Start Predefined Aquarium? - Page 11

Mountainmaster · 09-18-2002, 06:56 PM

...I think that is not too hard for you to stop SS put the new setting in the registry and start SS again.

You are right. Now that I found out how to pass keystrokes to the aquarium this might actually work, provided that I can get the timing right. Especially applying the starfish could be a bottleneck here because it still requires an external windows program (regedit). And we would not want long pauses between unloading and reloading. Also there would have to be a routine that checks if the aquarium is still running... Hmm, it might be a little harder than we thought but I'll give it a try.

feldon34 · 09-18-2002, 07:33 PM

Cycling the fish every few minutes would be very nice. I'd just pass "space space" to the Aquarium and stay minimized in the system tray.

memilm · 09-18-2002, 11:49 PM

For first look doesn't matter how long are the pauses between the unload and reload the SS. You can think that otherway, all the things manually to do is there more time to lose("ESC" to stop the SS, then pick another setting-file, than "Apply"-Buton and then "launch SS"-button)...

Mountainmaster · 09-19-2002, 10:49 AM

I'd just pass "space space" to the Aquarium and stay minimized in the system tray

I am not sure that would work. The aquarium beta that I am using currently seems to keep its own buffers and ignores registry changes, on exit it saves the buffers to the registry. I'd have to go back to latest official release to check if it does the same.

memilm · 09-19-2002, 01:57 PM

I ment realy stop it, like a kill program/process does it, like hitting "ESC" or ALT+F4, and then start it again, with the new registry entries you wrote betweeen stop and start SS...

feldon34 · 09-19-2002, 02:28 PM

I am talking about just rotating the RANDOM fish.

What you're talking about would be very disruptive because the Aquarium would kick out to the desktop and back. This also means on most monitors, the relay in the monitor would be switching 4-8 times every time this happens. That would be 4-8 switches every 5 minutes or 384 switches in an 8 hour day.

Vish · 09-19-2002, 03:40 PM

Originally posted by Mountainmaster
cjmaddy,

I have a beta version ready for download that is fully compatible with the aquarium widescreen. It wasn't as easy as I thought, so please test it critically for strange or inconsistent behaviour.

http://home.wanadoo.nl/sfinx98/progs/picker_b.zip

Widescreen options are enabled only if the Aquarium_wide.scr file is present in the system directory.

I would first like to congratulate mountainmaster for his wonderful creation.
I do have one suggestion/comment. This picture shows an exit button but the latest version I downloaded does not have that.

Did I download wrong zip file? OR was it removed from the GUI intentionally....
Thanks

Mountainmaster · 09-19-2002, 03:51 PM

I am talking about just rotating the RANDOM fish

Not quite as sophisticated as memilm suggested. On the other hand if I can't make his suggestion work smoothly this is an good alternative, which I know will make a few people here very happy.

on most monitors, the relay in the monitor would be switching 4-8 times every time this happens

I could restrict it to run only with the aquarium set to desktop resolution.

Vish,
Yes, the exit button was removed intentionally. See discussion in this thread one or two pages back.

btw the beta link above was taken down some time ago. This is the correct link: http://home.wanadoo.nl/sfinx98/progs/picker.zip

patscarr · 09-20-2002, 06:33 AM

MM, your doing a great job. I think Morgan's "space space" to the aquarium idea sounds the easiest. Give it a try and let us know what happens. I love this picker so much. I wish when I hit the space bar, your picker comes up. Can you do that?

Mountainmaster · 09-20-2002, 05:53 PM

Patrick,
I got it the "spaces" working, but there are still some conditions that I can't control yet.
When the screensaver password is on, Fish Picker is putting the spaces in the password box! And that also applies to the "windowed mode" option that is already implemented. But I found out how to check the password on/off setting and there will be a warning in the final version when it is on.
Then there is a problem with the aquarium running minimized (yes, I know that doesn't make sense, but sometimes it gets kicked out by other programs). I made a subroutine that checks if the aquarium is running, but it behaves erratic with the aquarium in minimized state, sometimes passing just one "space" and leaving the settings panel sitting there.
And something else I just thought of, does anyone know what is displayed in the aquarium's titlebar on systems with non-western characters? My subroutine will not detect it when there is anything else than "SereneScreen Aquarium" in there.

