1.1wide ..... Yes.
2.01 ..... No.

OK, so there's still something that's different in the way the program is talking to your monitor. Using Desktop resolution should not produce a click if the following are true:

1. Bits-per-pixel are also the same. You've said that they are all set to 16-bit, so that's not it.

2. Refresh override is not set in DXDIAG. If it is, then the monitor will click when it switches from the Desktop to any Direct3D application. Even so, I don't see how this would greatly affect the frame rate, and it should work the same for both versions anyway.

One more minor thing to test: Could you switch the French Angels with some other fish? The French Angel now uses mipmapping. Any fish without stripes should be safe.

Right! - I'm sorry if I misled, - but I assumed you would know that 1.1wide would HAVE to be set to 1280x720x16 and the monitor asked to 'remember', if the aspect ratio was to be correct on a 4x3 monitor. (ie the monitor will click for 1.1)

I have just temporarily changed 1.1wide to Desktop resolution, - picture then stretched vertically, no click, but no noticeable change in fps either!

Changed French Angels to Regal Tangs, ..... no change in fps!

'Display Properties/Settings/Advanced/Monitor/Refresh Frequency' has always been set to 100Hz, and Refresh override in DXDIAG set to 100.

OK, those items were worth a shot.

Cliff,
Based on the results that you provided Jim, the difference in fps will have to be CPU related. Your video card is not even working hard at all.

There must be a CPU operation that has changed from 1.1Wide to MD.

Since I don't have the original 1.1Wide source (Will has it), I can't be sure what else changed.

I am looking for other ways to speed it up that might help you though.

Dumb question. What happens if you turn off 'Limit FPS' ?

I actually missed that setting but the limit frame rate might change the result.

:rolleyes: It makes a marked improvement!!!!! :TU: - Sod it! - Where've you been for the past few days? ;);)

It's 1:25 am! ......... I'm going to bed! ..... will do some more checking tomorrow! :)

Morgan,
After your comment on the 'Beta Testing suggestion' thread, (which I'm quite happy with, - no problem there! :) ), lets just make this joking abundantly clear! :) so no one else misunderstands. ( - this IS read all over the world!)

That's British humour, - meaning, 'Well done! - just the job! - now if only you could have mentioned that earlier!!!' :):)

Now to more serious testing! :) .....

I can't explain why Edgar's test version changed from at first only a very slight improvement, to a much better one! - Could it be linked to re-booting or something? I don't know!

Turning off 'Limit FPS', as Morgan suggests, also makes a worthwhile improvement.

Added together, it now means that a fps of 23/24 has gone up to 30/31 ........ very close to v1.1wide !!!!!

Dumb question from me now! ;) - Why do we need 'Limit FPS' on MA2? - it makes no difference on my system, the CPU Usage is always around 80+% - what ever the FPS Limit setting is, - or even if there's none at all!

With information passing via PM's, emails, and the forum, (from four people), things are getting over complicated. - Is it OK to keep most of it here within this thread? ..... (IF any more is needed, that is!)

Morgan, - I recently sent you a PM regarding 'readme file/information/explanation' ...... all this is making that need all the more necessary! - IMO!

As for the FPS in MA2 MD(wide), compared to 1.1wide, ........ I consider it now solved!!!!! :TU::TU::TU:

Thanks for everyone's interest!

Drinks all round! ..... :cheers: :bigdrink:

Tada!!!
 

I'm stupid, forget I said I couldn't get it working before... I thought it was supposed to be able to stretch... Clone mode works great, I just unchecked the "black" boxes for each screen and it worked first time! :) Only 12 FPS though, but that's really not too bad considering... Now, should I add a 6th monitor (because I can) or is the record already mine??? :)

Cliff,

Answer to dumb question..

Just because your system can't push the SS past 60fps, doesn't mean that others don't have one that can. Some at full steam can do 200+fps, and its nice for them to have the option to reduce the cpu usage under those conditions. You need some sleep.

