Home Register Arcade Gallery Chatroom Members Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Log In
Go Back   Inside: SereneScreen Fan Forum > SereneScreen Products > Marine Aquarium 3 for Windows > Marine Aquarium 2 for Windows Archive
Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 02-24-2002, 10:53 PM   #141
peter piscis
Carpe Piscis
 
peter piscis's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2001

Location: Seattle
Posts: 33
My mistake - Rod is right, it is Control (not Alt) S.
peter piscis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 07:06 AM   #142
Bright
Guest
 

Posts: n/a
Embarassed Great work - Lionfish too small?

Jim, it's a great job you've done. I find the lionfish great looking.

I only have one thing: it seems that the lionfish is much too smal considering the size of the other fish and the coral. Anyone has any comment on this?
  Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 08:23 AM   #143
DeltaLima
Registered
 
Join Date: Jan 2002

Location: Canada
Posts: 6
Big Grin Password problem not solved!

Hi Jim,

The problem with the password being bypassed by another program is not solved. When the aquarium is running and I receive an email notification with GroupWise Notify, the aquarium goes on the task bar and I have complete access to the computer. I still can hear the bubble sound and I see the aquarium button in the task bar. Of course, if I press the button, the aquarium comes back.

For this reason I still can't use it because I leave my desktop often and need better security.

Any idea why this? Oh, this is on a Win98SE system.

If you plan work on this for a v1.1a then I may have a small suggestion also. About Lights settings, 2 seperate check box, one for automatic background and another for automatic foreground. I would like to set an automatic background but I don't want the foreground to change, I like it clear.

Great job anyway.

Last edited by DeltaLima; 02-25-2002 at 09:44 AM.
DeltaLima is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 09:07 AM   #144
Tiny Turtle
is pleased
 
Tiny Turtle's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
27 Highscores

Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Posts: 7,365
Bright, I too find the Lionfish too small – I'd like a sole BIG adult Lionfish with the background lights set to minimum and nothing else in the tank. The problem, according to Jim with making a bigger specimen would be that it would wreck havoc on the collision detection in the tank as those fins take up quite a lot of room. Perhaps it could be implemented as the collision detection is remodeled (again) when the 3D backgound is released.

Then again, all fish in the tank are intended to be juveniles so pretty much any of them could be larger than the current size. Also if you take a closer look at the head of the Lionfish, you'll notice that it doesn't have the "horns" that a mature Lionfish would have (See attached image). Such attention to detail is what we get from Mr. Sachs!

/Tiny Lionfish
Attached Images
File Type: jpeg volitans_red.jpeg (7.6 KB, 606 views)
Tiny Turtle is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 09:51 AM   #145
feldon34
Forum Administrator
 
feldon34's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2000

Location: Rock Hill, SC
Posts: 10,937
DeltaLima,

After spending about a month trying a lot of different things, it doesn't look like Jim or Prolific will be able to get the Aquarium completely bulletproof under Windows 95, 98, and ME. That's why I have always described 1.1 as having improved password protection (leaving out the word perfect or bulletproof!)

I have to say, if you're running Windows 98, that computer is not particularly secure. I can boot up off a floppy and get at your files no prob. Hopefully your IT staff will switch the office to Windows 2000 soon.
"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
feldon34 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 09:58 AM   #146
feldon34
Forum Administrator
 
feldon34's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2000

Location: Rock Hill, SC
Posts: 10,937
Bright,

All the fish in this Aquarium are juveniles. The Lionfish is no exception.
"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
feldon34 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 10:16 AM   #147
Lester Jacobs
Registered
 
Join Date: Feb 2002

Posts: 9
Re: Re: Re: flash

Originally posted by Rod Stiles


Try CTRL-S I found it makes a difference.

Actually I tried that as well but no joy.

Thanks
Lester
Lester Jacobs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 10:23 AM   #148
Lester Jacobs
Registered
 
Join Date: Feb 2002

Posts: 9
Originally posted by Jim Sachs
You might try switching the Vsync position in Display Properties. Some systems like it on, some off.
Jim,
Thanks for your reply. As I mentioned in my post, I did try that. With Vsync on, the fish movements are smooth but the screen keeps flashing as described in my previous post. With Vsync off, the flashing stops but the fish movements are jerky. Playing with the "limit frame rate to 60fps" does not improve the situation.

