Wishlist for Marine Aquarium 3 and Future
 

Welcome to the continuing Marine Aquarium Wishlist thread!!

If you have an idea for a feature or fish you would like to see added to the Aquarium, reply to this thread!

You can also submit photos of fish you would like to see to our Marine Aquarium Fish Wishlist Page.

Sash's Wish List
 

Those are uncredibly realistic!

I have never seen anything like this!

Have you noticed, even the eyes moves before a fish turn?

But only one thing , i only discovered today that disturb me now, those fishs are not breathing ;)

So my only wish for a future version is to have the mouth moving , to simulate breathing

Beside that , it is simply perfert!

Re: The Sachs Aquarium WISHLIST
 

With the recent v99E my biggest "wish" so far has been granted, (exit on mouse move) which was irritating before having to either press escape or the M key.

I have mentioned this in an e-mail in passing but I'll put it here as well. It is going to get really confusing (to a non fish expert), when more and more fish become available, (especially if the list above is added), knowing which Fish is which. An icon, (like the Aquarium exe one) next to each fish box that changes to the fish you have selected might be a good Idea or an icon with each fish name so you can see what they are when you are selecting them maybe?.

Other than that and a bottom dweller or two, some alternative background choices and 32bit colour support. Don't want much do I :D

stiff fins
 

I think fins need more flexible, gills need open and close like real things.

Re: The Sachs Aquarium WISHLIST
 

Icons or images next to each fish would be great, and it wouldn't add to the filesize at all as he can just use the side profile textures.

As for 32 bit, less than 1% of 3d video cards are capable of running Direct3D or OpenGL in 24 or 32 bit. I'm guessing (could be wrong) that if your video card supported 24 or 32 bit 3D, it would work. Also, I doubt the textures on the fish even exist in 32 bit form. I have asked Jim to try to improve the aquarium so that it switches to 16 bit on launch. He says the Microsoft programmer tools aren't helpful at all in this regard and that if your card switches to 16 bit automatically, it's because of the 3d card, not because of anything he's doing.

Re: The Sachs Aquarium WISHLIST
 

Thank's for the Reply feldon23 and I'm not sure about 1% of cards having 32 bit Colour support/texture support. All the latest 3D graphics cards support 32 bit colour and textures, as do the games. Nvidia cards have done so since the original TNT and the latest Voodoo cards also do even though 3DFX is now officially dead :( (Nvidia has swallowed them up).

There are probably more people out there with no 3d support at all than anything else, (the aquarium started in software the other day when I was messing around with drivers and I got 2fps :) ). The V3 was a popular card, (and still is a good budget choice), that doesn't support 32bit colour.

If you buy a new PC today of almost any spec it will contain a 3D card of some description and with a Geforce MX at $100 they are now affordable to all.

Sorry to babble but Graphics card are sort of my thing, I moderate the Video cards & Displays forum on HardwareCentral

I'm also a serious gamer and as such keep my system as cutting edge as possible.

Athlon T-bird 1000Mhz @ 1200Mhz
Abit KT7 Raid
256mb Mushkin PC133
4x IBM GXP75 15.3 gig in a Raid 1/0
Asus v7700 Geforce2 GTS, 230/390
Soundblaster Live
Win 98SE, Direct X 8 & Nvidia beta detonator 6.49

A Geforce Ultra is on the cards but I may give it a miss as NV20 is schedulled for Feb 2001 and many owners of Ultras are being plagued by a "Rolling Lines" image fault, that as yet has no fix.

The Aquarium runs superbly on the above system and I've seen 110fps at 1600 x 1200 :)

I'm off to learn about the fish a bit as I'm no expert.

I love this program...
 

I managed a "high-end" Marine fish and invert. store for years., so I enjoy this program immensely!
Random thoughts:
I find that the fins do move in a convincing fashion, with the dorsal rigid yet unfolding at times (yellow tang), and the ventrals and caudals (tail) waving. Gil movement would be a nice addition.
I already got the fish I had requested a while ago, the Red Sea Semilarvatus butterfly. An Asfur angel would be cool,too. I like the Red Sea fish most of all.
Moving invertebrates would be cool, like a Harlequin shrimp or two, but I'd bet they'd be difficult, and really run up the poly. count.

