running both versions on the same computer
 

i just purchased ma3 today. can i have both versions 2.6 and 3 installed without any conflicts?

EDIT: actually, you can. i just tested it. both will run independently of each other. however, i noticed a "problem" with the new one running on my 1080p samsung tv.

the computer connected to the tv is not able to use the full resolution the tv is capable of. the highest is 1280x1024. so when i use the tv as a computer display, in order for things to not look stretched out, i used the tv remote to adjust the picture ratio to 4x3. so the sides are black. with version 2.6 this looks squeezed, so i just use the tv remote to re-adjust the picture ratio to 16x9, filling up the entire screen and voila, the fish tank looks perfect.

however, with version 3, the aquarium looks to be in the correct aspect ratio in the 4x3 picture mode. and when i set the tv to 16x9 to fill the entire screen, the fish tank looks stretched out. any way i can fix this?

is this because version 2.6 has anamorphic controls and version 3 doesn't?

REM - if all the resolution choices in the drop-down list are 4:3, then that's what MA3 will output. It was written for newer cards which have a lot more possible resolutions (even my old fx5200 card on this computer puts out 1920x1200).

hi jim. thanks for replying. but please help me understand why version 2.6 is outputing in 16:9 while version 3 is outputing in 4:3 on the same computer.

It's not. You're stretching and squeezing the image using a wild combination of anamorphic factor and adjustments on the TV. The end result may be roughly the right aspect-ratio, but the illusion would probably be destroyed as soon as the TV is switched to another signal.

I might eventually put an anamorphic adjustment in MA3, but for now I just rely on the card's ability to output the proper aspect ratio. I've seen many abuses of the anamorphic factor adjustment.

so it is the anamorphic controls. thanks for confirming.