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#341 |
Smilie Dragon
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Lebanon, PA
Posts: 4,725
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That's good news.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
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#342 |
Registered
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Indianapolis
Posts: 25
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Hey Jim, I was just wondering if you could say what the most unusual fish will be in MA3? Also, can you say how detailed you plan to get with behavior? Not just the normal kind, but the kind you see sometimes that makes you think that maybe the fish went a little too deep.
![]() P.S. Congrats on the cave. I bet that's a load off your mind. |
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#343 |
Developer
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Southern Oregon
Posts: 9,785
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At first MA3 will have the same fish as MA2. Additions will be done through Creature Packs, which will come later. I expect the most difficult creature to be the octopus, which is why I'm saving it for last. The fish behavior will be as detailed as I can reasonably make it in a limited amount of time. Typical actions would include schooling, chasing, darting, nibbling at corals, etc.
Jim Sachs
Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium |
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#344 |
Registered
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Antwerp - Belgium
Posts: 87
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looks great
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups !
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#345 |
Only me...
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Essex, England
Posts: 2,584
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Great news on the cave front! Thanks Jim.
![]() Just going back to the textures again, what does a texture actually look like before it gets wrapped around a fish? I thought we might have covered that in the past, but my searches aren't turning up anything informative.
Mark
----------- Intel i7 12700K | Aorus Z690 Pro | Corsair DDR5 5600 32GB | Asus Dual RTX3060ti 6GB v2 Mini OC | Corsair RM850 Gold PSU | 1TB NVMe M.2 WD Black SN850 | 4TB Seagate BarraCuda HDD | Corsair Airflow 5000D Case | HP 32QHD 4K Monitor | Windows 11 x64 Professional |
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#346 |
Forum Administrator
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Rock Hill, SC
Posts: 10,939
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I don't know that a raw texture has ever been posted here before. I would want Jim's permission first.
As I mentioned before, most of the fish textures are "straight-on". A few are diagonal which allows for the side fins to be more detailed and as a side benefit gives the fish body texture a higher resolution as well. The clearfin lionfish texture is gigantic compared to the other fish.
"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell
"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman |
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#347 |
Developer
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Southern Oregon
Posts: 9,785
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Here's a typical fish texture - In this case the Koran Angel. The bitmap and alpha channel would be combined into one DDS file in the program.
Jim Sachs
Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium |
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#348 |
Registered
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Indianapolis
Posts: 25
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![]() Here's a typical fish texture - In this case the Koran Angel. The bitmap and alpha channel would be combined into one DDS file in the program.
![]() ![]() Boy, there's a great idea for a program, eh? Make your own fish screensaver. That's gonna make someone a fistful of cash someday. ![]() |
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#349 |
Developer
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Southern Oregon
Posts: 9,785
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Hand drawing the textures makes fish that look hand-drawn. Photography is vital. There's no real fish template, but I can load one of my earlier models into Lightwave, change the shape, pin a new texture on it, and save it as a new fish.
Jim Sachs
Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium |
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#350 |
Registered
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: California
Posts: 103
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Jim
Since we are at it, what are alpha channels...
--Vish
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#351 |
Engineer
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London, UK
Posts: 1,279
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The Alpha channel is for Transparency - how much of the background to show through the image - a common use would be for a fin, where you want to be able to see through it a bit.
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#352 |
Developer
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Southern Oregon
Posts: 9,785
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Yes, transparency is the most common use of an Alpha channel -- anything that's white shows 100% texture image, black is 100% background image, shades of gray will mix a proportional amount of the two.
It's very easy to use transparency, and I've always used it for the "clear" parts of the fish, the fins of my saltwater fish and various body parts of my freshwater fish. But the extra realism I'm going for in 3.0 has brought up a problem: When you look "through" the fin of an actual fish, you can't really see a clear image of what's on the other side. It's blurry, like frosted glass. Using shaders, it's possible to achieve this effect. Instead of combining each pixel with the one directly under it, the program would average each pixel with several underneath it. Some XP programs do this when windows overlap each other, but virtually no one notices it. That's my problem -- is it worth the development time and clock-cycle overhead to do this, or would it be lost on 99% of the people viewing it?
Jim Sachs
Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium |
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#353 |
Registered
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Lancashire, UK
Posts: 7,854
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You could always post us an example for us to comment on!
![]() ![]() ..... My guess is that it would be worth it, ... but then who besides me likes the n key? Do you want to impress the masses? ... Or go for quality? ... That is the question. |
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#354 |
Forum Administrator
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Rock Hill, SC
Posts: 10,939
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![]() That's my problem -- is it worth the development time and clock-cycle overhead to do this, or would it be lost on 99% of the people viewing it?
![]() If you can add translucency and light refraction to the entire body of fish like the Yellow Tang, Flame Angel, Royal Gramma, etc., then it's absolutely worth it. ![]()
"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell
"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman |
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#355 |
is pleased
Join Date: Mar 2001
![]() Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Posts: 7,365
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I'm with the Koran of Huston...
Thanks to Morgan, Tiny Snapshots is up and running again with "Tiny Järvafält" as the latest addition – Go have a look and tell me what you think.
"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another." /Robert Oppenheimer on witnessing the first thermonuclear detonation in history. |
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#356 |
Only me...
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Essex, England
Posts: 2,584
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I'm with the Koran of Huston...
Me too!And thanks for the info above - For some reason I was imagining an image which was much more warped than the example you posted turned out to be. I guess I was imagining both sides of a fish as a single texture (minus eyes and pectoral fins, obviously). Um, duh! ![]() ![]()
Mark
----------- Intel i7 12700K | Aorus Z690 Pro | Corsair DDR5 5600 32GB | Asus Dual RTX3060ti 6GB v2 Mini OC | Corsair RM850 Gold PSU | 1TB NVMe M.2 WD Black SN850 | 4TB Seagate BarraCuda HDD | Corsair Airflow 5000D Case | HP 32QHD 4K Monitor | Windows 11 x64 Professional |
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#357 |
Developer
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Southern Oregon
Posts: 9,785
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That's the advantage in mapping a thin object with bilateral symmetry -- almost no warping of the texture.
Jim Sachs
Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium |
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#358 |
Registered
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Antwerp - Belgium
Posts: 87
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Anyone alive in 2007 ?
just checking
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups !
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#359 |
is pleased
Join Date: Mar 2001
![]() Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Posts: 7,365
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Whaddaya mean, Dirk?
Thanks to Morgan, Tiny Snapshots is up and running again with "Tiny Järvafält" as the latest addition – Go have a look and tell me what you think.
"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another." /Robert Oppenheimer on witnessing the first thermonuclear detonation in history. |
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#360 |
Developer
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Southern Oregon
Posts: 9,785
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I just got back from Chicago. Got some good source material from the Shedd Aquarium. I borrowed my daughter's new Panasonic Lumix camera, and it really made a difference in grabbing quick shots between the crowds. I just left it on Automatic, and let the camera do all the thinking.
Jim Sachs
Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium |
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