting to from "High" to "Medium", then ultimately to "Low", but the stuttering quality of the display never cleared up. I disabled the music quickly because of the annoying composition. Frankly, I expect screensavers to be soothing and, at the least, possess a modicum of entertainment. This product failed to meet any entertainment desires, and in my opinion, did not perform properly although that may just be something to do with my laptop (but I've never had any performance problems before) and the Astro-Gemini software says I have 19 screensavers installed. After all this, the "Uninstall" functioned perfectly, the best thing I found about this software.

This is a pleasant, colorful screensaver, but it's repetitive. The soundtrack is reasonably well-done for an electronic score, although it doesn't appeal to my tastes. This renders easily, and is very fast-moving. Like #8, ezuk, I see consistently high framerates (at 1920x1440) with a low-midrange graphics card.

This is purely an artistic rendering, and has almost nothing to do with real biology. Sorry, #4, Adam, and #5, Agent 001, you flunk. I agree with #11, Dgn, that "The Inner Life of the Cell" is much more interesting. However, I'm no fan of YouTube--back to the low-quality, postage-stamp size videos of yesteryear, when the rest of the world is moving to high-definition TV, Blu-Ray, and (now defunct) HD-DVD. I love the music in the short version, but unfortunately, high-quality downloads have been removed from the Harvard Multimedia Site. High-quality full-version videos (without the great music, but with labels and scientific narration) are available on their Media page. If you have a fast connection and a decent video card, go for the super-speed version. IE7 can scale the flash player (if you have a fast computer); I haven't tested Firefox 3's ability to scale video.

As usual, I can't get screenshots off my Vista PC (I suspect it's the NVidia drivers, I'm running 174.74).

#9, Didn't even run it, we could do without your inaccurate and useless gaming and business analysis. Astro Gemini doesn't sell games, they're part of a larger organization, Terminal Studio, which includes game companies, but that's not relevant to today's giveaway. The Astro Gemini Screensaver Manager has been covered a million times before.

#7, ken kelly, and #10, Beau Basin, another one of those screensaver-hater's comments which wastes everyone's time and contributes nothing.

A nice screensaver, easy installation on Windows 98se.
For me it's more an artistic thing, beautiful colours and forms.
Don't know much about biologie- (Sam Cooke-Wonderful world)
To me the music gives irritation. Also the program lets you easily manage your other screensavers, you can even choose a "rotation mode".
On their website they offer more interesting screensavers.
By the way, I don't like screensavers at all because of their high
energie consumption and a computer can be addictive enough without
a screensaver.
Thanks GAOTD.

As (almost?-) all of the AstroGemini savers: need a lot of resources, are "colorful" like hell, make really(!) a lot of registry entries, lack a good rendering algo. and so on; that they are very(!) unrealistic is only the least point...

Can´t believe their products sell. As for free it might be a kind of joke which you will have forgotten after 5 minutes. The resulting screen output mostly ever reminds of books for 3-5 year old children.

Sorry, but I can´t find almost anything positive about savers from those company beside that they are colorful...

I've got to agree with #11 above. I found it boring after only a couple of minutes and have since uninstalled it however it did run OK on my XP machine.