Wishlist for Marine Aquarium 3 and Future - Page 70

spiralmonkey · 01-02-2006, 04:21 AM

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

Memory usage, collision avoidance, and especially frame rate are all major factors. Yes, I know that Dream Aquarium does this, but it makes sacrifices that I am not willing to. Even with the minimum amount of fish, the frame rate of Dream Aquarium is extremely low on my computer. I assume this is because the author came from the film industry, where it's OK to take all day to render a frame. Coming from the gaming industry, my main priority is speed and smoothness. I don't know what is causing the slowdown, since Alan has done a wonderful job at keeping the polygon count down. It's possible that his highly effective collision-avoidance and schooling routine is simply a WHOLE LOT of code.

It's the many transparent layers (i.e. the plants and light rays) that make Dream Aquarium run slow on older hardware. MA doesn't have as significant graphics-card requirements because it has a fairly simple (yet effective) tank with minimal transparency. On good graphics hardware i've found DA generally runs more efficiently than MA because of other optimizations i'm doing. For instance, on my laptop (3 yrs old) at 60fps i get only 25% cpu use in Dream Aquarium whereas Marine Aquarium needs 85% of my cpu for the same frame rate. It depends entirely on your particular hardware setup. Probably in both screensavers the fish calculations themselves are negligible. When not sending polygons to the graphics card, D.A. uses under 1% cpu. While i do come from the cpu-wasteful film industry, i also come from the commodore 64!

A big killer of cpu cycles is something called Vertical Sync, where your cpu has to wait (unfortunately burning cycles) until exactly the right time to display the next frame of animation. Sadly it seems to be unavoidable if smooth playback is desired.

cheers,
alan

Jim Sachs · 01-02-2006, 08:27 AM

Thanks for the update, Alan. Yes, the rays would do it. I gave up on that idea early on.

patscarr · 01-02-2006, 09:48 AM

Is there a way I can find out how many fps I'm getting on DA?

George · 04-15-2006, 01:15 AM

How about a sea horse ..

Jim Sachs · 04-17-2006, 12:47 AM

George - Yes a seahorse is on the list of critters I hope to include in a Creature Pack after I finish v3.0.

George · 04-17-2006, 07:09 PM

Awesome, cant wait for v 3.0

pacfishid_queen · 05-08-2006, 10:18 PM

On my wishlist for the aquarium are the following: some nudibranchs, blue ribbon eel, dragonet, golden trumpetfish, unicornfish, and saddled butterflyfish.

I am too spoiled after returning from a dive trip to Bega lagoon in Fiji. Love those Indo-Pacific fishes!

Next stop: Turks & Caicos...

Ciao, Y'all!

jroseone · 05-20-2006, 01:50 PM

Make this fish no screen saver has it and it is the coolest looking fish in the sea !

Jim Sachs · 05-20-2006, 10:08 PM

Looks great - what is it?

Jav400 · 05-20-2006, 10:10 PM

If I'm not mistaken, its a Coral Beauty Angel. I had one of those years ago when I ran a real salt water tank.

Wombat · 05-21-2006, 01:19 AM

I've just got Marine Aquarium V2.6, and it is great. I send the output from my computer to my widescreen LCD TV via a TV Out S1-video connection, and it is magic. I don't want any more fish, but where are the different tanks? When I hit the [ or ] keys to get them, as it says in the help screen, the program exits. Aree there any extra tanks or not?

feldon34 · 05-21-2006, 08:09 PM

feldon34 · 05-21-2006, 08:10 PM

Originally posted by Wombat:

I've just got Marine Aquarium V2.6, and it is great. I send the output from my computer to my widescreen LCD TV via a TV Out S1-video connection, and it is magic. I don't want any more fish, but where are the different tanks? When I hit the [ or ] keys to get them, as it says in the help screen, the program exits. Aree there any extra tanks or not?

I guess those [ and ] directions are standardized from the other products based on the Aquarium engine. There is but one tank/background for the Marine Aquarium. Goldfish Aquarium and Sharks Aquarium each have almost a dozen different background setups.

Glad you're enjoying the Aquarium!

Jim Sachs · 05-21-2006, 08:23 PM

The [ and ] keys switch from the tank with the crystal in it to the tank with the elephant-ear coral.

