This semi-hefty collection of desktop textures, intended for use with Texture Installer 2.1 (Avernus software, send them dough) was specifically designed to be used on the full-bodied, mountain grown 16-grayscale screens of the PowerBook 180 and Duo models. Each was lovingly tweaked and harassed to look nifty on the small but sharp real estate of the PowerBook desktop, and I kept the patterns pretty small (no 24-bit monsters here) to keep the drive-space paranoid among you semi-content. Try pretty high contrast and medium-to-low backlight to get maximum grooviness.
I have no specific theme or purpose in mind, and in fact these textures are not designed to soothe the frayed mind or prevent frozen pixels. They ARE, however, designed so that people walking by your PowerBook as you cybernomadically type away will screech to a halt, palpitate, foam at the mouth, and otherwise turn a deep, verdant shade of green with envy--but that's partially why you sunk all that cash into that PowerBook, isn't it?
By the way, all that trash about "the darker the background, the more power you use" is exactly that--trash. Don't believe the hype.
I should mention at this point that these patterns look like HELL on a 2-color screen, so if you got stuck with a 140 sorry you wasted your download time. The patterns will also look a little dull on a 256-or-better display, unless you're a gray kind of person.
I make very little claim of any kind as to the originality of these textures, simply because I ain't got a scanner or a single whit of artistic talent. I think of myself as a halfway house for wayward textures, now cleaned up and passed on to you. To defuse my plagiarism, I am going to document my sources: The fractals were created with the "Fractals" module of the FunScreenSavers Control Panel sold with the Now Fun! package o' stuff; All the 3-D textures were created with an ancient demo copy of StrataVison 3D--yes, Virginia, PowerBooks CAN render damn fast!--and using surface treatments from texture TIFFs I found on the 'net. The cat in "Behemoth Tiles" is the one from the About box of Apple's "simple player." Most of the other stuff was cribbed from JPEGs and GIFs I got online. "Pearl Net" was blatantly stolen from an ancient utility called "Before Dark." Everything was tweaked and dithered with my old version 1.0.6 of PhotoShop; guess I'll sell the car someday so I can afford the upgrade. All processing was done by my trusty sidekick PowerBook 180 ("Behemoth" to his friends) with an external color monitor and the Breeders playing in the background the entire time.
A few of the textures were created by borrowing screen shots from the TextureSynth™ Demo available on the 'net. This is an excellent utility, but I'm afraid I feel the author is asking a little too much $dough for the full version (IMHO)--download it and see for yourself. Unfortunately, almost everything it creates looks like electron scans of an intestinal wall--but interesting!
These textures are MailWare--If you dig, do not dig, would like to dig but can't find the time, dug , or part your hair on the left, or hate cats, or any other such thing, email me and tell me what you think. I'm also game to trade PowerBook tweaks and tips, as well as ren & stimpy JPEGs, .MODules, and other such trash. Highly exaggerated PowerBook survival stories are always encouraged.
No one under any situation is allowed to charge money for these textures--DO NOT upload them to BBS that claim copyrights on all material, or to services that charge anything above media/delivery costs! If ANYONE makes a profit from these I will be hopping mad, unless I get a cut. Otherwise, spread 'em everywhere, as long as you include this document, and have fun. Coming Soon: Volume II and a special list of hacks/cheats for Mission: Thunderbolt!
The all-important Email address: eilersm@gas.uug.arizona.edu
PowerBooks, most certainly, rule.
Michael McEvilley Eilers 11/11/93
Note: Texture Installer 2.1 is part of the Desktop Textures III Suite by Avernus Software (Geoff Adams and Stephen Kraus) and is available from many fine FTP sites everywhere.
