Wishlist for Marine Aquarium 3 and Future

[Jim Sachs]

The initial fish in MA3 will be the same as MA2.6. After I re-do those using the new fish model, then I will be adding others. The ones you mentioned are still possibilities.

[twkatadin]

Well, the fish I posted may be rare in aquariums, but you can always take another trip out to Maui . I see them all the time out here.

PS - Oh, one fish I forgot is the Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse. I think having one fish tagging along with another and cleaning him off would be pretty awesome. Though probably hell for your collision detection schemes...

Tim

[Highlander]

cant wait

[bearfox]

I'm all for letting the lionfish eat other designated feeder fish. Great video.

Also, I know it would be a really high polygon count, but would a sea dragon be possible? With matching seaweed?

[Jim Sachs]

One problem I've always had to contend with in computer graphics is the believablilty factor. I had planned on a Weedy-Leafy Sea Dragon, but would people accept it as real?

[bearfox]

One would hope so. There are a lot of wierd creatures in our oceans!

Any word on MA as a DreamScene style implementation?

[Jim Sachs]

I certainly hope not.

[johnblommers]

Originally posted by bearfox:

I'm all for letting the lionfish eat other designated feeder fish. Great video.

Also, I know it would be a really high polygon count, but would a sea dragon be possible? With matching seaweed?  

I'm for leaving out crazy looking sea dragons and dining lionfish, because the aquarium should be a relaxing experience, not a modern version of the Colosseum.

[Tarkus]

I thought the idea was to make it as realistic as practical, not to help you go to sleep or something.

[johnblommers]

Originally posted by Tarkus:

I thought the idea was to make it as realistic as practical, not to help you go to sleep or something.  

Realistic is good, of course, but realistic dining lionfish isn't the kind of realism I was looking for, is all

[Jim Sachs]

Don't worry, the fish will never eat each other in the SereneScreen Aquarium.

[johnblommers]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

Don't worry, the fish will never eat each other in the SereneScreen Aquarium.  

Good to know, Jim. We lost a Rhode Island Red chicken to a predator just the other evening. Even the raccoons are visiting us before dark. One tried to enter the open door of the house looking for something to eat.

[davethegecko]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

One problem I've always had to contend with in computer graphics is the believablilty factor. I had planned on a Weedy-Leafy Sea Dragon, but would people accept it as real?  

I've saved the above "photograph" of the Sea Dragon as the wallpaper on my many Macs, but for the life of me, even though I know it's a real photo (as evidenced by the Nat. Geo. credits at the bottom of the pic) it's still very hard to believe it's actually a picture and not CG. I'm going to screw up the quote, but once again, "There is more in Heaven and Earth than exists in your philosophy Heratio (or Watson)."

In other words, I, for one, vote for including the incredulable and let the buyer "suspend their own disbelief" Jim.

[ajlaban]

Originally posted by davethegecko:

I've saved the above "photograph" of the Sea Dragon as the wallpaper on my many Macs, but for the life of me, even though I know it's a real photo (as evidenced by the Nat. Geo. credits at the bottom of the pic) it's still very hard to believe it's actually a picture and not CG. I'm going to screw up the quote, but once again, "There is more in Heaven and Earth than exists in your philosophy Heratio (or Watson)."

In other words, I, for one, vote for including the incredulable and let the buyer "suspend their own disbelief" Jim.  

The Sea Dragon is real alright. The PPG Aquarium at the Pittsburgh Zoo has a giant display tank full of them!

[debavocet]

This time I have to agree with Jim and John. An aquarium should be a good balance of fish, invertebrates and corals. I love sea dragons, but here it would be big, flamboyant and too distracting.
This is a tank, not a reef, and the fish should to interact in harmony, not gobble each other up. That leaves room for plenty of other interesting behaviors, such as schooling, or nibbling algae from the rocks.

[bearfox]

Debavocet may be right here. Even when aquariums are housing sea dragons, they are put in their own tanks. The lack of movement in normal behavior may not make them very exciting to watch.

[bearfox]

@Jim

Sorry if you answered this earlier:

Are there any plans to include an option to use Marine Aquarium 3 as a motion desktop/wallpaper much like DreamScenes in Windows Vista? Would the /p option for .scr files work here?

[Jim Sachs]

I'm totally opposed to seeing my artwork coverd by icons and other desktop clutter, so I'll do anything I can to stop it.

[johnblommers]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

I'm totally opposed to seeing my artwork coverd by icons and other desktop clutter, so I'll do anything I can to stop it.  

I'm just as opposed to icons and other clutter on the desktop, that is why there are no icons on my desktop. If I want to put a screensaver on the desktop as wallpaper I claim that right. I paid for the software. Jim you are near the line between the rights of the users and the rights of the creator. It does not sit well with the user when a software developer attempts to control what the suer can and cannot do with that software. Digital Rights Management, copy protection, EULAs etc are not product features. They are a curse upon the user perpetrated by a self-interested software publisher. And we see far too much of that in the software industry as it is.

I think I know where you might be coming from. You don't want your beautiful artistic creation messed with, that is why you don't include features that allow the user to change the aquarium background image or put different texture skins on the fish. Icons and desktop clutter on top of a beautiful aquarium simulation is a miserable thing to contemplate.

So let me try to dissuade you from reducing the functionality of MA products by doing something technical to make it impossible to use MA as a desktop wallpaper. IMHO you should put more weight on the interests of your customers.

Respectfully yours ...

- John, who loves to use MA2 as desktop wallpaper on the Mac

[Jim Sachs]

I've made my position clear. Anyone who doesn't like it is free to buy another program, or write their own. Look what's happened to Spore, now that users have been given too much control.