Is SereneScreen at an End?

[fly911]

Originally posted by drfish:

Can confirm.  

Thanks, Dr. Fish! Nice monitor!

[Jim Sachs]

My mother, who I've been taking care of for the past 3 years, died last week. So presumably I'll have more time and brain cells to devote to the Aquarium this coming year. A licensing deal with Roku will keep us afloat financially for the near future. Now if I can just get enough of the new house done to allow us to move in and get my office set up, I can start doing computer work again. We have to move out of the small house we're living in and get something temporary until at least one bedroom and the kitchen are done in the new house - maybe by June.

[patscarr]

Very sorry for your loss, Jim. Best wishes.

I just bought and hooked up a Roku for my mom yesterday! I didn't notice the screensaver anywhere. When does the deal take effect and how are they going to use it?

I can't believe how long it is taking you to finish that house! Even working alone, you should be making some progress, but every time you update us, it seems you have barely moved at all. Do you have any new pictures of newly completed work?

[jleslie]

Jim - really sorry to hear your news, I hope 2017 is good to you.

[Surferminn]

Sorry to hear about your mom, Jim. May you all go through this transition period with much ease as possible. Glad to hear your deal with Roku and some thoughts and plans for the future. Take care and stay warm through the winter. Effective a few days ago, we all will be getting more daylight as each day passes.

[Jim Sachs]

Thanks for the well-wishing, everyone.

Pat - Only the high-end Roku boxes (the models which can do 4k) currently have MA as their default screensaver. The company is working on a version which will run on lesser machines. The code was taken from our Android version, so it's not quite as good as my Windows version, but it still looks pretty good. My contract requires me to give them 160 hours per year assistance in improving the program on Roku.

Progress on the house has been slow while I had my mother with me, but I have been able to do some work. I'll look for some recent pics.

[cjmaddy]

Sorry to hear of your loss, Jim. - I hope the future will bring you some happier moments.

[feldon34]

Jim, my thoughts are with you as you, Edi, and Jill are dealing with all of this. You put your life on hold for 3 years to take care of your mom, which is a testament to the kind of person you are and exactly the sense of duty and kindness I perceived after meeting you out in California all those years ago.

Instead of guilt or sadness, I hope you come to experience more positive, constructive emotions as she is now at peace. And I hope that the creativity that is burned into your very DNA can breathe once again.

[Tarkus]

Sorry for your loss, Jim. Best wishes moving forward.

[drfish]

My condolences, Jim.

[Jim Sachs]

Thanks, guys. Yes, it's tough dealing with someone who has dementia, but at least she stayed sweet until the end. Alzheimer's patients often get mean, but I was spared that. She forgot most everything, but still remembered me and my daughter. At 88, she outlived everyone in the history of our family by at least 15 years. Her mother, father, brother, grandparents and cousins all died about my age.

[snorkler]

So sorry to hear this. Take care of yourself.

[Jav400]

My sincerest condolences as well Jim. It will be a difficult thing I am sure having that memory this time every year.

[philosopher]

My condolences Jim. i wish you and your family the best 2017 possible.

[kaseki]

My condolences also. I did not notice this thread until today.

The Roku deal is interesting, but it looks like there is still room for a higher resolution version. Having succeeded in getting MA 3.3 to run under Linux Mint using Crossover Linux (I am sure the free Wine will work also, but I haven't tried it), I am in the process of building a home theater PC (HTPC) using higher performance components than the older PC I am typing this on which drives "only" 1920 x 1280 pixels at 60 Hz. (Writes a guy who once upgraded from punch cards to Teletype to a CIT101e display.)

It was the demonstration of MA 3.3 on my present monitor that got my wife gung ho about a new 4K OLED TV so long as it could display MA. At present some critical components for the HTPC are out of stock, but as soon as I can get them and resolve any build issues, I plan to have MA running as a kind of virtual aquarium when called upon to do so. This will entail a more modern GPU driving an HDMI TV interface.

While it is somewhat difficult to extrapolate from the present CPU and GPU to the HTPC's counterpart components, I hope to be able to run a full panoply of fish at 4K and 60 Hz without stressing the system (at least to the level that the rendering test program Unigine Valley would).

Others already running Windows on gaming capable PCs should consider driving their TVs with MA. Unlike Pong, or PacMan, there is no visual obsolescence evident in MA; I expect it can continue to scale as long as the CPUs and GPUs continue to utilize ever more billions of transistors.

kas

[Jim Sachs]

Kaseki - Yes, the Roku version is currently lower resolution. It was translated from the Android version, which was translated from the Mac version, which was translated from my PC version. It has gotten away from my code by several generations, and naturally exhibits some 'code drift'. I've been working with Prolific's Android programmers to sharpen up the Android version, and it's actually looking pretty good on my Galaxy s6 phone. These tweaks will probably also show up on Roku devices before long.

At 4K on a big monitor, you'll be running up against the limit of the fairly low-res fish textures. Some are only 64x64 pixels. When I was first creating the Aquarium 17 years ago, I designed it for 1024x768 in a world where 640x480 was the standard.

I'm hoping to get into programming in Unity or Unreal, which would open up a lot of possibilities for a new version of MA. I recently bought a used 3D laptop with a 17-inch screen. When the convergence is set right (a fairly obscure setting in NVidia 3D Vision), the Aquarium is so incredibly real in 3D that even I am still mesmerized by it.

[jleslie]

Interesting, I hadn't tried it in 3D... I'll give that a go (my HTPC has a 3D vision license and is connected to a 3D TV).

BTW kaseki IBM card punches - best keyboards ever... the tactile feedback mechanism is quite impressive too (metal blades powering through cardboard).

[kaseki]

Tactile keyboard perhaps, but mistakes were not correctable with Whiteout.

[kaseki]

I'll look for the resolution limitation when I've got the system ready; on 1920 x 1200 everything looks sharp. I think it will look sharp across the room when magnified to 55 inches at 4K. However, I am capable of whining for more resolution if needed.

I also need to make a "puddle" of clear silicone adhesive to put under the TV so it is a more realistic aquarium simulation.

(Then there is the tropical fresh water aquarium I've always wanted -- much more practical with a display in the form of a simulated large tank. This would have an enormous school of neon tetras operating in quasi school behavior.)

k

[Jim Sachs]

jleslie - As I mentioned, the most important thing in viewing MA in 3D is the Convergence (or Parallax) setting. The 3D Vision user interface makes this infuriatingly hard to find. You have to turn on 'Advanced Settings', then use CTRL-F5 and CTRL-F6 to change the Convergence. Bringing the bottom gravel right up against the screen looks the most realistic. Once you get it right, hit CTRL-F7 to save the setting and you won't have to do it again.

kaseki - I had actually done a lot of work on a freshwater version a few years ago, and had neon tetras in it. I was able to duplicate the iridescent blue/green/purple bands on the sides using a shader which changed with the light angle. If I'm able to get into Unreal or Unity programming, then schooling behavior would be greatly simplified.