Is there a way to launch full-screen project graphics other than waiting to enter the screensaver? I don't like to run screensavers because I watch movies on my computer. Also I only run projects when idle. I wish there was some way to turn on graphics at the moment that I stop working, without needing the screensaver.

In Simple View: On the running task, if there is a project screen saver available, it'll show "Graphics available". Click that. You can resize this window, even maximize it.

In Advanced view, select any of the running tasks. If a project screen saver is available, the "Show graphics" button will light up. Click that. You can resize this window, even maximize it.

You can only show the graphics of the project that is actually running, and only if this project has a screen saver of its own. Only CPU run applications have a separate graphics/screen saver application.

Tasks running conventional ATI and Nvidia applications (non-OpenCL) do not have graphics, since you're using the GPU for calculations. With OpenCL there is the possibility to do graphics at the same time, yet because most projects who use OpenCL applications have their apps done by 3rd party people (people who run the project for a gazillion credits a second), they don't release the graphics app as it slows down the calculations and thus their need to receive the gazillion credits a second.

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Hmm, I tried that but a few problems. Because I have it set to run only when idle, when I first launched the graphics there was a note on the graphic screen saying something along the lines of "task not running... exiting in 5 seconds..." So that window went away 5 seconds later, apparently before the task had time to start. Then I set BOINC to allow running when the computer is not idle and tried to launch the graphics again. The graphics button was on the BOINC task page for the specific task I selected, and let me click on it, but no graphics window came up. I tried other tasks. No window ever came up. I seem to have put it in a bad state.

So what I want to do is set it run when idle, and also launch the graphics window when it is running. In other words this is exactly what a screensaver does, but I can't run screensavers on this computer, because I watch movies and TV on it.

Probably not possible.

Tasks running conventional ATI and Nvidia applications (non-OpenCL) do not have graphics, since you're using the GPU for calculations. With OpenCL there is the possibility to do graphics at the same time, yet because most projects who use OpenCL applications have their apps done by 3rd party people (people who run the project for a gazillion credits a second), they don't release the graphics app as it slows down the calculations and thus their need to receive the gazillion credits a second.

Einstein's Cuda apps do use their screensaver app, probably helps that their Cuda GPU app only loads the GPU to 60%, plenty of time left to run Graphics,

Claggy

Einstein's Cuda apps do use their screensaver app, probably helps that their Cuda GPU app only loads the GPU to 60%, plenty of time left to run Graphics

I asked Oliver about this and here's what he had to say:

Yes, all our CUDA apps come with the graphics app.

It's upon the user to decide if they want to use the screen saver or show the graphics. Some like to see the graphics, despite displaying it can reduce GPU performance. One would need to measure the actual differences though.

FYI, when the GPU does CUDA computations the starsphere stops for a
fraction of a second. I thus think that CUDA computations have a higher
priority than OpenGL rendering. Also, keep in mind that even our latest
CUDA app "just" uses up to 75% of a single-core GPU.

As for OpenCL, this uses the same device components, it's just a different language for programming. CUDA and OpenGL also can't just be used in parallel, they can even interact. Most famous example being:

http://http.developer.nvidia.com/GPUGems3/gpugems3_ch31.html

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