Windows Client Release Notes

Mon, 06/08/2009 - 21:40 — spot

Get it here: http://electricsheep.googlecode.com/files/electricsheep-2.7b34c.exe

Download and double click to install. You can run it either by waiting for your screensaver to come on, or double clicking on the desktop icon, then clicking the "Run" button.

If you have trouble, see the help page.

System Requirements: Windows XP or better.  The screensaver may require the latest graphics drivers to run properly.  If it doesn't run after installation, check your computer manufacturer's website. If it crashes instantly even with the latest drivers, then try setting the monitor number to 1, 2, or 3. And if that doesn't work, then turn on Direct Draw mode in the advanced settings. If you have this kind of problem and want to beta test a fix, please email us (click help for the address) and put "privbeta" in the subject. Thanks!

If it's still not working, get the diagnostic program GPU-Z and send us the output from it and DxDiag and your log file (on XP look in C:\Document and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ElectricSheep, or on Vista C:\ProgramData\ElectricSheep).  You can turn on logging in the advanced preferences.

See comments below for how to set a proxy.

‹ New Sheep Packs Mac Client Release Notes ›
Wed, 09/14/2011 - 14:54 — spot

logging in doesn't work yet,

logging in doesn't work yet, but it should still download sheep etc.

Sun, 08/28/2011 - 23:06 — ednolan

Blank White Screen

I am running windows xp media center edition version 5.1.

I downloaded the program Saturday. After reading as much as I could and understanding the ES website, I figured out I had to set my monitor and computer to stay awake. Okay it will never sleep unless I make it now, lol.

I Created a folder in the 'My Documents' and called it 'My Sheep' I started the ES program frommy desktop link. I clicked the Advanced tab and set the content directory to : C:\Documents and Settings\Ed\My Documents\My Sheep\

My speed is set to 15 FPS in the playback tab. Repeat loops is set at 2 times and I selected Seamless playback.

In the 'Display tab' My Monitor mode is set to Single, display monitor =0 Display speed = 60 FPS. Interpolation is set to off, and nothing else is checked off.

The 'Proxy tab' - I dont have anything in the Hostname. Is there suppose to be something here? I use my username and password.

Now back to the 'Basic screen' When I enter my name and password and select Test account, I see I am logged in, when I select RUN, I get a new window POP-UP and it opens to plain white. I can use the F1-F4 Keys. Currently my F2 screen displays Local flock 32 sheep, so i know I have 32 sheep. It also says Survivors: median cut=16, dead and eliminator=16, but I don't know what this means. And it also says Downloading disabled, read-only mode F3 says Rendering disabled, currently rendering 0 frams, 0 frames rendered, (new rendering allowed) f4 says currently playing sheep#244.48157 (edge) played 34 times, decoding video at 15 fps, directx 9 display at 24 fps, client uptime 6m59s

I have tested Control-F and it works fine. But I have not been able to use the left or right arrow keys, and I am not sure how to play any sheep. Are they suppose to play in this ES Version: WIN_2.7b29 and if so how? When I am in f$ I can use the arrow keys to go forward and back but I dont see the sheep, all I see is the text info like how many times it was played, the last time it was played, etc.

In the 'My Sheep' folder I created I see 3 new folders ES created. The jpeg folder is empty, the mpeg folder has all the AVI files like, 00244=37609=37609=37609, and it shows the file size 3.14 MB (3,301,220 bytes), so I know something is there, but when I play it or any of the AVI files all I see is a black blank screen as I watch the meter move across the bottom of the player as it plays but shows nothing. The XML folder has two files cp_0.xml and it's content says ... <get gen="244" retry="600" /> and list.xml shows the sheep ... - <list gen="244" size="800 592" retry="600">   <sheep id="37609" type="0" state="done" time="1296438415" size="3301220" rating="94" first="37609" last="37609" url="http://ia600408.us.archive.org/8/items/electricsheep-flock-244-37500-9/00244=37609=37609=37609.avi" />   <sheep id="37610" type="0" state="done" time="1296438424" size="4874898" rating="44" first="37610" last="37610" url="http://ia700408.us.archive.org/23/items/electricsheep-flock-244-37500-0/00244=37610=37610=37610.avi" />   <sheep id="37618" type="0" state="done" time="1296438619" size="1120864" rating="80" first="37618" last="37618" url="http://ia600402.us.archive.org/18/items/electricsheep-flock-244-37500-8/00244=37618=37618=37618.avi" /> ... When I go to my display properties and click on my screen saver tab I see the sheep, but then it fades away and shows a white clear screen within the screen saver tab of my display properties window. When I click on the 'Settings' tab the ES Windows 2.7 (beta29) window opens as if I double clicked it from my desktop. The sign in has my name in it but the password field is filled with dots and it shows I am not logged in, yet I have the original ES window open and am logged in on it. After closing this second ES window my Power Options Properties window finally opens. Here I double check my Hibernate, and it is off. Closing that window I go back to my 'Screen Saver' window, and it's no longer recognizing ES as the screen saver. When I reset it to recognize ES I get a pop up that says Screen saver is not responding. I force the error closed TWICE. Reselect ES as the screen saver and I still have the white screen, but it's flashing between white and black. When I select 'Preview' I get a not responding box, again. I close it and my screen saver pops on, but it's blank and then it goes back to the desktop. My wait time for my screen saver is set to one minute. I close my screen saver display window and now will wait one minute. As I waited I received a pop up telling me ...

