** 99L FINAL RELEASE rants, raves, and bug reports here **

Big Problem !

When I first downloaded the zip to my desktop, opened and installed, then clicked on icon to view... windows said the file was corrupted and I should download it again; I deleted zip and downloaded again.

I replaced 99k, then opened 99L and stared at the starfish waiting for it to move. Then BAM, the blue screen - only no options for recovery were offered. This is the first time I saw nothiong suggested to recover.

I did a ctrl/alt/delete and ended up in BIOS (strange) I then went to DOS and attempted to re-boot. It scanned and reported that an error was created in CMOS.

I did a hard re-start,
I wonder if there is damage?

I don't think I will touch Sach's Aquarium again!

Sorry, I forgot to include my info:


Using ME on a Athlon k7 850, 256 RAM, 40 HD, NVIDIA TNT2 pro 16mb with and old NVIDIA 4.11 driver.

[Socrates]

Kepylyr,

Can you tell us what motherboard and/or chipset you are using.

Some AMD chipsets will blue out on a very ocasional basis and give a CMOS checksum (and a reset of settings sometimes) with Windows ME. It's happened to me, and I've seen it elsewhere.

I wouldn't think it's the Aquarium since I've seen it happen pretty much randomly and more on specific systems than others.

I know a lot of WinME users have probably also seen a once a month occurence of startups ending in "protection fault" blue screens as well. WinME should be considered a mass-release beta/marketing test of some interface changes and technolgies that will end up in WinXP.

New release is great but have a slight problem with the fish ie at lower resolutions eg 800 x 600 they are semi-transparent and the colours appear a little "washed out" as I increase the resolution the transparency almost disappears.

I am running a Matrox Millenium 400 (Dual Head), 32Mb - getting 75fps (800 x 600 x 16). This problem did not occur in the K version release.

Any ideas or suggestions ?

Thanks

[feldon34]

Windows ME is looking to be rather problematic.

keyplayer,

You mention that you are using the nVidia 4.11 driver and even indicate that it is the "old" driver. I think most, if not all, of your problems with the Aquarium would disappear if you upgraded to a newer driver. The Aquarium has been tested to run on recent drivers only.

You can get the proper drivers for your system by visiting the Help section at www.feldoncentral.com/Sachs/help.html

The technical support available to Sachs Aquarium users is robust. You can e-mail Service@serenescreen.com and usually get a reply the same day. Or you can post here to the Forum, to the Chat, or e-mail me directly.

If you do go through with the refund, I'll be sorry to see you go.

[feldon34]

New release is great but have a slight problem with the fish ie at lower resolutions eg 800 x 600 they are semi-transparent and the colours appear a little "washed out" as I increase the resolution the transparency almost disappears.

I am running a Matrox Millenium 400 (Dual Head), 32Mb - getting 75fps (800 x 600 x 16). This problem did not occur in the K version release.

Thank you for reporting this bug. Jim will investigate all bugs when he comes back in a couple of weeks and provide a fixed version as soon as he can.

[hpman77]

Just wanted to say I'm using windows ME, and despite that error message of the "this object has a non zero reference....blah blah blah this sample will now exit", everything works fine.
That error message appears randomly, and I can't find what triggers it.

Using WMe on a p3 450, 192mb ram, 4+20 gb HD, geforce 2 mx based video card (elsa gladiac mx), using latest directx (8.01 I think) the video drivers are those suggested in some older threads, I can't remember the version now, as it's 3AM and I'm sleepy.

I reproduced the death star fish bug, but had no problems of the super-tangs or with any other fish, and I tested many configs, from 1 to 7 fishes, using defined fishes, random fishes, or a mix of both, with and without repeat.

Sometimes, when clicked space bar, and changed settings, the screen poped more times than the usual amount, and crashed to desktop. Usually it pops 3 times, but when crashes pops 5-7 times. This happened 5 times to me. I only changed fish setting, using automatic lightning, bubble column and sound activated, and checked on top on window mode, and using desktop resolution (1024x768 actually) (and btw, getting from 68-75 fps without vsync)

Helpman,
Your HW config is similar to mine (P3 450, 256Mb RAM, 6+20Gb IDE HDD Geforce2 MX (elsa Gladiac))
I'm running DirectX8.0a, using NVidia Drivers 12.41, on Win98SE.
The SS runs OK, but I haven't left it running overnight to see if there are stability problems.
Anyway, I do not get the same ammount of problems as yours.. Try using the 12.41 drivers (or the 12.90)

Regards

[Shinsa]

...include these few things as well...

