I use 16Bit, but thanks...
I just hope there will be a demo. Because when I buy the 3D backgound,... and when I get 10fps then, I'll bite my ass :)

At this point, Jim says there won't be any charge for the 3D background. The specialty creature packs, which should contain several creatures each, will be the next paying option.

I just wanted to say that I am having no problems whatsoever with my SS & love it very much! It is so realistic & it makes it very enjoyable to come to work every day!

Thanks, Jim, for such a great invention!!!!

Gerty

On feldoncentral.com new you can read this:
"Regarding the 3D background, Jim has been working on it off-and-on since early fall. He has informed us that he has decided to create and release the free specialty creature to all purchasers/upgraders of the Aquarium (purchasers of 1.0 and beyond have to pay extra) before he continues work on the 3D background."
C YA

IXNAY

That note is a bit old.

The Lionfish is the specialty creature and even 1.0 purchasers get it for free.

I want to say that I love the serene screen. Most of the time it runs great but I do have one little problems that does not happen all of the time. Once in awhile the ss will blink some. It never goes all the way off. I can shut it down and let it start again and it will work. Has anyone else had this problem that you have heard? Keep up the good work, Jim

Two possibilities -

The most likely culprit is some other program stealing clock cycles. My own machine does this if I'm on-line when the Aquarium is running.

A second possibility is that Vsync is turned off. Video cards are so fast these days that Vsync is almost undetectable, but occasionally you can still see the problem that it was designed to eliminate -- the updating of the screen while the electron gun is still in the middle of painting the previous frame.

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING
I LOVE the addition of the Lion Fish

i'll echo bbtm64 comments....

i seem to recall a key press which would turn on or off dynamic lighting on the fish, which gave the impression of muscle movement in the tail area, is this still accessable???

my screensaver seems to be backwards....the fish are swimming alot faster than earlier versions!?! (except for the lionfish which swims serenely)

Whats the latest news on cranking down CPU usage?
After about five minutes of the Screen saver my CPU temp goes up about 15 degrees F!

Even with limit 60 (50 for me now with XP) on, it still pegs the CPU at 100%.

brillant screensaver
 

I cant stop watching it jim 10/10 mate hope to see the creature pack soon richard

Re: Password problem not solved!
 

A similar thing was happening to me on my Windows ME system. I finally found another program that fixes this. It is called Hack-It v4.01. This program enables you to manipulate the functions of ANY program window. I set aquarium.scr up as an automatic function in Hack-It with the following settings: maximize, topmost, visible, and real-time.

I've tested this with a email collecting program running in the background, and everything works fine....the background program collects email and the aquarium screensaver stays up and running. I tested this leaving my computer on over a 72 hour period and there were no problems whatsoever!

Hack-It comes in a freeware version that you load and set manually everytime you reboot Windows (homesite is www.headius.com, or it can also be downloaded from www.zdnet.com). Or you can purchase the Pro version for a small fee where the settings are always saved.

I'll be interested in hearing whether this program works for others.

I believe the program I just mentioned in my previous post, Hack-It, might fix your problem too!

Observations of Ver 1.1 running under latest ATI AIW drivers
 

(The following may be specific in unknown respects to Win2k SP2 and/or Radeon AIW.) A few days ago Ati released their latest drivers for Radeons and All-In-Wonder Cards. The drivers go under the name Catalyst and have two parts, a normal driver 6094 and an associated "capture" driver. There is also a Multmedia Center with version 7.6 and upgrade to 7.7, and associated DVD software 7.6 upgraded (with the same package as MMC) to 7.7. These drivers are not without bugs (else one would suspect that they weren't from Ati); see forums at http://www.rage3d.com

I had been running MMC 4.1 and a hacked driver set based on 3102. After installing these new drivers (which seem to improve image clarity, expecially in 3DMark2001) I noticed some subtle changes in Aquarium ver 9.9L which I was still using at that point. The speed stayed at about 75 fps on my machine, but there were barely perceptable pauses in the fish motion. I had not seen that behavior before. Also, after a while auto running as a screen saver, either MMC wouldn't respond anymore, or the right edge of the screen would be off by a pixel and the MMC pop out menu would emerge from a column 1-pixel to the left of the edge.

After installing ver 1.1 this morning I observe the following: The frame rate has dropped to about 50 fps (the parameter settings include the 60-Hz limit checked). I do not see any subtle pauses in fish motion; general fish and bubble behavior seems normal. The mouse sensitivity seems better (less). I have not yet had an opportunity for the auto screen saver to act so I have no information on ver 1.1 interactions with MMC 7.7 during screen-saver mode.

The lionfish looks great.

kirby

P.S. FWIW, I'm running 32-bit color, 1024 x 768

The key you're looking for is "N". The effect varies depending on what video card you're using though...

/Tiny Difference

PPS to my message above: running 16-bit has no effect on the speed.

kirby

Re: Password problem not solved!
 

I just tested here at work on my Windows98 SE computer a similar application to GroupWise Notify,...Lotus Notes Minder. Just like you, when the aquarium is running and I get an email notification message from Lotus Notes Minder, the aquarium goes on the task bar with the bubble sounds still running. I used the program Hack-It (that I mentioned a few messages back) and set an automatic function up defining the Lotus Notes Minder window to be a window on the bottom, instead of its programmed default of being topmost. I tested it again and the aquarium now stays running (and doesn't go to the taskbar) when I get an email notification in the background.

I believe Hack-It will fix your problem and now you'll be able to use SereneScreen with password security correctly. Let me know if this works or if you need any help getting Hack-It to work with GroupWise Notify.

Things are looking up.
 

P^3S: After a two-hour run of auto screensaver, return to the desktop showed no sign of my previously reported problem with the corrupted MMC menu. This may be due to some change between ver. 99L and ver 1.1, or to having in the mean time removed Black Ice Defender and upgraded Kerio Personal Firewall from ver. 2.1.2 to ver. 2.1.4. (No controlled experiments for me. :)

kirby

Love the screensaver,I've had it for about a year now ,and have had no problems.
Does the new version have the blue background,or is that just for beta testers??and what's different about the lionfish??

New version?

Well, what version do you have?

We're up to 1.1.2 right now, with 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 just having minor bugfixes. All versions of 1.1 have the blue background (use the keyboard or control panel to set the background to half-brightness) and lionfish.

There is presently no version of either Aquarium for Windows in beta testing.