[Coelacanth]

I think people are completely misunderstanding my suggestions and the intention of my posts.

Let me break this down again:

"Coelacanth, Jim has already stated in the past that the fish limit might not include the invertebrates and/or certain schooling fish which means that you ARE likely to see more in the tank than we do now."

That's great, and I knew that already. I'm just saying that cards like the GeForce3 should facilitate that even more and offer Jim even more freedom with respect to achieving that goal.

"First of all, Jim has always wanted to keep the file size down to a minimum so that the program can be zipped up and placed on any 3.5 easily. Therefore, everything that gets added to the program adds to the file size."

That is, of course, true. Additional features will add to the file size. It's amazing what Jim has done in a mere 1MB (about 670K zipped). I would argue that the need to fit the program on a floppy is negigible in this day of prevalent CD-RWs, Zip disks, SuperDisks, network connections, and the like. I never use my floppy drive for anything anymore. It's just there.

Sure, more features means more bytes. So what? Jim's program is still quite small compared to most, and I don't see why it necessarily has to fit on a floppy. We're downloading this thing from the Net, aren't we? And of course we're not supposed to transfer it to another party (or even to another PC) and violate the license agreement...so I don't see the big need for fitting it onto a floppy.

"The second reason being that he doesn't want anyone to miss out on what the aquarium has to offer regardless of what graphics card they have. Right now the aquarium can be viewed in whole by pretty much anyone that meets his base graphics card requirements and those of us with higher end GeForce cards like me (GeForce2 Pro DDR) can enjoy it as well in higher resolutions with AA or FSAA, not to mention the rather high frame rates that we get as well."

My suggestions were NOT intended to leave anyone out of the fun. Nobody has to miss out. Why would anyone have to miss out? There would simply be *additional* benefits if one has a powerful video card like the GeForce3. People with lesser cards could still get a great-looking aquarium, but they couldn't crank up all of the high-end features. Ever played any 3D games? Same situation there. Heck, some current games include so many high-end options that if they were all turned on, even a GeForce3 would see single-digit frame rates. Is this a problem? Not in my view. More options for the people that can (or will in the future) be able to run them, but still a great experience for those who have lesser systems.

"So to be perfectly honest, Jim has done a great job of balancing out our wants with his plans and what's realistic when all that is taken into consideration."

I'll agree with that. He has made a great screensaver, and I wouldn't be here posting suggestions about it otherwise.

"What some people just don't seem to understand or fully grasp is how incredible the aquarium IS going to be when Jim drops in things like..."

Exactly the sort of things I was suggesting that the GeForce3 could handle in spades.

"Needless to say, we've only seen the icing on the cake. Jim still has a LOT in store for us and he's trying to make as many people happy as possible (himself, his publisher, and us) and that's one VERY tall order for one man. In any case, the best thing for us to do at this point is to sit back and enjoy the ride, it only gets better from here."

I am enjoying it, definitely. That's why I paid for the thing, and it's why I'm here posting about it. But if by saying that "the best thing for us to do at this point is to sit back and enjoy the ride," you mean that we all should stifle our suggestions for improvement, or our constructive criticisms of certain features, or quit voicing our wishes (however feasible or unfeasible they might turn out to be), and instead just shut up, sit back, and wait, then there is really not much need for this forum at all, or the wishlist, is there?

It's not a matter of being unsatisfied with the current work or "ungrateful" for it, as hooter suggested, and always wanting "more, more, more." I *am* satisfied with the current work. Otherwise I would not have bought it. Otherwise I would not be here posting about it. But it's only natural for people to imagine what could be done in the future, and express those wishes.

Cards like the GeForce3 will give people like Jim unprecedented freedom to do new, exciting things. Why do you think mags like Maximum PC and PC Gamer are so jazzed about it? I'm just suggesting things that could make our "ride" even more enjoyable.

-- Coel