Marine Aquarium 3 for Mac OS X (Snow Leopard) NOW AVAILABLE

JimO'Connor · 10-23-2009, 01:36 AM

Marine Aquarium 3 is now available for Mac OS X (Snow Leopard).

GET MARINE AQUARIUM 3 from SERENESCREEN.COM

$9.95 UPGRADE Marine Aquarium 2.6 CD or DD to Marine Aquarium 3.0
$19.95 PURCHASE Marine Aquarium 3.0 Digital Download

DOWNLOAD Marine Aquarium 3 for Mac OS X

somethingfishy · 10-25-2009, 04:58 AM

I have downloaded and registered the version 3.0 beta for 10.6 and I cannot make it run properly. I guess I must be doing something wrong but I feel I am going

If you look at the attached clip of the preferences pane, you will see that all of the fish appear to present. I cannot increase their number by clicking on the arrows. In fact I cannot select any fish to create my own set. I would also like to know how can I change the settings to adjust the lighting?

Please can you assist me.

Thank you.

JimO'Connor · 10-25-2009, 05:27 PM

Hi Something Fishy
You have all 30 fish allocated as random. You need to decrease the number of random fish before you can increase the number of other fish.

Lighting control isn't currently a feature of Marine Aquarium 3.0 Mac or Windows.

I hope that this helps.

Jim

AlecM · 10-25-2009, 07:48 PM

Hiya,

Thxn for finally posting a version I could use w/ Snow Leopard - had missed it.
Like the new features, larger aquarium,etc.

Only issue I have is that it really seems to have lost some level of "sharpness". It looks a bit "milky" to me and doesn't pop out like the last version did. (I know, not technical terms, but thought some end-user feedback would be useful.) It just doesn't look as good.

I know it was a fast port, hope a slightly sharper version comes out at some point.

(PS using 13.3" MacBook - aluminum unibody first version (now been renamed to MacBook Pros, running Snow Leopard - don't think it's a resource issue on this side - have tried a variety of contrast/resolution settings just in case).

AlecM · 10-25-2009, 07:58 PM

"You have all 30 fish allocated as random. You need to decrease the number of random fish before you can increase the number of other fish."

Hiya,

I had the same problem - took me easily 20 minutes to figure out. Probably already on your list, but suggest a "Remaining fish to allocate" [that's awkard, but you know what I mean] counter - and maybe default set being some random, some others, so that by seeing the different counters it's obvious how they add up (instead of 30 random).

Take care,
ADM

engelens · 10-26-2009, 09:47 AM

Just downloaded v3 on my G5, looks great! (although a bit jerky, even with only 8 fish).
The feather duster looks odd, though, as if it has longer feathers on the left side.

robnich · 10-26-2009, 10:07 AM

In MA3 for the Macintosh there are frequent duplications of random fish, something which doesn't seem to ever happen in the Windows version. In fact, to date I get duplicates (and occasional triplicates) every single time MA3 is activated in MacOS 10.6.1. This needs correction, I think.

Bob N.

JimO'Connor · 10-26-2009, 09:01 PM

AlecM -- I'm probably going to give users some control over the ratio of lightings. Some people complain the tank is dark, you're complaining that the tank is too bright. If you get the lightplay effect then you're getting my custom light mixing in the shader. If you aren't getting the lightplay effect then the lighting is being handled more by the fixed function pipeline and I have a bit less control.

Somethingfish -- I agree that the fish picking UI is a bit un-obvious. Maybe a "total fish" counter which goes up to 30, and the non-specifically assigned fish automatically go to random, if you decrement a fish then random makes up the slack?

robnich -- MA 2.6 had "don't repeat random" in it. MA 3 doesn't. I think we pulled in the Goldfish spawning code to handle "favorites" levels to bias the selection towards the more favored fish. I'll put this on the list of things to examine for the next revision.

somethingfishy · 10-27-2009, 08:45 AM

Originally posted by JimO'Connor:

Hi Something Fishy
You have all 30 fish allocated as random. You need to decrease the number of random fish before you can increase the number of other fish.

