Yes, it was tremendously difficult to create the 3D background - took several years.

As far as the background not panning, I guess JimO must have had a bit of trouble with that. I haven't actually seen the Mac translation yet.

The Mac version must be a very strange beast! - The change of intensity of the background only applies to MA2.6 on the PC.
..... Are you sure you have version 3?


ps, Sorry, Jim. - I hadn't seen your post!

Hi fargilan,

Some of the ancillary functionality is different between Mac and PC. Panning control is one of those "ancillary" functionalities.

Panning control was a lower priority than the things we finished. Lighting control, panning control, UI for background color control, look over the spawn logic... these are 3.0.2 fodder. 3.0.1 was iTunes control improvements to reduce the amount of iTunes state we changed.

I just downloaded it, and it is breathtaking. (By the way, I saw smooth and polished panning under Snow Leopard.)

Jonathan Hayward

I installed the demo version on 3 of our demo units at work side by side: A MacPro with 30" Cinema, a new 27" iMac, and a new 21.5" iMac. It was simply stunning on the 27" iMac. It appeared more crisp and vibrant than on the 30" Cinema.

The only bug I've noticed is a tendency for fish to swim through the crystal, a bug I know you're working on.

I don't get that feature - the arrow keys have no effect, whether or not auto-pan is enabled.

Sorry, I guess the manual-pan feature didn't make it into the Mac version.

Manual-pan may not work, but as in v2.6 the left, right, up, and down arrows do still control the lighting in v3 (even though this is not documented anywhere). Although it's not terribly realistic, I find that by turning the background lighting all the way down (to total blackness) it creates a VERY STUNNING display! For those that think MA 3,on a Mac, looks rather washed out, you might want to give this a try.

(The first time I played around with the arrow keys, they had absolutely no effect of any kind. After trying them while holding a modifier key -I forget which one- they began controlling the lighting and have continued to do so ever since. Also, they no longer require a modifier key to be held.)

I'd love to post a screenshot if there is a way to do it.

Can you confirm this, Jim? I have tried every modifier I can think of and the lighting does nothing.

Hmmmmmm, apparently I'm not the only one that noticed that the arrow keys will change the background lighting in MA 3.

When I mentioned modifier keys, it was nothing exotic. Either Cmd, Opt, or Cntrl.

The _saver_ does have the light modification code still in the saver with the arrow keys (not in the preview panel). Modifier keys are being ignored. I removed that code from the app and forgot that it wasn't shared code.

Apparently if the background brightness is changed in the saver, it carries over into the application.

I think what probably happened with me is that I was trying the arrow keys in the application, getting no effect, switched to the screen saver and tried the arrow keys along with a modifier. I then, incorrectly, assumed that the modifier key had made a difference.

Sorry about any confusion I caused.

Thanks for finding that, dsanfili. I'll have to make the source code match, at a minimum.

Please don't make them match by removing the code from the saver! In my opinion, the fact that it was left in in the screen saver was one of those HAPPY mistakes. ;)

I need to add in the scan control, and probably move the lighting control to the modifier keys so we're closer to Windows on that functionality.

I am SO glad to find out that there are lighting controls in the Mac version of the saver. That's the best mistake you ever made!!! Now that I know I can make the background solid black I feel like MA is finished and I got my money's worth: that doubles it's value to me not to have my screen half blue.... too windowzy imho. Whatever you do don't break that functionality!!!

Mac 3.0
 

I just opened the Mac version 3.0 for the first time. Wow!
Finding the 'light' controls still there is fantastic.
Does anyone know if the crystal can change size?

Thanks dsanfili,
.. Graeme.

Graeme,

Thanks for your interest. The crystal is a fixed size. You can place a clock, calendar, as well as custom logos on it.

Just installed 3.0
 

I installed Snow Leopard today, and downloaded 3.0. Love the new details, the lion fish rolling his eyes, Fish swimming head on, etc. Will we get the Moray Eel, soon, too please?

It would be great if we could choose which part of the aquarium to view, the pan makes me a bit queasy. I couldn't find the starfish until I panned, then I wished I could fix the screen on the far left, including the conch shell, cave and the crystal. I love uploading my graphic to the crystal. Thank you Jim and all who brought Serene Screen to the Mac!