Hey # 13 Phil, You are not any kind of tech. You can't even spell "excellent". And what the hell would any respectful tech run an old outdated Geforce 5500??? Garbage. I hope you drop dead fag.

Please - a Christmas screensaver! : )

#43, Hempman, wow, you're going off the deep end again. Voltages in both CRT's and TV's have dropped, due to concerns over radiation emission (actually, concern over lawsuits--manufacturers only care about financial losses, not consumer injury). Monitors have generally had lower voltages anyway, simply from typically having much smaller CRT's than TV's. Yes, technology is always advancing, products are always improving. That doesn't help those who own older products. One of the "solutions" the plasma TV manufacturers came up with was to move the image around. Maybe they found a real fix, I don't care, LCD's are replacing plasma anyway. Anyway, you didn't comprehend what I wrote. Anything that lights up, dims and burns out over time. I don't worry about normal usage of my (more than five years old) CRT having a problem with uneven phosphor burn, but I would never intentionally leave a long-term static image on it. And as I've always said, my screensaver is blank, with power management.

Image retention in LCD's (both monitors and TV's) is a well-documented phenomenon, and is also well-documented by users who have experienced the problem. As I said, it depends on both the particular LCD technology being used, as well as how the monitor is used. One reference, which I just found by a quick search, is in the user manual for the Samsung 214T. Go to their global site, product support, downloads, and download the manual. On page 77 of the DjVu manual (should be around the same in the PDF version), you'll see very detailed recommendations for preventing image retention. In particular, note several things. "All display products, including LCD, are subject to image retention. This is not a product defect." In addition to powering off the monitor for long periods after use, note that they also include the option "Use a screen saver if possible".

I'm so glad you've discovered Process Explorer. I know this is going to come as a shock to you, but guess what--executing software uses CPU. Watch how much CPU is used in loading web pages, viewing PDF documents, opening a word processor--gee, everything uses CPU. Watching HDTV via my PC essentially uses 100% CPU (MCE is very inefficient, and I don't have the latest and greatest CPU). Yes, games and 3D screensavers typically use 100% CPU. It's not "hurting" your computer. I never even hear my PC's fans (and if they were to speed up, they'd be loud). Everything wears out--people, cars, solid-state equipment, including computers. Your computer will be in a museum long before it croaks from use. Look at all the people here who are still running Windows 95--their computers haven't croaked yet. What about all the people donating their spare CPU to research? That typically uses 100% CPU for very long periods of time. I used to do that--bad for the environment, but good for research. My computer never died. Do you avoid exercising because you fear wearing yourself out? I never know what to make of your posts. You say some rational things, and then you say completely senseless things.

I have no idea why you imagine that various software has security issues when it doesn't. I can think of three possibilities. You didn't activate/register the software correctly (some products' trial modes access the Internet), you have malware on your system, or you're misinterpreting the information. My security logs weren't screenshots--my software can export its logs. Any screenshots I post are actual unedited screenshots off of my computer.

Flames aside, GOTD brings us offerings, knowledge leading to new discovery, and a time to share our thoughts of the good, bad, and ugly in each piece of code we download here. The small contributions of information about each program are most helpful. They from the readers that care to share important, small, and maybe insignificant points that the more experienced users find redundant. As far as this screen saver goes, I tried it, and uninstalled it. It is not for me, but the installation was seamless. It worked as advertised and as far as loading my computer up with extra cycles, I am at a loss as to how you can accurately tell how much of an increase you have if you are actually in an idle "screensaver mode". We all learn here at GOTD.
The hardest lesson to learn is the art of listening. Any teacher will tell you that.

It's not that I don't appreciate screensavers. In fact I would like one. The image of a pirate screensaver sounded appealing to me-until I saw it.

#2: Believe me the security program did not get good ratings, you don't need it. Look to some free alternatives.