Lighting control isn't currently a feature of Marine Aquarium 3.0 Mac or Windows.

I hope that this helps.

Jim

Ah, that did it. Thanks Jim.

I guess global UI consistency is something which I was expecting rather than the internal consistency which was known only to the developer.

I could not add another starfish to the tank and that was the only box that was not the random box (that was displaying a yellow boxed number 1) so I had believed it to be active. I had thought that the increment/decrement arrows were not functional when I could not add a starfish or add fish from other boxes.

It is really your fault because you built something which is idiot-proof... without realising that it just attracts a more determined class of idiot.

AlecM · 10-27-2009, 10:09 AM

If by lightplay you mean do I see the light "shimmering" across, yes I get that.

Thnx for the clue... I was trying to determine what I meant by "milky" and I think your saying it was "brightness" was on track - if I darken screen slightly it does reduce some of what I'm referring to.

Thnx for the responsiveness.

Best,
Alec

JimO'Connor · 10-27-2009, 01:40 PM

I'm not working on MA 3 at this particular moment (back into kernel land), but keep the suggestions coming as I will be in the near future, and I'd like to get UI improvements and lighting improvements into the next minor release (we're at 3.0.1 now, with iTunes improvements from what is on the Nova download page). There is something to be said for getting SOMETHING in front of users and then refining it.

Mike is on GA 2 for Snow Leopard at the moment, then he'll probably do some UI improvements -- he did the UI changes and Snow Leopard, and I stayed in the tank for MA 3.

fargilan · 10-27-2009, 07:10 PM

Just downloaded and am running in demo mode. Hope to find my original CD to take advantage of the discount, otherwise will purchase at full price. You have obviously worked hard on this update and it shows. Very beautiful. I noticed a few glitches in the masking of the background (occasional gray patches). Also, just a suggestion, but if the edges of the coral were just a little less hard then it may add to the realism. Otherwise, quite excellent.

JimO'Connor · 10-28-2009, 11:56 AM

Hi fargilan,

Thanks for the kind words and suggestions.

Edge softness isn't easy to pull off when the angle to the eyepoint isn't constant as the part which needs to be soft changes. We could maybe do it with multiple rendering passes per frame.

fargilan · 10-28-2009, 05:31 PM

Jim,
Appearance of edge sharpness/softness is most likely influenced by sharp high res LCD monitors and the background that is used. Finding the right balance may be a moving target and if multiple rendering slows down the frame rates on slower computers, may not be worth the effort. Overall, a very minor thing since the fish don't go behind the coral anyway. I'm sure the lighting controls you plan to add will make the biggest difference. Looking forward to all the planned changes, and getting rid of 'Arabesque'.

Fred

Jim Sachs · 10-28-2009, 07:43 PM

fargilan - What do you mean by "the fish don't go behind the coral"?

AKcrab · 10-29-2009, 02:01 AM

Just installed the trial. This is very impressive.

JimO'Connor · 10-29-2009, 05:39 AM

Hi fargilan,

I don't know what you mean by "don't go behind the corals", either. Could you elaborate a bit there for me? Multiple renderings would toss out whole generations of machines, unfortunately. I agree that the lighting controls will be the biggest win in the near future.

Hi AKCrab,

Good to see you again. I'll have to drive up your way one of these days.

fargilan · 10-29-2009, 11:06 AM

Jim(s),
I just bought a full license last night and spent more time looking at the aquarium. My initial impression based on the demo with limited fish was that they darted up to the coral but did not go behind that 'layer' such that the masked edge of the coral was in front of the fish. I see now that the fish do appear to go behind the coral layer and occasionally swim 'through' two of the corals (sorry but I don't know corals very well or I'd name them). It appears that the fish are in 3D and the coral and background are 2D layers that the fish occasionally interact with. It's a nice effect and nicely done.

