Developer Notes

[Rick Simon]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

You second render unit is only painting down to the gravel, and reporting that size window to my program, which (believing what it is told) paints the background down to 77% of that size. Since the reported window size is too short, so is the background size.

This is one of many multi-monitor problems that I have no idea how to fix. The nVidia DualView scheme opens up another can of worms.  

I almost wonder if it would help to build some sort of "Advanced/Manual Multimonitor Setup" dialog tab. Your current routines appear to work in most cases but apparently fail in others under particular circumstances. Perhaps a way for the user to manually enter in/modify some of the variables your routines rely on would help resolve things in those cases. In that way, the current automatic process would do the job for most, while tinkering with/fine tuning some of the variables may help "fix" the more problematic ones.

Granted, it's not an ideal situation and may be frustrating for some of your customers. On the other hand, it's my impression that most multimonitor setups are being used (or are supported) by people with a bit more experience than todays average computer user. Having to tinker with things to get them to run "right" on their setups is something they are much more likely to be familiar with.

Just my $0.02 worth....

[Jim Sachs]

It's a thought, but the feature would need to be well-hidden.

[Rick Simon]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

It's a thought, but the feature would need to be well-hidden.  

{{chuckle}}

You could always create it as a separate executable in the installation directory, not provide a link to it in the Start menu but talk about it in the Read Me/Help file. That would tend to keep it out of the hands of those who would be most likely to come to grief with it.

[cjmaddy]

Jim, the odd thing is this, - that effect of Ralph's that I can reproduce by reducing the resolution in either of the MA3 Display Setting tabs, only behaves that way with MA3. - If the same settings are reduced from the native 1280x1024 to say 1024x768, in MA2.6 or in DA etc, then as expected, the monitor image still looks superficially the same, only at a lower resolution, (ie, the full image still fills the whole screen). - But with MA3, only a cropped area of the screensaver is displayed, spread over the whole area of the screen. (ie, The two halves of the picture do not line up!)

- (A screen shot can't show this effect!) - So here is a quick snap taken with a camera....

[Ralph]

Thanks Cliff for showing it better

[Jim Sachs]

Thanks, Cliff - that shot makes it very clear that the background wash is perfectly normal. It's the foreground objects that are too close. At least I can put my diagnostic efforts in the right direction.

[ESHIREY]

Originally posted by cjmaddy:

Jim, the odd thing is this, - that effect of Ralph's that I can reproduce by reducing the resolution in either of the MA3 Display Setting tabs, only behaves that way with MA3. - If the same settings are reduced from the native 1280x1024 to say 1024x768, in MA2.6 or in DA etc, then as expected, the monitor image still looks superficially the same, only at a lower resolution, (ie, the full image still fills the whole screen). - But with MA3, only a cropped area of the screensaver is displayed, spread over the whole area of the screen. (ie, The two halves of the picture do not line up!)

- (A screen shot can't show this effect!) - So here is a quick snap taken with a camera....  

That is a great shot Cliff. I don't have the wash, but I do have that same look on my system.

[Jim Sachs]

Ed - It's extremely important that I understand exactly what you are seeing. You say you don't have the wash. If that's true, it means that many days of work were for nothing. But if even one pixel of the wash is showing, then it's a completely unrelated (and much easier) problem.

[Nicki]

110 fps on a laptop , and I only get 79 . Where's the crying smilie ? Oh , here it is . I have to wonder though from reading all the posts here and on other virtual aquarium sites if Vista is really worth it . To paraphrase ' You can take my XP when you pry it from my cold dead hands ' .

[feldon34]

We do have a small, but noisy Windows Vista fan club around here somewhere.

I won't touch it with a 10 foot cattle prod.

[jleslie]

I wouldn't either - that would definitely crash most computers... ;-)
Perhaps try a keyboard/mouse combo?

[ESHIREY]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

Ed - It's extremely important that I understand exactly what you are seeing. You say you don't have the wash. If that's true, it means that many days of work were for nothing. But if even one pixel of the wash is showing, then it's a completely unrelated (and much easier) problem.  

I am sooooooooo sorry for not explaining my self right. I really am. What I meant was the way it looked in the picture that the screen does not line up because of different settings. My displays are setup as follows,
from left to right,
17" wide screen at 1440 x 900 - 32" wide screen at 1824 x 1016 - 17" wide screen at 1440 x 900. The program doesn't run on my left 17" but on the 32 and 17 to the right it does. But it looks just like the picture Cliff posted.

Did I explain it right this time?

[Jim Sachs]

Yes - thanks, Ed.

[Jim Sachs]

Here's Beta 8:
http://www.fish-byte.com/MA3Beta.zip

Sea Fan coral now waves in the current.
Zero-height bug is fixed.

[Stew2000]

That's awesome Jim. I think we're gonna need a sea sickness warning soon. it waves about so nicely

[Jim Sachs]

I'm still fine-tuning the amount of movement. After looking at it on a bigger screen, I'm thinking of turning it down a bit.

[rctneil]

nah, it looks perfect now! - It might seem much more inline once more objects are moving

[cohiba420]

its nice to see Jim!

[Jav400]

Jim,

I don't know how you plan to tie all this together. I mean that in an aquarium movement is by and large caused by the dynamics of the pumps and the direction the water is flowing.

I have no idea if something like that tie in is what you have in mind, or if general movement alone is your goal. I would think that fluid movement would be somewhat better, but have no idea how you would accomplish that.

As to the other question, I do know that most games and especially 3-D glasses carry a warning about motion sickness and so forth. Maybe this is an instance where a user slider would be able to let each user set the parameter for the total amount of movement overall - from allot of movement to only slight movement by the background objects. Sort of like your "panning slider speed" one.

Personally for me it's never bothered me and the more the better, unless it passes the realm of "lifelike".

[Jim Sachs]

I will consider putting in a "Water Current Strength" control.

I have thought about attempting to tie all the objects together to react to currents, but I doubt if it would be worth the trouble. After looking at many aquariums in operation, there are so many sub-currents and eddys that objects which are separated by more than a few inches don't seem to show much of a common movement pattern.