It you are too late for this download, try the freeware screensaver

http://www.stardustsoftware.com/downloads/screensavers/impressionistpaintings/

It it five years old and needs a VGA (Video Graphics Array) monitor ;)

The Impressionist Paintings 3 Screen Saver displays a collection of 40 images from some of the world's greatest impressionist painters.

I think that comments like Hempman's, Whiterabbit's, and Phil's are all useful and have merit because it gives you an idea of how the program runs on a particular setup, and a general idea of the user experience. I just wish people would cut down on the flaming, as it's just dumb and doesn't help people understand what the product does.

Personally, I'm passing on this as I've no need for a screensaver. On a separate note, I find it hard to believe that someone would even charge money for a screensaver these days; nice as a giveaway, improbable as a purchase.

First, modern monitors are CRT's, LCD or Plasma, you are correct. I misspoke. Big whoop. Now you pom pom boys can all get excited and have your little teabag party.

However, I am correct in the other things I said. You are simply relaying old technology information that is no longer accurate.

As I said, the way the signal is generated and controlled is significantly different than it was when screen burn in was a problem. The voltages used in today's monitors is significantly lower than in televisions, and even lower than color monitors made five years ago, let alone when screen burn was a real problem.

Also, not only the chemical formula used to make the materials for the phosphor dots on the inside of the tube is different, the dots are applied differently. All of this was intentionally engineered to remove the problems of burn in.

As for LCD monitors, the backlight will burn - BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN left on, burning it out early. People with LCD screens actually do a disservice to thier screens when they use a screen saver. There is no such thing as LCD crystals getting stuck. References please.

Burn in in plasma screens is a thing of the past. While it was somewhat of a problem in the past, updated technology has eliminated the problem. Do try to keep up to date.

As for the screensavers presented to us by AG, they all crank up CPU usage. Anyone can prove it. If you have Windows XP or higher, go to www.Sysinternals.com and download the new version of Process Explorer. When you open it, there are some small graphs called system information at the top that represent CPU usage, memory usage and I.O bytes. They are set to update every second.

If you click on them, or go to View > System Information, they open into a larger screen. You can make it full screen to see the graphs in better detail. You can see how your CPU cycles are being used by floating the cursor over any point in the graph.

Now, leaving that running, start ANY Astro Gemini screen saver. Leave it running for about a minute. Now, stop the screensaver. Look at how your CPU has been cranked up to near 100%. Some AG screensavers keep the CPU pinned at 100%.

This is NOT GOOD, no matter what some half baked, old tech weenie who calls himself FUBAR (we all know what that means). Keeping your CPU usage that high will cause significant damage over time.

The other thing about Process Explorer is that it reveals everything that runs. All DLL's, all processes, all services. It is amazing to watch as a screensaver opens a new service (why? not needed), then that service tries to go online.

Even better, you can click on each process and see what threads it has started, what other processes are children of that process, and even track what resources a particular service takes from the system.

I run this test for every program I get from GAOTD. That is how I know without a doubt that all AG screensavers are frying people's CPU's. That is how I know that all Alawar games are frying people's computers.

Anyone with XP or Vista can do this same test. No manufactured logs in crappy screenshots necesary. Verify it for yourself.

Fubar....I enjoy your postings also.....You'll never know how much value us newbies put into you regular,s postings.....Thanks to all site managers and regular posters for giving all us "newbies" a hand at understanding all this......Thanks to all gotd regulars and software donates....I love each of you.

out of everything hempman wrote, the best thing the haters can come up with is the fact he misspelled the word there. that obviously shows
that you are childish and idiotic. get a life, grow up and go back to bed, mummies calling

This program does NOT play nice with other programs. It messed up the icons in the system tray and Firefox would not complete launching.

I have spent time picking "flystuff" out of pepper trying to uninstall.

I am now trying to figure out how to keep "bookmark" out of the windows task bar as Firefox is loading.

I really love this screensaver. I just like watching it. Good enough for me. Thanks GOTD. It reminds me of something you would find at Disneyland. Fun and entertaining.

