Short: Workbench/MUI System Enhancement Package, Vol 17! Author: bjp@interaccess.com (Bowie J. Poag) Uploader: bjp interaccess com (Bowie J Poag) Type: pix/icon Architecture: generic +-+-----------------------------------------------------------------p-+-q |O| ArcsPack-17! by Bowie J. Poag, 2/4/96 |c|C| +-+-----------------------------------------------------------------b-+-d | | | Arctangent's Pack #17 Documentation Notes | | | | :Table of contents: | | | +=======================================================================+ I. Introduction II. System Requirements III. Startup-Pix (Images for your Amiga to display while booting) IV. Index (Images which give a brief overview of whats new!) V. Patterns (Tile patterns for Workbench, MUI & LightWave 3D users) VI. Palletes (A fine array of color sets to apply to these graphics) VII. Programs (Small accessories which make life a little easier) VIII. Sounds (Only available in the Deluxe version!) IX. Other Stuff I. Introduction ------------ Welcome to the wonderful wiggly-world of ArcsPack! ArcsPack represents a incredibly wide array of ways which you, or anyone, can drastically improve the look and appearance of their systems. With ArcsPack, anyone can give their Workbench and/or MUI applications a makeover with a choice of nearly 10,000 possible combinations of hand-drawn tiles, patterns, and colors.. Also, dozens of beautiful startup screens for all Amiga models, and now, the addition of digitized sound samples of differing lengths to be played while your Amiga boots up! ArcsPack is for those who want their system to have a sleek, guilded, polished appearance both inside and out. In addition to other system enhancement packages like Magic Workbench and MUI, ArcsPack is a fast and easy way to make your system absolutely shine. In this document, you'll learn about what it takes to make any Mac or lowly PC user's chin drop straight through the floor by giving your system an eye-popping facelift which will set it miles above other platforms. You're lucky you have an Amiga! ArcsPack is only available for the Amiga community's consumption only! ArcsPack is also freeware. Its a gift from me to you. I charge no money for it, and will accept no money for it. However, if on the other hand you have an opening in your company for a brilliant and incredibly modest young artist, well then... ;) In any event, enjoy it. Its yours--So are the other 16 VOLUMES of ArcsPack which are available worldwide via the Aminet. If you like it, fab--Drop me a line in E-Mail, and I'll make sure you LOVE the next one. My E-Mail address is listed at the bottom of this document. If you are blind, stupid, horribly ignorant, or for some reason dissatisfied with the level of quality contained in this package, please take the time to bite me. II. System Requirements ------------------- ArcsPack generally has no specific requirements--But for those without an Amiga, or a hard disk, or at least a 16 color Workbench, you won't get nearly the same amount out of this package as you could. A system I would reccomend would be: A) An A2000/3000 w/Graphics card (or preferably A1200/4000) B) Workbench 3.0 or greater (For those with 2.x..UPGRADE! Its worth it!) C) ~5MB free HD space to install this volume, or, about 50MB free space to install this, and all previous versions of ArcsPack D) ADPro, ImageFX, Brilliance or some image processing/paint program. E) MagicWB and/or MUI installed. Dont let my suggestion decieve you--You will still get a great deal out of ArcsPack with just an 8-color Workbench on an ECS machine. :) Infact, I dont even own an AGA machine, or a graphics card. My own system is a "lowly" A2500HD/030 :) Future versions of ArcsPack may require ~3-5MB free hard disk space in order to install. III. Startup-Pix ----------- What are Startup-Pix? Startup-Pix are standard (usually high-res) .IFF pictures which your Amiga displays while booting. Kinda like the "smile screen" on newer Macs or the boring clouds you see on Windows '95..Startup Pix are a good way to add a little color to normally dull, blank screens while booting. There are specific screens for ALL Amiga models available in previous versions of ArcsPack, as well as specific screens for all common AmigaDOS versions. Instead of staring like an idiot at a blank screen while your system boots, now you can have a glorious "AmigaDOS 3.1" or "A2000HD/030/882" screen fade in from the darkness instead. :) There are plenty of new utilities on the Aminet (like BootPic, StartScreen and others) which perform the task of quietly displaying graphics during boot-ups without disturbing other programs in your Amiga's startup-sequence. Check them out! Most are written by skilled, reputable programmers who know what they're doing. :) Simple show programs like Mostra or ViewTek can also fulfill this purpose. IV. Index! ------ Too