I'll leave all the dual-monitor questions to Prolific, since I don't have dual monitors and have no idea how the code works for that.

I just setup a 5 monitor system at work. It's only a PIII 650 and the three video cards are only Matrox G450s, but it should run ok... It'll look pretty funky, but I'll post picks of my results...

Yes marian, i never saw the widescreen version either until this version..looks alot more "roomy" in there. :)

Attempts with the 5 screen setup failed completely. The old matrox cards and drivers simply cannot see the five monitors as having a combined resolution of 4000x600. So all I got was a very squished aquarium running on my primary screen. I'll try later on both a nVidia and ATI dual screen setups.

I still REALLY wish the aquarium[s] would run in preview mode... If it did, I could use ultramon to have display it on as many screens as I wanted (and run MA2, GA, Sharks, etc fullscreen at the same time). This is where open GL might be nice, almost all of the true multi-monitor screen savers I've seen are open GL. Does direct 3D not support preview mode for screensavers?

DX8 does, not DX7.

Duh! I knew that... :o

As Jim Sachs stated, with the second widescreen background we no longer fit on a floppy. However, at 1,614K still just about the best download on the net....

DRFISH: if you get in running on 5 screens, please post a photo. I have seen it running on 2 screens, and 5. WOW, well that is three more isn't it?

DrFish and bugsymcd24,

Send us your system info so I can figure out what is going wrong.
CPU, video, OS and anything else that you think would help me. Also, are you using NView?

Also tell me from the Settings Tab, how many monitor is listed under Monitor Selection? For each monitor selected, is the "[ ] Black" checked?

Well, I'm home for the weekend now, so I can't look at it again until Monday. but the system is a PIII 650 with one AGP and 2 PCI Matrox G450s. All three video cards have dual monitor output. The AGP card controls only the middle monitor, while the PCI cards control the other 4 (two on each side, one card for the left and the other for the right). The computer is running XP Prof. and is using the latest drivers from Matrox's site.

The system as it is works just the way it's supposed to, you can run your cursor all the way from the right to the left across all five monitors. The built in windows screen savers use all five screens as well. The computer is also running Ultramon 2.4 but that shouldn't have any effect on the aquarium. I have not changed any of the video card settings except for enabling the secondary monitor on the PCI cards. The "black" box was not checked on any of the screens. I didnt have much time so basically all I did was change the animorphic factor to .2 and got the super squished image on the middle screen. All five monitors did however show up on the drop down menu.

Theoretically, what should the settings be to make this work??? I'll try them first thing Monday morning!

We only support a clone of the screensaver running at the other monitors. Spanning the screensaver across multimonitor is not supported by this version.

If you want it to work for all 5 monitors, make sure the Black toggle is unchecked for each monitor. I think the default for them is checked.

I have to check on the other problem where the window mode freezes when dragged to secondary monitor.

ok my system is a 2.6 ghz pentium 4
512k ram
60gb hard drive
nvidia quadra 4 128 mb ram (video)

and on both monitors in the MA 2.01 the (Black) is unchecked

I have played with all the settings and nothing

I do get cloned working aquariums on both screens in full screen in both wide and full, that works fine.

but go to windowed view and it only works in the main monitor, the extended desktop monitor it freezes or goes black

not running nview

oh yeah...windows xp pro as well

I think I know the problem with window mode not displaying on the secondary monitor. Thanks bugsymcd24.

I just need to find out now if the fullscreen mode will work on the 5 monitors that DrFish has.

DirectX 8-native screen savers support preview mode.

DrFish - What exactly do you mean regarding the Aquarium not running in Preview Mode? It runs fine in Preview Mode on all my computers.

Jim,
I think what doc is talkin about, is he wishes the screensavers (yours and Prolific's) ran in animated preview mode. Most of Windows default screensavers have a fully animated mini-window of the screensaver running when on the screensaver tab in diplay properties. From what I heard the 3 fish version of the aquarium in the Microsoft Plus! Pack for XP had this animated preview mode (not sure on what is the exact term this feature is called). I think this is what Dr. Fish is hoping for (hint, hint). ;)

http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon...saver_main.png

UltraMon, can run screensavers with this animated preview mode on differnent monitors. Multi-Monitor setups can have a different screensaver running on each monitor, when UltraMon is properly configured.

