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The screensaver that never existed
Here is my idea for a project that I've never seen since screensavers existed. Not that I've seen, mind you:
A screensaver that gradually and smoothly (like a movie fade) fades the screen to black over a user-set period of time. So you get 2 controls automatically, the Windows set screensaver time, which says when the screensaver will kick in, then the screensaver-built time, which defines how long the fade will take. But it needs special operation, too: moving the mouse does NOT deactivate the screensaver, in fact, you can still control the programs underneath. This is so that there is no re-waiting for the fade if you happen to need to adjust something in a program that is still running, if the fade has not gotten too dark to do so. Of course, there would be the times you'd need to actually deactivate the fade-screensaver, and this is accomplished by recognizing keystrokes or password, but mouse activity is ignored (or it could be settable to act as a normal screensaver).
I think this is a challenge because the program needs to be 'always on top' (for the visual effect desired), but 'not always on top' because of the special operation I'm looking for with regards to the mouse.
I've never seen a screensaver that does this, let alone anything of quality. If you do a seach for "screensaver" and "fade", all you get is all the screensaver packages that let you fade an image from one to another....you'll never find one that actually fades the screen. At least I couldn't in a couple hours of searching one night.
If you really wanted to get fancy with it, another configuration option could be to control the fade with a user-defineable curve instead of just plain linear. Like say the saver starts at 0% fade, by 50% of the time defined it reaches 30% fade, at 70% time=50% fade, etc. You could define it how you wanted it to fade.
I couldn't think of a way to overlay a transparent screen that would fade smoothly (even if it's just showing a black picture), that is also transparent to the mouse while still being above any other programs (to achieve the visual effect). I'd bet for anyone very familiar with graphics and screens, it could be a simple task. I know I can't do it with what tools I have, but does anyone think they could accomplish a simple project for practice?
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