Background textures pixelated

[silverdreams]

I installed Marine Aquarium 2.5 today on my 3.2 GHz Windows XP PC. I have 2 GB of RAM and a Nvidia Geforce 6800 GT video card. I get a ridiculous frame rate when I run MA (200-300 fps), but I have a problem. The fish look fine, but the textures for the rest of the tank are seriously pixelated. (Screen shot: http://sgubbins.home.att.net/ma_badbg.jpg) I tried using Ctrl + T to disable texture compression, but there was no visible effect. Help? I've always wanted this screen saver, and it always looked so cool on other computers.

[feldon34]

Welcome to the forums!

Unfortunately on some systems, the background pixelates like this. The background is exactly 1024 x 768. You may be able to enable anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering for the screen saver to smooth out the background some.

If you need help with configuring MA2 to look better, there are many people here who have tinkered with settings and can help you.

P.S. Marine Aquarium 3 will not have this problem as the background is built up of many 3D objects instead of a single photographic backdrop.

[Jim Sachs]

Morgan - Maybe you could point him to some of the discussions about FSAA settings. I don't have time to look them up at the moment.

[feldon34]

Here's an identical topic about it:
https://www.feldoncentral.com/forums...ead.php?t=4236

but it did not really cover all possible solutions.

[silverdreams]

Thanks for the quick replies, you two. BTW Jim, for the record, I'm a "her," not a "him."

I just tried maxing out my anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, and the background does look a bit smoother. Actually, "blurry" would be the more appropriate description, but at least it's no longer so jagged. The only issue with that is the fact that I had to make those settings global since the Nvidia control panel will only let me apply application-specific settings to .exe files, and Marine Aquarium is a .scr file. I'm not sure if I'll like those settings in all my games, and I'm not really keen on the idea of constantly switching them around. LOL.

Marine Aquarium 3 sounds great, I can't wait to see it.

[ESHIREY]

And I would like to you to the forum.

[Jim Sachs]

silverdreams - Sorry about the mixup. So many genders to keep track of, who has the time?

Some cards are happiest displaying pictures at their native resolution, so (if you haven't already tried it) you might set the Aquarium to run at its native 1024x768. (Or 1280x768 if using Widescreen.)

[cjmaddy]

Jim, - I know you'll soon tell me if I'm wrong, - but isn't the correct way to display the wide version of MA, to select 1280x1024 as the screen resolution, and have 0.768 as the Anamorphic factor? ... (When using 1280x1024 5x4 monitors, that is!)

..... Or have I misunderstood you?

Incidentally, silverdreams, - I think you will find the wide version looks much better, (even on a 5x4 screen), - and sharper! - That's how I always display MA! (I like the black bars, - it looks more like fish tank proportions! ) - I also strongly recommend anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, the effect on the fish is remarkable, and the loss of FPS for me, is minimal.

..... Also, try pressing the 'N' key, ... then study the tail area of the fish very closely!

[Jim Sachs]

Cliff - yes, that would be the way to use the widescreen mode on a 5x4 monitor. I don't know whether she has a widescreen monitor or not. Her screen capture was the 5x4 version, but that's not really proof of what aspect ratio she's actually using.