Is this normal?
 

I just bought a widescreen LCD monitor (Dell 2055 fpw). I am running MA Time 2 at my systems resolution of 1680 X 1050. The fish look crystal clear (and beautiful), but the background appears pixelated, especially when I get close to the screen. Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong?

The backgroud image was designed with 1024x768 in mind, very high for the time... MA2 MD will help you out, but I'm afraid that Time doesn't have what you want yet...

MA2 MD has a 1280 x 1024 background.

Some card/monitor combinations do a less then ideal job of stretching a screen. They are supposed to interpolate colors between pixels to fill in intermediate data, but I've seen a few which don't. The picture should be slightly blurry when viewed closely in super-hi-res, but not pixilated. That's how it works on all my computers, but I was in a store a few months ago and saw an instance where the background had very noticeable pixels.

By the way, I finally got tired of the arcing and zapping inside my old monitor and yesterday I bought a new Sony SDM-HX93 TFT 19-inch flatscreen monitor. It's currently on sale for a $150 discount at CompUSA, and has a spectacular picture. It also has built-in speakers. My local CompUSA (OK, it's 35 miles away) has been using MA to compare the whole wall of monitors for the past couple of years, and it sure does show the difference between brands and models.

Jim, I knwo someone who has that monitor. It does look VERY good. A bit of a glare on it at their house, but still looks great.

I am still waiting for a 19" 1280x960, 16ms, High Contrast (800:1 +) monitor. I am beginning to think that this will never happen.

Softening the texture is a case of Anisotropic Filtering, no?

I have a 17" BenQ TFT monitor and i'm seriously thinking on going back to a CRT monitor.
The native (and max) resolution is 1280x1024. Lower resolutions are useless due to the pixelated effect. That's the nature of a TFT monitor anyway.
One of my sisters has my old Sony 200ES Trinitron, and that's quality!.

If you're an image enthusiast or proffessional, a CRT monitor is for you.

I agree. I will not run at less than 1600 x 1200 and there are only a few that will run at that res., and they are still to high priced to make it worth my effort. I can get a larger CRT that will run even higher for less money with better quality.

Hm, been thinking a little over here.

If the background was originally designed for 1280x1024 which is a 5:4 ratio, wouldn't this imply that it would appear somewhat stretched on a 1024x768, 1600x1200 or any other 4:3 ratio monitor? Or am I overlooking something?

One of the first bugfixes after I got aboard this whole thing was a fix for the 1280x1024 resolution which caused the fish to turn a little incorrectly at the sides. .99F was it?

/Tiny Nostalgia

P.S.
Sergio,
Here's the monitor Linda uses with her G5. I assure you it's most decidedly for professionals (which might explain the $2600 pricetag.)

I was mistaken. The regular background is 1024 x 768. The 16:9 background is 1280 x 768. It is perfectly sized for all 4:3 monitors and 16:9 monitors.

Dankirk - Try setting the Aquarium to 1024x768 instead of Desktop Resolution. The fish will be slightly blurrier, but the background should not be pixellated.

Thank you. I also turned on my anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering and it helped alot. This screen-saver is really a work of art. My 2-year old daughter loves it, she is a HUGE Finding Nemo fan. The fish seem so real.