One thing I like about this website, besides the free software, is the comments section. I rely on that, heavily, when the offered software is something I am not familiar with, beit the type, what it's for, or how it's used. I really enjoy reading the different viewpoints, and often base my decision to download or not on others' comments.

One thing I don't like is the personal 'putting down' of others I see here. Making remarks against another's character, to me, is totally unnecessary, and unwanted. If people want to try the software, that is their right; they're not 'stupid', or anything else if they do. If they have a problem with the software, they are not (necessarily) ignorant, but just don't know as much as others may, in certain situations.

One other thing - as long as misspellings, and grammatical mistakes are kept to a bare minimum (check your comments for errors before posting them, folks) - no more than 2 of either (IF it's a lengthy comment), *I* don't worry about it. If there are a lot of typos of grammatical errors it is harder to read and figure out, plus it hurts the poster's credibility.

I rarely chime in, preferring to watch the fur fly rather than create it, but every once in awhile you guys give me no end of entertainment, so I feel that I should say thank you. First, I really wish to thank the group at GOTD for offering up programs, savers, ect. I honestly think they do a very nice job, and run a reasonably clean set of websites.

To those of you who seem to get so upset with what is being offered, let me let you in on what seems to be to you a secret: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DOWNLOAD IT. Yes, that's right, you do not have to even look at it. You do not have to point your browser to this site at all. These are FREE programs, get it? No one is forcing anything on you. If you have a real issue involving the program, by all means report it. If you just wish to blow your foul attitude all over the place, why don't you turn OFF the computer and go get a life. If any of you pin-heads EVER spoke to me in person the way you complain online, I would just slap you senseless. Maybe that is why you don't have a life. Think about it.

I'm not downloading today's offer - I don't know anything about computers, but I am a scuba diver and never find any underwater screen savers very satisfactory.

Anyways - maybe some of you should relax and take Hempman's comments with less seriousness. He didn't "tell the rest of us which software we can and cannot use, and in what fashion", he just gave his opinion. If you don't like his opinion and don't think it's an educated opinion, don't read his comment.

Thanks GOATD

I downloaded with ease. Took about 3-1/2 minutes on Verizon wireless.
Instructions say to activate first, then install. A zip came up so I extracted all files and activated. Went smooth. I installed the saver and my manager came up with the others on it. I previewed the ship. I really liked it like a mini-movie. a tad jerky but better than some I've seen. I like screensavers just to watch occassionally(SP). I keep a simple stars on for my "USED ONE." I then configured the ship saver and left. I give it an 8 on a 10 scale. Lord willing, I'll be back tomorrow. THANKS AGAIN, GOTD......GENEA@

#1, Hempman, by "VGA monitor", I presume you mean a non-LCD monitor. First, nobody runs at VGA resolution anymore, a VGA connector merely refers to a particular type of analog video connector (although it also carries some digital information for monitor ID, etc.) In this context, a monitor *is* a CRT, what the heck do you think it is if it's not an LCD (plasma is no longer used for monitors, and OLED is presently too expensive)? Since it is a CRT, its phosphors cannot be different from what is in a CRT. There are many types of TV's, the phosphors may or may not be the same as those in some TV's. *All" phosphors burn, period (even non-phosphor technologies, such as LED's, "burn"/degrade, and of course, plasma and some other technologies use phosphors). Since different color phosphors burn/age at different rates, TV's, and probably monitors, contain circuitry which tracks hours of use and compensates, in order to maintain color balance.

There are several reasons why images generally no longer burn to the point of being noticeable. Monitors do use different phosphors than early monitors did. Early monitors were monochrome, with low refresh rates and long-persistence phosphors. Modern monitors are color, with high refresh rates and short-persistence phosphors. You have to dump a lot more energy into long-persistence phosphors, which burns them out faster. Further, monitors used to use lit characters on a dark background. They used fixed-size, fixed-width fonts (without graphics), so some phosphors were frequently lit, while others were never lit (when smooth scrolling was introduced, it lit more, but only temporarily). Long-term, relatively static, images used to be common. All of those things tended to result in obvious burn-in (although you could reduce the effect by lowering the brightness; most people ran their monitors much too bright, which was not only bad for the phosphors, but made the images more difficult to read, and resulted in eye strain).