Currently I've decided to to leave Vsync off and have jerky fish. This is much more watchable than smooth fish on a flashing screen. If this becomes too annoying I'll switch back to 99L where everything worked well.

Hopefully some combination of video card driver upgrades and aquarium upgrades will solve the problem in the future.

Cheers
Lester
Lester Jacobs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 10:43 AM   #149
Jim Sachs
Developer
 
Jim Sachs's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2000

Location: Southern Oregon
Posts: 9,768
What resolution are you using? Try setting the Aquarium to the next lower res.
Jim Sachs
Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium
Jim Sachs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 10:51 AM   #150
Jim Sachs
Developer
 
Jim Sachs's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2000

Location: Southern Oregon
Posts: 9,768
As far as the Lionfish being too small, no. In my studies for doing this fish, I found several tanks where the Lionfish was the smallest fish in the tank, some only 2 inches long and fully-formed.

This is the right sized Lion for this tank, otherwise it would eat the smaller fish.
Jim Sachs
Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium
Jim Sachs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 11:03 AM   #151
asprague
Regal Angel
 
asprague's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2001

Posts: 80
" I only have one thing: it seems that the lionfish is much too smal considering the size of the other fish and the coral. Anyone has any comment on this? "

I would not want the lionfish any bigger than it is. It already begins to dominate the tank. From an artistic perspective, I think it has met its maximum size.
asprague is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 01:18 PM   #152
bslenter
Registered
 
Join Date: Nov 2001

Location: San Francisco
Posts: 18
lionfish

Many have mentioned the lionfish seems too small... keep in mind that real life aquarium fish can be purchased in all sizes. All fish, even the huge ones, start out small. Juveniles are often more colorful than the adults, and are more likely to acclimate to captivity. Also, when you buy your fish young, you get to keep them longer (many have short life spans).

Jim has apparently decided to create all juvenile fish for this screen saver. This creates a nice balanced tank. In real life an adult lionfish would have snapped up all the others in his huge mouth.

Jim, for your next project you might consider creating a new aquarium that focuses on large agressive fish, such as an adult lionfish, moray eel, cat shark, stingray, etc. Of course you'd have to scale everything down to fit, but the idea would be to model a 200-500 gallon tank. Just a thought...though you probably don't want to talk to much about the next project when you're recovering from all the long hours put in on this one

Also a comment on the lionfish side fin movement...I've noticed the most realistic movement is on my laptop at 25 fps. On my desktop at 70 fps the fin movement is more rigid. Jim has already posted why this happens. I believe Jim plans to tune this further...perhaps link it to the system clock instead of frame rate...though I'm not a programmer...

This version is looking very nice on all my machines...makes me want to go diving
bslenter is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 01:46 PM   #153
feldon34
Forum Administrator
 
feldon34's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2000

Location: Rock Hill, SC
Posts: 10,937
I'm sure Jim is feverishly typing a long reply to this, but in case he isn't here's the skinny...

The current tank is 200 gallons. All juveniles.

The new tank (3D background) is 400-500 gallons and will be so wide that the camera slowly pans back and forth to view all of it. Jim has been pleased with initial wireframe tests (no textures) of this kind of camerawork. The new tank will have room for a couple of eels, Jellyfish, Octopus, etc. I don't know if it will be possible to make the Lionfish bigger. I hope so.
"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
feldon34 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 06:49 PM   #154
keithkwww
Registered
 
Join Date: Feb 2002

Posts: 2
Big Grin Re: Aquarium "flashing" problem

Originally posted by Lester Jacobs


Now the problem. Whenever I'm running the aquarium whilst another program is running in the background (eg. MusicMatch for background music) the aquarium has an annoying "flashing". What I mean by flashing is that it appears that the entire screen goes black for about a microsecond or so at intervals ranging from .5 to 2 seconds. It almost appears to be some sort of vertical sync issue.

Lester
I have the same problem with a 1.4 Ghz P4 768 MB, ATI Radeon 64 DDR setup.

