Marine Aquarium 3 Rumors and Speculation - Page 33

Jim Sachs · 05-17-2007, 01:03 PM

Just kidding. I know it's 2006.

Tiny Turtle · 05-17-2007, 01:29 PM

You were setting yourself up for that punchline all along!

Wizwad · 05-18-2007, 06:00 AM

Ba-dum bum!

Jim Sachs · 05-18-2007, 10:30 AM

One problem with migrating the program to DX8/9 is that absolutely EVERYTHING has to be redone. You start with the Microsoft screensaver framework, then graft in each piece of your own application. Their framework is very different from all their other Direct3D examples, making the transition even harder. In some cases I can use my old code from the 2001 DX8 version I did for the Plus Pack. This was the case for the sound routines, which I got working yesterday.

Today I'm struggling with the Settings dialog box. This has to be done from scratch, since the Plus Pack had none. In full-screen mode, DirectX really takes over the whole screen, so it's very difficult to get a GDI object to show up. It looked like I had it for a while, but sometimes the box comes up BEHIND the Aquarium screen, which makes it seem like the program has simply locked up. Frustrating.

Jim Sachs · 05-19-2007, 10:12 AM

OK, I got the dialog box to show up reliably -- now I need to get the mouse pointer to show up on the whole screen instead of just when it's over the box.

Jav400 · 05-19-2007, 10:33 AM

Sounds like you are making pretty good progress on the mechanics Jim.

How many items do you have in the background so far? Have you had time to add any more of those?

Jim Sachs · 05-19-2007, 12:17 PM

Right now, I'm writing the code for the mechanics of the program - the drudgery that I've been putting off for a long time.

Jim Sachs · 05-24-2007, 10:13 PM

I found a small independant computer store in Medford, and am having them build me a custom machine. The heart of it is an 8000-series nVidia card, so I'll finally be able to do some work with Pixel Shaders.

jleslie · 05-25-2007, 03:00 AM

...but remember 8000 series cards explode if playing games and only work well for screen-saver development... um, well, worth a try. Sounds like a great idea...
John

drfish · 05-25-2007, 05:10 AM

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

I found a small independant computer store in Medford, and am having them build me a custom machine. The heart of it is an 8000-series nVidia card, so I'll finally be able to do some work with Pixel Shaders.

Great news!

Wizwad · 05-25-2007, 05:17 AM

LOL @ John! Nice try - we'll see if it works!

Jav400 · 05-25-2007, 05:39 AM

WooHoo, nice Jim.

What kind of cpu is going in it?

Sorry I just had to ask...................

Tiny Turtle · 05-25-2007, 07:56 AM

Yay!

Jim Sachs · 05-25-2007, 12:53 PM

Jav - The CPU is an AMD AM2 DC X2 4600+ Windsor. Video card is an nVidia 8500GT 256-meg PCI-E.

Falz · 05-25-2007, 10:12 PM

You'd have been better off with a Core 2 and a 79xx series, but I suppose it's not for games.

Jim Sachs · 05-25-2007, 10:47 PM

Well, no matter what I got, someone would have said, "You should have got ___".

feldon34 · 05-26-2007, 08:50 AM

I will admit that after 6 years of market dominance, AMD has lost the lead it had over Intel, but that is not to say the AMD AM2's aren't good. Intel has solved the heat problems, the wattage problems, etc. with their Core Duo line so I think that's the future of the market for the foreseeable future. If I were buying a power system, I'd have to go Intel, and I say that as someone who has not owned Intel since a Celeron 300a o/ced to 450mhz.

AMD had a great run, but Intel had deeper pockets for R&D. We knew Intel would eventually get tired of having their butt kicked in every review.

Marian Nichols · 05-26-2007, 11:12 AM

Try as we might, we can never please everyone. Please yourself first and work from there.

Tiny Turtle · 05-26-2007, 01:21 PM

An 8500GT is the slowest of the 8xxx-series cards, but that's a non-issue here. The performance gain compared to the previous systems should be tremendous and that setup should be considered up-to-date for quite a while.

Falz,
A 79xx card would've been faster at shuffling polygons, but isn't it just a tiny bit smart to buy a DX10 capable card just in case you want to try and implement DX10 features in your product?

/Tiny You're Off Just Fine, Jim

SunKing · 05-28-2007, 07:16 AM

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

Well, no matter what I got, someone would have said, "You should have got ___".

Ummmm Jim, are you still using dialup??

05-17-2007, 01:03 PM	#641
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,791	Just kidding. I know it's 2006. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

05-17-2007, 01:29 PM	#642
Tiny Turtle is pleased Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 7,365	You were setting yourself up for that punchline all along! 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.