With the advent of GUI's (which tend to use most of the phosphors per color across the screen more or less uniformly over time), high refresh rates, dark characters on light backgrounds (easier to read under most lighting conditions), and changing colors, it would now be unusual for images to burn in to the point of being noticeable. It can happen with some technologies--it was a big problem for plasma TV's, and also CRT projection TV's. So yes, it would be rare for someone to actually need a screensaver to prevent image burn-in on a CRT monitor. However, even early screensavers were largely used for entertainment, and the situation is better now, because power management can be used in conjunction with screensavers. Screensavers can be used for short periods of non-use, with power management placing the computer in a very low power state for longer periods on non-use. And, of course, screensavers can be used as standalone animations.

LCD's can actually be more vulnerable to image retention than CRT's. There are many (as in very many) different LCD technologies. Some are much more prone to image retention than others. The situation is very different from CRT's, however. With LCD's, the backlight (whether fluorescent or LED), burns/degrades over time, but that's the entire backlight. The image retention problem can occur wherever there are long-term static portions of an image on the screen. A voltage differential can build up across the liquid crystal cell, causing it to become "stuck". Unlike phosphor burn, this condition isn't permanent, and will eventually clear with use. A screensaver can help to prevent this from happening, and help to clear it if it occurs.

I have a very low tolerance for people who think they have the right to tell the rest of us which software we can and cannot use, and in what fashion. If you have no use for an offering, or are too ignorant to figure out the various ways in which it can be used, keep your mouth shut and wait for the next offering.

Hempman, I told you that you should look up technical information before posting. When posting in a public forum, you have an obligation to try to provide accurate information, and others have an obligation to correct inaccurate information. There's no telling how far incorrect information will spread--not just to the people who read your posts, but to the people they pass it on to, and so on. In the future, I won't devote this much time to correcting things which you should look up. I'll also link back to this post the next time these particular issues come up, which I'm sure will be the next screensaver offering.

I downloaded this screensaver, which I find I like, as do my scuba diver husband and younger son. The only thing, so far, I find negative about it is that it 'activates' when I am reading something on the internet, i.e., these comments. I didn't see a setting to control its timing, as in the screensavers one would normally use that come installed on their computer.

Speaking of the word 'their', it didn't and doesn't bother me that Hempman misspelled the word. Although I didn't particularly care for his comments, one misspelled word didn't bother me in the least. I mean, come on people, EVERY body misspells something some time or another.

As for the Game giveaway of this day, I can't get to it, either, though it doesn't look like one I'd be interested in. Whether I get it or not, though, I'd like to thank GGAOTD (those who operate the website, and its contributors) for all the software programs they offer us each and every day. I, too, have become a loyal and faithful visitor to this website, looking forward to each day's offerings.

Hey, Buffet (No. 4),
You had 2 punctuation errors. Go back to elementary school, you arrogant p**ck. Hempman's comments were honest, intelligent, and accurate. Even while being humorously sarcastic, he managed to communicate succinctly.

GOTD, please make a note of Hempman's complaints, particularly regarding the extra, uncontrollable installation of the screensaver manager, and the uninstall issues. There is a reasonable expectation, on the part of your website visitors, that you have already tested the software as much as you are reasonably able, to insure that it is safe. If you offer a title that is flawed as Hempman asserts, you will soon find your audience dwindling. It's basic marketing. That said, i have appreciated the website, and it's gaming brother, for years; thank you for your efforts!

This was the most unrealistic screensaver, with the crappiest graphics, and a 60 second rerun of the the same unrealistic items. Please dont waste your space on your computer downloading it as it is a complete waste. I agree with the crayola comment completely and it seems to me as if the company who created this is just doing it for the money. NO WAY IN HELL would i EVER EVEN PAY A DIME for this program whatsoever the 16 dollars they usually want for it.