I wish when I hit the space bar, your picker comes up. Can you do that?

No, I think that would require remapping the Windows hotkeys and I don't know how to do that.

Mountainmaster · 09-22-2002, 12:43 PM

I see we have a sticky thread now.

And I have updated Fish Picker. The "cycle random fish" option is working now under the conditions mentioned before. But I am still in the dark about systems with non-western characters. If it doesn't work there please let me know.
I might add more flexibility to it later, like choosing the time interval (now fixed to one minute). And btw this does not mean that memilm's suggestion was rejected, I'll try to make "cycle custom settings" work for the next release.

version 3.0.7: http://home.wanadoo.nl/sfinx98/progs/picker.zip

memilm · 09-23-2002, 02:21 AM

For first the picker work good with random fishes.
I find that a black screen between one configuration to another will look nice, like light off and than ligts on, on a real aquarium, and surprise you have new fishes...
Is there a way to implement this and hide the setting panel from SS?
Somebody has asked in another forum-thread about setting the lights in SS like the real time ones(nights dark and days brighter). Is there a way to do that?(When you change between presetted files, you could check the time and change the lights settings)?

Tiny Turtle · 09-23-2002, 05:50 AM

I probably should've looked up the original thread about this, but I'm in a bit of a hurry right now:

Why would anyone want to have the aquarium running dark at night? It doesn't look like a real aquarium does with it's lights turned off and also a monitor/TV running in a dark room would look weird as it emits light (even a black TV screen emits light). Having the SSA running in dark mode at night seems like a waste of energy to me – who's watching? (– And anyone watching would appreciate a lit version more).

Please help me understand why this would be a good idea.

/Tiny Lighting

patscarr · 09-23-2002, 05:57 AM

Perhaps not completely dark, just dimmed a little.

memilm · 09-23-2002, 06:37 AM

This was posted from glenramsey in SereneScreen Aquarium WISHLIST at 05-15-2002:

"Time-of-day aware lighting (WISH LIST)
Notwithstanding the fact that I am unquestionably amazed: Are there any plans, or is it possible, to have different light settings depending on particular times of the day?

We plan to install a computer and monitor in our bedroom as a permanent feature. As beautiful as the fish are we would love it if the lights could dim according to a particular setting at "bed time" so we can dream about the fish instead of see them all night, hey, we need our sleep!! :-)"

By the way, this is the first time I saw this forum-thread at the top of all (I know I'm living in Europe)...

Tiny Turtle · 09-23-2002, 09:54 AM

My point was that if Glen's aquarium-showing monitor was turned on in an otherwise dark bedroom it would still light the room up a bit and he would see the fish – not dream of them.

I believe the feature he is looking for (possibly unknowingly, right now) is to at a given time have the aquarium fade to black and then put the monitor in stand-by to keep both mr. & mrs. Ramsey from having a faintly glowing rectangle on the wall all night.

The given compliment would of course be to power up the monitor, just in time for Corn Flakes...

Not really sure on what level this feature should be implemented. Leave the fade in/out feature out and Windows Scheduler could probably take care of it (given that the monitor has a proper stand-by mode of course.) If it has to fade out and in things would have to work a little bit more together, but this is just speculations from someone who's knowledge of programming doesn't go much beyond macros in Photoshop...

Tiny Stand-by

feldon34 · 09-23-2002, 10:18 AM

Standby mode on monitors won't work properly on many systems until a DirectX 7 or 8 version of the Aquarium comes out.

Mountainmaster · 09-27-2002, 10:41 AM

New version 3.0.9 is up. Added possibility to choose from different cycle times for the "Cycle Random Fish" option, which now also appears in the tray icon menu. Fixes for minor bugs happening under rare conditions.