You chose to end the nonresponsive program, Nature Screen Saver.

This is what it decided to switch to on it's own. I closed the error window and will wait one more minute now. Okay my screen saver started but it quickly went back to the desktop. I am still logged in on the ES Settings window and the ES 'F' window is still white. f4 says it's playing sheep#244.44728 9loop0 played 137 times, but I still can't see any sheep.

 

Any ideas, Im tired going to bed now, but will leave everything running. I'm still wondering if the Hostname field has to have something in it?

Thanks for your time

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 15:36 — spot

  Hi, you shouldn't have to

 

Hi, you shouldn't have to do anything to make it work, it's all automatic.

You should leave the proxy fields blank (unless you use/need a proxy to connect to the internet).  You don't need to create a folder, etc.

It sounds like it might be having some trouble though, as if you got some sheep it should play them.

I'll send you the most recent beta version by email.

 

Fri, 05/27/2011 - 11:50 — monicadc

Repeat Sheep & Poor Resolution

Please help me out - I just downloaded the latest virsion of electric sheep for Windows 7. I have an HP laptop with switchable graphics - if the details about my hardware is needed to fix my problems then I can figure them out...haha...not much of a computer person My first issue is that whenever I run electric sheep it plays the same sheep over and over again....maybe only varying 10 different sets. I've downloaded an additional 20 sheep or so and I've never seen them play - how can I fix this?! also it almost always starts with the same one My second issue is that when I do press run, it looks great playing in a window. But putting it full screen (and when the screen saver runs by itself -- on monitor number 2) really destroys the clarity of the resolution. Please if you have any suggestions for me - i love the designs would just like to see more in better quality!
Tue, 08/23/2011 - 20:04 — bpatek

Sheep only changing between a few

Well, I just installed ES a few days ago, I had it years ago, glad to be back. I have a Win 7 64 Bit system also and also had very few sheep occurring. I took the suggestion about setting permissions, but I also found something else that I needed to change: 1 First the permissions. In my case I went to Windows and looked at the properties of ES.SCR. Go to security tab, then advanced, then select edit permissions. I had three users - System, Administrator, and Users, the first two had full control when I clicked on them, the Users did not, so I clicked on "Full Control" and hit "OK" for Users. 2 When I pressed F2 and it said I had 65 sheep and it was happy and would try again in seven minutes, I decided to look in the C drive/Program Data/ElectricSheep/Content/Mpeg. I saw the hundred or so sheep I had downloaded as a pack. But inside the Mpeg folder there was a second MPEG folder where the 65 sheep were sitting. I think that is the folder that ES was downloading and using by mistake. I think what happened is when I started ES originally and went to advanced and set up the content directory by browsing for it, I assumed that I was supposed to browse all the way into programdata/electricsheep/content/mpeg, but I think I was just supposed to browse to programdata/electricsheep/content and ES automatically uses the MPEG folder. So, I deleted the second MPEG folder with the 65 sheep, and went to advanced and browsed only to the programdata/electricsheep/content Now all is well as far as I can tell. 3. Also, don't forget to start voting with the up/down arrow at this point. The ones you don't like you should vote down arrow and it's supposed to delete them out of your computer. I've been running it for about 15 minutes now and it's great!
Fri, 05/27/2011 - 13:16 — spot

if you just keep running it

if you just keep running it it will download more sheep every day. how many do you have now? it will tell you in the F2 overlay.

but basically we are coming out with a premium version that has more and better (higher resolution) sheep. if you have an account here you'll be notified by email when it's ready.

thanks!

