If I had known you guys were so easily pleased, I would have posted screen shots of a blank screen when I first started.

... Don't know about you, but I'm not too keen on that shade of blue background colour.

..... That thing looks like something from a Citroen car ad. :erm:

Well as long as you are giving out tidbits, would you mind telling us where that section is planned to reside? And correct me if I'm worng here, but I am trying to visualize your creative process, which for me is a difficult thing. I will be the first to admit that I am not creative in any where near the same way you are.

Basically you go out and conceptualize what you want to create using real life examples that you find, and then you have to build the structures to fit the textures that you will use in the product. Is this very basically correct? I know I am leaving out many many other aspects, but am only refering to what you have shown us here.

In the cold hostile world of the internet ouitside this forum that post would constitute a loud and clear "Owned", but not in here of course...

/Tiny Leet

Mechanics and logistics etc., I can handle with no sweat; I could build doc's tank with my eyes closed. Painting a picture is beyond me. :( Taking a picture is a different story as I can frame in what I want, and get where I want to be. I guess its the same here. Morgan is creative as all get out. He can design stuff I could never do. But I can read the code for what he did and understand why it needs to work the way it does and replicate it in another manner using that as an example. I can even look at finished stuff for here and fine tune it, and I can tell when something "looks" or "feels" off, and needs to be adjusted. But as far as "creating" it in the first place, I'm lost.

[thinks] .... I think I understand Jim's screen shots better than I understand Tiny's comments...[/thinks] :(

Ha, ha - Me, too, Cliff.

Jav - The initial "creative" process in my mind is the easiest part. I just close my eyes and transport myself a couple of years into the future. I look at the screen and see the final product in all its detail. Then I come back here and learn how to make it happen.

My daughter is very creative, but can also get very organized when she needs to. She was just in here a few minutes ago, making a list of all the critters I should make for the Creature Packs. We went through Morgan's Wishlists, and picked about 30 animals. Now she'll help me narrow that down to 20 for the 2 packs, based on availability of real specimens for me to study. Of course, I can't even start on that until I do 3.0, but the new background needs to have specialized areas for the beasties to play in (a cave, a large sandy place, a sea anemone for the clownfish, etc.)

By the way, she had never really seen the "Inside the Marine Aquarium" site before, and just loved the look and feel of it. So much friendlier and more interesting than the corporate-looking Serenescreen site. I agree with her.

ROFL @ Jim, If only it were that easy.

PS. Grab a paper or something while you are there in the future and come back with some lottery numbers or something. :)

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42

Yeah I know, but you forgot which drawing its for, right? ;)

Must I do EVERYTHING?

1. A request for screenshot although there isn't much to show.
2. A plain "no" based on the very fact that there isn't anything to show.
3. A "Hmpf" at the no as being uncooperative (but wit acceptance of waiting)
4. A screenshot as per the request, but also not showing anything (which was the original reason of the "no".)

Hence "Owned" (feed "owned" and "leet" into Google if you need further definition)

I just don't fit into this modern world anymore!

OK then, forget the scuba diver; a nice little mediaeval castle would be good in the aquarium, if you insist. :D:D

I think a lot of the people on this board don't have a clue how long it will take Mr. Sachs to complete 3.0, or the effort it takes to do something like this. There's a reason I never got into programming. It's tedious, time-consuming, and sometimes frustrating work. The little bit that I've done is enough to convince me that I made the right decision in my IT career choice. I certainly wont say that I've done coding on the level of Mr. Sachs, but I think I can say with certainty that wishing him to go faster aint gonna make it happen.

Wow! Screenshots of 3.0! Incredible!
Jim, in the second shot, I think you've got a dash misplaced. I'd hate to see the anemone eat the clown fish because of a misplaced dash. :) Everything else looks good though. Keep up the great work!:TU:

love the screen shots as well..especially the fading to blue effect from line 33-1.... but how cum there is an hour difference from your screen capture and post.. Maybe that is where some of your troubles are, you are writing code while in the 4th dimension.:D

Well so far the most we have learned from these latest verbal rejoinders is that Jim is done within 2 years, because thats where he went ahead and looked at it. :)

hehhe thanks Jim (better then nothing).

BTW uninstall Norton antivirus it is to heavy on systems.

I use NOD32 very light and very good :)

Greetings from Belgium

Jim:

Add me to the list of folks anxiously awaiting 3.0. Keep up the good work.

-Paul

Yes but has'nt Mr. Sachs been working on most of this stuff for quite some years now ? I remember when I first purchased Marine Aquarium, there was talks about these addons, and that was ages ago.

It all boils down to the fact that Jim Sachs is an artist and animator. He is not a programmer. He's forced himself through DirectX and C++ books to learn enough to write the Aquarium. It's remarkable to me what he's been able to do, given my limited knowledge of just how complex DirectX is to program (and it's 1,000 easier than it used to be).