I've got a Celeron 500@562, and a V3 2000 @ 180. With all 7 fish, I stay above 60fps @ 1024x780. Very smooth for an old system. That such a realistic program can run this well on such a system vouches for the competence of the programming.

Interestingly (to me,anyway), the frame-rate on the current E-build is quite a bit higher than with the demo version with exactly the same settings: fish,resolution,etc. I think it would be good to "upgrade" the demo to reflect the (apparently) more refined code, allowing it to run well on more systems.

I think this would make a good program for the aquarium market, albeit with a much more comprehensive fish catalog.

Re: I love this program...
 

Invertebrates are coming! Jim has told me that a banded coral shrimp will be one of the first. I'll quote most of his e-mail here:

-----------------
[Jim Sachs]

The movement of the fish was just a quick algorithm to get a version of the Aquarium on the market. I studied real fish for many hours, and put in the minimum number of visual cues to convince the casual observer that these fish were real. I have always planned to refine these movements -- their mouths and gills will move, and you will be able to feed the fish. The fish will exhibit individual behavior characteristic of their species (timid, aggressive, schooling, etc.)

There will probably be about 10 more conventional fish added before I start on the invertebrates. The first invertebrate will probably be a starfish, followed by a banded coral shrimp. The last one will probably be the octopus (could easily be 3000 polygons, and a programming nightmare). I know that people have grand expectations for this simulation, and I'll do my best. But before asking for the moon, take a look at all the state-of-the-art programs that huge teams of programmers and artists have ever produced, even with multi-million-dollar budgets. I think the Aquarium stacks up pretty well even in it's current form. Each of the hundreds of daily requests could take a whole career to fully pursue, and I have to walk a fine line of maximum effect for minimum effort, or I'll never get it done.

Then there are 3 more SereneScreen programs after this one!

There will also be new backgrounds, and a widescreen version with a wider than normal background. Eventually the backgrounds will be modeled in 3D like the fish, which is very time consuming, but will make things easier for new effects I have planned later.

I have also always planned to have pictures of the available fish in the Settings screen, but there are more urgent matters at the moment.

---------------------------------------

Fish & misc.
 

As a longtime NAUI diver from California, we certainly need to see garibaldi, moray eels, sharks, lobsters, crabs, abalone, sea urchins, and kelp!

my thoughts
 

I like nearly all of the ideas that have been mentioned so far. I love all the options for this program to customize it, and it should remain this way to fit everyone's individual tastes. Here are some ideas I think would look great in this screensaver:

- Have a snail.

- Have personalities & real behaviors of the fish, more then just shy and aggressive etc. Have them nibble on the coral and rocks at the bottom. Have them go to the top for air, have them chase other fish, etc, depending on how that actual fish of that type would really act. The more real and life-like, the better.

- Maybe have decorations, like a fake sunken ship, etc. (I say maybe because this might make it look cheesy and cluttered).

- Fish that don't swim off the edge.

The Sachs Aquarium WISHLIST
 

Need Mandrinfish (synchiropus Splendidus) to see in Sachs Aquarium....

Ideas!
 

Well, all the ideas here are really good and I can't wait for new ones to come up! For most of the ideas that come up I say 'why didn't I think of that!'. If Jim were to take in most of these ideas, I think the Aquarium could become very popular! :rollin:

Zempheth! :cool:

Tentacles!
 

Hmmm....I agree with Lostboy - decorations would be cheesy & cluttered.

Sea horses would be fantastic, as would shrimp.

Something I'd love to see would be cuttlefish and/or octopus. Shame about the high poly-counts required for those sort of beasties. I suspect color changing might be a bit beyond the program too. Granted, it could be done with palette switching, but I reckon that'll probably look a bit cheesy. Maybe a transparent overlay on top of the white cuttlefish might be a bit more convincing....

Catfish

Octopus
 

According to an e-mail I got from Jim, color-changing is a given for Octopus.

32 bit
 

'nother vote for 32-bit support.

Hmm.....
 

