join the club, vold. i still dont know what some of these things do either. that's why i decided to concentrate on just one component recently. get that one known and then move on. almost all of my early filters were just throw it together and see what it looks like, and if it looks kinda cool, then release it. and that's perfectly fine. we all start somewhere.
i think CF and Uberzev may have more of a background on this stuff than i do, so their stuff looks more technically involved and accurate. they are able to more easily create due to training in other fields, perhaps. byRo is this way too. i'm not. so, i have some steps to learn. but as long as i can crank one out now and then and continue to learn, why, it's all fun and interesting.
and thanks for the open invitation to work on your filters. i may do that. i'm always snooping into other filters to see how things are done. i even borrow a few routines once in a while.
one thing i tend to do with texture filters is, i alter them for my own use. i dont use a lot of texture filters, but i do use a lot of image filters. the difference is simply that textures stand alone and image require an imported image. so, i often alter the texture fitlers to use with images, usually by just adding a blend and image component right before the result.
and CF, someday i'm going to have to look inside your mind to see how you come up with those things

If wishes were horses... there'd be a whole lot of horse crap to clean up!
Craig