Keith
keithkwww is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 07:06 PM   #155
feldon34
Forum Administrator
 
feldon34's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2000

Location: Rock Hill, SC
Posts: 10,937
Clearly there is a conflict between MusicMatch and the Aquarium.

Have you tried minimizing MusicMatch or disabling any animation it may be attempting while the Aquarium is running?
"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
feldon34 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 09:38 PM   #156
keithkwww
Registered
 
Join Date: Feb 2002

Posts: 2
Originally posted by feldon23
Clearly there is a conflict between MusicMatch and the Aquarium.

Have you tried minimizing MusicMatch or disabling any animation it may be attempting while the Aquarium is running?
I've stopped MusicMatch from playing music, and just left it open, and the problem still occurs, although the flashes are less frequent. I don't use any visual effects normally, so they were already turned off. I tried several changes to the Aquarium preferences, such as running in a lower resolution and using less fish, but that didn't have any effect at all (as far as I could tell).

Keith
keithkwww is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 10:42 PM   #157
thebard
Copperband Butterfly
 
thebard's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2001

Location: Australia
Posts: 32
MusicMatch latest version?

Probably totally unrelated - just my 2c worth. I reg'd MMJukebox a year ago & thought it excellent - until the new release around Nov 2001. Performance was erratic - trialled MediaJukebox & bought it. It does far more than MMJB - & it has a Forum too! [I never had any conflicts with the Aquarium in any case]

But the real reason I came here today was - Version 1.1***
It was hard - but I waited until today to d/load it. No glitches with keycode. My email addy wasn't in database [new ISP] but I was walked through what had to be done[name, old keycode etc] & my new keycode was emailed within seconds. Great service!
Hey, I've only run it twice - but I've never had a problem B4 & don't anticipate any now. Totally brilliant. Lionfish is a real stunner.
Sent screen capture to a friend - she's gonna buy Aquarium.
Thanks, Jim, for all your work. Thanks, feldon23 for running this Forum, bet you never envisaged all this!

Now I hope I don't get smacked in the face with a wet fish for asking this. Er - the previous v. Aquarium's icon is still on my Desktop. Am I supposed to drag it to the Recycle Bin now? I haven't clicked it since installing v.1.1***, just want to do things right.

Last edited by thebard; 02-25-2002 at 11:10 PM.
thebard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2002, 11:23 PM   #158
Jim Sachs
Developer
 
Jim Sachs's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2000

Location: Southern Oregon
Posts: 9,768
Yes, you can just drag the older program into the Recycle bin.
Jim Sachs
Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium
Jim Sachs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-26-2002, 08:21 AM   #159
Lester Jacobs
Registered
 
Join Date: Feb 2002

Posts: 9
Originally posted by Jim Sachs
What resolution are you using? Try setting the Aquarium to the next lower res.
Thanks for the suggestion. However this does not address the problem and in fact introduces an additional problem where the screen layout of programs already running before the Aquarium was started get messed up (they re-adjust their windows to account for the smaller resolution).

Cheers
Lester
Lester Jacobs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-26-2002, 08:30 AM   #160
Lester Jacobs
Registered
 
Join Date: Feb 2002

Posts: 9
Originally posted by feldon23
Clearly there is a conflict between MusicMatch and the Aquarium.

Have you tried minimizing MusicMatch or disabling any animation it may be attempting while the Aquarium is running?
As I mentioned in my earlier post, MusicMatch is simply an example of a program which causes the flashing problem. I can cause the flashing problem with other programs as well. The characteristic that appears to cause the problem is that another task besides the aquarium is competing for CPU time and somehow this throws off the aquarium timing. I would imagine (and certainly hope) that a P4 1.5Ghz and an ATI Radeon AIW should be plenty enough horsepower to run the aquarium and another program at the same time.

I do not know where the problem is but it is not specific to Musicmatch. However MusicMatch is simply a good example because it is actively doing something reasonably intensive in the background (playing mp3s) while the aquarium runs in the foreground.

Cheers
Lester
Lester Jacobs is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply
Go Back   Inside: SereneScreen Fan Forum > SereneScreen Products > Marine Aquarium 3 for Windows > Marine Aquarium 2 for Windows Archive



Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:14 PM.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.