Fish Picker for MA2 - Page 3

riz · 04-01-2003, 03:13 PM

Well, good news... I now have pinpointed the problem due to different resolution and color settings between the desktop and aqarium... I had noticed on my slower box w/g4 mx420 that my settings were set at 16bit aquarium, 32bit desktop, 1600x1200 aquarium, 1152x864 desktop... the aqarium would flicker for many seconds but ran at 58 locked at 50 percent cpu usage... well, I tried setting my desktop to 16bit and at 1600x1200 to match the aquarium and bam! fish picker 4.0.4. works perfectly

Now onto my fast machine... my aquarium settings were at 1920x1440, 32bit... desktop = 1600x1200, 32bit... then I noticed the frame rate limiter wasn't on... turned it on, bam... works perfectly...

So it's some combination of these timing issues as you mentioned before... clearly it's not just the resolution and color bits because on box two, my settings are not identical but works with fps limiter on (but not off)... box 1, the slower machine... always had the framerate limiter on but different res and color settings and it didn't work... so, whatever, don't know for sure....

Lastly, I have a very, very small feature request... is there any way you can add a "launch aqarium when fishpicker is started" option... my full time aquarium is set to launch fishpicker in startup... then I use macro express 3 to launch the aquarium via a macro... I would love to be able to just have fishpicker launch the aquarium upon startup... thanks for your consideration..

riz

Edit (added...) or at the smallest level a shortcut key combo to launch aqarium... right now, my macro actually uses mouse movements to right-click it in the tray, scroll up the list and launch the aquarium... if there was a shortcut combo, macro express could then just activate the key combo to launch the aquarium...

Mountainmaster · 04-01-2003, 05:34 PM

riz, good for you that it is working now but I still would like to nail this (aargh! I am starting to talk like Reichart

)

if i move the mouse, the aquarium doesn't close, it refreshes and loads up the next custom setting

MA2 has to be closed before it will take outside settings, besides I made sure that Fish Picker won't try to restart MA2 when it still runs. I think the exit/start is just going so fast that your monitor hasn't reset yet when MA2 loads again.

I uploaded Fish Picker 4.0.5. This is what I changed: If Picker fails to close MA2 the first time, it will now retry 2 times. First after 10, then after 20 seconds. After 30 seconds it quits trying with a proper error message. So at least you know what's wrong.
I still don't understand how this is related to the things you mentioned, but generally if Picker can not close MA2 it is somehow not allowed to make MA2 the active application. Only the active application can receive the esc-key command that Picker sends. The fact that MA2 is running on top does not automatically mean that it is also the active application. You may have other applications running that like to steal the focus (it could even be macro express).

Now about your request, I will think about it although I doubt if "launch aqarium when fishpicker is started" would be useful to anyone else. So if I am going to add it, it will be a hidden feature, perhaps a command-line parameter.

bob, I added the 2 minutes cycle-time option. And before anyone asks about that large gap between "hour" and "day" also a 6 hours option.

http://home.wanadoo.nl/sfinx98/progs/picker_ma2.zip

handimannbob · 04-01-2003, 11:09 PM

that 2min is nice....thanks

memilm · 04-03-2003, 04:33 AM

The Stop button under the Launch Aquarium text did not work for me when the MA2 is in windows mode.
Is there a way to start direct in windows mode the MA2, without 1 second delay?
How about saving the position and width/height of MA2?

memilm · 04-03-2003, 06:26 AM

Is there an parameter to start direct the picker in tray?
How about a button "launch Aquarium and picker minimize"?
Could you modify the old picker 3.09 with the option "Cycle Custom Settings"?

memilm · 04-03-2003, 06:34 AM

The "Cycle Every..." option is OK.
I wonder if you could implement it twice: one for the "Cycle Custom Settings" and one for "Cycle Random Fish".
I mean I wanna set the first to 10 Minutes for example and the second to 2 Minutes.

Tiny Turtle · 04-03-2003, 07:21 AM

memilm,
You know there is an "edit" button when you want to add to a post?

/T²

memilm · 04-03-2003, 07:53 AM

Please scuze me if I have too many ideas to implement...
Is there a posibility to start the picker as a screensaver, I mean I like to set it from display settings of my computer, the picker should start itself, minimize in tray and launch the MA2 or SSA 1.1 with the presetted options like "cycle..."?