I find that a black screen between one configuration to another will look nice, like light off and then lights on, on a real aquarium, and surprise you have new fishes... Is there a way to implement this and hide the setting panel from SS?

memilm,
Isn't that what it looks like already when you (or fish picker) hit the spacebar twice? If you let the latest version of Fish Picker cycle the randoms that way, the settings panel will only be in sight for a very brief period. On a fast pc you probably won't even see it.

Latest Fish Picker: http://home.wanadoo.nl/sfinx98/progs/picker.zip

cjmaddy · 09-27-2002, 04:13 PM

On running some 'Cycle Random Fish' tests on this latest 3.0.9 Fish picker, I have come across the following ...

'Off' does not work in any position in wide 1.1.6
'Normal' (Full screen) 'Settings' can be used to put the fish back, - for positions 1 to 7 only!
If 'Off' is used for the 8th position, only Fish Picker can put the fish back!

I don't think this is a Fish Picker fault, and I have sent an email to Reichart at Prolific.com

I just thought it was worth mentioning here. Have any other 1.1.6wide users found this?

I also changed back to 3.0.2 - just to check, - still no 'Off' in wide. I don't think Fish Picker is at fault here, but it is affected by this. In fact using Fish Picker seems to be the only way to put back the 8th fish!

Mountainmaster · 09-27-2002, 05:57 PM

cjmaddy,
Sounds to me like you still have the 1.1.6.0727 beta that Morgan asked us to test by email. If you check out the beta forum you'll find that there is a new beta 1.1.6.0806 which fixes the "off" problem. On my system beta 1.1.6.0727 crashed back to the desktop when any slot was set to off.
btw, I think any further discussion of this subtopic should be done in the beta forum.

09-18-2002, 07:33 PM	#202
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,938	Cycling the fish every few minutes would be very nice. I'd just pass "space space" to the Aquarium and stay minimized in the system tray. "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

09-19-2002, 02:28 PM	#206
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,938	I am talking about just rotating the RANDOM fish. What you're talking about would be very disruptive because the Aquarium would kick out to the desktop and back. This also means on most monitors, the relay in the monitor would be switching 4-8 times every time this happens. That would be 4-8 switches every 5 minutes or 384 switches in an 8 hour day. "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

09-19-2002, 03:40 PM	#207
Vish Registered Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: California Posts: 103	Originally posted by Mountainmaster cjmaddy, I have a beta version ready for download that is fully compatible with the aquarium widescreen. It wasn't as easy as I thought, so please test it critically for strange or inconsistent behaviour. http://home.wanadoo.nl/sfinx98/progs/picker_b.zip Widescreen options are enabled only if the Aquarium_wide.scr file is present in the system directory. I would first like to congratulate mountainmaster for his wonderful creation. I do have one suggestion/comment. This picture shows an exit button but the latest version I downloaded does not have that. Did I download wrong zip file? OR was it removed from the GUI intentionally.... Thanks --Vish

09-19-2002, 03:51 PM	#208
Mountainmaster Liopleurodon Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: 3rd planet Posts: 314	I am talking about just rotating the RANDOM fish Not quite as sophisticated as memilm suggested. On the other hand if I can't make his suggestion work smoothly this is an good alternative, which I know will make a few people here very happy. on most monitors, the relay in the monitor would be switching 4-8 times every time this happens I could restrict it to run only with the aquarium set to desktop resolution. Vish, Yes, the exit button was removed intentionally. See discussion in this thread one or two pages back. btw the beta link above was taken down some time ago. This is the correct link: http://home.wanadoo.nl/sfinx98/progs/picker.zip Last edited by Mountainmaster; 09-19-2002 at 03:54 PM.

