Marine Aquarium 3 Rumors and Speculation

[feldon34]

You can run 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.5, 2.6, and 3.0 interchangably now without having to uninstall and reinstall. I don't see that changing.

[jleslie]

Jim - my friend wasn't the projectionist, she just worked in the Cinema. I assume the projection system adjusts the sound to suit the speed. I'll ask her when I get a chance, but she moved house yesterday, so might be a little busy.

UK TV is 25fps and movies (all shot at 24fps) are shown on TV here at 25fps (so run 4% shorter) with the sound modified to suit, so it's not an uncommon technology. (No-one notices the speedup and you get one movie frame per TV frame, no 3:2 pulldown, like in 60Hz countries.)

John

[Wizwad]

What I notice that American actors/actresses voices are deeper and more rounded when they do interviews and chat TV and such. In some cases, hearing their natural voices is quite a relief!

[davethegecko]

I've been lurking for years and years, but the sudden activity has motivated me to join the thread to say that I'm completely thrilled that 3.0 is on the horizon.

One quick comment/question:

I'm a huge fan of virtual aquariums. However, in some ways they seem almost too perfect. When I was keeping saltwater aquariums, I would set my filter's powerhead to generate millions of tiny bubbles, most would quickly rise to the top of the tank, but many would gently float through the tank on the current. It added a "randomness" that I found kind of hypnotic. Adding similar (tiny - very tiny) "floaters" would add an awesome level of realism to 3.0. Any plans for something like this? A little visual noise?

Thanks again and I can't wait to buy v3.0 when it is released! Great work!

[ESHIREY]

[Marian Nichols]

A hearty welcome. Jump in and become part of the family.

[Sergiales]

I find Dave's suggestion quite interesting. It could be very cool.

[farrix]

I normally go to fish-byte.com then get the link to come here to the forum, well tonight when I went to fish-byte.com. I was surprised to see ipower.com.

Through google. I was able to find this site which explains why I'm posting .. I've been following the progress of Jim's screensaver since it was pre 1.0 beta .. I think it was 1.0 .. anyway keep up the good work Jim. Looking forward to 3.

Just was surprised about fish-byte.com and figured I'd post something on it.

later.

[feldon34]

Jim apparently used too much bandwidth at fish-byte.com, causing them to shut down the website. I hate ipower.

If you visit the forum often, consider bookmarking it directly.

[davethegecko]

First, thank so much for the welcome Ed and Marian! (though I was kind of hoping for a "glittery" welcome from Ed ;-)

Second, thanks for the "shout out" Serg.

I think what I'm looking/hoping for is something that makes the tank seem more alive than perfectly clear water (which does not exist in the real world). Like I said, I'm a huge (marginally compulsive) fan of virtual aquariums, so I've checked them *all* out over the years.

Besides the fact that I enjoy them for aesthetic reasons, I feel that they are ultimately FAR more important from an environmental standpoint in that when done well, they may become (and in my case have already become) a plausible alternative to keeping an interesting "real" saltwater tank.

Although an increasing number of marine species are being bred in captivity, many commercially available exotic species are still harvested from living reefs - a practice that is very harmful to both the fish as well as to the reef itself (partially due to the practice of using toxic chemicals which 'stun' the fish, making them much easier to capture). I was recently in Hawaii, and was warned while diving to try not to use regular sunscreen if possible, much less the kinds of poisons used to incapacitate fish.

Anyway, I know I'm preaching to the choir here. While I'm definitely not recommending SimAquarium (mostly because I have absolutely no idea to whom you would be sending your money if you bought it), "Tank 4" does a pretty good job of generating the particulate effect I'm talking about. It helps to turn off the "bubble column" and the fish (which are a little funky) if you want to see the floating bubble-bits.

and thanks for listening to me rant a little. :-)

Cheers,
Davethegecko

[davethegecko]

By the way, in looking at the first screen shots, it really appears that Jim has this new version nailed. The crushed coral lining the bottom of the tank is *exactly* as I remember from my real world marine aquariums. Even if he released the exact same fish from the last version of the program, I'd cough up my loot for it. Years later, they are still the best looking virtual salt water fish in the business.