I think the octipus will be great! :)

Re: The Sachs Aquarium WISHLIST
 

This is the best Screensaver where ever I have see.
The Fish what I wish to see is a Splendidus Synchiropus.
I can not wait for new Features in this Program :-))

3DMitch
12/16/00 5:34:23 pm

Re: The Sachs Aquarium WISHLIST
 

Dogface Pufferfish are very cool fish I like these as they have a good personality but any puffer will do!

Skye

Re: The Sachs Aquarium WISHLIST
 

The Mandarinfish is a cool fish that I kept for a while in my own tank. They add a lot of color to the tank.

Brandon & Karla

Re: The Sachs Aquarium WISHLIST
 

Hi, I just wanted to say that I think most people are wanting some variation in the fish...me included. I looked at the pictures on your site and the only fish I would choose are the Lionfish, Seahorse, and maybe the Clown Trigger. The rest of the fish just look too similar in shape and size to the fish that are already in the screensaver.
I got the screensaver probably the first week it was out, and since then I have been checking back on the Sachs website, looking at the comments and news, and I really believe people are disappointed that there are no new backgrounds, and not much variation. There was even talk early on about small octopus and lobster/crabs ( which would have been awesome!)
Either way, I just wanted to lend my 2 cents and cast a vote for some of the more unique fish and/or backgrounds.

Fzoul

Re: The Sachs Aquarium WISHLIST
 

I had a tropical marine aquarium for 5 years and I can testify that this screensaver is the most successful I have seen ever and also the most realistic.

As for the wishlist, I have a request for the Diodon Holocanthus (Pufferfish).

This one would be difficult to design due to it's dual state (normal or inflated when he is afraid)

I had one during those five years and it is a very friendly fish and nice too.

I also agree on the choices of the clownfish , the regal or hippo tang and the facula butterfly.

Thanks and hope to see these fishes in a future version of our favorite screensaver !

Christian

Re: The Sachs Aquarium WISHLIST
 

Hello,

I Would like to congratulate you for your very impressive Web Site ,informations are quite accurate, very good job my friend. On the Wishlist I would like to see two of the most beautyful Marine fish and both of them are in my own Marine fish Aquarium

Annularis Angel
Imperator Angel

and you can get their photos on E-Tropicals.com Web Site

With My Best Regards

Andre

Re: The Sachs Aquarium WISHLIST
 

Almost everything that has been mentioned so far is on the list of things to add. The conventional fish will be first, ones that look similar and follow the same movement algorithm. Each of these takes about two days to complete. Then will come the other types, like puffer fish and sea horses, which are more difficult. Finally, there will be the "bottom-dwellers", like crabs, shrimp, and finally the octopus. In between all that, I have to find time for the new backgrounds and other features.
At the moment, I'm off to Seattle for two days of meetings, so I'll check in again tomorrow night.

--- Jim Sachs

My wishes
 

- more backgrounds
- other species like water snails, flowers with leaves moving in bubbles
- the fish could throw shadow on the sand below
- touch screen support (another step towards fidelity)
- it would be awesome (but probably unsolvable) to have the aquarium as a windows desktop, below all the icons and other windows

re: My wishes
 

More backgrounds are coming.

Snails might be coming.

Flowers with leaves meaning water plants? I think this is pretty much in lakes and streams (fresh water). Sachs aquarium is saltwater. Perhaps kelp is coming though.

As for fish shadows, Jim and I actually had a conversation about this. Because the light in a fishtank is so diffuse, unless the fish is 1 1/2" inches or closer to the bottom, there is no discernable shadow. Check out a real tank and you'll see it's true.

Touch screen support? You mean so you can tap the glass? Jim is working on the ability to "tap the glass". As for touchscreen, using a touchscreen is like using a mouse, so moving the mouse would wake up the screen saver from its sleep. I guess clicking on the glass with the mouse could be implemented if you have "wake from mouse movement" turned off. If Jim makes it so you can click on a certain point on the screen, then this feature will be automatically forwards-compatible with touchscreens.

