Is it possible to create an OpenGL ES screensaver?

We have developed our own screensaver framework and released 2 screensavers based on it for Symbian Series 60 3d edition.They work fine,but we tried to build an Open GL ES screensaver based on this framework. It is not possible to make the screensaver start, even if we build the simplest screensaver possible,which only clears the screen.It says in Morgan Kaufmann’s book “Mobile 3D Graphics with OpenGL ES and M3G”:

“driver implementations may have other ways to save power. Some drivers may do the power management so that
whenever the application is between eglInitialize and eglTerminate, no power saving is performed”.

It seems like this means that no power saving is possible once Open GL ES is initialized. Does this mean that it is be impossible to make a screensaver with OpenGL ES? There is a power-usage aware application example in chapter 11 of the book. Maybe something similar can be implemented to work as a screensaver?

You can find information about our Symbian screensavers here:

http://www.mobile-visuals.com/animatedwallpaper.php

Digital lotus and Polar lotus has been released and work like they should,but we haven’t manage to get the 3d screensaver Galactic journey to work.

I am probably not in your “target market” but I find the whole idea of running computation heavy 3D graphics as anything-saver is really stupid. Want to save something, battery life or lcd screen ? Just turn off the screen, idle as many hardware components as possible.

Sorry, I can’t help.

Well, that depends on how heavy you make the 3d graphics… A mobile screensaver is not for saving batteries, it is for personalization and entertainment. We have developed 2 Symbian C++ screensavers which do not take up much battery power

http://www.mobile-visuals.com/Polarlotus.php
http://www.mobile-visuals.com/Digitallotus.php

They got over 25000 downloads from OVI in October this year so there must be some people who want mobile screensavers. Anyway,if it is impossible to make an OpenGL screensaver, we will release it only as a game and not as a screensaver.