Edgar · 05-22-2006, 12:10 AM

To get the Crystal mode, the "Exit on Mousemove" in Settings need to be unchecked.

Tiny Turtle · 05-22-2006, 03:16 AM

Lol, I like your C B Angel better, Morg.

/Tiny Levels

Wombat · 05-22-2006, 05:50 AM

Originally posted by Edgar:

To get the Crystal mode, the "Exit on Mousemove" in Settings need to be unchecked.

Thanks Edgar, that was the problem.
I want exit on mousemove checked but when I do that the ctrlB, CtrlW, [ and ] do not work - hitting them exits the program.
They all work with the exit on mousemove unchecked.

I'd say that is a bug!

Wombat · 05-22-2006, 05:54 AM

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

The [ and ] keys switch from the tank with the crystal in it to the tank with the elephant-ear coral.

Thanks Jim - but it doesn't do it if the exit on mousemove is checked - see Edgars post below. If the exit on mousemove is checked, hitting [ or ] or Ctrl-B or Ctrl-W just exits the program.

I think that's a bug.

Jim Sachs · 05-22-2006, 09:55 AM

Edgar and Will handle all the minor user-interface issues. I also feel that none of the hotkeys should trigger the Exit-On-Mouse-Move function. Maybe Edgar could make it so for the next update.

Bill Logsdon · 06-07-2006, 08:21 AM

Just an observation --- I put the demo of Serene Screen on my daughter's ancient KXP-450 machine with 32mb video and it works great! Smooth and excellent.

I tried the Dream Aquarium product, and even in blank aquarium mode it runs in jerks and fits ...

Kudos to Jim for a superior product even on ancient puters!

01-02-2006, 04:21 AM	#1381
spiralmonkey Developer Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 72	Originally posted by Jim Sachs: Memory usage, collision avoidance, and especially frame rate are all major factors. Yes, I know that Dream Aquarium does this, but it makes sacrifices that I am not willing to. Even with the minimum amount of fish, the frame rate of Dream Aquarium is extremely low on my computer. I assume this is because the author came from the film industry, where it's OK to take all day to render a frame. Coming from the gaming industry, my main priority is speed and smoothness. I don't know what is causing the slowdown, since Alan has done a wonderful job at keeping the polygon count down. It's possible that his highly effective collision-avoidance and schooling routine is simply a WHOLE LOT of code. It's the many transparent layers (i.e. the plants and light rays) that make Dream Aquarium run slow on older hardware. MA doesn't have as significant graphics-card requirements because it has a fairly simple (yet effective) tank with minimal transparency. On good graphics hardware i've found DA generally runs more efficiently than MA because of other optimizations i'm doing. For instance, on my laptop (3 yrs old) at 60fps i get only 25% cpu use in Dream Aquarium whereas Marine Aquarium needs 85% of my cpu for the same frame rate. It depends entirely on your particular hardware setup. Probably in both screensavers the fish calculations themselves are negligible. When not sending polygons to the graphics card, D.A. uses under 1% cpu. While i do come from the cpu-wasteful film industry, i also come from the commodore 64! A big killer of cpu cycles is something called Vertical Sync, where your cpu has to wait (unfortunately burning cycles) until exactly the right time to display the next frame of animation. Sadly it seems to be unavoidable if smooth playback is desired. cheers, alan Developer of Dream Aquarium

01-02-2006, 08:27 AM	#1382
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,771	Thanks for the update, Alan. Yes, the rays would do it. I gave up on that idea early on. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

01-02-2006, 09:48 AM	#1383
patscarr Pet Shark Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Back in Buffalo Posts: 5,454	Is there a way I can find out how many fps I'm getting on DA? Patrick

04-17-2006, 12:47 AM	#1385
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,771	George - Yes a seahorse is on the list of critters I hope to include in a Creature Pack after I finish v3.0. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

05-20-2006, 10:08 PM	#1389
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,771	Looks great - what is it? Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

04-15-2006, 01:15 AM	#1384
George Registered Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 2	How about a sea horse ..

04-17-2006, 07:09 PM	#1386
George Registered Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 2	Awesome, cant wait for v 3.0

05-08-2006, 10:18 PM	#1387
pacfishid_queen Registered Join Date: May 2006 Location: Tennessee Posts: 1	On my wishlist for the aquarium are the following: some nudibranchs, blue ribbon eel, dragonet, golden trumpetfish, unicornfish, and saddled butterflyfish. I am too spoiled after returning from a dive trip to Bega lagoon in Fiji. Love those Indo-Pacific fishes! Next stop: Turks & Caicos... Ciao, Y'all!

