Nope - I'm talking about full screen...

Thanks diverslung, yes, perfectly clear!

It does indeed appear that your monitor does not work in the way we had hoped.

(......... Unless we can get Morgan or Tiny to the rescue here again? - if they can't fix it, - it can't be done!)

Worry not about the name, I answer to many, - c, cj, cjmaddy, Cliff, Clifford, 67, - though to be pedantic (- that's a big word!), that last one should now be 68. - (No! I'll stick with 67, it has a better ring to it!)

So I may call you Cliff?

I wonder if this is a bug fo the Wide SSA - you ought to know I purchased the Aquarium in a german Version. I mean, maybe both kind of overlay each other in a way that the Wide doesn't remember resolution-adjustments. It's a bit beired that, isn't it?

So I may call you Cliff?

I wonder if this is a bug fo the Wide SSA - you ought to know I purchased the Aquarium in a german Version. I mean, maybe both kind of overlay each other in a way that the Wide doesn't remember resolution-adjustments. It's a bit weired that, isn't it?

...so you got me twice :-S

I doubt it's a Wide SSA bug, more likely to be your monitor I think.

You say it's a German version, I thought the wide version was only available via Morgan.

Morgan, .... HELP!

It is , it is -
but the "normal" version of Aquarium is available in Germany by now. I think I'm one of the first purchasers of that version.
It's so brandnew, that I could call myself a "beta tester" , too.
First CD I got wasn't even able to install under Windows. After my complaining they sent me another CD, which at least was able to install. The problem now was, that I missed the Lionfish. (It was selectable, but didn't appear in the tank. After several Phone calls I helped myself by over-installing the "original" english version.
It supposed to function because every upcomming update should work like this. Well, it did and voilà - there was my Lionfish.

All in all everything functions now with the "normal" version.
It was a long way...

After that I got the Wide version via Feldon and it works fine except the resolution-thing. That's why I suspeckt it's an overlay-bug between the german "normal" and the english "wide" version. Do you get What I mean?

Yes, I've been meaning to post this news item about German and UK versions of the Aquarium.

i need code

They don't have jobs in the UK?

End of Wide Version Development?
 

Morgan,
Sorry to be digging the past up, (again!), I am aware of your views on Prolific's intransigence, but I am wondering if the Wide version problems (Lionfish/3-Stripe etc.) are going to be resolved, or does the 3D background development mean the end of the wide version's development? - I should perhaps be asking Prolific this, I know! .... but ...! :rolleyes:

The last I can find about it on the forum is Jim even being surprised that this problem still existed! (8th Jan)

Also, on the new forum layout. - Is the Beta Forum no more now? - It's disappeared off the bottom of my screen. - Not that I need it, - I had given up on Prolific doing anything more about the widescreen! - but it would be nice to see the Lionfish again someday. - I know I can get it on the 4:3, but I prefer the widescreen version.
I don't have any randoms set, so I haven't seen a Lionfish for months! :( - If I did select one, it would only then change to a random which I may not want, ... so no Lionfish, - OR Three Stripe Damsel ... It would be nice to see one again! :)

Widescreen Aquarium News

At some point in the future when the 3D background is done, there will be a single version of the Aquarium which supports:

-Single monitor
-Wide (16:9) monitor
-Dual monitors

On a dual monitor, there will be no need to scroll since the entire background is being displayed.

On a wide monitor ~70% of the background will be displayed and there will be optional automatic scrolling left to right so the entire tank is revealed.

On a single monitor ~50% of the background will be displayed and there will be optional automatic scrolling left to right so the entire tank is revealed.


Prolific's interest in getting dual monitors working is stronger now than ever, and their method of getting it working is to modify the base versions of the Aquarium. Prolific has been testing/working on dual monitor-compatible versions of both the regular and wide versions since December, but there are lots of different projects going on there right now (the fruits of which labor we will see over the next 2-3 months) so this has been slow-coming.

I downloaded 1.1.7, the first such dual monitor version in December but did not mention it to anyone because it did not work on dual monitors. However, it may fix your Lionfish + 3 stripe damsel bug. According to Prolific, we should see a beta/forum release of 1.1.8 in the next few weeks.

I put the beta forum away until we need it again, first when the dual monitor version comes out, second when the mainstream Aquarium gets the MAT-style settings panel. :)

At the very least, the 3D background version of the Aquarium (2004? :)) will replace the widescreen and regular versions with a single uniform download. But I think we will see updates to the widescreen before then.

Could you put "LionFish" into the registry manually?

