** SereneScreen Marine Aquarium 2.01 !! **

[cjmaddy]

1.1wide ..... Yes.
2.01 ..... No.

[Jim Sachs]

OK, so there's still something that's different in the way the program is talking to your monitor. Using Desktop resolution should not produce a click if the following are true:

1. Bits-per-pixel are also the same. You've said that they are all set to 16-bit, so that's not it.

2. Refresh override is not set in DXDIAG. If it is, then the monitor will click when it switches from the Desktop to any Direct3D application. Even so, I don't see how this would greatly affect the frame rate, and it should work the same for both versions anyway.

One more minor thing to test: Could you switch the French Angels with some other fish? The French Angel now uses mipmapping. Any fish without stripes should be safe.

[cjmaddy]

Right! - I'm sorry if I misled, - but I assumed you would know that 1.1wide would HAVE to be set to 1280x720x16 and the monitor asked to 'remember', if the aspect ratio was to be correct on a 4x3 monitor. (ie the monitor will click for 1.1)

I have just temporarily changed 1.1wide to Desktop resolution, - picture then stretched vertically, no click, but no noticeable change in fps either!

Changed French Angels to Regal Tangs, ..... no change in fps!

'Display Properties/Settings/Advanced/Monitor/Refresh Frequency' has always been set to 100Hz, and Refresh override in DXDIAG set to 100.

[Jim Sachs]

OK, those items were worth a shot.

[Edgar]

Cliff,
Based on the results that you provided Jim, the difference in fps will have to be CPU related. Your video card is not even working hard at all.

There must be a CPU operation that has changed from 1.1Wide to MD.

Since I don't have the original 1.1Wide source (Will has it), I can't be sure what else changed.

I am looking for other ways to speed it up that might help you though.

[feldon34]

Dumb question. What happens if you turn off 'Limit FPS' ?

[Edgar]

I actually missed that setting but the limit frame rate might change the result.

[cjmaddy]

Originally posted by feldon28
Dumb question. What happens if you turn off 'Limit FPS' ?

It makes a marked improvement!!!!! - Sod it! - Where've you been for the past few days?

It's 1:25 am! ......... I'm going to bed! ..... will do some more checking tomorrow!

[cjmaddy]

Morgan,
After your comment on the 'Beta Testing suggestion' thread, (which I'm quite happy with, - no problem there! ), lets just make this joking abundantly clear! so no one else misunderstands. ( - this IS read all over the world!)

It makes a marked improvement!!!!! - Sod it! - Where've you been for the past few days?

That's British humour, - meaning, 'Well done! - just the job! - now if only you could have mentioned that earlier!!!'

Now to more serious testing! .....

I can't explain why Edgar's test version changed from at first only a very slight improvement, to a much better one! - Could it be linked to re-booting or something? I don't know!

Turning off 'Limit FPS', as Morgan suggests, also makes a worthwhile improvement.

Added together, it now means that a fps of 23/24 has gone up to 30/31 ........ very close to v1.1wide !!!!!

Dumb question from me now! - Why do we need 'Limit FPS' on MA2? - it makes no difference on my system, the CPU Usage is always around 80+% - what ever the FPS Limit setting is, - or even if there's none at all!

With information passing via PM's, emails, and the forum, (from four people), things are getting over complicated. - Is it OK to keep most of it here within this thread? ..... (IF any more is needed, that is!)

Morgan, - I recently sent you a PM regarding 'readme file/information/explanation' ...... all this is making that need all the more necessary! - IMO!

As for the FPS in MA2 MD(wide), compared to 1.1wide, ........ I consider it now solved!!!!!

Thanks for everyone's interest!

Drinks all round! .....

[drfish]

I'm stupid, forget I said I couldn't get it working before... I thought it was supposed to be able to stretch... Clone mode works great, I just unchecked the "black" boxes for each screen and it worked first time! Only 12 FPS though, but that's really not too bad considering... Now, should I add a 6th monitor (because I can) or is the record already mine???

[Jav400]

Cliff,

Answer to dumb question..

Just because your system can't push the SS past 60fps, doesn't mean that others don't have one that can. Some at full steam can do 200+fps, and its nice for them to have the option to reduce the cpu usage under those conditions. You need some sleep.

[Tiny Turtle]

Putting that one on top of the middle one, I suppose?

Damn neat, Doc. That should get you a spot on prolific's site...

[drfish]

I have one more PCI G450 so I could add up to three more if I had another couple spare monitors...

Let that be a warning to anyone who challenges me!!!

[bugsymcd24]

LOL...guess i wont try and steal your thunder then...LOL

I have 2 flat panels set up side by side, I will post a pic whe I can...

I hope the fix the windowed problem as well, I love having the thing run in windowed mode on my sec. monitor while I work in the other... makes the day go by faster...LOL

[cjmaddy]

Thanks for the answer Michael, - but don't you agree that these are the sorts of details that should be explained in the 'readme' file that I keep banging on about! ..... (and that Morgan appears to have ignored! )

ps, ....... Much refreshed after a few hours shut-eye!

[BigScreen]

I finally had the chance to give the new version a try on my dual-monitor setup.

While I was really hoping for stretching the aquarium across both monitors, I appreciate the ability to blacken the second monitor.

On my Matrox G450-32MB setup, clone mode takes the frame rate from about 30fps to 15fps in 32-bit mode. If I reduce to 16-bit, I can squeeze 20fps out of it.

I recently upgraded my CPU from a P4-2.4 to a P4-3.06 with Hyperthreading, and it had no effect on the frame rate. I would surmise from that result that my video card was and is the limiting factor in the frame rate.

Switching to Windowed mode so that the window is about 640x480-ish makes it go much faster, upwards of 90-100fps which is kind of cool.

Even cooler is setting it for Widescreen mode! Somehow the aquarium looks more real in widescreen than it does 4x3. I guess that's since I've never had a 4x3 aqaurium...

In windowed mode, I cannot get it to continue refreshing on Monitor 2, the display just freezes until I move the window back to Monitor 1. I would imagine that has to do with a hardware overlay or 3-D acceleration issue with the dual-monitor support on the G450 card.

I have the dual-head mode set up for separate resolutions and separate pallettes, mainly so that I can retain my desktop icons and taskbar on Monitor 1 only.

I haven't tried to set it to stretch the desktop across both monitors to see if MA2.01 can go wide across both. Would that work?

Also, I didn't notice a discussion yet of the "Delay" slider for the Automatic Lights. The best I can figure is that this sets the amount of time before the transition from light to dark and dark to light? It doesn't seem to affect the speed at which the actual transition occurs, which what I was hoping for.

[BigScreen]

While I'm 3 monitors shy of Dr. Fish's setup, here is my multi-monitor photo.

[drfish]

I'd take yours over mine anyday. Please say they're both hooked up via DVI...

[Jim Sachs]

Great shot, BigScreen!

Regarding your question about stretching from one screen to another -- There is no support for this built into the code, however some cards and drivers contain their own ability to do it.

[BigScreen]

Alas, they are only connected via the VGA outputs of the G450.

My next video card will have DVI outs, as these very nice monitors give me the choice of VGA and DVI input.

I'll try the other mode for the dual-head configuration and see if that changes things re: widescreen spread across both monitors. That would be the ideal situation, and would make it worth hassling with tweaking the deskop settings a little.