I would like a greyish lavender colour for the digital clock. Between the candy pink and aubergine. A nice subtle colour. All the other things I asked so far have been just me repeating what other people said. I really would like this colour.

Sounds dreadful. Give me RGB values, and I'll put it in.

161/135/167

Thanks Jim. It shall forever be known as dreadful Nicki lavender :D

That's a really bad color. It hardly shows up at all.

Would it make a difference if you were using a dark, background lighting selection?

No problem, Jim.

Dreadful Nicki Lavender does appear light when using a light and bright background, but so may some of the other colors. Sometimes a dclock/cal color may simply be too close to the background color to show up well. With 15 choices, a user should be able to pick something that looks acceptable.

Thank you for at least giving us some choices and the opportunity to voice our opinions.

Maybe I chose one that's too subtle. You're right Jim it looks pretty bad.

Is 119/83/108 any better?

Hi, just wanted to report that beta11f works perfectly on my Windows 7x64 system.

I really like the changes and they work well.

Looking forward to the next version :-)

Splashy - thanks for the report.

Nicki - that color is just about as bad. The whole point of the colors that I chose is the fact that they show up pretty well against any background color. You can use a screen-grab of the crystal and a paint program to try different colors for the font.

OK, we'll forget the dreadful lavenders then. Though I still might consider it for my bedroom walls. Thanks for taking the time to look into it.

Hi,
With the ability to change colors of the tank I was wondering how hard it would be to be able to link this with the time on the computer so you could have the color change with the time. ie day to night. I am not sure if this can be done with ease or is a hugh project. Oh, by the way, Beta 11F is working fine on Windows XP and Vista premium 64. Have tested on both>

In the software business, we call this "feature creep", where one feature leads to another, and you end up never getting anything done. Right now, I need to concentrate on finishing the etched-font for the digital clock, and sending the package off to Prolific so that the cast-of-thousands can start working on all the translations, Mac version, hardcopy version, packaging, website changes, etc.

Hi Mr. Sachs,
Thanks for the quick response. I do understand the problems with getting a program done and out on the market and was just making a quick suggesting. I love your program the way it is and think you've done an outstanding job but just thought that was an idea to maybe work on down the road.
Thanks again for getting right back to me. Keep up the good work. :) Gat :)

Minor "bug" / annoyance with the Music / Sounds feature.

I normally do not have either the music or bubble sound on.

While testing the music playback screen (for the readme file) I added some MP3s to test it.

Not only did the MP3 play, but the Bubble sound activated, too!

Anyone else getting this on 11f?

Please describe exactly, step by step, what you did.

I tried to duplicate what you said. Including starting conditions.

A. Started MA3 from the desktop icon, pressed space, clicked Music Playlist.
B. Note: I normally do not have either sound on, so I didn't touch that (didn't open Program Settings panel at all).
C. I added an MP3 to the music list (it already had 4 things in it).
D. Clicked OK (twice).

Music didn't play, bubbles didn't make a sound. (I do have the bubble column "on", by the way).

Pressed space bar, clicked program settings, and verified that neither box was checked.
I'm sure I'm missing something?

Dale -

After adding a few MP3s, in the Playlist screen I played part of a song or two and then "OK"-ed out of the screen. I then heard both the music and the bubbles and discovered that both were now checked in "Program Settings". I, too, have the Bubble Column on.

Odd. I've just tried and I can not duplicate this. If I do, I'll make another note of it.

** First 2 Lines Comment ** Jim, it's a bug that should be fixed.
Beta 11f, and I can't see how this could be due to Windows 7.

OK, the thing I hadn't done was "Play".

I can duplicate this with the music, repeatedly and precisely, without adding or removing anything. I currently have 7 items in my music playlist - CanonGuitar.sgt plus one .mid, one .wav, and four .mp3s

Started MA3 using the desktop icon.

A. Confirm in Program Settings that "Music" is not checked.
B. Open Music Playlist, highlight anything (CanonGuitar.sgt will do), and click Play.
C. Click on OK - note that the Settings panel comes up, and the music plays.
D. Look in Program Settings, and note that "Music" is now checked.

The various other logical tests (clicking stop, exiting, etc. etc.) don't change that.

Confirmed the same behavior using the other two ways of starting MA3. Did not do any testing in windowed mode, though.

I did not ever observe the bubble sound turning on, though.

Playing music turns on the Music. If the bubble sound comes on at the same time, that would be a bug.

Yes, and while I'm certain it happened, I can not repeat it.

Unless someone else reports it (or it happens again to me), I guess I'd suggest you file it away in the "quirk" file.

Uh oh - it appears 11f has expired.

While I can revert back to a previous version, it doesn't help me with the writing of the readme.

