Wishlist for Marine Aquarium 3 and Future

[Digital Lungfish]

Sweetspot and ajlaban,

I'm glad you guys like it, it's a fairly simple idea that has the potential to produce some really nice effects, especially on the fish themselves. This would also be the ideal setting for the eels and other fish that only come out at night. Now I could be wrong and I'm sure Jim will tell me if I am, but this should be fairly easy to implement.

Jim,

When you have a moment, I would appreciate your input on this one. Thanks!

- DL

[ajlaban]

DL,

Underwater lights of all kinds are cool. Back when I redid my in-the-ground pool I added some -- what a difference!

I hope this will not cause Jim any serious technical difficulties because it would be a very positive and interesting addition to the Sachs Marine Aquarium.

Can't say I've ever seen underwater lights in an aquarium but if they don't exist in the real world maybe this will be one of the exceptions to "realism" that Jim will embrace.

[Digital Lungfish]

"I hope this will not cause Jim any serious technical difficulties because it would be a very positive and interesting addition to the Sachs Marine Aquarium."

Well as long as they're not colored lights, then it might be possible. Granted, Jim already has a full schedule at this time, so whether or not he can actually implement it might depend on his schedule more than technical issues.

"Can't say I've ever seen underwater lights in an aquarium but if they don't exist in the real world maybe this will be one of the exceptions to "realism" that Jim will embrace."

I've seen a few aquariums with underwater lights similar to this idea, it's just not a very common lighting arrangement which is why you don't see it very often.

I used to have a 55 gallon freshwater tank a few years back and I had placed a few lights behind the rocks for effect, I really liked how it looked. I'm pretty sure that it would look considerably more vibrant and visually stunning when you toss in the corals, all the colorful reef fish, and inverts.

- DL

":x Darwin is dead :x - so much for evolution...."

[asprague]

- DL
" Darwin is dead - so much for evolution...."

What?

[Digital Lungfish]

Old joke asprague, I didn't expect everyone would get it, so I wouldn't put too much thought into it if I were you.

Why, are you a huge fan of Darwin's theories?

- DL

[asprague]

Why, are you a huge fan of Darwin's theories?

Theory? Since the definition of the word theory is, "The analysis of a set of facts in their relationship to one another," I am indeed a huge fan of Darwin. Also a huge fan of Einstein and his lil' ol' Theory of Relativity.

Old joke asprague, I didn't expect everyone would get it, so I wouldn't put too much thought into it if I were you.

Joke? Guess you're right. I don't get it. I don't think it works.

[feldon34]

We are NOT going to have a debate over Creationism and Evolutionism here.

[Digital Lungfish]

"We are NOT going to have a debate over Creationism and Evolutionism here."

Not to worry Morgan, I certainly have no intentions of doing so, I can't speak for asprague though. However, in order to prevent any more "misunderstandings", I'll be sure that I don't use that comment again since some people would obviously read too much into it.

- DL

the starfish should not start on the same place every time. Its boring.
It would better, if the starfish start on a random position or the last position should be saved.

[Lostboy]

May I suggest:

a Cucumber



and a Sand Dollar

[Highlander]

i was wondering if Jim is planning a waterline on top of the screen ( 1 cm air so it looks like the aquarium is not filled)

[feldon34]

Highlander,

Then Jim would have to do reflections, refraction, and animated textured water.

Considering water doesn't even look real in blockbuster CGI films, how can Jim do it on a TNT Riva 16mb video card in real-time?

I'm new to this board and have been using this awesome screensaver for a few weeks now and love it! It runs fine on my WindowsXP and have had very little problems with it (sometimes it would error out, and I would have to reboot to fix it, no biggie).

I'm not sure if this has been asked, but what I would love to see added would be to be able to change the simple background and foreground images. Like being able to have your own image imported into the background or have the Windows desktop in the background. Ability to randomize the backgrounds every couple seconds or so. Being able to adjust the foreground objects, even change them to other things or nothing at all (to see your background image better). You know just a simple hack in the options menu for making the changes, nothing major to change the program.

Any possibility on this Jim, before you trek into making the foreground 3D?