I don't usually download the screensavers, and this is why. On minimal settings, this screensaver still spikes up my CPU from 5% to 20% or so. That's way too much for a moderate PC (1.6GHz, 1.25GB RAM, 128MB Radeon on-board card) - it's meant to be a run during idle CPU time, but it shouldn't be wasting cycles!

Nice graphics, if a bit choppy on the animation. Strangely enough, the animation was choppy whether the graphics settings were high or low. When run through the Screensaver manager's "Preview" link, it consistently froze on the "Loading..." view. This might have been memory contention: I took a screenshot of the last time I killed it, and the memory is at 153MB, with the settings at 800x600, 16bit, minimal everything. Again, this is meant to be a screensaver, not a game's cutscene. We're not even going to watch it most of the time it's running!

Overall, I wish I hadn't installed it. Too bad, as the idea was nice.

# 10 I really appreciate your tip, thanks!
About the AstroGemini SCRs it's so sad that despite the developer's efforts in making them the feeling is that there is always something missing: you never find the human being, and the result is a kind of... melancholy!!

I like how the developer finally added a 'Graphics Detail' setting or Min, Average, or Max to allow for adjustments on laptops with speedstepping (max battery) settings to run a little better! Now if you could also add a screen size setting to compensate for 4:3, 16:9 and 16:10 widescreens then we could adjust aspect ratio and have better looking objects :-) Might be nice also to consider an FPS speed trottle control to eliminate some of the jerking. i.e. you could background render/buffer next frame when current frame is easy to help average the FPS for smoother motion.

#11, Whiterabbit aka Stephen, the images you posted look horrible because they're 8-bit-color 800x600 images. Anyone who views them is going to have a completely incorrect impression of the image quality of Pirate Ship 3D. Compare your images with the ones which I posted on BladedThoth's forum.

#2 & #6 - Both Safe’n’Sec Pro and Advanced Biorhythms were featured yesterday as rerun giveaways. Safe 'n'Sec Pro wasn't hidden, it was just featured further down the page. In future, make sure you scroll down to check and see if you're also getting a rerun alongside the daily giveaway.

Another nice looking screensaver, by the way. Thanks again, GAotD.

I don't get the idea of these screensavers. The idea is to allow your computer to sit patiently while you're off doing other things in a semi-stand by kind of mode and to push different color/image effects to the monitor to prevent damage from a single image being displayed at long periods of time...

Why then would you want to use a 3-d artsy screensaver that will make the system have to actually be working (sometimes harder than when you're using it for the more mundane tasks - from my experience with these anyhow)? Isn't the general idea to NOT have the system working hard while you're not using it - to save the hardware the wear and tear so that it has a longer lifespan? Also not to mention the practical costs of running a hard-working screensaver compared to a simplistic (or as some prefer the "black out" effect for the monitor) one that allows the system to sit 99% idle and not run the crucial pieces with that time and effort for something you're not likely to really see and enjoy much anyway?

This is a somewhat unusual DirectX 8 screensaver. It's somewhat whimsical, with simple models and textures, and selectable complexity/quality which should allow relatively low-end hardware to render it easily. I'm not fond of the distortion effects, which you would actually only experience when viewing down through the surface, but they do add some visual interest. The music is fairly pleasant and upbeat, but an electronic score seems out-of-place with a pirate ship. There are several different types of fish, and a fair number of camera paths and angles, which makes the limited modeling less monotonous. I've posted more comments and screenshots on BladedThoth's forum:
http://forum.bladedthoth.com/viewtopic.php?p=235#235