The Sachs Aquarium WISHLIST
 

Well I think the most important.. before adding more and more fish would be to improve the backround.. a 3d backround would make the aquarim much more realist.. also I don't think this would be that hard to add but the ability to select a mp3 to play in the backround of the aquarium...
also it would be nice if the fish didn't swim off the screen.. it's kinda weird since it's trying to emulate a real aquarium.. and um where do the fish go if it's a real aquarium??

Re: The Sachs Aquarium WISHLIST
 

Fish are much easier to add than a background. Hit the "W" key while the screen saver is running and you'll see why. The background has to be parceled out into several layers so that fish can go behind and in front of certain coral formations.

As for mp3s, I think this might be beyond the scope of Jim's project. If he were to do anything, it would have a hook to trigger your mp3 software (Winamp, etc.) to play from a random playlist. His efforts have been for realism and as such, the tank has 2 options, bubbles or silence. I do wonder if the bubbles are a simple sound loop (or a multi-layer sound loop). If so, I'd love to hear a tank with ALL the sounds associated with an aquarium including the faint sounds of the fluorescent lights, the water pump, the filtration, etc.

Anyone else's opinions?

Re: Neon Tetra + Glass Fish
 

Tetras and glass fish are freshwater species, and I have no current plans to do a freshwater tank.

However, there are some saltwater species with fairly transparent bodies which would also look good as "mesh-within-a-mesh" objects, and I am planning for this effect.

--- Jim Sachs

sounds
 

I would like to have more sounds.
Seperate big bubbles instead of a constant stream of small bubbles.
Personally I think that there are enough "normal" fish, but I would like to see other lifeforms like snails, starfish, shrimp etc.

Re: sounds
 

On the subject of sounds, I love the real sound that this screensaver has, opposed to the many bad attempts that other fish screensavers have. However when falling asleep to the screensaver, it’s not as relaxing as it could be. Are there real aquarium sounds that could be made more relaxing for this screensaver?

Re: sounds
 

Ridder: Starfish and Coral shrimp are coming.

As for the aquarium sounds, I would like to see not just the droning bubbles (which I agree is not that relaxing) with the sounds of flourescent lights, water pump, filtration equipment, etc.

-Morgan

Re: sounds
 

I'm open to suggestions on the subject of sounds. The main problem is that the filesize can get out of hand very quickly. If anyone has an appropriate sound sample under 60K, I would be happy to consider it.

--- Jim Sachs

Looping sounds
 

Hi! First off, very nice development. Everyone who sees it on my system simply MUST know where I got it.

The only thing I could add to the list of requests I've already seen is to do something with the bubble sounds. I work with audio a good deal, and have an ear for details. And unfortunately, while I enjoy the serene "pink noise" the bubbles provide, I end up runing back to the computer to turn off the bubble sounds; the looping of the same audio clip over and over just drives me nuts! I think it would be an interesting change to maybe either lengthen the audio clip for the bubbles to make the looping a little less obvious (to some of us hehe) or to incorporate a series of bubble clips, that switch randomly, so that while they are still short and loop, there is enough randomness to it that it doesn't sound so much like a broken record.

Anyway, I know it's really nit-picky, but I thought I'd share.

--Lee

New Version Another A+
 

This is one impressive screen saver. More like a living
3D Saltwater aquarium. We have the Registered Key and love each update!

I do hope when I read the calls for variation, that prior to that, such attractive fish as Rock Beauties, and Persian Butterflies, and BiColored Angels make it in. When there is a variation of the true PC living saltwater tank, us purist want to have a nice stock of the gorgeous coral reef fish! While cute, sea horses and puffers just lack the vibrant colors of these fish!

Thanks Mr. Sachs for a wonderful program! And a super THANKS for making it so realistic, we leave it running on one screen all day.

I do want to add, the guy who wants a freshwater version, has a great idea, but that's another program totally.

And a Thanks for having a nice website Morgan, offering
added info and educational support!

Re: New Version Another A+
 

Excellent program, I've emailed Jim a while earlier when I got the very first version of Sachz Aquarium, well to say the least, the first time I saw it I thought it was a DVD video playback of a real aquarium, not until later I saw the frame rate on the upper left corner that says D3D HAL heh.

There are a couple things I want to be added to the wishlist (though I know some are coming soon, woot!)