Mountainmaster · 04-03-2003, 03:50 PM

The Stop button under the Launch Aquarium text did not work for me when the MA2 is in windows mode

memilm, does it sometimes fail or does it never work? It works perfectly on my 2 pc's.

Is there a way to start direct in windows mode the MA2, without 1 second delay?

Not that I know of. Picker has to send the f-key to MA2 to accomplish that. If anyone knows the magic word to do this please tell!

Is there an parameter to start direct the picker in tray?

No, but I may add it in a future version.

How about a button "launch Aquarium and picker minimize"?

Yes, that seems useful in combination with windowed mode. I may add that as well.

Could you modify the old picker 3.09 with the option "Cycle Custom Settings"?

No, development of Picker 3.09 for MA 1.1 does not have my interest anymore. Remember, I do this for fun. Now if on the other hand you were willing to pay me...

The "Cycle Every..." option is OK. I wonder if you could implement it twice: one for the "Cycle Custom Settings" and one for "Cycle Random Fish".

No, that would result in a big mess and probably crash your computer. As you know the random fishes are cycled too when "Cycle Custom Settings" shuts down MA2 and then restarts it. So when both are checked "Cycle Custom Settings" always overrides "Cycle Random Fish".

Is there a posibility to start the picker as a screensaver

You can set up any program as a "screensaver" by renaming its extension to .scr and placing it in the system directory.

memilm · 04-04-2003, 12:01 AM

The Stop button under the Launch Aquarium text did not work for me allways when the MA2 is in windows mode.
My system is an Windows XP Home German with NVidia GerForce 460 Go. Funny way but when I click the "Start"-button again, I became the error window "Already running! Marine Aquarium 2 is already running" with an OK button.
Many thanks for your answers and I will keep seeing for your new versions.

Mountainmaster · 04-05-2003, 02:26 PM

Another new Fish Picker, version 4.0.6 is out: http://home.wanadoo.nl/sfinx98/progs/picker_ma2.zip

Options to start Fish Picker minimized and to minimize it when launching the aquarium are added. The "Start/Stop" button now has a "hidden" option to make Fish Picker launch the aquarium when it starts. Just right-click the button.

memilm, could you try if the "Stop" button works for you now? If it still doesn't there should at least be an error message saying "Fish Picker could not close... "

And a similar question to riz, could you restore the settings that caused the failure with cycling the custom settings and try again?

riz · 04-05-2003, 10:02 PM

MM, I tested it out and cannot replicate the earlier error message! so that's looks good... but

I have noticed some strange behavior in this version and in the last version as well, regarding CPU usage... with the cycle settings at one minute and task manager enabled, I noticed after a couple of cycles, the CPU pegs out at 100% and doesn't ever let up... the first one or two cycles appear to be fine... on my slow machine I get 58fps at 50% cpu usage without fish picker... then when fish picker cycles a few times it pegs at 100% and stays... I've even seen behavior that after the aquarium has been closed, fishpicker keeps pegging 100% but I've only seen this a couple of times and do not have a clue what/when causes it... It doesn't seem to matter if the desktop and aquarium res and color settings are the same or different, it happens in both cases

Hey man, even if you don't put another minute into fishpicker you've got a great piece of software and have greatly enhanced MA2 for many of us...I know you work for free so I am not trying to keep you working on it.. just pointing things out as I notice them (I used to work in QA for a now-bankrupted internet company)

Let me know if you need any other help...
riz

Mountainmaster · 04-06-2003, 04:45 AM

riz, thanks. This is serious. Fish Picker seems to get stuck in a loop. Not an endless one, but it could go on for hours and hours after "cycle custom settings" was stopped.
I would advise everyone not to use that option in version 4.0.5 and 4.0.6 and wait until I fix this in the next version.

Mountainmaster · 04-06-2003, 10:37 AM

Ok, all clear again. You can now download Fish Picker 4.0.7 with the loopbug fixed.

http://home.wanadoo.nl/sfinx98/progs/picker_ma2.zip

CPU usage however is still 100% during cycling of the custom setting though. I will look into a better subroutine for this.

riz · 04-06-2003, 09:53 PM

MM, it's still pegging 100%

The first cycle is fine but after the first it doesn't let up... just letting you know

riz

memilm · 04-07-2003, 12:43 AM

The Stop Button work fine with the last version.
And the new minimize on start option work fine, but it seems that the cycle random fish function are not working anymore, when the picker is minimize by starting the MA2 and MA2 is windowed after 1 minute.

