3D space screensaver

3D Tidal Forces

Fly through the wormhole and out into the void, while up to 999 3D objects get pulled into swirling galaxies by artificial black holes.

3DTidalForces30.zip 1.6 MB d3drm.zip 174 KB

How to run it on Windows 10 and 11

3D Tidal Forces: colored blocks streaking past a glowing gravitron

In VRMan's words

"Tidal Forces simulates the power of gravity (commonly called 'tidal forces' on the grand planetary scale). As you watch the screensaver you will see up to 999 objects get tugged around by up to 10 'gravitrons'. The gravitrons act as artificial black holes and have an inescapable gravitational pull (the event horizon). Every once in a while, you will be pulled into the gravity well, slam into the artificial black hole, enter the singularity, and fly through a worm hole into a parallel universe. It's very fun to watch since it's never the same twice, and the pull from the gravitrons can create beautiful swirling 'galaxies' with the objects."

From VRMan's original description of Tidal Forces 3.0.

Versions

1.0The first release, around 1998.
2.1March 6, 1999. Freeware, Direct3D. Reviewed by Japan's 窓の杜, which compared it to being pulled into a black hole (article, Japanese). Also on the Danish Datatid magazine cover CD, February 2000.
XLTidalForcesXL, a paid shareware upgrade. Not yet in this archive.
3.0The version here, 3DTidalForces30.zip.

Watch it run

Silent clip recorded from the original screensaver running on Windows 11 at 640×480 with Direct3D software rendering. Colors and speed will differ from a 1990s 3D card.

Earlier version: Tidal Forces 2.5b

VRMan's old downloads page offered "the free version of Tidal Forces 2.5b". We recovered it from the Wayback Machine (saved 14 December 2002; the program inside is dated March 2000). It looks different from 3.0: marbled rooms, other textures, and a nag line that scrolls along the bottom asking you to register.

3DTidalForces25b.zip 1.6 MB Original self-extractor (.exe) 1.6 MB

SHA-256 of 3DTidalForces25b.exe: 8c93f2db709e2735565671915f3364ca68493643103bdd9117dc2facb33bcc4b

Silent clip recorded from the original at 640×480 with Direct3D software rendering.

Tidal Forces 2.5b: a purple, orange and blue wormhole tunnel with colored blocks flying toward the viewer — Wormhole tunnel

Tidal Forces 2.5b: a bright burst at the end of a tunnel with green blocks around it — The light at the end

Tidal Forces 2.5b: glass cubes drifting across a red marbled room — The red room

Tidal Forces 2.5b: a white gravitron ring pulling a swarm of cubes — Gravitron at work

F1	Show the key list while it runs
1 – 8	Change camera viewpoint
9	Jump into the black hole at once
0	Pick a different object to watch (mainly views 1 and 2)

Changes in 2.5 from 2.1, per the readme: bug fixes for various hardware, better timing code, fewer DirectX 7 incompatibilities and a couple of uglier textures replaced. TidalForcesXL, the registered version, cost $5.95 and let you change textures and physics. On Windows 11, use a 32-bit display mode (Tidal Forces 3.0 quit at once on the 16-bit mode that Settings offers first).

Screenshots

3D Tidal Forces: colored glass cubes swirling around the glowing gravitron inside a gray room — Gravitron at work

3D Tidal Forces: cubes pulled toward the gravitron from across the room — Cubes pulled in

3D Tidal Forces: a bright burst with beams of colored light streaking out of a tunnel — Into the light

3D Tidal Forces: orange and purple beams rushing through a warped tunnel — The warped tunnel

3D Tidal Forces: a swirling red and blue pattern filling the screen — Red and blue swirl

What people said

"may be one of the coolest screen savers ever."
ZDNet

「3D Tidal Forces」は…見続けていると不思議な感覚に包まれていくスクリーンセーバー。
"A screensaver that, the longer you watch it, wraps you in a strange feeling."
窓の杜 (Mado no Mori, Impress Watch), Japan

"I can watch it for hours and the frame rate is very high (25-45 fps with 200 mixed objects, 800×600). And the excellent music makes it perfect!"
Stephan C. Schmidt

"Tidal Forces is undoubtedly the best screensaver yet!! The graphics are unreal. And the most unbelievable thing was it was free!!"
Jim, in a letter to VRMan