Marine Aquarium 3 Rumors and Speculation
 

Instead of having questions answered all over the place, lets try and keep everything thats asked/answered about 3.0 in this thread.

You will also notice Morgan and I have updated the web page to reflect the news.

Thanks. :)

Current News so far:

• It will be slightly over 2 widescreens wide.
• All the new fish will have more polygons than the old versions.
• Jim has the gravel set the way he wants it.
• He is currently working on 3D objects.
• Sea anemones and puffers should use shaders
• Gravel should be able to be disturbed in areas.
• will not be compatible with very old video cards. ( thats what 2.6 is for :) )
• August 16th : working on barnacles
• 5 clams, which will open and close
• modified, more realistic fish movement and behavior, + schooling
• written for DX9
• Multi-Monitor support is included
• Live preview window in display settings

That is all great news.

Good idea. Maybe you should make one for 4.0 as well. And btw, when is holographic MA 1.0 coming out? :D ;)

Michael, thanks for making this topic. It keeps it nice and organized. Some more recent info to add from other topics:

It will use basic shaders for sea anemones and puffer fish (puffer fish not in 3.0)
Compatible with older cards is no longer a factor
As of August 14th, 2006 he was working on barnacles
Soft corals will be “alive” and moving
As of May 12th, 2005 he created a clam
The 5 clams will open and close when touched
The 5 clams will be different
Fish movement will be more realistic, including schooling
It’ll be written in DX9
Live preview window in the display settings

And just to be complete, some other random information that we know about 3.0:
Everything will be 3D
Camera will slowly pan left to right

Anything else I’m missing for version 3.0?

I am still looking at importing posts from other threads, but haven't taken the time yet. Unfortunately if I do that then the dates and so on will skew the posts where they might not make sense without some DB editing. Still considering it depending on how things go.

Is anyone taking applications to test the beta versions? :TU: < pick me... pick me >

Wow - Lostboy really put some research into all those links.

My barnacle textures weren't quite working today, so I drove into Medford and bought a single barnacle shell at an aquarium shop. Now I'm setting up the lights to photograph it. I learned a valuable lesson when doing the gravel. I MUST use my hi-def videocam when taking still pics. It's only 3.2 megapixels in still mode, but has a fantastic lens with the power to gather and focus a lot of light very quickly. All the megapixels in the world don't do you any good if you're shooting through a dime-store lens. Plus, the videocam has a viewfinder, which is invaluable for geezers like me with failing eyesight. In the viewfinder, I can zoom in on an object, focus, then zoom back out to take a crystal clear pic. The camera stores the pics on a memory stick, which I then simply pop into the computer to retrieve them. I wish I had this system years ago.

I'm glad to hear things are going so well Jim. Care to share any other tidbits of info that we can all ohh and ahhh over? :)

Once you get this particular object done, do you have any idea what you would like to work on next?

Rocks are next. I already took the photos of some volcanic rocks I bought, so now I need to build the objects. Like the gravel, the new textures are so much better that I can't believe I got away with using the old ones for so long.

One persistant problem is the rapidly growing number of polygons in the scene. When the camera moves back and forth, the angular nature of low-polygon objects sticks out like a sore thumb. I'm working on techniques to minimize this.

Thanks for the updates. JAV400 / Lostboy / Jim

Great to hear positive info about the progress of our next screensaver.

Michael, I would think if you rewrote the first topic of this thread as a bullet-point narrative of what Lostboy posted with links, we'd be in great shape. Then we could link this whole topic to the front of the Fan Site (which has been updated with mention of 3.0).

Just got to my desk this morning at the office and had already came to the same conclusion. I'll try and have it all done shortly.

just a little tidbit here....maxfield parrish used to gather rocks from around his house and stack them different ways on a table to add backgrounds in his paintings

This might not be possible, I don't know, so this might be a stupid question. But will 3.0 be available as an active desktop? That would be the coolest thing ever. Of course if MA is my desktop, what would be my screensaver? http://img189.exs.cx/img189/206/confused2hw.gif

Only if you promise to hide all your icons and have nothing on your desktop. And have that signed and notarized. ;)

hahahahaha

I still wouldn't do it. Even if he promised, he might be lying :)

I'll take that as a "no". Besides, If I hid my icons, I'd have a helluva time double-clicking a skiddish fish. I don't think they'd hold still for that. :D

Nice to hear there is finaly some progress

Jim,

I don't know if you have given any consideration to this aspect yet, but "slightly over 2 widescreens wide" seems to me to be a bit wider than I had remembered you saying before. Not that I am complaining mind you :). Have you given any thought to how many fish you think will be available ( actively swimming around ) in the program at one time? Or is this the width that you had in mind all the time and ~10 or so is the number you are going with, plus maybe a few creatures when they are ready.

PS. I am really glad to hear that it will be this wide. Hopefully the "depth" will be a increased a decent amount as well. Have you given any thought to this aspect?

Mac version? Pretty please... :D

(After all, UNIX is supposed to be so easy to code).

Can't see why not. Jim has to finish the PC version first though so that a coupkle of other Jims (no, really) have something to convert to the Mac platform.

/Tiny Both Pretty & Pleasing

That's right. Jim O'Connor is the Mac guy. If he's interested in converting it, the job is probably his.

Jav - I haven't really thought too much about the number of fish available at any one time, but it should be significantly higher than the current number because the tank is bigger and the collision detection should be better. The z-depth of the tank will be a little deeper, but there's not any real advantage to making it very deep. The fish get too small when they are far away, there's more stuff to hide behind, there would be more 3D objects to slow down the frame rate. If it gets too deep, it's no longer an aquarium, it's a reef.

A reef would be nice:)

Go diving :)

Its a long way to a reef from Edmonton Ab... but I would if I could but I can't:sad:

Judging by your avatar you already got your scuba gear on - I'd say you're halfway there already... :)

Didn't see this question anywhere yet so I'll throw it out there. Will we receive the registration numbers for 3.0 shortly before it is finished? Seems that the rollout for 2.6 did not go quite as smooth as expected.

I sure hope so.

I was in a department store in Edinburgh last week, they had on all of their PCs on display what appeared to be Marine Aquarium, but it had a different background to 2.x.

Could this have been a beta version? Are there any betas out there, or pre-installed OEM demos?

As far as 3.0 goes no. There is nothing anywhere at this point other than Jim's computer, in the design stage.

Ian,
Could you describe the background a wee bit more? What was different?

/TT

are there some features like zoom/follow fish and more backgrounds/gravel/tanks and switching between like DA?

Any BETA screenshots ?

No to both questions. There will be one very wide tank, and the camera will be able to pan back and forth, maintaining the same distance and perpendicular angle from the tank. I'm working right at the outer edge of what's possible here, and if you want to follow the fish or change camera angles while maintaining realism, then you'll have to wait for the holodeck of the Enterprise in the 23rd century.

hmmm a screenshot would have been nice dough ..... but ok i wait and wait and wait ......

OK, here are two screenshots of what I'm working on right now. Welcome to my world.

Wow!!!, I can already tell this is going to be the best ever. :D

Oh snap! That's awesome, I never expected to get any kind of preview, thanks Jim! :)