Mountainmaster · 04-07-2003, 11:21 AM

MM, it's still pegging 100%

Yes, I know. Apparently that is the way Visual Basic handles a pause loop. Just as long as it stops pegging the CPU when it is not in cycle mode I am content for now, because that is the part that was fixed. An endless loop after all, but since it was the pause loop it didn't show. So now that MA2 doesn't use 100% CPU anymore Fish Picker takes over...

it seems that the cycle random fish function are not working anymore, when the picker is minimize by starting the MA2 and MA2 is windowed after 1 minute.

I am assuming you have the cycle time set to 1 minute as well? It would make make sense then, because both routines would try to kick in at the same time, which is bound to go wrong. I will have to lower the windowed mode time limit a little, so you won't be able to choose that fatal combination.

riz · 04-07-2003, 01:11 PM

MM, I misunderstood your last post regarding the fix... I took it as it was fixed in custom cycle mode and that's why I posted that it wasn't, I re-read your original post and understand what you meant now...

No, I only use the cycle custom setting mode, not in conjunction with the random fish mode... I created 10 different background and fish combos and normally I have it set for cycle every 20 minutes... but for testing purposes I use 1 minute

riz

memilm · 04-08-2003, 12:05 AM

I use only the cycle random fish option every 1 minute, the other cycle custom settings option is not activated.
Windowed mode after 1 second and Minimize When Aquarium Launches are activated.
The MA2 is launched and than windowed OK, the picker go OK in tray but the random fish are not changing after 1 minute.

memilm · 04-08-2003, 12:22 AM

I think the version 4.07 has general problem to handle cycle random fish option.

04-01-2003, 05:34 PM	#42
Mountainmaster Liopleurodon Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: 3rd planet Posts: 314	riz, good for you that it is working now but I still would like to nail this (aargh! I am starting to talk like Reichart ) if i move the mouse, the aquarium doesn't close, it refreshes and loads up the next custom setting MA2 has to be closed before it will take outside settings, besides I made sure that Fish Picker won't try to restart MA2 when it still runs. I think the exit/start is just going so fast that your monitor hasn't reset yet when MA2 loads again. I uploaded Fish Picker 4.0.5. This is what I changed: If Picker fails to close MA2 the first time, it will now retry 2 times. First after 10, then after 20 seconds. After 30 seconds it quits trying with a proper error message. So at least you know what's wrong. I still don't understand how this is related to the things you mentioned, but generally if Picker can not close MA2 it is somehow not allowed to make MA2 the active application. Only the active application can receive the esc-key command that Picker sends. The fact that MA2 is running on top does not automatically mean that it is also the active application. You may have other applications running that like to steal the focus (it could even be macro express). Now about your request, I will think about it although I doubt if "launch aqarium when fishpicker is started" would be useful to anyone else. So if I am going to add it, it will be a hidden feature, perhaps a command-line parameter. bob, I added the 2 minutes cycle-time option. And before anyone asks about that large gap between "hour" and "day" also a 6 hours option. http://home.wanadoo.nl/sfinx98/progs/picker_ma2.zip Last edited by Mountainmaster; 04-01-2003 at 07:42 PM.

04-01-2003, 11:09 PM	#43
handimannbob what's up doc ? Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: millbrae,ca Posts: 410	that 2min is nice....thanks bob

04-03-2003, 07:21 AM	#47
Tiny Turtle is pleased Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 7,365	memilm, You know there is an "edit" button when you want to add to a post? /T² 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.

