The origin story of the Windows 3D Pipes screen saver



 The Old New Thing Blog:

Gizmodo calls it “the best screensaver of all time.” They’re referring to the Windows 3D Pipes screensaver, a mesmerizing network of pipes constructed in 3D before your very eyes. How did this iconic screen saver come to be?

One of my old friends told me how he got 3D Pipes added to Windows.

At the time, he was on the Windows OpenGL team. They had successfully implemented the API with hardware acceleration, but had nothing to show it off. Windows NT 3.5 was very close to shipping with OpenGL support, but there was nothing in the product that let the user know that this feature even existed. He had to find a way to advertise the feature without risking product stability.

That’s when it occurred to him to use a screen saver. This provided a point of visibility to the user, and it was relatively low risk, because if there was a problem, they could just tell users, “Sorry, don’t use that screen saver.” (This was in the days before widespread Internet access, and long before it became commonplace for operating systems to auto-update.)

He announced a team-wide screen saver writing contest: Build your best screen saver, and the one that gets the most votes will be added to Windows NT.

The Windows OpenGL team took the contest to heart, and it wasn’t long before they had written 3D Text, 3D Maze, 3D Flying Objects, and, of course, 3D Pipes. He sent email to the entire Windows NT development team with instructions on how to install these new screen savers and where to send in their votes.

By a stroke of luck, one of the people to see these new screen savers was a member of the marketing team who tried them out the night before an already-scheduled visit in New York City with a major computer industry magazine. He loved them and wrote back, “You can call off the vote. We’re adding all of them to the product!”

And with that one piece of email, 3D Pipes and all the other 3D screen savers got added to Windows.

As the Gizmodo article notes, you can now run a reconstruction of the 3D Pipes screen saver right in your Web browser. Enjoy the nostalgia.


 Source:

 

Download the ZIP version.

These scan 100% clean locally and at Virustotal.


From the Readme.txt...

These Screensavers were ripped from a Fresh XP and 98 virtual machine 100% of all screensavers are in this pack
besides starry night i threw that in from after dark.

Drop these in your Windows/System32 folder and then go to screensaver settings and they should be there
 
Last edited:

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It does not look as good as the original? I notice the nodes are not truly spherical, but a bit angular? How do you get the 'secret' teapot node to appear?
 

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    Edition Windows 10 Home
    Version 22H2 build 19045.3570
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It does not look as good as the original? I notice the nodes are not truly spherical, but a bit angular? How do you get the 'secret' teapot node to appear?


That's cause the graphics cards back then couldn't show the "angular nodes".
I noticed the same thing with 3D Pipes on Windows 7, with a GTX 780 Ti

But on Windows XP with a 6800 GT... the nodes were spherical.

This IS the actual Windows XP... 3D Pipes.scr file
 

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    Still assembled, still runs. Haven't turned it on for 13 years?
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I don't think screen shot works on screen savers...
You can but not as nice, using 10 second delay.
This is the confused barbershop screensaver or is it an endless Xmas treat?

Screenshot 2024-06-12 180839.jpeg
 

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Note: After I installed it... it doesn't show up in C:\Windows\System32 ...with the Win 11 screensavers.


I searched the C:\ drive for: 3D Pipes.scr ...and this is the result...

Image1.png
 

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How do you get the 'secret' teapot node to appear?
Teapots were only in certain versions; I know the Windows 2000 version had it. You got them if you set option to use mixed joint types.
 

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Just updated post #2....

I found ALL the Windows 98/XP screensavers.
They scan 100% clean locally, and at Virustotal. :-)


The pipe "joints" are rounder, and as mentioned above... the Teapot Easter Egg was only in the Windows 2000 version of 3D Pipes. :(
 
Last edited:

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    Built by Ghot® [May 2020]
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
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    Asus Pro WS X570-ACE (BIOS 4702)
    Memory
    G.Skill (F4-3200C14D-16GTZKW)
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA RTX 2070 (08G-P4-2171-KR)
    Sound Card
    Realtek ALC1220P / ALC S1220A
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell U3011 30"
    Screen Resolution
    2560 x 1600
    Hard Drives
    2x Samsung 860 EVO 500GB,
    WD 4TB Black FZBX - SATA III,
    WD 8TB Black FZBX - SATA III,
    DRW-24B1ST CD/DVD Burner
    PSU
    PC Power & Cooling 750W Quad EPS12V
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    Cooler Master ATCS 840 Tower
    Cooling
    CM Hyper 212 EVO (push/pull)
    Keyboard
    Ducky DK9008 Shine II Blue LED
    Mouse
    Logitech Optical M-100
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    300/300
    Browser
    Firefox (latest)
    Antivirus
    Bitdefender Internet Security
    Other Info
    Speakers: Klipsch Pro Media 2.1
  • Operating System
    Windows XP Pro 32bit w/SP3
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Built by Ghot® (not in use)
    CPU
    AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (OC'd @ 3.2Ghz)
    Motherboard
    ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition
    Memory
    TWIN2X2048-6400C4DHX (2 x 1GB, DDR2 800)
    Graphics card(s)
    EVGA 256-P2-N758-TR GeForce 8600GT SSC
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ViewSonic G90FB Black 19" Professional (CRT)
    Screen Resolution
    up to 2048 x 1536
    Hard Drives
    WD 36GB 10,000rpm Raptor SATA
    Seagate 80GB 7200rpm SATA
    Lite-On LTR-52246S CD/RW
    Lite-On LH-18A1P CD/DVD Burner
    PSU
    PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad EPS12V
    Case
    Generic Beige case, 80mm fans
    Cooling
    ZALMAN 9500A 92mm CPU Cooler
    Mouse
    Logitech Optical M-BT96a
    Keyboard
    Logitech Classic Keybooard 200
    Internet Speed
    300/300
    Browser
    Firefox 3.x ??
    Antivirus
    Symantec (Norton)
    Other Info
    Still assembled, still runs. Haven't turned it on for 13 years?

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