Quartz Composer

Quartz Composer is a program from Apple, with which you can develop so-called patches, which are then executed by the Quartz graphics engine.

The patches are based on other patches that are connected to one another via inputs and outputs. Patches can provide functions such as filters and effects, generate simple images and animations, and incorporate inputs such as mouse and keyboard.

The system itself uses Quartz Composer patches in some places, eg in the Visualizer in iTunes, the effects in iChat, or at the screensavers.

The finished patch, in another application, be the Quartz Composer Visualizer, load and run. Furthermore, so is the view and run the patches possible over a network. Thus, multiple computers can be connected together with multiple monitors to a " Video Wall ", each of which only shows a portion of the patch.

Quartz Composer is for Mac OS X 10.4 part of Xcode Tools. Since Xcode 4.3 (which will be delivered only in a single app bundle ) Quartz Composer is no longer an official part of the Xcode tools, but can be downloaded for free from registered developers in the download area.