And I guess Jim has been screwed over so many times by publishers, programmers, and pretty much anyone he has dared collaborate with over the last 20 years that getting outside help (even of an instructional nature) is completely out of the question.

Jim is trying to do animation and create interactive surfaces that only the upper echelon of DirectX programmers are even attempting, without the background they have.

Yep, looking over my C++ code, no one is more surprised than me that I can get this gibberish to do anything coherent at all.

Hi TT, sorry for the delay in replying.

The version I saw running in Edinburgh looked just like the current 2.x version, right down to the types of fish and the corals, etc. However, the corals appeared to be 3D models too, and they swayed about in the water.

I looked in the lower corners of all of the screens on display, but there was no telltale "SACHS" signature hidden in the stones as far as I could see.

It would appear that it must have been something other than our favourite, Marine Aquarium, but the resemblance was so uncanny! :eek:

That single malt is strong stuff! ;)

Fantastic :) Surfed in here to upgrade my ancient version to 2.6 and discover that v3 is in the works!

Keep up the good work Jim :) Absolutely looking forward to buying it for my new widescreen laptop.

More power to you Jim, your next generation Fish tank sounds like it will be awsome.:TU:

I first ran across this product by using the Goldfish Bowl which was included with Windows XP Media Center Edition. I'm an aquarist in real life too, so the combination of gorgeous photo-perfect fish, realistic behaviour, and the option to choose from a large variety of animals sucked me in. I'm very pleased to have paid my $20 for v2.6 tonight.

After playing with it, I'd come up with a handful of things that I wanted to suggest as feedback, but then it turns out that they're all forthcoming in v3 already! Absolutely outstanding work! I can't wait to shell out more money for my v3 upgrade and start playing with the special critters.

Jim, keep up the absolutely fantastic work.

Any news?
 

Any news on the work in progress Jim ?

Nothing exciting. I'm working on it about 12 hours a day, but it's slow going - pure drudgery. Each tiny object has to be created then reworked countless times until it looks good from whatever angle the camera will see it from as it pans. Even though the viewing angle does not change radically, it's enough to show that the object isn't real. The elephant-ear coral that I'm working on right now is a good example of this. Since it has become something of an MA trademark, I feel compelled to include it, but I only have the one picture to go by. Using this as a texture, it must be projected onto the 3D object from the front, as the camera originally saw it. When the camera moves to the side even slightly, the texture becomes an incoherant mass of streaks.

So, I must create a new object closer to the viewer which will slide in front of the offending object, obscuring it as the camera position exposes an unacceptable angle. Then there's the problem of viewing THAT object from different angles, and so on... Oh, well - If I ever do get this finished, it should remain the gold standard of 3D simulations for a long time, because nobody else would be nuts enough to go through this again.

Thanks for the update... keep in mind we are all support you !

Agreed. We know you can do it buddy.

Sounds like a lot of work. One picture, huh?

>1 picture.
>>1 picture.

/Tiny Stab in the Dark

Remember Jim, this is only within the miracle stage, it should only take minutes. ;)

Tiny - nope, none of those are it. This is the pic I'm using (I took it in 2000):

Ok.
Upon further googling, Im stating to think that's not an Elephant ear mushroom coral which is green in color, but the "Giant Cup mushroom" which sometimes is called "Giant Elephant ear coral" (Amplexidiscus fenestrafer).
More pics: 1 2 3 4 5.
I don't know if it's of any help to you, but I figure it was worh a shot.

/TT

Thanks, TT, but I need a shot of that exact (long-dead) coral from a little higher angle. The idea is that when MA3 pops up, the first impression is that you are looking at the current version, then the camera starts to pan and you realize that it's a 3D environment. Not everything in the current background picture can be used exactly as is, but that one piece of coral is probably the most recognizable item in the tank.

BANGKOK, Thailand - Scientists combing through undersea fauna off Indonesia's Papua province said Monday they had discovered dozens of new species, including a shark that walks on its fins and a shrimp that looks like a praying mantis.

Todays' Yahoo. "a shrimp that looks like a praying mantis" could be an interesting addition. Can't find picture yet.

Well that sounds interesting, find a decent photo and I will add it to the special creatures section of the web page.

Jim, I figured you were looking for something likt that, but I fear I can't help you with the hand-pixling of that one...

Nick,
In a nature show on the TV a creature that looks so unique it's almost unnatural is a very cool thing. In a program like this the aimhas to be for the creatures to look as realistic as possible or everything in the tank will appear fake. What I'm trying to say is that footage of a fish with four eyes and a head that glows in the dark would be super cool, but if you put it in MA3 it would look about as relistic as if the lionfish had Homer Simpson's face...

/Tiny Parade-rainer