Thanks for all the info Morgan ...... lots to look forward to! :)

Just a couple of points:
When we get the 'Single version' will we still be able to chose a resolution equivalent to 1280x720 ?
I don't have a widescreen monitor, I just like the wide version proportions, - it looks more like a fish tank to me, with the black bars top and bottom! .... I just like it that way!

As regards ....
Unless I've misunderstood you, that's what the 1.1.6 'bug' is! - However the LionFish or Three-Stripe Damselfish is chosen, Settings Panel, Fish Picker, or manually in the registry, - they immediately revert to 'RANDOM' .... :(

I happened to download version 1.1.7 (M905.1.1.7) last week. Didn't know it was for dual monitors, but it does fix the lionfish/3 stripe damsel bug!

I had some display problems though. Even in the regular (non-wide) version there are black bars at top and bottom. When pressing the S key the fps indicator appears inside the black bar and is unreadable.

1.1.7 is a mess. That's why I didn't mention it to anyone.

Dual
 

I use “DUAL” to refer to all multi-monitor issues because it is easier to type.

Morgan is correct: 1.1.7 is a mess. But the reason it is a mess is a good thing. Permit me to explain:

We set out to build a multi-monitor version, and went about it by studying the docs (of what little is available), and then implementing it the way it SHOULD BE. It worked on our systems in the office.

But has not worked on just about 95% of the systems out there, which is why we did a small private test with Morgan, and the Fans here.

What we have since learned is:

1. There are a LOT of configurations out there.
2. they are not support correctly by M$ (what’s new?)
3. Each video company has their own standard.
4. there are User Interface issues that reach beyond even what the video card companies can solve, or M$ for that matter.

The good news is: more and more people are getting multiple monitors. We, here at Prolific, have 5 people now running DUAL, and growing. And we REALLY want to support this in all its glory.

Why is this good? Because instead of depending on generic function calls, which when used correctly will in fact only support some percentage of system, because M$ does not have their act together…we will do this all from scratch so that it all works. So, our pain will mean this works for everyone.

The #1 request is for the multiple monitors to have different backgrounds, and that the fish can move from one monitor to another. This has a few difficulties associated with it, but we WILL do this one day, but not for a while.

Here is a list of the features we are trying for:

1. Allow the screen art to show up on all monitors (using the fastest blitting methods possible).
2. Allow the screen art to show up on selected monitors, blacking the others.
3. Allow the screen art to show up on selected monitors, while allowing others to continue being used (this is very tricky).

We decided to wait until after 2.0 was completed to re-engage the DUAL issues because they are really a subset of the new UI we just completed, which handed resolutions, CPU speed, and colour depth much more intelligently. The next step we have to do before we do the DUAL issues is to build into the product a complete system to detect the system’s specs, video card(s), and drivers, and help each user either get the product running in the first place, or optimize and run the most efficiently.

It seems like the existing tools for so much of this stuff are junk so you have to start over. But I'd suggest looking at some of the existing code out there for harvesting system specs information. Photoshop, etc. seem to do it well.

As someone that just installed a dual 17" LCD flat panel system in an office, and then showed them the SSA, I can say that the first thing they asked for was a version of SSA that used both monitors! :)

Even on one monitor, the screen saver garners lots of comments when I demonstrate it, and I think a multi-monitor version would make it even better.

For reference sake, all the dual-monitor systems I've installed have been with Matrox Millenium cards, most recently the G450. Now that the Parhelia card is out, there is a possibility of having three monitors for your coding pleasure!

I don't know the mechanics behind programming for mult-monitor situations, but I do know that Matrox cards can treat the desktop as being double wide in resolution (2048x768 for example), but still keep the Windows taskbar and other functions appearing primarily in the first monitor. There are other modes, but I would wager that most people run it in that double-wide setting.

On the surface, that would appear to force SSA to support resolutions that have a 2:1 (or now, 3:1) aspect ratios to handle the dual-monitor situation. As luck would have it, I'm sure that every dual-monitor video card manufacturer does it just a little differently, which are all different from the default Microsoft way...

Dual monitor version?

Weeks, not months.

I can't wait either! Prolific has their own motivations for doing this too since 5-6 of their people are running dual monitors.

I've had the wide screen version running on a 30" 1280x768 LCD monitor, an LCD3000, for a couple of months now and it looks stunning. On the Aquarium, I've turned the back light down to about 3/4's and people cannot believe there's a PC driving the fish display.
Magic.
I've not had issues running on various sized plasma screens except the ALiS based panels as they tend to jitter more.