Thanks, looks great!

Problem with texture loading was fixed.

It doesnt work on my computer :-(

To those asking about video cards with Pixel Shader 2.0 support (you should really get 3.0 or higher), this article gives a partial list of which types of cards support which Pixel Shader version:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Shader

You can then go to a site like
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=48&name=Video-Cards
and look for video cards by interface type and chipset type.

The screensaver-haters and the self-proclaimed "experts" always put me in a bad mood.

#19, #59, joe, this clearly uses actual NASA photographs and elevation data in its displacement-mapped textures, it's a true 3D rendering, with mountains and valleys, and anyone who bothered to look at the screenshots could tell that. As for planets looking like balls covered with textures, well, duh. So, you think that Mars is flat and looks like what, a cube? Here are some actual NASA images of Mars:
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/mars/marsglobe1.jpg
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/mars/marsglobe2.jpg
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/mars/marsglobe3.jpg
For a computer "expert", your explanation about #37's problem is ludicrous.

#37, Heringer, an inability to load textures generally means that your video card doesn't have sufficient texture memory. If the textures are compressed, it may be that your video drivers don't support texture compression, or that they aren't configured to support texture compression. You can check for settings using the UI for your video drivers.

#39, hamstergirl, since yours only works sometimes, that sounds like a bug in your video drivers; you might check to see if a newer driver is available.

I haven't a clue why ANYONE would complain when a site like this arranges nice things to be GIVEN to us.
I, too, am disabled and without this site I wouldn't have screensavers, games, programs, ect. I am VERY GRATEFUL to everyone that works on this site!!! (Try LIVING on $653.00 a month,(With $300. rent, ect a month), unable to work, and you too would be grateful to any kindness or freebie that your given...like my older son that pays for me to be able to have a computer and use the internet and all the wonderful things posted here for my enjoyment!)
If you don't LIKE what you are given, then perhaps nothing will ever make you happy...so why post to gripe and whine. JUST DON"T DOWNLOAD IT! Simple, huh?

I LOVE THIS...THANK YOU ALL very much!
~From A VERY HAPPY AND GRATEFUL Member

36# Lori Lear.
You clearly have an ego problem.
What i realy meant to say was that the developer should also try to develop screensavers that work on other graphics cards.
This would increase the number of people who would be able to buy and use this software.

Working with yesterdays GAOTD, If installing this and the screensaver turns on whilst either ripping or burning then expect problems with your back-up.
Thankfully, I'm over 5 years old and know screen savers are of no use what-so-ever and just there to use up any spare PC memory.

I'll pass as always with any screen saver program...Sorry!

HOWTO: Determine your video card - DirectX & Shader Model Version capabilities.

Download and run the latest version of GPU-INFO from http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/SysInfo/GPU-Z/

This screen saver requires DirectX 9 & Pixel Shader (Shader Model) 2.
GPU-Info will determine and display your video cards ability as "DirectX Support"

Relaxing slow screen saver. Decent PC required to appreciate fully.

Not much to the scripting or special effects as say Mars Flight (Amiga 500) or a Tobias Richter, but they are masterworks.

I have downloaded it & uninstalled the screensaver because it said it isn't compatible w/ my video card. seemed lithe a good screensaver, so thanx anyways.

down loaded it and would not work Sucks but i tried!!!!!!

Thanks ...great screensaver. Now I am home sick. How I miss the ole red planet.

>Jeff

While I do agree with you about screensaver-haters visiting on screensaver day, don't you think that you're being a "moronic, immature brat" by flaming them? And receiving a gift from an actual person neccessitates thanks, while these are self-titled "comments". Just because something is free doesn't make it worth your time, even more so if it's not worth the price that the company normally charges for it, don't you agree? If all we're supposed to do in the comments section is say how much we love anything and everything that this site offers, then why have comments at all? They're for praise AND criticism.

Just my two cents.

THANK U GAOTD...
I'm one of those odd people that collect SCREENSAVERS and love those things.
This one loaded perfect and is a little boring but It's not tooo bad.
I use these to watch like a mini movie and not too much as a screensaver. I just think a good screensaver(mini-movie)is fun and that's my comment.

Working as advertised and that's a good thing......GENEA@

I wonder how many of the people who complain so much about something that's free would have the balls to behave that way if someone gave them a gift for free in person? I really doubt they'd act that way at all since such behaviour would normally result in a punch in the nose. However, on here, they can act like moronic, immature brats with no more consequences than someone telling them they're a waste of protoplasm.

On the other hand, people like that likely don't receive many gifts in real life anyway, so it's probably a moot point.

They have such a poor excuse for a life that they come here on a day they know there will be a screensaver, then complain that there's a screensaver, and then come back to see what people said about them so they can post a followup to further prove to the world how pathetic they really are.

And for those of you who will post a followup to prove what a loser you are, I won't be returning to this day's page, so I won't see it, but I know that some of you will still feel a need to prove you're an idiot anyway.

My thanks to GAOTD. I don't know how you deal with the daily abuse from the ingrates with nothing else to do but complain, but for those of us who appreciate your efforts, thank you!

