Jim,

I know that you have no current plans to add background images behind the coral for the MA, but I'd like to offer an idea that has the potential to add some life to the existing static background without having to add an image.

Would it be possible (if it's not too much trouble) to have it so that the existing light caustics -

A) Affect the static background in such a way as to make the color waver

or

B) Have it reflect in the same way it currently does on the coral

Either of the above ideas would offer a subtle change, but an effective one. Personally, I like the "A" idea because it has the potential to add depth to the background, almost making it look like as if there is no background, just deep blue sea (color depends on current light setting of course). What do you think?

Personally I think "A," and giving a greater impression of depth, is a great idea: part of the reason I like the aquarium so much is the impression it gives of displaying a tiny window into a much larger world. Makes it that much less claustrophobic, which is a problem SimAquarium (for example) can have with that surface and too many fish. (That's why Jim not having tank sides or a water surface and only 7 (or 8) fish bothers me not one tiny jot! :D)

P.S. Many apologies to /Tiny! ;):D

That's how I look at it as well, even though Jim's intention is to simulate a reef tank and not an actual reef.

I thought this ray was kinda cool "I dont know how to add a pic so heres a link"

http://www.petswarehouse.com/SW/rays/fiddler.jpg

sageinwhite,

Welcome to the forum, and just type {img} and {/img} at the beginning and end of your url, replacing the { with [. I edited your post to show you, hope you don't mind.

That's one cool ray. Got a species ond/or size on it?

/Tiny Jot ;)

Working backwards, I found....
http://www.petswarehouse.com/search_...=&CATEGORY=ALL

Fiddler Ray (Australia) Trygonorrhina fasciata

Guess I should work backwards more often. :D

Yeah total thanks for posting the pic thats what I wanted to do but didnt know how to do till you just told so thanks. I think itd be totally awesome to have a ray. What I really wish theyd realease is a Mandarin Gobi I think ive seen them at the pet store hopping among the live rock.

A Mandarin Gobi really needs its own fish behavior and a new 3D model.

Yeah itd be totally awesome if they could make it.

They? :D

Morgan,
That would be Jim, James D. and Mr. Sachs... ;)

/Tiny They

Oh sorry bout that just used to saying someone who makes something to be a they because it takes someone very taleneted to make something like SereneScreen but I guess in this case itd just be one person. Sorry if there are more people I just got into this so I wasnt sure how many people their were.

No worries, Sage. I'm sure Jim takes it as a compliment that you thought it was too good to have been done a one guy. Technically there has been some technical involvement and also Jim "only" did one of the new fish in v2.0 himself.

/Tiny Team

This is a feature request that I've been thinking about since I first installed v1.0 in December.

If you have the lights set on "Automatic" they change pretty quickly. While I can imagine it wouldn't be very exciting to have a dark fish tank as a screen saver, I would be interested in controlling the speed of the light transitions.

One bothersome thing with many screen savers is that they are so frenetic and unpredictable, that you end up catching them out of the corner of your eye when you're working on something else at your desk. That's one of the things that I like about having an aquarium as a screen saver, very calming motions, nothing wreaking havoc in a frenetic fashion.

Making the lighting transitions go slower would prevent the quick change that happens when it switches from light to dark to light again. I guess the effect I'm looking for would be one if you're right there, you don't notice the change, but if you walk away and come back in a couple of minutes, the aquarium would have changed.

I know this is minor, but if it's possible, it would be nice to have. Maybe a slider or a entry field where you could specify the duration of the transition of light to dark and from dark to light.

As long as I'm suggesting... :)

Any way we could get the ability to set the minimum light setting for the "Automatic" setting? This way, if the tank is "dark" you could see more than just a silhouette of the fish. In my experimentation, about two arrow clicks up from black was about what I was thinking of.


Lacking these features, I just have my light level set manually, so that's why this isn't a big deal, but this is the suggestions thread...

This is a great thing to post here:

https://www.feldoncentral.com/forums...&threadid=1349

Will do, sorry for the mis-post.

The new Wishlist is almost here!

Michael has done a LOT of work on this.

No voting just yet, but a ton of new fish and special creatures.

Jim,

Sooooo, have you considered my proposal regarding the background? Just don't want my post to pass you by unnoticed. Besides, I'm really curious as to what you think about this idea. :)

Sorry, Steve - it did pass by unnoticed while I was sick in Maui last week.

Regarding some kind of lightplay on the background, there are two problems:

1. Painting that many pixels would consume a tremendous number of clock cycles.

2. I don't know how to do it.