All the images in this theme (and especially the wallpaper), apart from one or two of the cursors, were created by the author using the Spirofractal program, in conjunction with appropriate image editors for the various types of smaller image (cursors, icons etc).
The sounds were created using three different programs:
The musical sounds are excerpts from pieces of fractal music "composed" by the author with his program Spirotune, and recorded playing on a Yamaha SYXG100 soft synthesizer. These have been compressed using standard Windows 95 codecs, as although MP3_WAV compression gives slightly better results, it is unlikely Windows 95 users could play these files properly. If anyone is interested I can supply MP3_WAV versions of some of the files.
The noises were created using VAZ Plus 1.7. (http://www.software-technology.com).
You may tire of the sounds and icons in this theme. However you are unlikely ever to tire of the screen saver as it generates an almost infinite variety of images, at least once you register it! I post a new "Fractal of the Month" on my web site monthly, which you can use to replace the desktop wallpaper if you wish. I will also post replacement logo screens from time to time. You can create your own backgrounds and logo screens using the full Spirofractal program.
If you like the screen saver I recommend you to try the full program. This will run a little faster than the screen saver. The cost of the registration covers both programs. See the end of this file for more details.
All files Copyright (c) 2000 Alun Williams, apart from ThemeInstaller.exe which is freeware.
e-mail: alunw@freeuk.com
Web address:http://www.alunw.freeuk.com
Download page for Spirofractal:http://www.alunw.freeuk.com/download.html
The Spirofractal screen saver is EXTREMELY computationally intensive, and will use up almost all the processor power it can get, until your computer is fast enough to compute and display twenty frames per second. Roughly speaking this is unlikely to be the case unless your computer exceeds the recommended requirements below, and even on a P400 Spirofractal will use around 60%-70% of available processor time). The program tries to use anything up to around 26 Megabytes of memory. If it can't get this much it will make do with 6 Megabytes, but in this case certain pattern types will run more slowly, and processor usage will increase!
Do not run the Spirofractal screen saver on file or network servers!
Minimum (just realistic) requirements: Pentium class computer with 256 color display and 32 Megabytes of RAM, running Windows 95 with Plus pack and Internet Explorer 4, or Windows 98.
Recommended configuration: P233 or above running Windows 98 with plus pack themes.exe (read on for information on how to get this version of themes.exe without spending money on the plus pack), running with High or True Color display. 64 Megabytes of RAM. In order to get the best out of my web pages you need IE5. I do my best to make them work on IE4 and Netscape 4.6 or above, but IE5 has many fewer bugs and many more wonderful features than Netscape 4.x or older versions of IE.
N.B. The Spirofractal program has not been tested on 486 or 386 computers, or indeed anything other than genuine Intel Pentium computers (from P100 through PII 400, but nothing faster). It is quite likely that it will fail on old computers, especially if they do not have a maths co-processor. Even if it does run it is likely to be so slowly that you will want to watch paint dry instead.
How well the screen saver performs will depend on a combination of factors: processor speed; graphics performance; and screen resolution. Roughly speaking a P133 is enough to run the screen saver on an 800*600 display desktop computer (graphics on portables are often slower and you will probably need a P200), and a P233 is enough at 1024*768. However a P400 is needed before all the different patterns work equally well, especially the 3D patterns.
To the best of my knowledge desktop themes are not supported on Windows NT. I don't know about Windows 2000. This package has only been tried on Windows 95 and Windows 98. The screen saver itself (also included with the main Spirofractal package) has been tested on Windows NT 4, and Windows 2000 , but not yet Windows Millennium edition, though there should not be any problems.
This is a Windows 98 Plus theme, which won't install completely correctly if you are using Windows 95 or standard Windows 98 (including Second edition). The theme will basically work, but the gradient title bar colors will be wrong and the replacement "web view" images won't work either. This is because of a bug/limitation in the standard themes.exe.
If you are using Windows 98 you can solve this by downloading for free one of the additional desktop themes available from the Microsoft Windows update site (they are only available when you are running Windows 98). If you have a file called themes.w98 (or something similar) in your c:\program files\plus! directory you almost certainly already have the right themes.exe already.
If you are using Windows 95 the problem with the titlebars is unavoidable, because Windows 95 does not display gradient title bars anyway. Unless you have installed the desktop update that came with IE4 you also don't need a new themes.exe. (It's too late to install it now if you have already installed IE5). If you have installed it, then if you can get hold of the Windows 98 themes.exe and copy it to c:\program files\plus!, and if you also update your .htt files in the windows\web directory to match the Windows 98 versions you can in fact get your desktop to look almost identical to a Windows 98 one (a lot nicer than the Windows 95 desktop in my opinion). The Windows 98 plus themes.exe works fine on Windows 95, but it is probably hard to obtain legitimately for a Windows 95 machine (short of buying the 98 plus pack! and extracting the file from the installation CD manually.)
Open the ZIP file with WinZip and click on install. WinZip will extract the files to a temporary directory and run the install program, which will guide you through the installation process. The install program works by copying a utility that can be used to install any theme package like this theme. Refer to "Theme Installer.txt" for information on Theme Installer. This utility is needed to uninstall the theme should you choose to do this.