impatient to sift through the patterns to find the one you like? Then this is the place for you--In this drawer you will find several images to preview, to give you a rough idea of whats contained in this archive--Over *30* patterns available in this volume for your Workbench display, alone! Just double-click on the icons, and MultiView will bring up a window on your Workbench to show you. Keep in mind, you can also tell MultiView to use its own screen when bringing up the graphics you tell it to--Just go to its pull-down menu and select "Use Seperate Screen" from the Window menu. V. Patterns! --------- Patterns are what makes ArcsPack so popular--Everything from the trippy and psychedelic to the sublime and corporate are available here. There are patterns and tiles of every humanly imaginable style to be found both in this volume, as well as the 16 volumes of ArcsPack which came before this one. The Patterns are meant to give a variety of variations on a theme; Usually, if you like one, you'll like almost all of them. I try not to sqeeze too much out of one paticular style, so usually several are represented. All of these patterns and tiles were painted by hand, by me. How did I paint them? Well, if I told you, then I'd be out of a job. :) I take a great deal of pleasure in painting these..Theyre fun to create and polish off, and they look stunning in actual use. Whenever I paint, I almost ALWAYS plugged into my stereo with my headphones on, either listening to mods, or listening to my fabled collection of Human League, Devo, P-Model and Kraftwerk CD's..which can often explain the bizzare filenames these patterns and tiles have. :) Why are they all GREY, do you ask? No, I didn't forget to color them. The reason why they're all grey, is because it would be pointless (not to mention incredibly stupid) for me to include 20 DIFFERENT COPIES of the same little tile or pattern, just with different colors. ArcsPack would be gigantic if I did it this way. Instead, the raw graphics AND the Pallete files are ALSO given to you separately, so that you can apply the color of your choosing to the tiles & patterns which you like best. You can apply the colors to the graphics with any paint program, or image processing utility such as ADPro, ImageFX, PhotoGenics, PersonalPaint, etc. Consult the manual for the package which you have for instructions on how to apply a color pallete to these graphics. Don't worry, its easy. :) Future versions of ArcsPack will automate this process. Stay tuned. VI. Palletes -------- A wide selection of possibilities for colorizing your favorite patterns and tiles finds its home in this drawer. Inside the Palletes drawer, are a whole bunch of IFF/ILBM Pallete files. These tiny little files contain all the color register information for a picture. If you load in one of my normally-grey patterns or tiles, and then tell the program you're using to do this to load in the Pallete file, the colors will instantly snap themselves into place, and the screen/tile/pattern will come alive with vibrant color. Its more fun than a barrel of Sea-Monkeys! :) Everything from Clockwork-Orange to Pink-Panther and Grapeity-Grape Purple are included, in every shade, of every color of the rainbow sparing the ugly ones. Once you've applied the Pallete to the graphics, you can save the graphics back out again, which will now have aquired the new color scheme. Groovy, eh? :) A program which automates this process for you is located in the Programs drawer of the ArcsPack-17 archive. VII. Programs! -------- In this drawer, you will find two handy-dandy little utilities. Play, and NewPallete. NewPallete was written by Troels Walsted Hansen (troels@stud.cs.uit.no).. This guy had taken it upon himself to write a program to do what I was describing -- Applying color palletes to image files! To learn how to use NewPallete, just run it from CLI -- It will give you a command template. You can use this program to slap ANY color pallete onto ANY pattern or image. Pretty keen! Mucho thanks to Troels.. The second file here is called "Play".. This program is capable of playing any sample, of ANY length, in stereo. Play is special because it only loads chunks of sound data off disk --as it needs them-- .. So you dont need 600K of chip ram free to play a 600K sound sample. You can play samples of virtually unlimited size with this program, and only use up 50-60K of chip ram in the process. Pretty cool! Since the Amiga's custom chips handle sound independantly of the CPU, your system can now play startup music with virtually no additional load on your CPU. Ahhhh, luxury at its finest. ;) VIII. Sounds! (Available in the DELUXE version only.) ------- Due to the Aminet's restriction on uploading digitized sound samples taken from recorded media such as CD's and Casette tapes, this facet of ArcsPack is not available