#1, Hempman, this rendered easily, smoothly, and with low CPU on my mid-range computer (Athlon 64 3500+) with a midrange video card (ATI HD 2600 XT). In fact, my computer was recording HDTV at the time (8 GB/hr). I take serious exception to your repeated, totally false, claims that Astro Gemini software has unspecified security/malware issues. If you don't like an offering, say what you don't like about it, don't make stuff up. If your video drivers are crap, don't blame that on the screensaver. We've been through this before. When you claimed that Astro Gemini Wild Dolphin 3D was trying to access the Internet, I posted my security and firewall logs showing that was not the case, and asked you to post yours, which you didn't. I have full registry and file comparisons of Pirate Ship 3D installation and execution. It doesn't install anything unusual, it doesn't modify any files, it doesn't mess with the registry, it doesn't change the execution status of services. I can post those logs, too, if you want. As for the manager, Astro Gemini installs a single manager for all of their screensavers, just as 3PlaneSoft does for theirs. You don't have to use it. The file size is insignificant. Screensavers can be run as standalone animations (that's how I use them). You can use power management with a screensaver to put your computer into standby/hibernate mode; Windows disregards screensaver CPU when determining whether the computer is idle. Running your CPU and GPU isn't harmful, if it were, everyone's computer would be dead. Again, if you have something relevant to say about the product being offered, that's fine. If you think you're being abducted and probed by aliens, up your meds.

The only reason I like when you give screensavers away is to read the whiners comments. Its as if they have paid some sort of fee to belong to the "Giveaway of the day club" and are demanding someone do something about it.

I was wondering if anyone else was having a problem getting the game page to open up today. I can get everything else to open ok. Thank you.

While I do not wish to challenge Hempman's knowledge of computers or his opinion of today's giveaway, I do wonder why he downloaded and installed something that he so convincingly characterizes as an inherent "anomoly" in the first place. Hmmm...could it be that he is a pom pom boy?

This is NOT a very good screensaver at all. The graphics are terrible! I uninstalled it after only a few minutes. I am not a big fan of screensavers, but like them ok, but if one is offered, it should be a thanksgiving theme. Hoping for a couple good Christmas, or winter themed screensavers in the coming weeks.

#2 How did you miss the rerun of Safe’n’Sec Pro? Did you not visit the home page?

Anyways, I would think, with Thanksgiving this week, GAOTD and Astro Gemini Software would have given away the Thanksgiving screensaver instead of this Pirate ship one.

Of course, not all Countries celebrate Thanksgiving this week so, ummm, never mind.

Disclaimer, I like screensavers and use them, even though I know that they don't "save" your screen any longer. It's nice to be able to glance at them when I'm working on something besides my computer.

I enjoy underwater screensavers, mostly because of the sea life. I never use the sound because I have to share the computer room with four other members of my family who don't appreciate repetitive sounds or repetitive music. Astro Gemini screensavers are usually very relaxing to look at. This one is no exception. You can turn off the underwater effect, which I did, and liked it much better.

However, I have to admit that one must suspend disbelief with their underwater screensavers. There is not enough life on the ship, first of all. One or two groups of tropical fish swimming around the sand. I would expect the sea life would overtake the ship since they are obviously in the sunlit zone. Not to mention that a pirate ship from the late 1700s to late 1800s would not be in that good of shape, if it even existed at all. Wood, paper, and skeletons are organic and would have been consumed by organisms by this point. Of course, it could have just happened, in which case it would look more like that . . .

I still like the screensaver, and will keep it.

To hempman (#1),
Thank you for your review. I am apparently one of the few who appreciate screen savers. I was concerned that there would be a slew of reviews bashing the concept of screen savers and not appropriately reviewing today's give away.

I have installed and tried every screen saver provided by GAoTD but will pass on this one. Thanks again for the thoughtful and thorough review.

Here we go again. Of all the software given away here, you'd think screensavers would generate the least talk. You either like them or you don't. I think the reason screensavers get some people so worked up is because you can be a total idiot and still talk up a storm about them.
Take Hempman, for instance, who can't let a giveaway go by without berating anyone who might enjoy it and jibbering at great lenght about things he knows nothing about. Today you won't hear him trashing the people who wait around for the giveaway to change just so they can be the first to post because he finally beat them out! Well done, laddie! Woot! You set a fine example for your 5-year-old. Will he/she be a cranky, know-nothing, douchebag like Dear Old Dad, hurling insults at people they secretly envy for having a life?
Thanks, GOTD and Astro Gemini, for the effort.