Putting that one on top of the middle one, I suppose?

Damn neat, Doc. That should get you a spot on prolific's site...

I have one more PCI G450 so I could add up to three more if I had another couple spare monitors...

Let that be a warning to anyone who challenges me!!! ;)

LOL...guess i wont try and steal your thunder then...LOL

I have 2 flat panels set up side by side, I will post a pic whe I can...

I hope the fix the windowed problem as well, I love having the thing run in windowed mode on my sec. monitor while I work in the other... makes the day go by faster...LOL

Thanks for the answer Michael, - but don't you agree that these are the sorts of details that should be explained in the 'readme' file that I keep banging on about! ..... (and that Morgan appears to have ignored! ;);) )

ps, ....... Much refreshed after a few hours shut-eye! :)

I finally had the chance to give the new version a try on my dual-monitor setup.

While I was really hoping for stretching the aquarium across both monitors, I appreciate the ability to blacken the second monitor.

On my Matrox G450-32MB setup, clone mode takes the frame rate from about 30fps to 15fps in 32-bit mode. If I reduce to 16-bit, I can squeeze 20fps out of it.

I recently upgraded my CPU from a P4-2.4 to a P4-3.06 with Hyperthreading, and it had no effect on the frame rate. I would surmise from that result that my video card was and is the limiting factor in the frame rate.

Switching to Windowed mode so that the window is about 640x480-ish makes it go much faster, upwards of 90-100fps which is kind of cool.

Even cooler is setting it for Widescreen mode! Somehow the aquarium looks more real in widescreen than it does 4x3. I guess that's since I've never had a 4x3 aqaurium...

In windowed mode, I cannot get it to continue refreshing on Monitor 2, the display just freezes until I move the window back to Monitor 1. I would imagine that has to do with a hardware overlay or 3-D acceleration issue with the dual-monitor support on the G450 card.

I have the dual-head mode set up for separate resolutions and separate pallettes, mainly so that I can retain my desktop icons and taskbar on Monitor 1 only.

I haven't tried to set it to stretch the desktop across both monitors to see if MA2.01 can go wide across both. Would that work?

Also, I didn't notice a discussion yet of the "Delay" slider for the Automatic Lights. The best I can figure is that this sets the amount of time before the transition from light to dark and dark to light? It doesn't seem to affect the speed at which the actual transition occurs, which what I was hoping for.

While I'm 3 monitors shy of Dr. Fish's setup, here is my multi-monitor photo.

I'd take yours over mine anyday. :drool: Please say they're both hooked up via DVI...

Great shot, BigScreen!

Regarding your question about stretching from one screen to another -- There is no support for this built into the code, however some cards and drivers contain their own ability to do it.

Alas, they are only connected via the VGA outputs of the G450.

My next video card will have DVI outs, as these very nice monitors give me the choice of VGA and DVI input.

I'll try the other mode for the dual-head configuration and see if that changes things re: widescreen spread across both monitors. That would be the ideal situation, and would make it worth hassling with tweaking the deskop settings a little.

I think nvidia cards are the only ones that can do that right now... Haven't figured out how yet... But I do have 7 nvidia dual monitor setups at my disposal... Now if people would only stop using them for work!!!

Also, here's the cheapest dual dvi card I found on newegg, just because... Even though I don't have an LCD yet I sure wish everyone would start putting dual DVI on all dual monitor cards... I mean, why not?

Jim,
With this latest improvement in FPS, I can now usefully run with 1152x864x32. - That, together with those gorgeous new fish, now makes MA2 MD definitely, - the best yet! ........ just thought you'd like to know! ;)

Jim,

The new version is fantastic. The reworked fish have now gone from just OK, to some of the best in the Aquarium.