The theme optionally replaces the startup and shutdown screens. It should be safe to do this, as the install utility backs up the current screens, but possibly not if you have used the same utility to install other themes, in which case your original startup screens will have been backed up, and the current screens are not backed up.
If you installed a previous version of Spirofractal, or the screen saver, there is no need to uninstall the old version before installing this version. However, the method of uninstallation has changed, which means that if you later uninstall the Spirofractal directory will not be removed, although all the files put there by any installation will be. If you are fussed about this then uninstall the old version first.
If you are a registered user of Spirofractal, then you will need to re-register Spirofractal, using the file you were sent when you registered the program.
The install process should add "Fractal Theme" and (if the full version of Spirofractal is not already installed) "Spirofractal Screen Saver" to the list of programs that appears in Add/Remove Programs inside Control Panel. You can use these options to uninstall Spirofractal Desktop theme. If you just uninstall "Fractal Theme" if you will still have the screen saver installed.
If your PC is slower than about a P400 you may find that 3D images are generated too slowly. You can improve the performance somewhat by disabling "real-time true color". You may as well do this anyway if you are running on a 256 color display. When a 3D image has been developed long enough Spirofractal will redisplay it (possibly changing the lighting first), in true color. If 3D does not work well on your computer then disable this type of image.
The speed box default setting will make patterns change gradually even on very fast PCs, and stop them changing color to fast. Increasing the speed will make fast PCs develop some patterns faster, but it is unlikely to make much difference for 3D images, unless your processor is over the 600MHz level. Reducing the speed right down will make patterns develop more slowly, and will reduce processor usage to about 25% most of the time (unless you have a very slow computer).
WARNING! This section contains information on how to configure the look of IE5 in a fun way. Please do not attempt to make this update unless you are confident using regedit, and have a backup of your registry. Incorrect use of REGEDIT, or applying an incorrect update to the registry can result in a DEAD computer.
The background of the toolbars in Internet Explorer 5, and the Windows/Globe image that appears at the top right of this toolbar are both configurable. In order to do this configuration, some registry entries have to be changed. Right clicking on the skin.reg file and selecting merge will so this for you automatically, provided you installed the Spirofractal theme in c:\program files\plus!\themes\fractal. If it is anywhere else skin.reg needs to be edited so that the correct locations of the files it references are given.
There is no complete uninstall for this change, though if you remove the Spirofractal theme the customisation of IE5 will disappear, returning IE to the default appearance (not necessarily the same as what you had before as ISPs often provide skins for IE in a similar way.) You will have to remove the registry entries manually using regedit. You can see which they are by examining the skin.reg file with Windows notepad.
If you get this wrong (or I got it wrong), IE5 should still work. However I have not been able to test this out except on a fraction of the possible combinations of Windows & IE versions. In particular I have not tried this with IE4 at all.
The Spirofractal screen saver is shareware, which I hope you will register if you like it enough. Please don't register it until you are happy that it works properly on your computer.
Registration of the Spirofractal theme costs £6 (approximately $10 US). This registration also covers the full Spirofractal program, and any future upgrades of it. If you don't register it the screen saver will stop displaying interesting full size patterns after about fifteen minutes (and will alternate between displaying less interesting patterns or interesting patterns but rather small). There is a freeware version of the screen saver available with less functionality. For more information see the register.htm file. The screen saver configuration dialog allows you to access this file.
The screen saver may not dismiss immediately when you move the mouse or press a key. Depending on the type of image being displayed it may dismiss immediately, or only after several seconds. This problem is likely to be quite noticeable on slower machines. It is extremely unlikely that Spirofractal has actually stopped working, but if it has it can be terminated safely using Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up the task bar.
If you put your Windows 98 computer into sleep mode, then when it wakes up the screen saver may be started multiple times. This is nothing to do with Spirofractal so far as I know, and only happens very occasionally but when it does happen the only cure is to reboot (or to wait until Windows has got bored with firing up the Screen saver, which does eventually happen!). If your computer is anything like mine there's only about a two in three chance of sleep mode working anyway!
I haven't made up the official long and boring licence agreement you won't read yet. Basically nothing is guaranteed and I accept no liability for anything that goes wrong when you install or use this theme. I will do my best to help anyone who has problems and who asks me nicely, and will get extremely angry with anyone who threatens to sue me because they say it stopped their computer working or the screen saver gave them a migraine etc. If you install or use this theme it is entirely at your own risk! I can probably afford a lawyer if you do try to sue, but there won't be any money left for you after I've paid him or her.
Please don't try to hack the Spirofractal program to avoid paying for it. If you do then you should probably value your time more highly, as it will probably take a while... If you must hack software then pick on someone already rich instead.
You may not distribute any part of the Spirofractal theme as part of another package (including other themes), without the express permission of the author. This permission is very unlikely to be given.
Windows and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The theme replaces some files which display the words Windows or Microsoft, or logos, and therefore uses these words or logos in the replacement file. This should not be taken as implying that the theme is endorsed, supported or connected with Microsoft in any way, nor that the software contained in it meets the requirements to display any "Designed for Microsoft Windows" logo (because it probably doesn't, and it wouldn't work any better if it did)