Thu, 06/02/2011 - 15:37 — Einstein47

Premium Version ???

Now you have me curious - are you going to have a pay version of Electric Sheep? I really love Electric Sheep, but my finances are such that I am not able to buy much software these days. I'm concerned that I will need to drop my favorite screen saver because I am not a rich guy.

Say it isn't so...

Thu, 06/02/2011 - 17:19 — spot

The free version will stay

The free version will stay the same, and there will be an option to pay and get more and better. So it is true and it's a good thing :)
Thu, 08/04/2011 - 15:40 — Einstein47

How's it going?

The work on the Pro version? It has been 2 months, and I haven't heard anything and I am getting kind of excited for new functionality.

It has been great that we haven't needed a bug fix in a long time, but that just means more time to work on the next version - right?

Thu, 08/04/2011 - 16:32 — spot

the clients are done i think

the clients are done i think :)

but the drupal needs to support payments and communicate who is a member to the sheepserver. that needs work and our drupal guy is on vacation or traveling or something. things go slowing in summer.... but it is happening.

Fri, 05/27/2011 - 16:18 — monicadc

Now I got it - it says all

Now I got it - it says all available sheep have been downloaded, will retry in 10 minutes
Fri, 05/27/2011 - 16:20 — spot

what version is it? how many

what version is it? how many sheep are in your flock? it shouldn't start with the same one every time if you have the initial flock downloaded.

if you want more though you can get a pack, see the forum topic for how.

Sat, 05/28/2011 - 12:24 — monicadc

it says Windows 2.7 Beta

it says Windows 2.7 Beta 29. Local Flock: 71 Sheep I have downloaded quite a bit of sheep but barely see them, if at all, when it is running.. if I do see them, they don't run seamlessly and kind of randomly start and end. and yes it still starts and repeats the same 4-5 sheep that I've seen a lot. and sometime the screensaver won't even come on. ugh
Mon, 05/30/2011 - 14:01 — spot

if you click on "seamless

if you click on "seamless playback in the settings, it should smooth it out a lot, but at the risk of less variety.

sounds like you would benefit from some sheep packs. with our upcoming premium version, you'll get more sheep automatically.

Fri, 05/27/2011 - 15:31 — monicadc

F2 does not do anything when

F2 does not do anything when I press it. I uninstalled and reinstalled it --- now sometimes it won't even come up as screen saver. I guess i'll have to wait........
Thu, 05/12/2011 - 18:31 — aperture01

Won't start under Windows 7 64-Bit / Fade-in Fade out

Hi All, Just installed ES. I've gotten the screen saver to start on its own once, afterwards it will not start again. It doesn't blink or anything. My display eventually goes to sleep but the screen saver never displays. It will work if I click preview (launch it manually) but not on it's own. What gives? Also would it be possible to have the screen saver fade/in/fade out on wake up like the new Windows 7 screen savers do. It seems to start up like such. Much more sleek.
Fri, 01/13/2012 - 20:24 — Skizzarz

Seconded...

This is one thing I'd love to see... the instant/abrupt change to ES's black screen can be startling and is sore to look at, having a 1 second fade would look flawlessly stunning. I would love to see this feature implemented!

Sun, 05/15/2011 - 15:45 — lord2fight

Same problem

Exact thing happens with me and my 64-bit win 7. Been waiting for 3+ months for this to be fixed =/
Fri, 05/20/2011 - 05:52 — lankaras

Possible solution

I had the same problem, also on win7 x64. Seeing windows 7 already gave me some issues with permissions before, I went to permission settings for C:\Windows\es.scr, added the group "Everyone" and gave it full control. It seems to work now, so I guess this is a good workaround, might even call it a solution :)
Sat, 03/31/2012 - 14:28 — gvv

thank you very much, this worked

 

thank you very much, this worked just fine for me!

i had the same problem in win 7, ES just wasn't loading as screensaver although i was able to see a nice working Preview and others screensavers worked fine,

i just changed "es.scr" properties to allow read & write permissions to Users and now ES is launching properly

 

Mon, 07/25/2011 - 09:38 — mike1981

Please expalin further regarding "C:\Windows\es.scr"

