The original#

The 3D Pipes screensaver shipped with Windows NT 3.5 in 1994 and became an icon of the Windows 95 era. It rendered an endless network of metallic pipes growing through empty space, turning at 90-degree angles, connecting with ball joints.

There was something hypnotic about watching it. Pipes appearing from nowhere, filling the void, then clearing and starting over.

Why it’s here#

The Calling the Plumbers post is about infrastructure, backend work, and knowing when to call in experts. The pipes screensaver felt like the right visual metaphor. Implementing it as a hidden background animation felt more interesting than dropping in a static image.

How it works#

The animation uses Canvas 2D with a simplified 3D projection. Each pipe:

• Starts at a random position in 3D space
• Moves forward in its current direction
• Has a small chance to turn 90 degrees each step
• Draws a gradient-shaded tube segment with depth-based width
• Places a radial-gradient ball joint at each turn
• Dies when it hits the edge or exceeds its lifespan

Multiple pipes grow simultaneously at ~5% opacity so they’re barely visible. The occasional accent-colored pipe adds subtle interest without being distracting.

The toggle saves your preference to localStorage, so if you turn it on, it stays on when you come back. It respects prefers-reduced-motion and won’t run at all if you have that set.

The controls#

Default is off. The button strip in the left gutter (horizontal above the timeline bar on mobile) has six controls:

• Power — Turn the animation on or off (persisted across visits)
• Play/pause — Temporarily pause or resume without turning it off
• Speed (1x/2x/4x/8x) — Cycle through speed multipliers
• Clear — Wipe the canvas without stopping the animation
• Fullscreen — Screensaver mode, full opacity with a solid background. Click the canvas or hit Escape to exit
• Info — Links here

Switching themes updates the color palette without restarting the animation.