Oh right. I keep forgetting that.

I vote for the Fresh Water Aquarium to be put on hold also.Everyone has been waiting for the MA 3-d background for way too long.

patscarr is right about making something like a 10 creature pack before you start on the 3-d background,because it could take awhile and it would be nice to have some more new creatures in the tank.

Like a new starfish and some other new fish would be cool to have.

The problem with that is that the "creatures" you speak of need the 3D background to have a place to interact with.

Couldn't some of the creatures be added without the 3-D aqaurium?Like any of these:
1.Mandarin Goby?
2.Seahorse?
3.Shark?
4.Eel?
5.Green Sea Turtle?
6.Cuttlefish?
7.Another Starfish?

Jim would have to answer this one himself to be sure, but most of those require the 3d background to be truely realistic.

Mandarin Goby; It is a beautiful fish that inhabits the lower regions of the tank, often burrowing into the substrate.

Seahorse; have you ever watched one? they actually swim very very little, they spend most of their time with their tails wrapped around something holding on. Currently the coral you are looking at is in a flat plane, there isn't anything to wrap around.

Shark; doable to a certain extent, depending on the species and how much they swim and/or rest on the bottom of the tank.

Eel; I had one for years, a Zebra Moray. Actually the photo on the wishlist page is the one I had. ( Jim said he would/might make me one for my efforts, if he got the chance. I haven't forgotten Jim :) ) Moray's DO NOT like the light. They generally live in holes or caves and come out mostly at night to feed. It was one of the options that Jim liked and wanted to work into his aquarium. You would be more likely to see the eel when your lights are dim. But, he has to have a 3D cave/coral to be in alot of the rest of the time.

Sea Turtle; might be doable, not sure about this one.

Cuttle fish; I would imagine that getting the movement of this one right would be a bear. I am sure that Jim would get it right from looking at his past work, but I would imagine it will be time consuming.

Another Starfish; might be the easiest one depending on if Jim chooses to use the same model or create a totally different one.

Realize that these are only my thoughts and I may be way off base on some of these, I am only thinking out loud.

Michael's right on just about everything there. Right now, the plan is to do the 3D background, then create a Creature Pack to take advantage of it.

OK ..Go on Jim we are waiting you with an amazing Hit
Marine Aquarium 3
go go go go ...........

***Pocket PC Marine Aquarium***
Now on sale!

Sweet! Gotta give that a try!

Well, I've tried it... Hmmm... I'll buy it, there's no question about that, but it's a little barebones...

Critical Thoughts:

Fish movement should be slowed a little bit, they go too fast IMHO and a slower pace would make it look better in light of the low FPS...

The compression on the background it too heavy, the artifacts are very obvious and quite distracting... I can see it on the screenshot on the website even...

The Addis Butterfly Fish needs some work cropping the edges so it looks good swimming over both light and dark areas... The Copperband, Bannerfish, and Threadfin all look fine.

There are a few "jumping pixels," for lack of a better term, on the coral centerpiece right in the middle of the screen, should be an easy fix...

Positive thoughts:

As Jim said, it looks good overall considering the limitations of the platform.

The clock it great, and really makes it appealing to have running when the system is cradled...

Suggestions:

More fish! I'd gladly give up some more space on my CF card for more textures... The lack of the Percula is particularly disappointing...

Fade the background if at all possible, or at least give other color options, dark blue and black would be nice...

Pan the background side to side if possible, but if it's not the current point of focus is the best one in the tank.


Hopefully you'll be able to tell me that all my worries are taken care of in the full version...

DRFISH... what Pocket PC were you using? I will add Percula Clownfish to .NET version. Can you give me better directions to the pixel jumping artifact... picture even.

Thanks for feed back... will help refine MA on this platform.

I have an Asus MyPal A620... I'll try to get a picture of the pixel jumping... If you don't know what I mean after looking for it then it's not doing it on yours, you would notice... Looking forward to the Percula... :) I'll post here again tonight...

Ah, a SereneScreen on my PPC... :D
I like it. :)

Works fine on my iPAQ 3955, 3975 so far...
I have a 5455 but haven't had time to install it yet.
It will probably work since it works on the above models.
It's a pretty nice job... but I have a few observations... ;)

1) As noted above the background color doesn't transition very smoothly. That would go a long way to making it look more realistic.
2) I think I would like it better if the fish were smaller. That would also allow more of them to be visible at the same time.
3) A "landscape" mode would be nice.
4) Sounds? If there are any I can't hear them.
5) During the install I was asked several times If I wanted to overwrite some files that were already installed. The software should only offer to do that if the files are newer than those already there... IMO of course. ;)

Over-all a nice effort. Still needs a little work before I buy, but it's a nice considering the limits of the platform. Would be nice if there was more info, and screen shots on the site. My buy now finger is poised and waiting. :D

A agree with TWM on 2 and 3, I should have mentioned both of those myself. I also had #5 happen to me, but forgot about it by the time I posted...

Weatherman and drfish...I'm curious about the background issues you are seeing. Which background are you noticing this with... the lightest, middle or darkest setting?

The attached image is taken from the picture you have on the site, but it still shows the problem... What I'm talking about it the compression artifacts that stick out on the edge where the coral meets the gradient background... I haven't actually registered yet so I can't try any of the other settings, but it's slightly annoying on whatever the default setting is... I don't understand why it needs to be compressed so heavily, could you just use a straight up bitmap or something or is space that big of a concern?

As drfish said, the image on the web site promoting the software shows the gradient bands... it isn't a smooth transition... and the coral background seems pixilated ... it's really the only unattractive thing about this version that I've noticed. I've made a lot of screens for my iPAQ's and none have this sort of "grainy" image...

Got it... will be corrected with next update! Thanks guys

Guess I'm a little late with this screen shot. ;)

Working on my iPAQ hx 4700 with no problems. Any plans on supporting VGA or landscape mode. I noticed on the prolific site that it said runs slow on the Dell x50v in VGA but seems to be runiing fast on the 4700 VGA.