Specs:
Windows XP ver.2532
AMD Athlon 1.2GHz T-Bird
512 RAM
Geforce2


Ideas on how this could look:

Image1

If the images fail to load, click the link and then click on the Tripod logo in the top left of the page. It should take you to my index of my images. Sorry for the hassle.

[Jim Sachs]

There is no background image in the Aquarium, the gradient is done algorithmically. A background image would add a very large number of bytes to the program.

I think I can live with that Jim .

Have it work similar to the Drempels screensaver. When you install the screensaver, a folder is placed on your HD in the program files dir. with a few of Jims favorite images and the screensaver is placed in the system/Windows dir. And then when you use the screensaver it calls for the images in that folder.

[Jim Sachs]

I am hoping not to have the Aquarium balloon into a bunch of separate files. You wouldn't believe the customer service involved with just one simple executable file. The majority of Aquarium users are not computer-savvy at all, and often many back-and-forth emails are required just to tell them how to drag the file to a different folder. There are 4 million copies of the Demo version out there, so if just 1 persion in 1000 has a problem, that's 4000 emails.

Already, the current graphics load will not allow 4-meg cards to run at the Aquarium's native resolution of 1024x768 (they switch to a barely-acceptable 800x600). If a background pic were added, these machines probably wouldn't run the Aquarium at all, spawning many thousands of complaints.

So, the short answer is that background pics are not likely in the near future.

So no seperate version for us "computer-savvy" users?! Or an upgrade?! The more the options the more a person is willing to fork over, if you catch my drift . But thanks for the reply Jim.


Click Here

[Jim Sachs]

Customers are not required to fork over any additional money. The price is just 20 bucks, and upgrades are free.

Jim,

I know this message is going to be a long winded one, so I will save the praise

I see great potential for you to make mega bucks out of this venture, and I truly believe you deserved it more than Bill Gates.

So my message is not actually about adding new fish, or turtle, but about how you can built an even larger and loyal (read: addicted) customer base.

I believe your priority should not be adding more fish. No matter how pretty a new fish is, it will always be regarded as just another fish. The impact will never be anyway close to the first sight of this screensaver.

Nor should the priority be impoving the background corels etc. Sure these are nice features to add, there is no argument about it at all. But I am talking about priority.

Your priority should be to make the program ever more addictive. And there is nothing more addictive than to make the program somewhat interactive and fun.

There is a good Japanese virtual pet called Tamagochi which was extremely popular a few years ago. You can certainly borrow some idea from it.

As mentioned by others previously, to let the pet grow old or die can be difficult and not desirable. No problem. You can ignore that feature, but just borrow the idea of keeping virtual pet. That is one hell of a strong addiction.

The other related addiction, is interaction. This idea stem from my Malaysian rural background. During my primary school years, if someone failed an exam, the one that gets the blame is always the Malaysian fighting fish.

There is a site here about this fish for those who are interested: www.aquariumfish.com.my/f...betta.html

BTW, these are not salt water fish.

OK, I remember you mentioned previously, that you will not have any fish attacking another fish in your tank. Well, I can understand and I support that. But how about having an agressive fish that attack the mouse? Meaning the mouse click represent knock knock on the tank, and this particular fish very much dislike to be disturbed.

Another quick reference here:
www.techtronics.com/uk/sh...0-mp3.html
I made this simple animated GIF using MS GIF Animator, all done in an hour. So don't expect to see anything spectacular. And it is not about fish!

The reference is about how to show nervousness. Big pirate obviously should be less nervous, hence sticking up and down more casually, and little pirates are more nervous and appear so.

What I would suggest to implement in your tank, is:
1. Allow the mouse to appear in hand shape (instead of the regular arrow), on top of the screenserver, and use click or double click to simulate knocking on the tank.
2. Right after a knock, the Star fish should drop to the bottom of the tank, and all other fish quickly dissapear and hide behind the corel.
3. Except one. This one should be ugly and aggressive. And instead of running away, it would begin the chase and bite the hand around the screen. Limit that chase to say 5 seconds.
4. The attack should be over, and all other fish come out of hiding, unless another knock is initiated.
5. The more often the knocks, the more bites from the agressive fish in a row.

Hands up those who don't find it addictive.