Jeff

I'm disappointed with this "freebie". It isn't any good if it still advertises for you to purchase one in order not to get the ad interuption. I don't consider it a good screen saver either.

The most frustrating thing is that when activated, it takes like a full minute before it starts (you get that annoying "loading" screen the first minute that you can break out of at all. Moving mouse, pressing a key - nothing. Once it starts, it's going to finish its unreal "loading" period with nothing you to do but wait.

While I'm not big on screensavers my kitten loves watching them. Especially the fishy ones. Well that may seem like a strange reason to download a screensaver to other people it's not to me. Thanks again GOTD. Keep up the good work!

to #45:
Having a physical look at the Mars is definitely "teh best".
Unfortunately, the moderately good telescopes start at the price of about $15k. Not even talking about their usability under city light pollution. So it's a pastime only for few chosen ones living far from the city and having resources to spend.

$0.02k for a screensaver is thus a safer bet, albeit far from even remotely comparable experience ...

#37: It could very well be an obscure bug that can be recreated just on your computer. Or it could be some feature missing on your gfx card or maybe you have old gfx drivers, thus some functionality is being reported wrongly to the screensaver application.
Most probably it's a combination of the above :-)
But, judging from the 'effort' that went into creation of this screensaver (talking from my own experience here with creation of 3D screensavers), I'd guess it's most probably some bug.

But trust me, you're not missing much with this screensaver, it's just a sphere with a low-res texture. Just see the screenshots and you've seen everything.

Maybe they're already working on Mars 2.0 screensaver with surface-to-orbit fly-throughs (with proper atmospheric scattering implementation) into a spaceship, flight inside the canyons and maybe a rover or two discovering the surface with a nearby storm the size of North America stirring the dust.
A huge bonus points for the storm being actually visible from the spaceship orbit inside the atmosphere.
Free fall from the Mt.Olympus (highest mountain in Solar system) wouldn't hurt too.

Now, I'd pay $20 for such Mars screensaver. Heck, even $25 would be worth it since all those scenes could be randomly cycled, thus creating a new composition each time you watch it.

I hope someone understands me that the POTENTIAL of the Mars theme is HUGE. Damn, I'm going to dig up few hollywood movies with Mars theme right now...

#44 (et al) - What may be helpful (to those who don't know what pixel shader their card supports) is a website or list of what card (or chipset at least) supports what. Anyone have or know of such a list?

@24 (Ernest): Vet? My thoughts are with you in that case. I hope you'll find many more programs you can use here! Always faithful!

@others: Seems to me btw that the sense of humor is decreasing when it comes to the opinions others may have on a program/screen saver... especially if they don't like what is offered!

I have about 24 screen savers on this system (they come with the operating system), and what do I use? The black screen ;-) However, if you like a particular scenery, then by all means... it's your computer, so who am I to critisize your choice.

One thing though, and this is experience, if you still have a CRT monitor, turning off - and later on again - could freeze your computer because of the pulse going over the data lines; the larger the monitor (19" / 21") the stronger the pulse. I'd advise against turning off the monitor... a screen saver is a better choice in that case.

I really like the decent graphic quality, and the simplicity of it. Few people really get to see the details of Mars in a 3D scene. Thanks.

Very cool screensaver, works fine on my XP (takes 10 seconds to get started). Very meditative. Thanks!

Kewl!
Thanks :)

So what if you don't like screensavers? Then simply don't download/install it & wait to see what tomorrow's GiveAway is. ;)

EDIT: Meh. My PC still has the graphics card that came preinstalled on it when I bought it many moons ago, I think it's an ancient ATI Radeon 9200. Needless to say, Pixel Shader 2.0 capability is NOT something it can handle. Haven't needed to upgrade the graphics card for anything I've tried to run to date, and don't feel the need to do it to run a screensaver, so uninstalling. Guess if I want to see Mars, I'll go outside and do it. :)

Ahh a screensaver how nice something else to put in the registry speaking of which the amount of screenies and reg cleaners that go up here is amazing. How so much useless software is provided. Hell I use registry cleaners too noticed way back when that registry cleaner was avil for download not to many people cared much to have it ether.

If I want a cool screensaver Ill know where to find it ether here or elsewhere upon searching VIA google.

Oh and I use registry medic 4 from (Iaomatic Software)never had problems with the computer after using it. If you download this screenie and don't like it and have a thing to remove it from the registry also well use what I use and you will not dissapointed.

thanks but no thanks

LOL!

1. Thanks GAOTD for the screensaver! :)

2. The environment is overrated. :p

3. If by expensive video cards, you mean $30-$35 it would take to replace the POS that came in that pitiful off the shelf system you bought at big box mart, with one that can do pixel shading, then yeah, this screen saver is way out of most peoples league... ^_^;;

Hey Oliver

Think its time to dump the old win9x and upgrade to a 3 year old xp with integrated graphics lol.

Attention GOTD Staff! Your activation module causes the screensaver to stop functioning after activation.