I think the good ol' doc is hoping for this feature to be implemented, so that he can have all of Jim's & Prolific's screensavers running at the same time on different monitors by using only one PC. Of course, he could just use more PC's, but then he would have none to crunch proteins! ;)

I think that a readme file should be included with the download, (it would add very little to the overall file size).
This could outline the new features/changes included in each new version, and explain their purpose.
Some of the problems we encountered during testing, are being repeated here since going public, I feel some of these could have been avoided by the use of a readme file along the lines I submitted to Morgan.
To introduce something new without explanation is inviting problems down the line! - IMHO! :)
A new 'Settings Information' tab when pressing [Space] could be an even better solution.

I will post my suggestions if given the OK.

2.01 crashes!
 

Great job! But I have a problem on my machine (Win XP Pro SP1 & DX9b on Athlon XP 1800+ with ATI AIW RADEON 8500DV): if I bring up the settings dialog (via the spacebar) in fullscreen mode and then click on OK (it doesn't seem to matter if I change any settings or not), then MA2.01 comes back up and crashes about 3 seconds later. It then crashes ~3 seconds after EVERY time it starts. I first did an uninstall and re-install to cure this, but then got into the same mode again. This time I found that if I started it and immediately pressed the F key to get into window mode before it crashed (I still get the "Send Error Report to MS" dialog, but the window mode MA stays alive), and then exit the window mode instance (via ESC or clicking on the X button), the problem is fixed and MA2.01 will now start up fine in fullscreen mode. I then found I could safely change settings when in fullscreen mode only if I first toggle to window mode, make my changes, and then toggle back to fullscreen mode. There's also a minor glitch in that, on the settings dialog window, the "OK" button overlaps the "Get updates and help at ..." button (I'm running at 1280x1024 with the large size (120 dpi) fonts).

My wife's machine (Win XP Pro SP1 & DX9b on Athlon XP 2600+ with nVidia GeForce4 Ti 4200) has NONE of these problems (she prefers 1152x864 with the Normal size (96 dpi) fonts), and MA2.01 works flawlessly on it.

I will be away for a week starting next Wed (3/10), so if anyone would like any further details (DxDiag report, etc.) please let me know before then.

pvernam, - I would guess that part of your problem is almost certainly through choosing 'Large fonts'.

The button overlap that you so accurately describe has, in my experience, always been a problem with choosing anything other than 'Small fonts' - it may work fine with some programs on your computer, or whilst off line, but it can be a source of trouble with web site design!

I always stick with 'Small fonts' !

fishbowl - Ah, I thought he was talking about the Preview button.

Yes, the mini-window mode is a DX8/DX9 function. The Aquarium is still a DX6 application. The version I did for Microsoft was in DX8, so it had this feature, but was lacking many others.

Cliff - that's a good idea regarding explanation text in the About screen.

pvernam - The point when the crash takes place seems like it is when the program is either trying to read or write to the Registry. It's possible that entries from an old installation might be interfering. Have you tried deleting the Aquarium's Entire Registry Key, then running the program? If you didn't want to lose your Key Code, you could delete all the entries except that one.

Nope. I did have MA 1.1, 1.1W, 2.0, and 2.01 on my machine, so I uninstalled all of them and re-installed only 2.01. (The uninstalls appear to have removed all Registry data, since I could no longer find any and I had to re-enter my Key Code (and insert my original V1.0 CD) to save any settings in 2.01.) But now the same (bad) things still happen, exactly as I described earlier. Any other ideas? (This isn't an emergency for me since I do have a work-around.)

This is really Edgar's area, so I'll let him try to troubleshoot it.

pvernam, - Have you changed your 'Fonts' to cure your "OK" button overlap problem? - It's worth checking out that that isn't causing any of your other problems. (If only to eliminate the possibility!)