09-20-2002, 06:33 AM	#209
patscarr Pet Shark Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Back in Buffalo Posts: 5,455	MM, your doing a great job. I think Morgan's "space space" to the aquarium idea sounds the easiest. Give it a try and let us know what happens. I love this picker so much. I wish when I hit the space bar, your picker comes up. Can you do that? Patrick

09-18-2002, 06:56 PM	#201
Mountainmaster Liopleurodon Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: 3rd planet Posts: 314	...I think that is not too hard for you to stop SS put the new setting in the registry and start SS again. You are right. Now that I found out how to pass keystrokes to the aquarium this might actually work, provided that I can get the timing right. Especially applying the starfish could be a bottleneck here because it still requires an external windows program (regedit). And we would not want long pauses between unloading and reloading. Also there would have to be a routine that checks if the aquarium is still running... Hmm, it might be a little harder than we thought but I'll give it a try.

09-18-2002, 11:49 PM	#203
memilm Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: germany Posts: 259	For first look doesn't matter how long are the pauses between the unload and reload the SS. You can think that otherway, all the things manually to do is there more time to lose("ESC" to stop the SS, then pick another setting-file, than "Apply"-Buton and then "launch SS"-button)...

09-19-2002, 10:49 AM	#204
Mountainmaster Liopleurodon Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: 3rd planet Posts: 314	I'd just pass "space space" to the Aquarium and stay minimized in the system tray I am not sure that would work. The aquarium beta that I am using currently seems to keep its own buffers and ignores registry changes, on exit it saves the buffers to the registry. I'd have to go back to latest official release to check if it does the same.

09-19-2002, 01:57 PM	#205
memilm Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: germany Posts: 259	I ment realy stop it, like a kill program/process does it, like hitting "ESC" or ALT+F4, and then start it again, with the new registry entries you wrote betweeen stop and start SS...

09-20-2002, 05:53 PM	#210
Mountainmaster Liopleurodon Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: 3rd planet Posts: 314	Patrick, I got it the "spaces" working, but there are still some conditions that I can't control yet. When the screensaver password is on, Fish Picker is putting the spaces in the password box! And that also applies to the "windowed mode" option that is already implemented. But I found out how to check the password on/off setting and there will be a warning in the final version when it is on. Then there is a problem with the aquarium running minimized (yes, I know that doesn't make sense, but sometimes it gets kicked out by other programs). I made a subroutine that checks if the aquarium is running, but it behaves erratic with the aquarium in minimized state, sometimes passing just one "space" and leaving the settings panel sitting there. And something else I just thought of, does anyone know what is displayed in the aquarium's titlebar on systems with non-western characters? My subroutine will not detect it when there is anything else than "SereneScreen Aquarium" in there. I wish when I hit the space bar, your picker comes up. Can you do that? No, I think that would require remapping the Windows hotkeys and I don't know how to do that.

09-22-2002, 12:43 PM	#211
Mountainmaster Liopleurodon Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: 3rd planet Posts: 314	I see we have a sticky thread now. And I have updated Fish Picker. The "cycle random fish" option is working now under the conditions mentioned before. But I am still in the dark about systems with non-western characters. If it doesn't work there please let me know. I might add more flexibility to it later, like choosing the time interval (now fixed to one minute). And btw this does not mean that memilm's suggestion was rejected, I'll try to make "cycle custom settings" work for the next release. version 3.0.7: http://home.wanadoo.nl/sfinx98/progs/picker.zip

09-23-2002, 02:21 AM	#212
memilm Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: germany Posts: 259	For first the picker work good with random fishes. I find that a black screen between one configuration to another will look nice, like light off and than ligts on, on a real aquarium, and surprise you have new fishes... Is there a way to implement this and hide the setting panel from SS? Somebody has asked in another forum-thread about setting the lights in SS like the real time ones(nights dark and days brighter). Is there a way to do that?(When you change between presetted files, you could check the time and change the lights settings)?