in the Aminet version. For the lucky few who DO have the Deluxe version of this archive, we have for you a fine assortment of 30 and 45-second long high quality sound samples perfectly suited for playing during your system's startup! Amazingly, playing extremely large sound samples on your Amiga takes up almost 0% processor time, as the workload is handled by the Amiga's custom chips. A program named "Play" is provided for you in the Programs drawer, which can play sound samples of ANY length, even samples ranging into the tens of megabytes in size, while only using up about 50-100K of chip ram in the process. It only loads sample-data into chip ram as it needs it! So, now, we can ALL enjoy a nice little musical interlude while our systems boot. :) Simply move Play into your C: directory, and add a line to the very beginning of your startup sequence such as: run >NIL: c:play (FILENAME) >NIL: ..where (FILENAME) is the name of the sound-sample of your choosing. If you would like to listen to these samples, merely double-click on the icons. If you REALLY want to hear something bizzare, try doing a QUADRUPLE-CLICK on one of the icons, as if to run it twice as fast as you can. Or, try playing both at the same time. Its all part of the joy of having an Amiga, you see. :) The 30-Second sample is the intro to a song called "Wiggly World" off Devo's 1979 "Duty Now For The Future" LP..A classic song. :) The 45-Second sample is from a song from their 1982 album, "Oh, NO! Its DEVO!" entitled "What I Must Do" .. Speaking of which............... IX. Other Stuff ----------- There is something >I< must do. Regretfully, I have the unfortunate task of informing the Amiga community that ArcsPack-17 will be the last ever made for the Amiga. I will be leaving the Amiga shortly, and will be moving to a new platform. I feel I owe it to the Amiga community to provide a method reasoning behind this decision, as I feel its the very least I could do for a machine, and a group of people who have provided me so much joy and wonder for nearly a decade. Some speak of a soul and of a beauty when it comes to computing machinery. The Amiga was, and is a beautiful machine--inside and out, its the closest thing to absolute perfection the computer industry has ever seen in a personal computer. However, this industry also has a cruel side which dictates that sentimental attachment to a machine must fall victim to the relentless pursuit of faster, newer, higher, heavier technologies. The evolution of the machine will neither begin nor end with the Amiga. The Amiga was and is an important step on the staircase of progress, and having stepped there, will now give us the ability to go still higher. Fighting the good fight, albeit noble and well-intentioned, will not always ensure a victory. No matter how hard you try, nor how big the flag you wave, or how long you wave it can overcome the one constant which drives the industry into the future; time. We are out of time. The path of least resistance dictates that the best course of action is to make the best of a bad situation. To take the same energy you put into waving the flag, and channeling it into something you feel has a definite future, and could benefit by your work, is far more noble a cause than to waste your time bailing out a ship which will sink no matter how hard you and others try to prevent it from happening. Circumstances beyond yours and my control prevent us from accomplishing goals we tear our heads and hearts out to attempt to achieve. Thats just a part of life, that must also be accepted, and met head-on. There are new things, bigger things, better things out there just waiting to be explored by individuals just like you and me, a corridor of thousands of open doors each holding something new and equally beautiful to behond; Thousands of open doors instead of simply a light at the end of the tunnel. Keep the memories you have, tuck them away in your pocket and keep them with you wherever you go. You'll always have them. Seek out someplace new, set your bags down when you arrive, and show the crowd the little piece of magic you've got to share with them. That's what will >really< make a difference, so let THAT be the true legacy of the Amiga. By doing so, you'll REALLY show the world how beautiful the machine truly was. My deepest thanks to all who have supported me in my efforts, not just with ArcsPack, but in everything. Being an Amiga user was an experience I'll always remember. There are countless hundreds of people I'd like to meet and thank that have made it so wonderful, so, to all of you, my warmest regards and best wishes in the years ahead...We'll meet again. ;) Goodbye, Bowie J. Poag Arctangent E-Mail: bjp@interaccess.com PS.. Now, why do you think that a man jumps out of the frying pan into the FIRE when he can find a way not to get burned? :)