Wishlist for Marine Aquarium 3 and Future

[Tiny Turtle]

Only thing I can think of is that the Start button, Quick Launch bar and all that bottom of the screen stuff is still visible. – You haven't heard of the [Alt] + [Tab] combo, Steve?

/Tiny Combo

[Digital Lungfish]

What's the difference between Maximised and Full Screen? Inside the program, Full Screen has many advantages, but I mean visually.

Nevermind, you've got a point. Besides, I run it full screen 99.9% of the time anyway, I guess I use window mode for frame rate/resolution comparisons, but it's not that important now that I think about it. That being said, is there a reason you have the middle button disabled in window mode (just curious)?

You haven't heard of the [Alt] + [Tab] combo, Steve?

Very funny Tiny, very funny.

[Jim Sachs]

Yes, I have the Maximize button disabled so that people don't maximize the window, then think they are running Fullscreen (but getting lousy performance).

[Tiny Turtle]

Nice to see someone else refer to the middle button as "Maximize button".

/Tiny Maximize (a.k.a. Minimize?)

[Santa]

G'day from Oz.

I test ran Marine Aquarium on a Jaguar Mac 233 mhz G3 at 1.5 frames per sec. and was impressed. Have since dropped in a 500 G4 and Radeon 7000. Very, very nice. I've paid up willingly.

However, I've got 'Automatic lighting' set, but I feel it gets too dark. When 'Auto.' is active, what I'd like is a check box below 'Automatic lights', that when ticked activates the Backgound & Foreground lights bars, and only darkens to whatever they're set at. 'Restrict darkness' or somesuch name.

Also, can the position of the starfish be 'remembered'. Perhaps a checkbox 'Remember starfish'. Poor bugger gets halfway up the screen & I drop him back down again. If you add snails etc, this feature would be very nice. Fair bit of coding I imagine.

I'd also like to add my vote for the leafy sea dragon. It's an amazing creature to see in reality.

Regards, & thanks

Santa.

[Jim Sachs]

Hi, Santa -

A couple of points: If "1.5 frames per second" isn't a misprint, then the Aquarium is running in software emulation mode (not using the hardware at all). Hardware should yield 20-200 fps.

There is a special Mac Forum, where Mac hardware issues are discussed.

Somehow the ability to remember the starfish position did not get translated from my original PC code into the Mac version. The translation company is working on that.

I have considered adding a Leafy Sea Dragon in one of the future Creature Packs. Regular sea horses will be included, but there are some programming hurdles involved with Sea Dragons because of their long flowing appendages.

[Santa]

G'day Jim

Thanks for the fast reply.

I should have been more explicit, sorry.

1.5 frames was under the old 233 G3 processor & Jaguar (I was amazed it even worked). 1024x768 pixels. The 500 G4 and Radeon 7000 clicks over at 56 fps, with only 66 Mhz PCI bus, and I haven't activated the cache yet.

Is the Weedy Seadragon out of the question as well in the interim? It's 'fronds' don't flow anything like the Leafies.

I've got a collection of over 20 fish I'd like to suggest (328K), plus a few Nudibrachs. Would that cause a problem on the desired fishes page? Though I'd ask first. (I know Nudibrachs are tiny, toxic to fish, and predominately bottom dwellers, but there's a whopping 56mm one!)

Regards, and thanks for the best screen saver ever.

Santa

[Jav400]

Santa,

The best way would be for you to list the names of the things you would like to see and post a link to a photo if you have one. Glad you are enjoying the screensaver so much, and Welcome to the Forum.

[Santa]

G'day again

Strewth! Don't you lot sleep?

Thanks for that. All the images are from the hundreds on the Australian museum site, so I'll go back and arrange links to images & pages as well.

Regards

Santa

[Jav400]

Santa,

LOL, not alot I guess. Between Jim, Morgan, and I, there aren't to many post questions that have to wait long to get answered, and that's if a long time forum member doesn't answer it first.

[patscarr]

Welcome to the forum Santa!

[Jim Sachs]

Santa -

Nudibranchs are definitely on the to-do list.

Regarding the weedy sea dragon -- The problem is not so much the leafy fins as the fact that they are strung out so far from the body. This makes it very difficult to calculate where the creature "is" when doing collision prediction and detection.

[Jav400]

Santa,

Not sure if you have seen this page yet, but you can look here and view The Wishlist Photo Page This will tell you alot about what is planned and in the works at this point.

[Santa]

G'day again

Thanks for that link.

Two of my fish are listed, but only the leafy dragon, not the weedy. Would be nice to have both when possible.

I'd still like to see a restriction on darkness when in Auto lights. This could simulate bright moonlight (where I've read you can dive on the Great Barrier by moonlight), or intermittant passing clouds.

Would it rate a mention in the thumbs Up/Down, just so I know?

Regards from Oz

Santa (4 in the morning, I'm as bad as you lot)

[Jav400]

I'm sure that Jim takes all requests under careful consideration. But in this instance, remember that this screen saver is to simulate an aquarium, not the ocean. So, I am not sure just how well that would fit from that standpoint. But the restriction on lights where you could let one or the other cycle but not both might be something considered. Jim what do you think?

[Jim Sachs]

Yes, something like that will be in the next version.

[Santa]

G'day again

Seeing as we might get Nature-realistic type lighting, would actually re-creating moonlight cycles in an Aquarium induce Coral spawning? (& the resultant fish gourging)

Challenge?? (grin)

Regards

Santa

[Jav400]

Santa,

When Jim gets done with the freshwater version, he will be moving on to the new 3D background for the saltwater version. When that becomes available the fish will have individual personalities then. ie. nibbling on coral, territorial, not to the point of fighting though, and so on.

[Pres]

I don't know how much of a pain this would be to implement (presumably "non-trivial"), but as someone who works with 3D computer graphics as a hobby, I'd love the ability to add custom fish models to SSA's repertoire. Obviously they'd have to be low-poly and pre-textured, and linked to some sort of animation template, but having the ability to drop my own models into a folder and have the app pick them up and add them to its lists would seem to open up a lot of possibilities. I could see people trading extra fish types, a central library of downloadable fish... Even funky non-realistic cartoon fish, lil' bitty whales, submarines and the like might be possible.

Obviously this is all dependent on the existing code being "modularized" and the fish format being opened up for us to mess with. Don't know if you think it'd be worth the effort in the long-term or not, but I could see it being something to brag about: "Now over 100 fish types supported, and still growing!"

At the very least, once implemented it'd allow others to take some of the pressure off of you for creating each new fish that people request.

Just a thought!

Pres

[Jim Sachs]

Nope, I'll leave the fish circus to other products.