"A lot of their ships sank in the Caribbean and still remain their." says it all!

There's absolutely no excuse for writing "their" when you mean "there." Any company which pays so little attention to grammar usually pays little attention to the details that make good software.

Unlike "Hempman" and we all know what "Hemp" is, I found his comment to be loaded with flaws. Being a certified tech which I doubt he is I noticed no over heating of my processor, RAM or even Power Supply exhaust. He must be running an old Windows 98 with 64 MB's of RAM. I found this saver as great as the others by Astro Gemini, which by the way is why they install a screen saver manager. The manager isn't for every screen saver, just the ones by Astro Gemini ( Which I have three) so you can choose between them easier.The graphics are great, the music excellant (Though I always disable it)and if "HEMPman" can color this good then he's a far better artist that Picasso. The saver gives you many options as far as effects go, so give it a try and judge it yourself. Oh by the way, I un-installed it and found no change in my CPU usage which "HEMPman" claims still happens. Then I reinstalled it and still no change in CPU or other temps. I wonder if "HEMPman" is working for the opposition. Thanks GAOTD and Astro Gemini for another great saver. Just for anyone seeking my systems setup it is as follows.

3.0 Processor
1.5 GB of RAM
256 MB Geforce 5500 video card

Actually the level ends when the water pipe is full.

To the giveaway team. Would you delete the last paragraph of my first post above. The bit about Hempman. To be honest, he is entitled to his opinions, as we all are, and I feel a little bad about posting a specific target name. Thanks. sorry Hempman.

Installation is a breeze, with the usual activate and setup files. For those who are new to the giveaway project, ensure you activate the program before you install it, although sometimes it doesn’t matter which way around you do it.

I love screensavers, but this one was very disappointing. When I installed it I checked the configuration box first (see image by following the link below) and thought this maybe a decent one as there were three quality settings as well as ant aliasing. However I was very disappointed with the overall picture quality. It reminds me of a 3D game from around the beginning of the millennium with the poor bump mapping and blocky graphics. There are some good points about it though, for example the panning shots following specific fish, looking at them from different perspectives. The reflections that the artist has tried to create on the barrels for example are totally out of place, as it the occasional sunlight reflection and the watery effect that you see occasionally. The whole scene looks like it’s the first stage in a storyboard version of the screen saver. Although I’ve enjoyed a few of Astro Gemini’s screensavers that was nearly a year ago when we were given a few, which I’ve since lost. Most of what I’ve seen recently though have been sub par compared to other screensaver developers; although I realize that a lot of what we see from one developer we see elsewhere, so I don’t know who the actual developer of theses screensavers is to be honest.

This one will not be staying on my computer as it just isn’t inspiring enough. It’s not even worth scoring to be honest. I tend to run the mechanical clock, or one of the astronomy screensavers, although I occasionally run the dark castle one as well.

Follow the link below to see some screen captures I’ve taken of the screensaver:

All on one page:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Pirate%20ship/


As a slideshow:


http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Pirate%20ship/?action=view&slideshow=true


I’ve also posted my review of the game giveaway below, even though I know this is the giveaway site, because the game site has been inaccessible all day so far. I thought it would help those who have been constantly checking to see if it was finally up to see what the game looks like.


By the way Hempman, I love your reviews, but there really is no need to be so sarcastic about other peoples opinions..... Why? ..... Do you think it's cool to be so damming of others. I don't: I think it shows ignorance and an impatience to consider other peoples feelings. I'm sorry if you may find that insulting, but it has to be said as virtually all your reviews seem to include snide comments about others. Stick to the best parts of your comments because I respect them as I'm sure do others.

Screensavers are just exe files renamed to .scr
You can take any executable, and rename it to .scr to be used as a screensaver, in this way you can automate programs to launch after x seconds or minutes have elapsed without any user input or movement.

