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                  ~M8~                                            http://keternal.pestermom.com
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WHAT IS THIS?
-------------
A theme for Stepmania 3.9; if that has no meaning to you, you probably don't want this.

It is also not a theme for SM4 and never will be. Please be considerate and realize that extra work is not an obligation of any themer.


INSTALL
-------
Unzip this inside "Stepmania/Themes/".

PARTICLE is coded in C# (thanks to AJ for porting it); you'll need the .NET runtime if you intend to use it (and I highly recommend you try it out).
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en

Some people have been asking me how to run PARTICLE. Well, uh, you double-click its icon.


USING PARTICLE
--------------
PARTICLE is fairly self-explanatory. Select the items you want using the drop-down menus. If you're running Stepmania at the time, use F2 to refresh theme elements and you'll see the changes on the next applicable screen.

The instructions happen to be on the program itself, anyway, so you might as well just open it and take a look.

The highlight of PARTICLE lies in the gameplay frames, though there are several other features. Several of the frames are made by other authors. The list of frames is as follows, with applicable credits bracketed:

PROJEKTXIII+
Gunmetal (AJ 187)
NAKET CODER:Elegance (Midiman)
GATE:Byakko (Imasock)
GATE:Seiryu (HST)
Arcana Heart (Chelsea)
PROJEKT:RED
PROJEKT:AOI
PROJEKT:Ag
PROJEKT:Au
PROJEKT:NEX
PROJEKT:ZERO
PROJEKT:MOWER
XIII+:PINKU
XIII+:DESU
XIII+:KISMET
XIII+:SINENSIS
XIII+:NUDIST
RETRO:RED
RETRO:AOI
RETRO:XI
RETRO:NAKET
FRAME - THE FRAME (shakesoda)
nachos (Tweak)
Machina (LTC)
Machina.R (LTC)
Ghost (Midiman)
8bitmania
8bitmania RED
8bitmania GB
DAEDALOS

Play around with different combinations of elements, you'll find one you like, probably. PARTICLE saves your data, so it'll be in the correct configuration next time you open it up. It's cool like that.

Thanks again to AJ for recoding PARTICLE in C# and putting up with all the requested edits.


COMPLAINTS?
-----------
Bug reports? Send them right in. PM me on any board I frequent (bemaniso, Bemanistyle, animesuki, KBBS) or post it in this theme's thread if it exists on that forum. These are greatly appreciated.

Complaints about stuff you just don't like? I don't want to hear them. Sorry. If you don't like the theme, go download some other theme. Or hack this one until you like it (see above). I don't care. Please don't contact me requesting that I make a theme about something else, that I move my themes to SM4, or basically any other request that isn't a bugfix. This theme is made to my tastes, and they aren't necessarily yours.

If you have questions, please make sure they're reasonably intelligent before you ask, or I don't want to hear them, either.


COMRADES
--------
k//eternal + AJ + Midiman + Renard: UNITED WE STAND
Imasock: For being a KBBS vet, and the excellent Byakko frame.
HST: Our resident tatsujin, and the Seiryu frame shows he's a great artist, too.
Chelsea: HST's sister, made the Arcana Heart frame
Tweak: Contributed a frame. Also, COOPERATIVE BEHAVIORS
shakesoda: Also made a frame. Unfortunately, shaking soda causes it to asplode.
LTC: Teamwork on graphical elements; also a frame author (with color variant).
DM Ashura: For the wintastic default BGM (SECOND STRIKERS) :D

Zhek: Wasn't able to feature, but still taught me to make all this stuff. Also gave permission for a TM-inspired frame.
Cynic: Started the whole mess. It's come pretty far, hasn't it?

The g//ay crowd: *hi5*
The KBBS krew: *hi6* whoa it's mutated

Konami: For the original design on which this is based.

Special thanks to AJ, Synikal, Sera Anonimo, and NAKET Coder, among others.

Older music is from various sources. I think most are still tagged...


LICENSING
---------
All graphics that k//eternal makes are now licensed under Creative Commons Attribution + Noncommercial + NoDerivs (by-nc-nd). Consider this effective immediately AND retroactively (i.e. it overrides the previous "modification" and "mirroring" sections, as well as those of all Anarchy themes and simfiles).

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/

Note that I am not licensing my code. If you wish to use code snippets or the entire metrics.ini wholesale, go for it, but you may NOT use any of my artwork.

Frames are owned by their respective artists as listed above; eval artwork by MidnightSun; all other art seen here is by k//eternal.

Thanks for your understanding.


AFTERWORD
---------
So am I going to vanish from the theming community? At one point, I was pretty sure that was a yes--but it seems like there are actually still a good number of people who honestly care about the works that we themers create.

In the end, I'll probably stick around until 3.9 is fully dead, and keep clunking away in my corner of the internet as always has been. Here's to the future of SM theming, whatever form it may take.

- k//eternal