05-18-2007, 06:00 AM	#643
Wizwad Only me... Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Essex, England Posts: 2,584	Ba-dum bum! 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

05-18-2007, 10:30 AM	#644
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,791	One problem with migrating the program to DX8/9 is that absolutely EVERYTHING has to be redone. You start with the Microsoft screensaver framework, then graft in each piece of your own application. Their framework is very different from all their other Direct3D examples, making the transition even harder. In some cases I can use my old code from the 2001 DX8 version I did for the Plus Pack. This was the case for the sound routines, which I got working yesterday. Today I'm struggling with the Settings dialog box. This has to be done from scratch, since the Plus Pack had none. In full-screen mode, DirectX really takes over the whole screen, so it's very difficult to get a GDI object to show up. It looked like I had it for a while, but sometimes the box comes up BEHIND the Aquarium screen, which makes it seem like the program has simply locked up. Frustrating. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

05-19-2007, 10:12 AM	#645
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,791	OK, I got the dialog box to show up reliably -- now I need to get the mouse pointer to show up on the whole screen instead of just when it's over the box. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

05-19-2007, 10:33 AM	#646
Jav400 Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Tennessee Posts: 9,725	Sounds like you are making pretty good progress on the mechanics Jim. How many items do you have in the background so far? Have you had time to add any more of those? Michael Administrator of Inside:SereneScreen Aquarium Forum, Chatroom, Fan Site & *Gallery* DVD Collection

05-19-2007, 12:17 PM	#647
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,791	Right now, I'm writing the code for the mechanics of the program - the drudgery that I've been putting off for a long time. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

05-24-2007, 10:13 PM	#648
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,791	I found a small independant computer store in Medford, and am having them build me a custom machine. The heart of it is an 8000-series nVidia card, so I'll finally be able to do some work with Pixel Shaders. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

05-25-2007, 03:00 AM	#649
jleslie Engineer Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 1,279	...but remember 8000 series cards explode if playing games and only work well for screen-saver development... um, well, worth a try. Sounds like a great idea... John

05-25-2007, 05:10 AM	#650
drfish the Doc Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Zeeland, MI Posts: 5,357	Originally posted by Jim Sachs: I found a small independant computer store in Medford, and am having them build me a custom machine. The heart of it is an 8000-series nVidia card, so I'll finally be able to do some work with Pixel Shaders. Great news! I don't watch commercials.

05-25-2007, 05:17 AM	#651
Wizwad Only me... Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Essex, England Posts: 2,584	LOL @ John! Nice try - we'll see if it works! 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

05-25-2007, 05:39 AM	#652
Jav400 Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Tennessee Posts: 9,725	WooHoo, nice Jim. What kind of cpu is going in it? Sorry I just had to ask................... Michael Administrator of Inside:SereneScreen Aquarium Forum, Chatroom, Fan Site & *Gallery* DVD Collection

05-25-2007, 07:56 AM	#653
Tiny Turtle is pleased Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 7,365	Yay! 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.

05-25-2007, 12:53 PM	#654
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,791	Jav - The CPU is an AMD AM2 DC X2 4600+ Windsor. Video card is an nVidia 8500GT 256-meg PCI-E. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

05-25-2007, 10:12 PM	#655
Falz Registered Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Australia Posts: 118	You'd have been better off with a Core 2 and a 79xx series, but I suppose it's not for games.

05-25-2007, 10:47 PM	#656
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,791	Well, no matter what I got, someone would have said, "You should have got ___". Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

05-26-2007, 08:50 AM	#657
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	I will admit that after 6 years of market dominance, AMD has lost the lead it had over Intel, but that is not to say the AMD AM2's aren't good. Intel has solved the heat problems, the wattage problems, etc. with their Core Duo line so I think that's the future of the market for the foreseeable future. If I were buying a power system, I'd have to go Intel, and I say that as someone who has not owned Intel since a Celeron 300a o/ced to 450mhz. AMD had a great run, but Intel had deeper pockets for R&D. We knew Intel would eventually get tired of having their butt kicked in every review. "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

05-26-2007, 11:12 AM	#658
Marian Nichols ~Author~ Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Rocky Mount, NC Posts: 7,429	Try as we might, we can never please everyone. Please yourself first and work from there. Write paranormal mysteries. Six books so far.

05-26-2007, 01:21 PM	#659
Tiny Turtle is pleased Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 7,365	An 8500GT is the slowest of the 8xxx-series cards, but that's a non-issue here. The performance gain compared to the previous systems should be tremendous and that setup should be considered up-to-date for quite a while. Falz, A 79xx card would've been faster at shuffling polygons, but isn't it just a tiny bit smart to buy a DX10 capable card just in case you want to try and implement DX10 features in your product? /Tiny You're Off Just Fine, Jim 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.

05-28-2007, 07:16 AM	#660
SunKing Registered Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 238	Originally posted by Jim Sachs: Well, no matter what I got, someone would have said, "You should have got ___". Ummmm Jim, are you still using dialup?? My humble Homepage