Why Microsoft gives us the option to use other size fonts when sooner or later, anything other than 'Small fonts' will cause problems, seems totally illogical to me! - There may well be a work-around with modern web page programing, but whilst there are still many examples of this problem in existence, I consider it better to avoid using any other size of fonts in 'Display Properties/Settings/Advanced/General', than Small fonts!

pvernam,

A DxDiag sent to my Email address would definitely help.
Also post your version of the video driver in the forum.
I would like to know if anyone with the same version has the same problem.

edit: I don't think the large fonts is the cause of it. The larger button should be fixable. I will need to look at that too.

The problem with the normal fonts is that they're too small for me to read (hey, I'm 56). Anyway, I set my system back to 96 dpi fonts (temporarily), and that did fix the button overlap problem, but not the crashing problem. I can live with the button overlap -- I just figured the programmers would want make it work properly despite the large fonts.

Wow, crosspost.

Sorry to hear it didn't fix the crashing problem, (but one out of two isn't bad! :) ) - I was confident it would fix the overlap, and it's always worth a try, if only to eliminate something. ..... Oh, and by the way, ..... hey, I'm 69. ;)


Edit!
For the record, I still have v1.1, 1.1wide. and MAT, - all working satisfactorily on the same computer, - but I have removed all older versions of MA2.

Cliff - just out of curiosity, why are you keeping the old 1.1 versions?

Need you ask Jim? ...... out of sentiment for the old Queen of course! - that, and the fact that 1.1wide was the best version ever, - but mainly, just because I'm a hoarder! :)

What is it about 1.1wide that makes it the best version ever? In other words, what could we do to 2.01 to make it just as good, or better?

To begin with, I use the word 'was' in italics! ;);)
Though 1.1wide is still better in some ways, IMO, because it runs at a higher FPS rate, as I have reported before on other threads, also no one has yet said why MA2 is the only one that defaults to vSync 'On'.
..... But MA2 MD, (with the new fish! :) ) now has the potential to be the greatest! :TU:

I'm sure that Edgar will continue to look into why 2.01 runs slower on your machine (it appears to run slightly faster on most).

"On" is the proper setting for VSync to default to. The user should be required to make a conscious effort to turn it off, if they are willing to put up with some visual glitches for the extra fps.

I think on is the best default setting for the reason Jim mentioned. As far as the old version, knowing Cliff I would say its nostalgia and the first one he had and has used the longest. But, he will come around. :)

In that case I must have changed the others, but I don't remember changing ALL of them! - no matter, it only makes a very small difference, and if I detect any glitches, I shall turn it back on!

I have just done another fps check! - Still similar to the last time:-
1.1wide = 32/33
2.01(wide) = 24/25
(All other things being equal - and same everything.)

Which fish do you have in the tank, Cliff? I'd like to do some tests with exactly the same setup you are using.

In fact, could you list what the whole setup is? I know you have stated it before, but it would be handy for me to have it all here in one post. (OS, processor, resolution, 16/32-bit, CalcNormals On/off, and anything else you can think of.)

Wow! ....... :o:o

I would normally have some of the 'New' fish selected in 2.01, but when making accurate comparisons with 1.1wide, the 8 chosen fish are:-

1 Powder Blue Tang
2 French Angelfish
2 Longfin Bannerfish/Wimplefish
1 Forceps Butterflyfish
1 Percula Clownfish
1 LionFish

Use WideScreen = On
Anamorphic factor = 0.815
Default System Resolution (1024x768x16)
Limit frame rate = 50
Bubbles = On
Sound = On
CalcNormals = On
V-Sync = Off

The video card settings:-

Image setting = Quality
Antialiasing = Off
Anisotropic = 8x
Direct3D Mipmap = Best image quality
Direct3D Vertical sync (coolbits) = Auto-select

AMD K6-II 500MHz / Windows 2000 Pro / GeForce FX 5200 Ultra (nVidia 52.16) / DirectX 9.0b / Sony flat screen CRT

The above settings have just produced 23/24 fps (in Wide mode) and 26/27 (Fullscreen mode) in MA2 MD (2.01)

(With the same fish and equivalent settings in 1.1wide ...... 31/33 fps)

Thanks, Cliff -

I'll try to find a copy of 1.1 wide to test.

Does your monitor "click" when starting either of these versions?