Jim - how about a quick "11f.1"?

I am running 11e. When I download 11f and try to run it a message appears saying "MA3 Beta Test 10 has expired" !!

Or you just turn back your date/clock on your computer...

Which may then mess up other installed programs....

:confused:

** two lines ** I personally prefer that doing something in the "Music Playlist" panel should not change anything in the "Program Settings" panel. But at least, "Play" and "Stop" should be consistent.

OK, then logically, Stopping the music (in the Music Playlist panel) should turn off the music (i.e., uncheck the Music box in the Program Settings panel).

Same behavior in 11e, by the way.

JohnWho, Jim's comment seems to confirm that turning on the music is "intended behavior". Perhaps it depends on how many things are in the playlist, or whether there's some particular filetype (like .sgt), or what length the paths are, or whatever. I think it's unlikely to be something that depends on the version of Windows. I just don't have the time or inclination to test every possible combination.

Re: Pressing Stop should turn off the Music in the Settings Panel -

Fair enough. I have changed the code thus:

If Music was already on when you brought up the Playlist panel, then it will still be on when you exit the panel, no matter what you have done with the Play or Stop buttons.
If Music was off when you entered the Playlist panel, pressing Play will turn Music on until you hit Stop. If you don't hit Stop, Music will be on until you turn it off in Program Settings or hit "M".

** 2 Lines ** Please fix any other strange or inconsistent behaviors, too.

Strange behaviors include:

If music is "on" in Program settings, opening the Music Playlist screen stops the music that was playing for the "Settings" panel. You only get the music to play (while on the playlist screen) if you click on "Play".

With a blank playlist, clicking on "Play" plays music. (Of course, that may not be inconsistent, I guess).

The current behavior is necessary. DirectMusic is a complex and finicky beast to control. I had all kinds of problems with it (crashes, page faults, etc.) until I added code which stopped the current music whenever the Playlist panel was brought up.

Busy getting 11g out...

Understood. I still prefer the "other" behavior for Play/Stop, [Alternatively, please put a visible note on the Music panel that explains the side effects (plural) of the two buttons]

And yes, I do recognize that there would be some more programming work involved in saving the "before" status of Play, and restoring it later. It's much less programming to just make "Stop" turn off the program setting.

Clearly your call, of course.

Makes sense to me and sounds like something we'll be able to test in 11g.

I'll reflect this in the Readme file, once I try it, so I can explain it in the appropriate place(s).

OK. I still request that there be some information about this, displayed in the "Music Playlist" panel.

OK, after a bit more thought, I'd prefer that the "play" and "stop" in the Music Playlist screen only affect the user while in that screen and not have any effect on the general Program Settings one way or the other.

In my opinion, this would be more consistent with this phrase which I believe is correct for all settings screens:

"Changes you make on this screen will only take effect when you click on the "OK" button. Clicking "Cancel" will not save your changes and all settings will remain as they were."

(Quote from Preliminary Proposed MA3.1 Draft Readme.txt) :)

That is how Cancel already works. I runs the ReadRegistry() routine, which replaces everything with the last saved value.

By the way - the holdup on 11g is the Limit Frame Rate feature. I was hoping to get it working for this release, but haven't come up with an algorithm that works. It keeps hunting for the proper frame rate. In my flying days, we called it a PIO - Pilot-Induced Oscillation. By correcting for a variation which happened a second ago, your corrections build up until you overshoot the proper pitch angle, so you correct for that, and so on until the oscillations get really wild. I may have to shut the feature off for this release.

Is the new "Limit Frame Rate" feature necessary or just one of those "nice to have new" features?

Maybe it can wait until MA 3.11?

Just wondering out loud.

It will definitely be in 3.1, just probably not working very well in v11g.

Overcorrection resulting in Oscillation is a real problem in the process industry. Oil refineries, dairies, paper plants, etc. My dad worked in this industry for 50 years and was one of the pioneers in how these facilities are controlled and laid out. Process control uses a PID to keep things from getting out of hand.

But in your situation, what I would do is when you are going to have a reaction, multiply by .8 before applying it. This way you will never overreact. Instead, you'll see a target and creep up on it, rather than the chance of overshooting it.

The problem with that is the Sleep command can't use decimals, only whole numbers.

Suppose, when the "Limit Frame Rate" option is selected and once the program starts, and once the 2 ossilating "Sleep" numbers are determined, you then have the program "select" one of them, which would immediately stop the ossilation?

Just a thought.

I was leaning the other way - oscillating more often for a smoother average FPS.

Which would provide a lower CPU usage?

It would be a proportional amount for whatever FPS you set, switching rapidly between the two CPU usage amounts.