09-23-2002, 05:50 AM	#213
Tiny Turtle is pleased Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 7,365	I probably should've looked up the original thread about this, but I'm in a bit of a hurry right now: Why would anyone want to have the aquarium running dark at night? It doesn't look like a real aquarium does with it's lights turned off and also a monitor/TV running in a dark room would look weird as it emits light (even a black TV screen emits light). Having the SSA running in dark mode at night seems like a waste of energy to me – who's watching? (– And anyone watching would appreciate a lit version more). Please help me understand why this would be a good idea. /Tiny Lighting

09-23-2002, 05:57 AM	#214
patscarr Pet Shark Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Back in Buffalo Posts: 5,455	Perhaps not completely dark, just dimmed a little. Patrick

09-23-2002, 06:37 AM	#215
memilm Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: germany Posts: 259	This was posted from glenramsey in SereneScreen Aquarium WISHLIST at 05-15-2002: "Time-of-day aware lighting (WISH LIST) Notwithstanding the fact that I am unquestionably amazed: Are there any plans, or is it possible, to have different light settings depending on particular times of the day? We plan to install a computer and monitor in our bedroom as a permanent feature. As beautiful as the fish are we would love it if the lights could dim according to a particular setting at "bed time" so we can dream about the fish instead of see them all night, hey, we need our sleep!! :-)" By the way, this is the first time I saw this forum-thread at the top of all (I know I'm living in Europe)...

09-23-2002, 09:54 AM	#216
Tiny Turtle is pleased Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 7,365	My point was that if Glen's aquarium-showing monitor was turned on in an otherwise dark bedroom it would still light the room up a bit and he would see the fish – not dream of them. I believe the feature he is looking for (possibly unknowingly, right now) is to at a given time have the aquarium fade to black and then put the monitor in stand-by to keep both mr. & mrs. Ramsey from having a faintly glowing rectangle on the wall all night. The given compliment would of course be to power up the monitor, just in time for Corn Flakes... Not really sure on what level this feature should be implemented. Leave the fade in/out feature out and Windows Scheduler could probably take care of it (given that the monitor has a proper stand-by mode of course.) If it has to fade out and in things would have to work a little bit more together, but this is just speculations from someone who's knowledge of programming doesn't go much beyond macros in Photoshop... Tiny Stand-by

09-23-2002, 10:18 AM	#217
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,938	Standby mode on monitors won't work properly on many systems until a DirectX 7 or 8 version of the Aquarium comes out. "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

09-27-2002, 10:41 AM	#218
Mountainmaster Liopleurodon Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: 3rd planet Posts: 314	New version 3.0.9 is up. Added possibility to choose from different cycle times for the "Cycle Random Fish" option, which now also appears in the tray icon menu. Fixes for minor bugs happening under rare conditions. I find that a black screen between one configuration to another will look nice, like light off and then lights on, on a real aquarium, and surprise you have new fishes... Is there a way to implement this and hide the setting panel from SS? memilm, Isn't that what it looks like already when you (or fish picker) hit the spacebar twice? If you let the latest version of Fish Picker cycle the randoms that way, the settings panel will only be in sight for a very brief period. On a fast pc you probably won't even see it. Latest Fish Picker: http://home.wanadoo.nl/sfinx98/progs/picker.zip

09-27-2002, 04:13 PM	#219
cjmaddy Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Lancashire, UK Posts: 7,854	On running some 'Cycle Random Fish' tests on this latest 3.0.9 Fish picker, I have come across the following ... 'Off' does not work in any position in wide 1.1.6 'Normal' (Full screen) 'Settings' can be used to put the fish back, - for positions 1 to 7 only! If 'Off' is used for the 8th position, only Fish Picker can put the fish back! I don't think this is a Fish Picker fault, and I have sent an email to Reichart at Prolific.com I just thought it was worth mentioning here. Have any other 1.1.6wide users found this? I also changed back to 3.0.2 - just to check, - still no 'Off' in wide. I don't think Fish Picker is at fault here, but it is affected by this. In fact using Fish Picker seems to be the only way to put back the 8th fish!

09-27-2002, 05:57 PM	#220
Mountainmaster Liopleurodon Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: 3rd planet Posts: 314	cjmaddy, Sounds to me like you still have the 1.1.6.0727 beta that Morgan asked us to test by email. If you check out the beta forum you'll find that there is a new beta 1.1.6.0806 which fixes the "off" problem. On my system beta 1.1.6.0727 crashed back to the desktop when any slot was set to off. btw, I think any further discussion of this subtopic should be done in the beta forum.