Dual Monitor Support?
 

Is there any hope of getting dual monitor support in OSX? Perhaps even just a mirror of the main screen?

Dual
 

The simple answer is yes. As with all things that delve to the depths of the SereneScreen line, don’t hold your breath :) However, we are working on it for both Windows, and Mac.

Are you primarily interested in multi-monitor support in the screen saver or the application?


Thanks.

Really only the screensaver. I just dislike the fact that one of my monitor goes blank while to other shows the screensaver. Just a mirror of the main aquarium would be fine.

I'd love to see dual monitor support for the screen saver as well. It'd be especially cool if the fish could swim between the two monitors in an interesting way -- like two separate, connected environments.

Please DON'T mirror...that's the EASY way. You folks have worked hard on this wonderful screensaver that you should go ALL OUT and make both monitors as a SINGLE fish tank, with the fish swimming between monitors. Please don't mirror. Continued success to all involved!

Dual pain
 

Supporting Dual monitors is VERY tricky. We are working on both Mac and PC.

Here are the modes:

Multi-Monitor: Meaning 2 or more, of differing resolutions. Each can have completely different images.

Stretched: One video card, multiple monitors, both the same res. This one is annoying.

Cloned (mirrored): Copies what is one, to another. In some cases there are special versions of Cloning where the main monitor is full res, and VIDEO can be displayed at full res while being a window on the main one.

Vertical: Monitors that pivot. They are a sub-section for us of the multiple monitor issue.

Yes, it would be WONDERFUL to have a huge tank, that could be displayed across multiple monitors, and the fish could move from monitor to monitor. And, one day we will do this. But it requires a rebuild of the code. Also, this eats up an AMAZING amount of CPU time.

This product, and product line is constantly growing. We are working VERY hard to improve things for the future, and enable our team to make incremental improvements more easily (like new fish).

We plan to please, but ask for patience.

You have my patience.....and respect. I do not know anything about what it takes to code this product. I can only imagine that it takes MUCH time and effort.....and a dash of creativity....:-) Just knowing that you are working on multiple 'modes' of dual support is impressive enough. Keep up the great work!

PaulTheEditor

What you ask for would require twice as much coral, in other words twice the effort or a whole other month piecing together photographs of coral and finding the right combination, then building the 3D lightplay objects.

Jim Sachs' current focus is the Freshwater Aquarium. Beyond that, he will be replacing the flat background we have now with a truly 3D double-width background with real moving coral elements including clams that open and close, and anemones and polyps that sway with the ebb and flow of the water.

This double-width background will be ideal for dual monitors, widescreen displays and regular displays. Depending on the aspect ratio of your display, the background will slowly pan back and forth to reveal the part that is off-screen.

I think supporting widescreen and dual monitors and giving us lifelike coral is great, but I think spending a month right now developing another piece of flat coral (which would be thrown away in favor of the 3D coral) would be counterproductive.

I think we'll see mirrored display on multiple monitors until the 3D background arrives.

Sounds good to me!

I'm sure whatever is shown in the next version will be breathtaking. In no way would I want you to derail from your current schedule.

By the way, since buying your product, I think I've spent more time looking at my Cinema Display without blinking then at any other time...:-)

PaulTheEditor

For dual screens, I just made a duplicate program, and then double clicked, and both are fired up and running. I just placed one on each monitor.

I have the demo, and I can't get it to fill the screen. I will pay for it if it will fill the screen(s)

Well, it looks like some systems have to run at Thousands of colors to run the Aquarium full-screen, otherwise intermittent crashes result.

This is being worked on by the Macintosh team and I'll be adding a note on the Macintosh resource page at the Fan Site soon.

Pushing the envelope
 

I looked at the demo of the screen saver for about 2 minutes and registered the beta on the spot. As a long time freshwater aquarium owner, I get a kick out of checking in on the starfish that creeps ever so slowly along. It's kind of like getting the saltwater tank I've always wanted but haven't had the time to invest in. No maintenance!

Anyhow, running with a previous suggestion here in the forum I decided to see how far I could push the envelope. I made 3 copies of the app and ran one on my 21" monitor via a GeForce3 and the two others on 17" monitors on a dual port Radeon 7000. The Ge continuted to crank at a very impressive 30fps while the split Radeon ran an understandable yet very tolerable 15fps. At first the Radeon got stuck in a wierd rendering sync mode where the two monitors appeared to be mirroring each other but while I was playing with the full screen settings it "hiccuped" and both screens started running independently. (But boy does this chew CPU! ;-])

I'm not recommendeding this to others but if you have the horse power (I have a QuickSilver G4 867Mhz) and the monitors it sure is fun to see all of this activity going at once.

p.s. My hidden point is that having read the developers feedback I look forward to the multimonitor support for screen saver and app as well... when the time comes.

I too want to see multi-monitor support for the screen saver. A mirror image would work. But haveing one big tank made from 2 monitors would be SUPER.

Of cource. If the tank is made twice as big we will need more fish to fill it.

The 3D coral background, to be added to a future version of the saltwater Aquarium will be two full monitor-widths wide.

On a single display or a widescreen display, the "camera" will slowly pan back and forth to exhibit the whole width of the tank.

https://www.feldoncentral.com/Sachs/3Dcoral.gif

You'll also be able to lock the camera if you wish.

Jim has suggested that due to the larger tank size, we'd be able to have 10 fish at once, plus 3 or more invertebrates. So maybe some day we'll have 10 fish, a Zebra Moray Eel hiding out in the shadows, a coral shrimp crawling around, the starfish crawling on the gravel or even on the coral too, not to mention a snail on the glass. :)

The 3D coral background is being designed with forethought into where an Octopus, Eels, etc. would hide. There will be alcoves, etc.

We've had quite a few topics on the 3D background in the past, I'm only recapping info from fall of last year. I know we'll have more than 2 lights in the tank to adjust. And we may get more advanced lighting controls possibly with timers.

To my knowledge, we will not be able to have the entire aquarium tank "letterboxed", but maybe if we bug Jim about it enough. :)

I'm assuming if we do windowed mode, we'll be able to choose 4:3 windowed or 8:3 windowed mode.

Also, there were a few requests about whether we'd be able to swing the camera around the other side of the Aquarium. Well, Jim has no plans to texture or model both sides of the tank! So we'll be seeing just one side, as we are now.

Anyone want to guess how long it takes before someone demands a version for dual wide-screen monitors? ;)

/Tiny Panorama

Okay guys. V1.1.0 has multi-monitor support in the screen saver. Each monitor gets its own aquarium.

You better have some serious horsepower. My dual 1Gig drives my 22" cinema and 1280x1024 (both in millions mode) at 42 fps at the monitors' native resolutions.

A 800 MHz DVI TiBook managed the high 20s with its internal monitor and an Apple 17" display (better "Economize Video Memory").

Share and enjoy. Thanks for the input!

Marine Aquarium V1.1 is now on www.SereneScreen.com

the dual monitor support is way better! thanx!