I don't know how to get to this file. I imagine "es.scr" represents "electric sheep.screen"...But I dont even have a ES file in c:\windows..... Its in programs. Also, when I open the ES program and go to log in, any password seems to work.. what gives? Strange.... I have not been able to get ES to work for quite some time now..... and I was about to become a paying customer..... now I'm quite hesitant. Please anyone help. Ever since I installed windows 7 the problem has existed. Thanks! the_greekcanadian@hotmail.com
Sun, 05/22/2011 - 00:02 — spot

Thank you lankaras, we don't

Thank you lankaras, we don't understand how that since it should be running as system... and then why would it work just once? are there other people who can confirm this or explain it??
Sun, 05/22/2011 - 19:37 — lankaras

It could be a bug in Windows

It could be a bug in Windows itself? Like I said I've seen permission issues with Win7 before. For example, sometimes it doesn't let me remove the read-only attribute on folders, even though I'm logged on as Administrator.

Maybe there's a way to check which user is actually trying to run es.scr, make the filesystem put out a log or something? I don't know how, but I guess it should be possible...

I don't know why it would run once, I haven't seen this myself.
Sun, 09/04/2011 - 06:37 — thel33ter

I just updated, was running

I just updated, was running beta 24 on Windows 7 64bit with no problems. I disabled the screensaver during then install, ran the setup with admin privelages, and it worked fine.

Maybe you guys with problems could try uninstalling, setting a new screensaver, then installing with admin privelages.

As a side note, I love this screensaver, currently got nearly 7gb of sheep on my harddrive lol.

Tue, 03/08/2011 - 00:29 — Mantis

Error Connecting

Running Windows Vista on this computer Downloaded the program, when I click run the black window pops up, but happens, and when I hit F2 this shows up: server request failed, using free one. Then around 10 seconds later it says error connecting to server, and nothing happens. If I leave it longer it auto exits after a bit. I tried downloaded some flocks and putting them in, I can see them fine, but the same thing pops up, server request failed, using free one etc. Would something on my router be effecting the connection? Perhaps I need to open some ports for it to work fine. Or is it just that the servers are overloaded now? :(
Thu, 03/10/2011 - 19:10 — Einstein47

XP works fine here

I have been running it on XP for quite a while and this version is really solid. I haven't had that server issue for quite a few builds now. Are you running the latest version? (Hit F1 when it runs). Should be WIN_2.7b29

Does anyone using Vista have any other suggestions?

Fri, 05/20/2011 - 03:38 — lankaras

Connect failed

Not connecting for me at the moment. Win7 x64, keep getting 'error connecting to server'.
Mon, 02/21/2011 - 22:26 — jehuty105

unable to get new sheep, log in..

ok so i downloaded the cool program, and when im in the start window and try to login instead of pressing "test account" it won't let me log in..using the same log in names for this site..ok next issue is tht i am unable to download new sheep, in the sheep window, i press F-2 and watch the count down to see if it works, after getting excitied when it hits zero, it says, "sever request failed using free one," and " error connecting to server" and i get this while logged into the test account , yet it still has my old sheep playing..wtf? i even reinstalled it a few times just to make sure. can you help me and my laptop please?
Tue, 02/22/2011 - 16:48 — spot

don't worry about logging in,

don't worry about logging in, we are still working on that, it makes no difference to download.

what old sheep? if you got some it seems to be working.... let it run overnight and it's likely you will get more.

Tue, 02/08/2011 - 19:32 — luckyv1

my sheep works fine. no

my sheep works fine. no crashing nothn just when i go away from my computer for longer then 30 min witch i have it set to i come back to find out it never turned on but sometimes it will run. i dont understand what am i doin wrong i check everything. i have windows 7. i also notice when i open the sheep window up and click test account after that it will work but i use sheep on my lap top and dont have to do that. please help
Sat, 01/01/2011 - 22:51 — dxguy

ES change from .mpg to .avi - will old mpeg still work?

I ran ES earlier part of last year and it was still using the mpeg format. I'm running a new copy of ES on Win 7 (no problems at all) but notice that all the sheep are now in .avi format. I just grabbed a huge torrent (9 gigs+) of older sheep in mpg format. Will they work ?
Sun, 01/02/2011 - 17:07 — spot

no it only supports the new

no it only supports the new format.
Fri, 12/31/2010 - 15:39 — spot

If you have a laptop with

If you have a laptop with Switchable Graphics and it's not running fullscreen, you might need to increase the monitor number. Try 1, 2, and 3.
Fri, 12/24/2010 - 12:34 — spot

v2.7b29 released

changelog:

1) Update FLAM3 renderer to version 3.0.
2) read-only instances don't write the config file (this could fix some user-report bugs were settings reverted).
3) Fix the bug where changing type size hides part of window (http://community.electricsheep.org/node/724)
4) 50/50 random choice delete oldest sheep vs most played
5) do not go to half speed on battery power
6) no sheep are deleted on low disk space (put a warning on the F2 page instead)
7) read flock recursively from folders under mpeg folder.
8) cleanup and error handling, in particular log more info about DX initialization errors.