- hermit crabs and snails (you won't see a good reef tank without them, they're nice janitors!)
- moving corals (that's the 3D background I think Jim is working on, keep it up!)
- some species of gobies? my favorite species is the diamond sleeper goby..
- some species of demsels? sure they're a little aggresive but I don't think you'll find a reef tank without them as well =)
- some species of clown with their anemone partner?

I think it's quite important to study the behavior of the different species of the fish too. I've kept a Royal Gamma before, it's not too aggresive but it's pretty shy too. They tends to hide itself behind live rocks (which I think that's their home), and when they do leave their home, they don't really swim horizontally.. they are more like darting around almost vertically, and when they're in idle they are also positioned in a 45 degrees angle.

Other species like the tangs loves to nip on live rocks, they're gaze on algae and that's why they often nip on live rock in search of any algae they can gaze.

While Angelfish and butterfly species looks nice, they are actually coral eater, they nip on both type of hard and soft corals, that's why you usually won't find them in reef tanks. They are mostly kept in marine fish only tanks.

That's my 2 cents, keep up the great job Jim!

Re: New Version Another A+
 

solos,

I can help you out with what's already waiting in the wings...

A clownfish is coming, although it will, sadly, be a free-swimmer until the 3D coral and anemone are done (hey that's the answer to 3 questions, what a bargain).

Check out the Wishlist at my website and see if there are any other fish you want to add. I'll put the Diamond Sleeper goby up there today.

I've got a picture of a white-tail damsel and Jim has had white-tail damsels in his illustrations before, such as the Commodore Amiga advertisement (check the link at the bottom of my wishlist page), so their inclusion is likely.

Individual fish behavior is coming! Jim studies fish a lot (he's flown to 2 major aquariums, plus checking out local ones). Jim told me that he's handling all the ordering, acceptance of checks, money orders, plus e-mail support and questions, plus life in general, plus dealings with a few large companies for partnerships of sorts. He only gets a few hours a day to actually work on adding fish, etc. to the Aquarium.

Jim has told me that the Mandarin Gobi is a guaranteed future fish. It'll just be harder to animate than the current fish because it can bend left-to-right, as well as bending vertically.

If there is some element of realism (except for fish that die or attack each other), it's coming.

Thanks for voicing your wishes!

Only 2 animals for wishlist..
 

Spanish Hogfish. www.animalpicturesarchive..._rufus.jpg

Anemone Hermit Crab
Sadly I couldn't find a good picture of one on-line for an example.

Oh..by the way, when the dual monitor support is done. I do believe that I will have to sacrifice several beers in honor of this fine program and all those working on it.

has this saver won any awards yet or what?
 

A Turtle... yes a Turtle, is it at all possible or in real life would it eat fish?
and if so what about a real small turtle?
call me crazy but that would be cool!!
jim your aquarium is the best around!
THANKS.

hehe
 

Sea Turtles usually only eat dead fish or .. erm (sorry don't know the name in english) Fresh water turtles usually eat EVERYTHING the see, even little turtles :)

About The Aquarium, I made my own litta wish list.

#1 Better Fish AI movement
#2 Realistic Background
#3 There are more living objects in a Sea Tank then fish, keep that in mind o_0

(about the AI movement, hide behind a stone, swim in groups, I sometimes see fish picking up little stones form the ground could be kinda cool to see)

Greatz, Coin

Snails and Starfish
 

Snails and starfish sound very interesting and I like the idea as well, but from what Jim tells me he's actually trying to avoid showing any tank walls (i.e. glass, etc.).

To quote him from a previous e-mail:

"If I show the walls of the aquarium, I have to get into reflections, which doubles the bandwidth hit."

This being the case, it seems like these types of sea creatures will be limited to the surface areas of the coral and gravel only. That doesn't seem like a lot of space for them to navigate around since a shrimp and octopus will be sharing the lower regions of the tank as well. The only other feasible place for them to travel would be on the front side of the aquarium facing the user, but then that would obscure the view since these little guys travel extremely slow. For that matter, that means that the octopus would need to be able to adhere to the front as well, that's if you want to remain consistent.

Your thoughts Jim? Anyone?

- DL