That being said, the crab from Alan's "SpiralMonkey" DreamAquarium is in a league...sorry...all its own. I love that crab. Can't help it... Sometimes I wish that Alan and Jim would join forces. Yes, I'm that nerdy... :-)

Cheers,
Davethegecko

[Jav400]

rofl @ dave on the coment to Ed. I guess that proves you have been a lurker for awhile.

Glad you finally decided to join in with us, and welcome to the boards.

[ESHIREY]

Yes he has. And here you go buddy. to the forums.

[Jim Sachs]

farrix - Morgan's right, I ran out of band-width in the fish-byte site. I had been using it for the Beta-testers to download the MA3 updates, and the bandwidth went over the limit. I tried to increase the allowance a week ago, but apparently something happened in the middle of the transaction and it didn't go through. I successfully completed the form this evening and got a confirmation email, but of course they are closed until Monday, so I guess the site will remain off the air until then.

Davethegecko - Welcome, and thanks for the suggestions. The subject of "flotsom" has come up before, but I've always resisted it. When I look at a real tank, floating particles just mean poor filtration to me. Last night we ate in a Thai restaurant which had two saltwater tanks. One was crytal-clear, and the other had slightly cloudy water, with some visible floating specks. We were seated near the "dirty" tank, and I didn't enjoy the evening much.

[grape_jellyfish]

Yes I have eaten in a Chinese restaurant with saltwater tanks that were VERY clear, in fact I once commented to a friend that I was with that the fish almost looked like they were floating on air, very beautiful.

BTW Dave, I welcome you to the forum too, with not near the style of Ed but with equal sincerity.

[patscarr]

ROFL @ Dave, Ed, and Michael!

[Marian Nichols]

I once kept a 38 gal salt-water aquarium (difficult and expensive) and my aim was a crystal clear tank. Our goal is not so much to replicate nature but to improve on it, if possible.

[Tiny Turtle]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

Though the GeForce 6,7,or 8 series would be ideal to run MA3, the 4 series should have enough power to run it. My 5-series 5200 gives an acceptable 42 frames-per-second. Two of the Beta-testers have MX440 cards, which is a pretty high percentage, and makes me feel like I really should try to support that card. The problem has not been lack of power, but that the card doesn't work with MA3 at all. As soon as my new microprocessor gets here, I'll try to diagnose it.  

Late for the party, I know, but I want to chip in anyway.

The GeForce 4 MX cards are a budget series and actually closer related to the GeForce MX 2 series than the more advanced Geforce 4 Ti cards. In fact, a GeForce 3 card is vastly more powerful than a GF4 MX so if MA3 runs ok on the MX it's safe to say that GF3 is supported as well. Since the 4MX cards lack the programmable vertex and pixel shaders of the GF4Ti series it makes full DX8 rendering impossible.

The MX4000 mentioned was a later upgrade (late 2003) and basically a slightly overclocked 4MX440SE (where "SE" means a half-sized memory bus of the regulat 440). Incidently nVidia actually released a 4MX4300 in 2004 which was a 4000 with a PCI-Express bus.

[davethegecko]

Originally posted by ESHIREY:

Yes he has. And here you go buddy. to the forums.  

Now that's what I'm talkin' about! Thanks Ed, and everyone else, for the great and glittery "welcomes!"

[drfish]

Originally posted by Tiny Turtle:

...The GeForce 4 MX cards are a budget series and actually closer related to the GeForce MX 2 series than the more advanced Geforce 4 Ti cards. In fact, a GeForce 3 card is vastly more powerful than a GF4 MX so if MA3 runs ok on the MX it's safe to say that GF3 is supported as well. Since the 4MX cards lack the programmable vertex and pixel shaders of the GF4Ti series it makes full DX8 rendering impossible...  

I agree.