05-20-2006, 10:10 PM	#1390
Jav400 Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Tennessee Posts: 9,725	If I'm not mistaken, its a Coral Beauty Angel. I had one of those years ago when I ran a real salt water tank. Michael Administrator of Inside:SereneScreen Aquarium Forum, Chatroom, Fan Site & *Gallery* DVD Collection

05-21-2006, 01:19 AM	#1391
Wombat Registered Join Date: May 2006 Location: Manly, NSW, Australia Posts: 4	I've just got Marine Aquarium V2.6, and it is great. I send the output from my computer to my widescreen LCD TV via a TV Out S1-video connection, and it is magic. I don't want any more fish, but where are the different tanks? When I hit the [ or ] keys to get them, as it says in the help screen, the program exits. Aree there any extra tanks or not?

05-21-2006, 08:09 PM	#1392
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,938	"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman

05-21-2006, 08:10 PM	#1393
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,938	Originally posted by Wombat: I've just got Marine Aquarium V2.6, and it is great. I send the output from my computer to my widescreen LCD TV via a TV Out S1-video connection, and it is magic. I don't want any more fish, but where are the different tanks? When I hit the [ or ] keys to get them, as it says in the help screen, the program exits. Aree there any extra tanks or not? I guess those [ and ] directions are standardized from the other products based on the Aquarium engine. There is but one tank/background for the Marine Aquarium. Goldfish Aquarium and Sharks Aquarium each have almost a dozen different background setups. Glad you're enjoying the Aquarium! "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman

05-21-2006, 08:23 PM	#1394
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,771	The [ and ] keys switch from the tank with the crystal in it to the tank with the elephant-ear coral. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

05-22-2006, 12:10 AM	#1395
Edgar Prolific/SereneScreen Developer Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Norwalk, CA Posts: 513	To get the Crystal mode, the "Exit on Mousemove" in Settings need to be unchecked. *Edgar Tolentino* Prolific Developer www.prolific.com www.LifeGlobe.com

05-22-2006, 03:16 AM	#1396
Tiny Turtle is pleased Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 7,365	Lol, I like your C B Angel better, Morg. /Tiny Levels Thanks to Morgan, Tiny Snapshots is up and running again with "Tiny Järvafält" as the latest addition – Go have a look and tell me what you think. "We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another." /Robert Oppenheimer on witnessing the first thermonuclear detonation in history.

05-22-2006, 05:50 AM	#1397
Wombat Registered Join Date: May 2006 Location: Manly, NSW, Australia Posts: 4	Originally posted by Edgar: To get the Crystal mode, the "Exit on Mousemove" in Settings need to be unchecked. Thanks Edgar, that was the problem. I want exit on mousemove checked but when I do that the ctrlB, CtrlW, [ and ] do not work - hitting them exits the program. They all work with the exit on mousemove unchecked. I'd say that is a bug!

05-22-2006, 05:54 AM	#1398
Wombat Registered Join Date: May 2006 Location: Manly, NSW, Australia Posts: 4	Originally posted by Jim Sachs: The [ and ] keys switch from the tank with the crystal in it to the tank with the elephant-ear coral. Thanks Jim - but it doesn't do it if the exit on mousemove is checked - see Edgars post below. If the exit on mousemove is checked, hitting [ or ] or Ctrl-B or Ctrl-W just exits the program. I think that's a bug.

05-22-2006, 09:55 AM	#1399
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,771	Edgar and Will handle all the minor user-interface issues. I also feel that none of the hotkeys should trigger the Exit-On-Mouse-Move function. Maybe Edgar could make it so for the next update. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

06-07-2006, 08:21 AM	#1400
Bill Logsdon Registered Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Bird Flu Strikes Melbourne Florida Posts: 2	Just an observation --- I put the demo of Serene Screen on my daughter's ancient KXP-450 machine with 32mb video and it works great! Smooth and excellent. I tried the Dream Aquarium product, and even in blank aquarium mode it runs in jerks and fits ... Kudos to Jim for a superior product even on ancient puters!