Thank you for including the option to adjust the anamorphic ratio. In the widescreen mode I find the tank to be very roomy, but in the default anamorpic ratio of 0.8000 the fish are just a little too small. By adjusting it to 0.9500 it gives the tank a little more room and the detail of the fish is eaiser to see - the perfect compromise :) . My monitor is a 19-inch CRT and the resolution is 1280x960x32.

By the way, this might be helpful to others. I just found out on a 4x3 ratio monitor to keep the image and text from stretching 1280x960 is the correct resolution, not 1280x1024 that is commonly used.

Jim / Edgar - there is one minor suggestion I would like to make, not a big deal really, but wouldn't it make more sense to switch the locations of "Don't duplicate random choices" and "Fish info" in the fish tap. It just seems like a more logical location to keep the "Don't duplicate random choices" with the fish selection window.

Thanks for creating the best screen saver ever made. Also for the improvements you continue to make. Many developers would have been happy with your original version and left it there - but not you. You are truly an artist.

drfish,

Turning on spanning on nVidia cards is tricky. It makes your 2 monitors act as a single display. This means the Windows taskbar stretches across both. It's kind of annoying to do this just to get the Aquarium stretched.

https://www.feldoncentral.com/forump...aldisplay3.jpg

Now what would be awesome is if the Widescreen version could be slightly zoom/cropped (shouldn't lose any coral at the top) to fill 2 screens. One can dream, can't he?

surfer -

Edgar has been handling the coding for the user interface, and we're in danger of never releasing this thing because of "feature creep", so I think your suggestion will have to wait for the next round of revisions.

hey feldon..where in the nvidia setting did you find those settings? I can't find it and i wanted to try that...thanks...

It depends on the capabilities of your card. Nvidia drivers are all inclusive and only the options that pertain to your card are displayed. If you aren't set up or don't have a card that will handle it, you might not see the options.

I think it has to be an nVidia card with 2 VGA outputs on it.

All the systems I have here have dual VGA built into the mobo...

Why would you want to stretch (grossly distort) a 5x3 image across 8x3? - Jim and Prolific must be doing their heads in!

We wouldn't want to keep it that way... I just want to see if I can get it to work...

That wasn't aimed at you drfish, we posted together! :) it's just my general observation of the "It'll do!" mentality!

ok i got it to work, my nvidia has dual outs... it is a function of nview, i also had to download the latest drivers.. but I did get it to stretch across both monitors.. the resolution is not too distorted (stretched looking) and after messing around with a few adjustments got it to look pretty good, but yeah, i don't think I will leave like that, it does look cool to see the fish swim from one end to the other across two monitors....LOL

drfish, BigScreen, et all, I like where this thread is going! Please keep fiddling around with all those monitors and posting the pics here!

Morgan, that's an old (and very bad) photo. Shouldn't the new version be able to give you the black bars or is that already in the correct aspect ratio?

but.....boy oh boy..sharks does not like span mode across monitors..it just plain tells you it is shutting down....arg...LOL

Patrick, - That would just make it even more distorted!

Oh, your right, he is already running the wide version in there. At first glance I thought it was the regular version. So what could he do to make it look better?

That depends on the definition of 'look better'! - I don't think any attempt to spread (not stretch), across two monitors is going to look satisfactory. As Morgan suggests, a zoom & crop approach is the only way to retain the correct ratio, but IMO that would lose too much background.

I just don't see the need/reason/point to distort pictures for the sake of filling a different shaped space!

What ever happened to having/doing a thing correctly? - Why don't we just leave well alone, - it's perfect as it is!

What we need is one of these, no seam down the middle, run the wide screen version in the middle with vertical black bars on the ends... That's the way to do it... Plus, when the double wide 3D background comes out... If I had the money... Too bad it's only two 15" screens, dual 19" or ever 17" would have me thinking about it seriously for the future...

Edit: Hmmm... After looking at the larger image, maybe there is a seam, too bad... :(

Edit 2: Yuck, reviews are not favorable, nevermind...

Wow! I disappear for a few days and miss the big news. Thanks Jim! Looks fantastic!