#28-Dima....I don't use screensavers, but I downloaded it to test for you and it works fine on my Vista Home Premium.

why the hell is there aonter screen saver they suck

Normally I don't download a lot of the screensavers given away here; my C drive, where my OS resides, tends to run a little low on space most of the time, but since this one with Mars is kind of timely (Mars is doing a fairly close flyby to the earth this year, with its closest approach being in about a week and a half), I'll at least give this one a look-see. Maybe I'll be inspired to haul out the ole 60 pound telescope and take a look outside this month. :)

For those complaining about pixel shader 2.0 and wanting something that will run on an "average" computer.... Firstly, pixel shading is up to version 4.0 right now. Secondly, the ATI R300 series of chips supports pixel shader 2.0, and boards with those chips were released in *2002*. We're talking Radeon 9500 and on the NVidia side Geforce 4. There are ATI X300 graphics cards with pixel shader 2.0 on sale on eBay with buy-it-now prices of USD$24.99 and USD$29.99 - less than twice the cost of this screen saver. Please stop maintaining that PS2.0 is an exhorbitant requirement reserved for $4000 PCs. In fact, if you gave up your Internet access for a month, you'd have enough to buy a PS2.0-capable card on eBay. Think about it. Thank you.

To Cathy (#34):

It seems to me that it is you who has issues with the ego since you had to start bad-mouthing even though this thread is pretty clean of any usually stupid comments that arise when a screensaver is posted here weekly.

So far, there are just few sarcastic comments at the very beginning of this thread (which are actually pretty witty), then No 11 with some obvious critics and others who complain that the screensaver shows too much of the dark side, i.e. almost blank black screen for a very long time.
This, combined with an absurd requirement of Pixel Shader 2.0 are an absolutely relevant critics of the SW in question.

Yeah, I can see how you're saying that this is for free, so we should keep our mouth shut.
But, what you don`t realize, is that 24 hrs from now, the SW requires a payment, so I believe that most comments are relevant since we're not talking about the freeware here.

And, personally, I like screensavers, since they're usually nice and fun to watch. Which is unfortunately not the case with this offering, but I can see it having loyal fans even despite its absolute lack of content.

I'm sorry, I just can't resist! For #6 and the rest of you who don't seem to get it. umm.. DUHH! Sunday is screensaver day! If you don't want a screensaver, why do you bother coming here on screensaver day? Is it just so you can whine and exhibit (as Cathy St. Claire puts it) your jackassery? IT'S A SCREENSAVER! If you don't want it, don't down download it but NO ONE CARES WHY YOU DON'T WANT IT!

can anyone tell me what video cards have this Pixel Shader 2.0 crap on it?? I have not seen one in our area to purchase

Didn't work on my computer because your video card has to have Pixel Shader support, which mine does not. And it only told me that after I installed it and then tried to run it.

#28 Dima - After leaving my (not so)glowing review, the saver has crapped out on me (he, heh)...I am running Vista Home Premium, and like you, had no trouble with the Earth 3D one (its still running). It activated and installed just fine but I can only run it once, using the preview button in the Windows Screensaver Manager that pops up after installation. Any attempts after that, either manual, or just waiting for it to do its thing, gives me a black flash on my screen and the message "unable to load textures". Any one else experience this?

sunday is sreensaver day, as we all know, so why do those that dont want a screensaver come on harping on about it and getting there knickers in a twist. have a day off for heavens sake and give us all a rest from the critisism. well done gotd. and thank you for all the freebies that i would otherwise have to pay for.

After instalation the program give me: Unable to load textures.
May anyone help me? Would be my computer... configuration?

KDF(#30): You know what works great on an average person's computer? A videocard with Pixel Shader 2.0 support. And store-bought software. I hate to break it to you, but this world isn't about looking after little brats who can't wipe their own ass without free help. It's absolutely pathetic how many of you think this site is your own personal toy box. It turns my stomach to see so-called adults acting the way you do.
Incidentally, posting your teary-eyed tantrum in gigantic boldface only trumpets your immaturity and stupidity for all to enjoy.
HAVE A SMURFY DAY!!

Can we get some screen savers like this one for those of us with out the pixel shader program requirements? I would like the screen saver but it uses that video card that I can get at this time.

I, personally, enjoy some screensavers. This one is nice enough to keep. The only bad thing about the screensavers given away here is that they seem to entice every imbecile in cyberspace to crawl out from under their cyber-rock and demonstrate their tragic, ego-driven need to grace us with their total lack of wit and intelligence.
The good thing is: screensavers are simple and straightfoward enough so that a person can pretty much bypass the jackassery and enjoy the giveaway or not, as they see fit.
Thanks, GOTD and Rixane Interactive!

.....correction:

Flight over sea is free, sorry!

Nice, I really like these screensavers, I'd love more, for example canyon flight and flight over sea

Thanks again GAOTD team for another great giveaway

Next Sunday, please offer "Virtual Priest" as a Giveaway.

Have a nice weekend all.

Again with the pixel shader stuff!
Please give something that will work on an average person's computer too, and not just graphics cards that support pixel shader!

Ron(#17) and the dozens of others who will follow his lead: The system requirements are clearly listed at the top of the page. Don't you even bother to read up on what you're about to download onto your computer?