If I want to see a "Pirate" ship underwater and "get an awesome opportunity to dive into the depths and take a closer look at one of these pirate ships. Feel the glorious history of the pirates!" I will watch Pirates of the Caribbean again. More realistic.

Jimmy Kolo, A.K.A Jimmy the Geek known as the most trusted security authority as well as his developement of Vista has found this file to have a Trojan which installs itself into System/32.

Hempman's comments seem right to the point, to me. He is knowledgeable in hardware matters, understands software and gives a clear and easy explanation of his opinion. To me, a 6.27 MB screen saver is a behamoth that doesn't need to be. I'm always running away from over-done applications, like Intuit's, AOL's, MS' and the like.

Tony, yesterday's giveaway was advanced bygorithims (or close to that)
#1, in the future try "Unlocker " software to force a program to alllow you to delete it.

I just wanted to say good site and keep up the sometimes good and sometimes bad software. People want to remember it's free and why moan.... If you don't like it then don't touch it. SIMPLE

Hey Hempman (comment No.1), you misspelled 'their'. Go back to elementary school. Those of you, especially the critical ones, who think you know everything, simply annoy those of us who do. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK GAOTD!

The activate.exe isn't working here. I'm running Vista Home Premium and when I run it, it seems to be contacting the activation server and then it is reported as none-responsive and is terminated.

I am an unheard advocate of your site and have sent many friends here. I really appreciate your site and hope the moaners here don't get to ya'.

Yesterdays give away of Safe’n'Sec Pro (rerun) must have been hidden as I missed it (again) and sure hope you can arrange to run it again as it is something I have been looking for.

Thanks and keep up the great work.
Tony

If this is photorealistic, then I have some crayon drawings that my 5 yo made that look just like Cezanne oil paintings you'll be interested in buying.

No matter what resolution, no matter turning on or off additional texturing, etc. the scene looked pretty much the same. Everything undulates like looking through water from above. Anyone who's been diving will tell you that, unless there are temperature layers, one's vision underwater does not undulate. And, even then it is far more subtle than in this "realistic" screensaver.

Also, again no matter the resolution, there is a not so subtle jerkiness to the animation. A "real" "pirate ship", eh? I also have a bridge you'll be interested in buying.

I have two, dual head video cards with linked GPU's with a combined 1 GB of video RAM. Is that insufficient to display this without the jerkiness? And, how come it only displays on one of several monitors?

The music is cloying, not relaxing. To top it off, that ridiculous "screensaver manager" is installed without asking. Bad form installing software without asking permission. It just gets jambed in there.

Uninstall is flawed, too. I always use the Windows uninstaller. But on invoking it for the Pirate Screensaver, I had to try several times. The first few times it refused to be removed, claiming to have already been uninstalled.

Also, something else is going on. Where my idle system rarely got over 5% CPU usage, even typing in here, now it does not get below 8%, with an average of around 10% and many peaks of 20% or higher. Exactly what trash has this crap left behind? Why are services running that were not running before? Why does this want to attach itself to the logon processes? Why is IExplorer demanding 17 - 20% (up to 30%!) of the CPU when it never asked for more than 2% before installing this crap?

Return to a Restore Point, and everything returns to normal.

There are always the cheerleaders and pom pom boys who must be neck deep in crap, because crap comes for free and that seems to be thier only measure of whether they like something.

First, screensavers are an anomoly. VGA monitors are way different than either a CRT or TV. The phosphors are different than what is in a CRT or TV picture tube, and the voltage is a fraction of what older CRT's use. VGA monitors do not get burn in.

This screensaver is crap. Besides the graphics limitations already mentioned, and whatever it is leaving behind that cranks up the CPU usage even after uninstalling it, it eat's resources.

Worst of all, it has the potential to be a CPU/GPU/motherboard cooker. Get a temperature monitor, leave this running for half and hour, then check your temperature sensors. Even a few degrees over temp will eventually destroy your computer.