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Frequently Asked Questions

If you can't find your question here, please feel free to contact us.
  1. What do I do if I have installation problems?
  2. What can I do if Paper Pilots runs slowly or has display glitches?
  3. What should I do if the screensaver doesn't work on my OS X machine?
  4. How do I uninstall the demo version?
  5. Some of the planes are black, shouldn't they be white?
  6. How do I find out about new releases and upgrades?
  7. What's the difference between the trial and licensed versions?
  8. What happens when the trial version expires?
  9. Why does my screensaver say its a demo version, eventhough I have a license?
  10. Can I install the screensaver on multiple machines?
  11. Can I use the same license for my work machine and my home machine?
  12. Can I give a copy of my license to a friend?
  13. Do I have to pay an upgrade fee to download newer versions?
  14. Does the screensaver work on multiple monitors?
  15. Can I run the screensaver as my desktop background?
  16. Do you use any open-source software?
  17. What is an MD5 checksum?
1. What do I do if I have installation problems?
Installing the screensaver should be very straight-forward. However, if you have questions that the installation instructions can't answer for you, we suggest that you visit the user forums. It's quite possible that someone else has experienced the same problem.

If you are still stuck, please contact us.

 2. What can I do if Paper Pilots runs slowly or has display glitches?
In the Options on OS X, or the launcher on Linux, there's an option titled High Quality (FSAA). Make sure that this option is turned off. On some older graphics cards, there may have been issues with full screen anti-aliasing.

If you still have problems with display glitches or performance, please contact us.

 3. What should I do if the screensaver doesn't work on my OS X machine?
If you're running on OS X, we definitely want to hear about this. Please contact us.

. If you're running on Linux, we can't guarantee that the screensaver will run on every distribution or with every screensaver framework. However, we will do our best to try to make it work with your system.

There's a section of the forums devoted to running the screensaver on Linux.

You can see some screenshots of the screensaver running on various distributions, and the detailed instructions should help in most cases.

If you have problems with a specific distribution/screensaver framework, please let us know. We'd be interested in making our screensaver work for you.

4. How do I uninstall the demo version?
If you've decided that you don't want to renew the trial or purchase a license, you can uninstall the screensaver:
On a Mac:
  • Open your "System Preferences" and navigate to the screen savers, you should be able to find "Paper Pilots" under the "Others" section.
  • Select the Paper Pilots screensaver.
  • Hit the key.
Under Linux:
 5. Some of the planes are black, shouldn't they be white?
This may happen on some graphics cards, please contact us and let us know about your system configuration (graphics card, driver version, OS, etc.).
 6. How do I find out about new releases and upgrades?
If you have an RSS reader, you can subscribe to the announcements forum. News about any new releases or features will be posted to that forum.
 7. What's the difference between the trial and licensed versions?
The trial version has several built-in limitations:
  • It's impossible to save changes to the settings.
  • The trial version will automatically blank your screen after a few minutes.
  • The trial version has tips which pop up intermittently.
  • The trial version will only work for a few weeks and will need to be re-installed.
If you register for the full version:
  • You can save changes to the settings.
  • You can create up to 20 custom configurations.
  • Additional planes are unlocked.
  • You are entitled to all upgrades and bug fixes (which may include new artwork).
 8. What happens when the trial version expires?
The screensaver will display a blank screen with a message indicating that the trial version has expired. At this point, you can re-install the trial version or purchase a license.

There are no limits to the number of times you can install the trial version.

 9. Why does my screensaver say its a demo version, eventhough I have a license?
If you install a new version of the screensave by hand, you must manually re-install your key to get the latest licensed content. Simply make a minor edit to the license string (e.g. add a space at the end of the license, then erase the space). Then hit the install button.
 10. Can I install the screensaver on multiple machines?
You can install the trial version on as many machines as you want.

If you purchase a license, we believe that the license belongs to you (as a person) rather than to a machine. We don't mind if you install the screensaver on a reasonable number of machines.

The same license will work on any operating system. You don't need to buy a second license if you run multiple operating systems.

However, be aware that your e-mail address is encoded in the screensaver files.

 11. Can I use the same license for my work machine and my home machine?
We don't have a problem with this.
 12. Can I give a copy of my license to a friend?
Well, we can't stop you from doing this. But, we don't recommend this for several reasons
  • Your e-mail is embedded in the license information.
  • If too many installs occur, we reserve the right to revoke your license. This means that you risk losing your license.
By giving your license away, you lose control of what happens to that license.
 13. Do I have to pay an upgrade fee to download newer versions?
No. If you purchase a license, it will be valid for all updates and extensions made to the version 1.x series of the screensaver.
 14. Does the screensaver work on multiple monitors?
There are issues when trying to configure the screensaver on multiple monitors under OS X This is due to the way that OS X displays screensavers on multiple monitors. When you want to configure the screensaver, you can temporarily turn mirroring on.

If you get poor performance on multiple monitors, please ensure that FSAA (Full Screen Anti-Aliasing) is turned off in the options (your graphics card may not have enough RAM to run at full speed on more than one monitor).

On Linux, multiple monitor support seems to work perfectly. However, separate X screens does work better than twin-view. With twin-view, the screensaver gets an odd resolution since it runs across both monitors.

It's difficult for us to test all possible configurations. If you can share your findings, please let us know

 15. Can I run the screensaver as my desktop background?
Yes.

Under OS X, there are freeware programs which let you do this. If you're a technically savvy, you can simply run the command:
    /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background
PaperPilots (or what ever screensaver you've chosen) should run on your desktop (underneath your windows).

Note that the command is one very very long line.

If you are running Linux, you have to know what you're doing.

If you run:
    /usr/local/share/paperpilots/paperpilots -root
PaperPilots should run on your desktop. However, if you have other software (i.e. nautilus, XFCE Desktop, etc.) managing the destkop, then you won't see anything.

 16. Do you use any open-source software?
The Linux version made use of some open source software. These are listed in the "About Paper Pilots" menu entry, which links to the open source licenses.
 17. What is an MD5 checksum?
MD5 (Message Digest Algorithm 5) is a cryptographic hash function. When we distribute a version of the screensaver, we compute the MD5 checksum for the download file. On your computer, you can also compute the MD5 sum (using the md5sum application) and verify that what you downloaded hasn't been tampered with.