So, I'm finally making good use of a 20" Cinema Display that I bought at a great price a few months ago (haven't had time or space to set it up, my room was too messy). And I find that I'm now in desperate need of some good sci-fi desktop backgrounds.
See, for the last four and a half years, I've been using laptops with little 12" screens with puny (but sufficient) 1024x768 resolution. And before that, my iMac's 800x600 backgrounds often could easily be scaled up without appreciable loss in quality. So I've got a collection of background images dating back to early 1999, and I can't reuse them for my massive (to me) 1680x1050 resolution display.
I've got a starter selection of some backgrounds from some astronomy sites, but I'd love to have some kick-ass starship beauty shots and action scenes as well. Can anyone point me to some good collections of high-res background-sized artwork?
Posted by HerbShrump (Member # 1230) on :
30 new images are added every month to their new images section. This is a really sweet site for custom-made/fan art.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
*sigh* I said HIGH-RES artwork, Herb. If you read my post, you'll notice I said I need pictures that are at least 1680x1050 pixels. I know all about Desktop Starships, and they've got nothing more than 1280x960.
To illustrate the difference, here's a thumbnail and full-size chart to compare various resolutions, so you can see just how big a difference there is...
None of the easily-found artwork that's floating around the Web without limit will suffice. Which, I believe, is what I said in my original post.
Posted by Masao (Member # 232) on :
Jeez, Herb was just trying to be helpful. No need to sigh.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Sorry, Herb, I wasn't trying to sound annoyed, it's just that most everywhere I look to find new sources, it always seems to lead back to the same old stuff. I didn't mean to let that frustration slip through.
Posted by Masao (Member # 232) on :
I have some 1725 x 1350 shots of ships Thomas Pemberton did for a Starfleet Museum Calendar a few years ago. They're big, so I can put them up at Photobucket for you to examine and download.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Any chance you've got some good Professor Chaos wallpaper? Eh? No?
*sigh*
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Masao: Yes, please! I actually sent an e-mail request to Thomas earlier today requesting exactly that. Posted by Shakaar (Member # 1782) on :
Frustration is irrelevant- Searching is futile. 1680x1050 is not a common resolution, it would not be logical for a site to post large images on their server when only a fraction of one percent of users would ponder downloading them. I�ve had a 21� monitor for some time (I fear it�s now entering the last stages of its life though), set at 1600/1200... I made a wallpaper for both my systems to give them an identity and then never changed it� my suggestions.. find the highest ones you can find, re-size them a wee bit larger, and then apply them without stretching and set the desktop to black� you can organize you icons in the black area around the image. OR, you can alter new images from what you can find� �find a couple desktops of a ship� combine them into a multi-view of it.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Uh... Shakaar, you do realize that 1680x1050 is the resolution of many widescreen monitors that are starting to gain popularity? There are some brands of monitors out there that have used that resolution for years, and there are quite literally millions of them. (Try here and here, for starters. ) And I know for a fact that there are several websites that offer high-resolution artwork for people with their high-resolution displays. At the risk of sounding testy again, your suggestion is equivalent to suggesting that the owner of a new HDTV satisfy himself by watching four standard-definition TV shows at once rather than one high-definition show. (No offense intended.)
To put it another way, I've got a very expensive, professional computer monitor here, and I want some beautiful artwork to show it off with, dammit! Posted by Masao (Member # 232) on :
These are real big, so download with caution!
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Curses, where's that drool icon I uploaded a while back? I guess I'll have to settle for a really big grin instead... Thanks! Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Just offering my support here : I'm on 1680x1050, too.
Posted by Masao (Member # 232) on :
Yer welcome.
Hmm, I think I need to get myself one of those cinema display thingies.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
Hey, I'm currently running two monitors at 1280x1024 using a wallpaper going across at I guess 2560x1024. I think I dug many of my wallpapers at http://wallpaper.deviantart.com/ either in the MultiDisplay or Widescreen sections.
Lots of good stuff, harder if you have to limit yourself to science fiction though.
Another suggestion is to look for the photography section at the same website. With 8MP cameras and the like and stitch modes, there are pretty nice huge photographs out there and you can crop the appropriate section for your display.
There are a coupla people on DA who do a lot of stuff like that Rings one (in fact it's probably one of theirs), I saved some of their wallpaper packs a while back, I'll see if I can dig any out.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
quote:Originally posted by Masao: Yer welcome.
Hmm, I think I need to get myself one of those cinema display thingies.
You should, they're loads of fun! Very good for watching DVDs when you should be working on PaintShop Pro...not that I would ever neglect my hobby in favour of high resolution entertainment...honest.
Oh and why are you still naming alien ships after vegetables? why-why-why?!
Posted by HerbShrump (Member # 1230) on :
Sorry, I was at work when I'd read the post and I didn't notice the size resolutions mentioned.
Not that I've paid attention to the resolutions on Desktop Starships either. I just know they have images bigger than my monitor.
Posted by Masao (Member # 232) on :
quote:Originally posted by Reverend: Oh and why are you still naming alien ships after vegetables? why-why-why?!
Don't blame me, blame the United Earth Stellar Navy!
Posted by Shakaar (Member # 1782) on :
Mac monitors, meh! *L* Still, 1680/1050 carries a very small market share, and Mac is still below 4%. ....Masao, look at these nice monitors http://9xmedia.com/pages-Build_a_system/X-Top_Design_a_system-Configurations.html *L* I know... I couldn'a stop laughing with glee and envy at the 30 screen "my monitor is larger than the Enterprise D viewscreen" monitor...
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
But as I was saying in my previous post, Macs are not the only computers with widescreen monitors... there's a Dell XPS laptop with a 1900x1200 screen, for example.
Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
And the brand spankin' new 17-Inch Mac Book Pro is 1680X1050. (Which is sort of a joke you'd get if you think about boot camp as much as I do.)
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
That (linked) show of the Amby hosing a K'Tings is swhweet!
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)