Thank you cd81 -- happy holidays to all!

Sat, 10/30/2010 - 16:15 — Talamani

Beginner's Question on Rendering

Thank you for the wonderful program. I ran ES years ago but now I see it is much improved. I've been running ES for about 3 weeks now and have only rendered 2 frames. For most of that time I was also running World Community Grid, and I think this was causing a CPU conflict. A couple of days ago I shut down WCG and now when I press F3 it no longer shows that new rendering is blocked. However, I'm still not rendering. I always get the message, "No work received from server." Any ideas? Thanks.
Sat, 10/30/2010 - 19:41 — spot

The bottleneck in the network

The bottleneck in the network is bandwidth, not rendering, so most machines are idle. When we render HD stuff, then there's lots to do, like last month.
Wed, 10/27/2010 - 18:40 — Game Over

Problems with starting

When i press run it pops up a window and goes away. I tried draw mode too it just makes a window and i can see the art start but then it goes away
Thu, 01/03/2013 - 17:13 — buttsonbutts

Hey, i have the same problem,

Hey, i have the same problem, and the worst thing is that it doesnt create a log file, so i cant give you crash reports

Thu, 10/21/2010 - 09:19 — daniele.soldi

Some Help

Hey guys, need some help! I downloaded last release for Windows, but when I click run from settings panel, it doesn't download any sheep!!
Thu, 10/21/2010 - 14:06 — spot

How long did you let it run?

How long did you let it run? What does it say if you press F2?

Usually it takes just a minute to start, but sometimes the servers are over quota and it takes a long time. Try letting it run overnight.

If it still doesn't get any, then use a Sheep Pack.

Sun, 10/17/2010 - 06:52 — MarkS

Proxy settings

What do I need to do to setup the new proxy tab in the new version? Still a novice, would like to know if I need to allow ES through the Windows7pro firewall? I am using -64bit OS
Sun, 10/17/2010 - 11:25 — spot

i do not believe the firewall

i do not believe the firewall interferes with electric sheep. it should just work.
Thu, 11/25/2010 - 02:25 — MarkS

Login failure

Why are login instructions so vague? And what are the proxy settings for? Please elaborate when you get a chance. Happy Thanksgiving, enjoy the bird.
Thu, 11/25/2010 - 14:10 — spot

The instructions are vague

The instructions are vague because logging in doesn't do anything yet.

The proxy settings are for people who need or want a proxy. If you don't know what that means then ignore them.

Fri, 10/08/2010 - 13:00 — Delibor

GPU rendering?

I wonder... GPU apophysis (like FRACTRON 9000) or realtime electric sheep (GPU rendered)... is it possible?
Fri, 10/08/2010 - 15:29 — spot

even with a GPU it is a long

even with a GPU it is a long way from realtime (~5 seconds per frame). You could use that to reduce the network dependency, but then you would be burning a lot of watts, and the software would be much less reliable since it has such fancy dependencies. maybe someday...
Tue, 09/28/2010 - 02:00 — rgrant06

Windows 7

What a shame that I can't seem to get this to work on Windows 7 :( ... downloaded 2.7b28, installs and will run in a window, but when I try to run it as a screen saver, it just blimps and doesn't come on at all ... lame... any thoughts?
Tue, 09/28/2010 - 10:47 — spot

if you run it in a window and

if you run it in a window and press f to go fullscreen, what happens?

can you generate a log file of the failure?

Tue, 09/28/2010 - 15:57 — rgrant06

running in fullscreen

it switches to full screen just fine, but not nearly as pretty when it runs as a screensaver :) when i go to control panel, and select electric sheep as the screen save, it shows the sheep running in the little sample, but when i click preview, it just blips and stays on the control panel screen ... won't ever come on as a screen saver... if you give me steps for generating a log file, i'd be happy to :)
Tue, 09/28/2010 - 16:01 — spot

the switch to turn on logging

the switch to turn on logging is in the settings window.

User login