04-01-2003, 03:13 PM	#41
riz Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 30	Well, good news... I now have pinpointed the problem due to different resolution and color settings between the desktop and aqarium... I had noticed on my slower box w/g4 mx420 that my settings were set at 16bit aquarium, 32bit desktop, 1600x1200 aquarium, 1152x864 desktop... the aqarium would flicker for many seconds but ran at 58 locked at 50 percent cpu usage... well, I tried setting my desktop to 16bit and at 1600x1200 to match the aquarium and bam! fish picker 4.0.4. works perfectly Now onto my fast machine... my aquarium settings were at 1920x1440, 32bit... desktop = 1600x1200, 32bit... then I noticed the frame rate limiter wasn't on... turned it on, bam... works perfectly... So it's some combination of these timing issues as you mentioned before... clearly it's not just the resolution and color bits because on box two, my settings are not identical but works with fps limiter on (but not off)... box 1, the slower machine... always had the framerate limiter on but different res and color settings and it didn't work... so, whatever, don't know for sure.... Lastly, I have a very, very small feature request... is there any way you can add a "launch aqarium when fishpicker is started" option... my full time aquarium is set to launch fishpicker in startup... then I use macro express 3 to launch the aquarium via a macro... I would love to be able to just have fishpicker launch the aquarium upon startup... thanks for your consideration.. riz Edit (added...) or at the smallest level a shortcut key combo to launch aqarium... right now, my macro actually uses mouse movements to right-click it in the tray, scroll up the list and launch the aquarium... if there was a shortcut combo, macro express could then just activate the key combo to launch the aquarium...

04-03-2003, 04:33 AM	#44
memilm Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: germany Posts: 259	The Stop button under the Launch Aquarium text did not work for me when the MA2 is in windows mode. Is there a way to start direct in windows mode the MA2, without 1 second delay? How about saving the position and width/height of MA2?

04-03-2003, 06:26 AM	#45
memilm Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: germany Posts: 259	Is there an parameter to start direct the picker in tray? How about a button "launch Aquarium and picker minimize"? Could you modify the old picker 3.09 with the option "Cycle Custom Settings"?

04-03-2003, 06:34 AM	#46
memilm Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: germany Posts: 259	The "Cycle Every..." option is OK. I wonder if you could implement it twice: one for the "Cycle Custom Settings" and one for "Cycle Random Fish". I mean I wanna set the first to 10 Minutes for example and the second to 2 Minutes.

04-03-2003, 07:53 AM	#48
memilm Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: germany Posts: 259	Please scuze me if I have too many ideas to implement... Is there a posibility to start the picker as a screensaver, I mean I like to set it from display settings of my computer, the picker should start itself, minimize in tray and launch the MA2 or SSA 1.1 with the presetted options like "cycle..."?

04-03-2003, 03:50 PM	#49
Mountainmaster Liopleurodon Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: 3rd planet Posts: 314	The Stop button under the Launch Aquarium text did not work for me when the MA2 is in windows mode memilm, does it sometimes fail or does it never work? It works perfectly on my 2 pc's. Is there a way to start direct in windows mode the MA2, without 1 second delay? Not that I know of. Picker has to send the f-key to MA2 to accomplish that. If anyone knows the magic word to do this please tell! Is there an parameter to start direct the picker in tray? No, but I may add it in a future version. How about a button "launch Aquarium and picker minimize"? Yes, that seems useful in combination with windowed mode. I may add that as well. Could you modify the old picker 3.09 with the option "Cycle Custom Settings"? No, development of Picker 3.09 for MA 1.1 does not have my interest anymore. Remember, I do this for fun. Now if on the other hand you were willing to pay me... The "Cycle Every..." option is OK. I wonder if you could implement it twice: one for the "Cycle Custom Settings" and one for "Cycle Random Fish". No, that would result in a big mess and probably crash your computer. As you know the random fishes are cycled too when "Cycle Custom Settings" shuts down MA2 and then restarts it. So when both are checked "Cycle Custom Settings" always overrides "Cycle Random Fish". Is there a posibility to start the picker as a screensaver You can set up any program as a "screensaver" by renaming its extension to .scr and placing it in the system directory.

04-04-2003, 12:01 AM	#50
memilm Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: germany Posts: 259	The Stop button under the Launch Aquarium text did not work for me allways when the MA2 is in windows mode. My system is an Windows XP Home German with NVidia GerForce 460 Go. Funny way but when I click the "Start"-button again, I became the error window "Already running! Marine Aquarium 2 is already running" with an OK button. Many thanks for your answers and I will keep seeing for your new versions.

04-05-2003, 02:26 PM	#51
Mountainmaster Liopleurodon Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: 3rd planet Posts: 314	Another new Fish Picker, version 4.0.6 is out: http://home.wanadoo.nl/sfinx98/progs/picker_ma2.zip Options to start Fish Picker minimized and to minimize it when launching the aquarium are added. The "Start/Stop" button now has a "hidden" option to make Fish Picker launch the aquarium when it starts. Just right-click the button. memilm, could you try if the "Stop" button works for you now? If it still doesn't there should at least be an error message saying "Fish Picker could not close... " And a similar question to riz, could you restore the settings that caused the failure with cycling the custom settings and try again?