1. a fix for the minimize when ICQ, Email (et.al.) messages come in
2. Password protection (goes along with item #2)
3. allow the SS to restart or "maximize" after being "minimized"
4. Include the registry cleaner

Items #1 & #2 being "HOT" must have items, or its useless as a SS.

I say that because the main use of a SS other than entertainment is security. In many cases it is the best way to temp lock your computer when you've got those java blues. :smokin:

[ajlaban]

Shinsa,

I also have the problem of the ss minimizing when I receive email, etc, with the additional problem of loosing the mouse pointer. Had the same problem with .99k too but not earlier versions. I stopped using .99k as an ss for that reason, thought I'd try .99L as an ss but same problem. Guess I'll just continue to run Sachs Aquarium as an executable for now.

[feldon34]

Shinsa,

If you are having problems with the password protection on versions .99K or .99L of Sachs Aquarium, then you are experiencing a bug. Jim fixed the password protection to be bulletproof in .99K so you need to work this problem out with tech support.

Contact Service@serenescreen.com

[Darkfalz]

The new fish (gold fish with blue stripes and yellow fins) still has annoying shading glitches with calc normals on. The tail changes shading too much and too quickly, it looks bad.

The triggerfish fin animations are also too jerky.

[Jav400]

Red Emperor,

I know that in the past ( several version releases ago ) Jim had a slight problem with fish transparency concerning people who were using the 400 video card that you describe. He thought he had that problem fixed at that time. I am sure that when he returns, he will look again and include this bug fix in his repairs.

[Jav400]

DarkfalzMC,

I am not sure which fish you are referring to. The 2 new fish available in the last release were the Koran Angel ( Blue/Black coloring with white and light blue stripes ) and the Three Stripe Damsel ( White with Black stripes ) do not match your description. Can you refer to this page www.feldoncentral.com/Sachs/thefish.html and call the fish you are commenting about by name. Thanks

I think he's talking about the re-done Queen Angel.

[hayc59]

hello, just looking for the version that has the starfish moving all ove the bottom of the tank?? i thought i had the latest?? i guess not.. she just stays in the left-hand corner of the one i am using!! thanks for any help..

[ajlaban]

Giddyup,

See my response to your message in the starfish thread.

[Shinsa]

Feldon,

The password is not bullet proof in Windows 9x. The password can be bypassed by hitting the spacebar, deselecting "exit on mouse" and then hitting the "ESC" key to exit.

What can I say? I'm good at finding this kind of stuff.

It's a typical Microsoft foul up. Nothing to do with Jims program.

For the record, Microsoft doesn't care the slightest bit about "REAL" security. They just want something that looks secure. ANYONE who believes otherwise... well, never mind... there are 12 year olds reading this stuff too...

[FishyBusiness]

I love this new aquarium. As always the two new fish look great. Even the Koran doesn't look that bad at 800x600.

I have been able to duplicate the "dead starfish" and the "random fish" bugs. As far as the "SuperTang" bug that Francis reported, I have only seen this on my system when I use 3D glasses and the stereo effects are not set right. So I assume that it's a driver issue with Francis.

The "random fish" bug happens to me weather I set one, all, or any combination of fish slots to random. The program always shutsdown. One time it didn't not set reset my desktop resolution. Upon that one time, I started the aquarium again and received an Illegal Operation error.

keyplyr,
I agree with Feldon23. Change your video card drivers. The 5.22s work best with a TNT2 Ultra, so try those.

Morgan,
I guess were not used to seeing bugs in the aquarium anymore. Jim's beta versions of the aquarium are probably the most stable out of all of the beta versions out there.

[mknorr]

Why can't I get my starfish to climb up? I turn the light as low as it will go (about 20%) but the little **** refuses to perform. Is there something wrong with him? Maybe scared of heights?

Manfred