04-05-2003, 10:02 PM	#52
riz Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 30	MM, I tested it out and cannot replicate the earlier error message! so that's looks good... but I have noticed some strange behavior in this version and in the last version as well, regarding CPU usage... with the cycle settings at one minute and task manager enabled, I noticed after a couple of cycles, the CPU pegs out at 100% and doesn't ever let up... the first one or two cycles appear to be fine... on my slow machine I get 58fps at 50% cpu usage without fish picker... then when fish picker cycles a few times it pegs at 100% and stays... I've even seen behavior that after the aquarium has been closed, fishpicker keeps pegging 100% but I've only seen this a couple of times and do not have a clue what/when causes it... It doesn't seem to matter if the desktop and aquarium res and color settings are the same or different, it happens in both cases Hey man, even if you don't put another minute into fishpicker you've got a great piece of software and have greatly enhanced MA2 for many of us...I know you work for free so I am not trying to keep you working on it.. just pointing things out as I notice them (I used to work in QA for a now-bankrupted internet company) Let me know if you need any other help... riz

04-06-2003, 04:45 AM	#53
Mountainmaster Liopleurodon Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: 3rd planet Posts: 314	riz, thanks. This is serious. Fish Picker seems to get stuck in a loop. Not an endless one, but it could go on for hours and hours after "cycle custom settings" was stopped. I would advise everyone not to use that option in version 4.0.5 and 4.0.6 and wait until I fix this in the next version.

04-06-2003, 10:37 AM	#54
Mountainmaster Liopleurodon Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: 3rd planet Posts: 314	Ok, all clear again. You can now download Fish Picker 4.0.7 with the loopbug fixed. http://home.wanadoo.nl/sfinx98/progs/picker_ma2.zip CPU usage however is still 100% during cycling of the custom setting though. I will look into a better subroutine for this.

04-06-2003, 09:53 PM	#55
riz Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 30	MM, it's still pegging 100% The first cycle is fine but after the first it doesn't let up... just letting you know riz

04-07-2003, 12:43 AM	#56
memilm Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: germany Posts: 259	The Stop Button work fine with the last version. And the new minimize on start option work fine, but it seems that the cycle random fish function are not working anymore, when the picker is minimize by starting the MA2 and MA2 is windowed after 1 minute.

04-07-2003, 11:21 AM	#57
Mountainmaster Liopleurodon Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: 3rd planet Posts: 314	MM, it's still pegging 100% Yes, I know. Apparently that is the way Visual Basic handles a pause loop. Just as long as it stops pegging the CPU when it is not in cycle mode I am content for now, because that is the part that was fixed. An endless loop after all, but since it was the pause loop it didn't show. So now that MA2 doesn't use 100% CPU anymore Fish Picker takes over... it seems that the cycle random fish function are not working anymore, when the picker is minimize by starting the MA2 and MA2 is windowed after 1 minute. I am assuming you have the cycle time set to 1 minute as well? It would make make sense then, because both routines would try to kick in at the same time, which is bound to go wrong. I will have to lower the windowed mode time limit a little, so you won't be able to choose that fatal combination.

04-07-2003, 01:11 PM	#58
riz Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 30	MM, I misunderstood your last post regarding the fix... I took it as it was fixed in custom cycle mode and that's why I posted that it wasn't, I re-read your original post and understand what you meant now... No, I only use the cycle custom setting mode, not in conjunction with the random fish mode... I created 10 different background and fish combos and normally I have it set for cycle every 20 minutes... but for testing purposes I use 1 minute riz

04-08-2003, 12:05 AM	#59
memilm Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: germany Posts: 259	I use only the cycle random fish option every 1 minute, the other cycle custom settings option is not activated. Windowed mode after 1 second and Minimize When Aquarium Launches are activated. The MA2 is launched and than windowed OK, the picker go OK in tray but the random fish are not changing after 1 minute.

04-08-2003, 12:22 AM	#60
memilm Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: germany Posts: 259	I think the version 4.07 has general problem to handle cycle random fish option.