Fred

Jim Sachs · 10-29-2009, 12:11 PM

Everything in the tank is 3D. The best way to see the effect is to use the left-right arrow keys to rapidly pan back and forth. Hitting the W key will show all the thousands of polygons which make up the 3D objects.

As far as pass-throughs, we're working on them.

fargilan · 10-29-2009, 03:42 PM

Thanks Jim. Kinda fun watching the fish swim around in wireframe mode. I see now that the coral is 3D. Was it difficult putting the textures on the coral and maintaining the rough edges? It adds significantly to the realism. I noticed the transparency in the fins too. Very nice touch.

Incidentally, my arrows don't pan but they do change the intensity of the background. Thanks for the tip.

Fred

10-23-2009, 01:36 AM	#1
JimO'Connor Mac Development Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Kenai, Alaska Posts: 678	Marine Aquarium 3 for Mac OS X (Snow Leopard) NOW AVAILABLE Marine Aquarium 3 is now available for Mac OS X (Snow Leopard). GET MARINE AQUARIUM 3 from SERENESCREEN.COM $9.95 UPGRADE Marine Aquarium 2.6 CD or DD to Marine Aquarium 3.0 $19.95 PURCHASE Marine Aquarium 3.0 Digital Download DOWNLOAD Marine Aquarium 3 for Mac OS X Jim O'Connor Order N Development

10-25-2009, 05:27 PM	#3
JimO'Connor Mac Development Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Kenai, Alaska Posts: 678	Hi Something Fishy You have all 30 fish allocated as random. You need to decrease the number of random fish before you can increase the number of other fish. Lighting control isn't currently a feature of Marine Aquarium 3.0 Mac or Windows. I hope that this helps. Jim Jim O'Connor Order N Development

10-25-2009, 07:48 PM	#4
AlecM Registered Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 3	Sharpness? Hiya, Thxn for finally posting a version I could use w/ Snow Leopard - had missed it. Like the new features, larger aquarium,etc. Only issue I have is that it really seems to have lost some level of "sharpness". It looks a bit "milky" to me and doesn't pop out like the last version did. (I know, not technical terms, but thought some end-user feedback would be useful.) It just doesn't look as good. I know it was a fast port, hope a slightly sharper version comes out at some point. (PS using 13.3" MacBook - aluminum unibody first version (now been renamed to MacBook Pros, running Snow Leopard - don't think it's a resource issue on this side - have tried a variety of contrast/resolution settings just in case).

10-25-2009, 07:58 PM	#5
AlecM Registered Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 3	30 Fish "You have all 30 fish allocated as random. You need to decrease the number of random fish before you can increase the number of other fish." Hiya, I had the same problem - took me easily 20 minutes to figure out. Probably already on your list, but suggest a "Remaining fish to allocate" [that's awkard, but you know what I mean] counter - and maybe default set being some random, some others, so that by seeing the different counters it's obvious how they add up (instead of 30 random). Take care, ADM

10-26-2009, 09:47 AM	#6
engelens Registered Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Belgium Posts: 34	Looks great on a mac Just downloaded v3 on my G5, looks great! (although a bit jerky, even with only 8 fish). The feather duster looks odd, though, as if it has longer feathers on the left side.

10-26-2009, 10:07 AM	#7
robnich Registered Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 29	In MA3 for the Macintosh there are frequent duplications of random fish, something which doesn't seem to ever happen in the Windows version. In fact, to date I get duplicates (and occasional triplicates) every single time MA3 is activated in MacOS 10.6.1. This needs correction, I think. Bob N.

10-26-2009, 09:01 PM	#8
JimO'Connor Mac Development Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Kenai, Alaska Posts: 678	AlecM -- I'm probably going to give users some control over the ratio of lightings. Some people complain the tank is dark, you're complaining that the tank is too bright. If you get the lightplay effect then you're getting my custom light mixing in the shader. If you aren't getting the lightplay effect then the lighting is being handled more by the fixed function pipeline and I have a bit less control. Somethingfish -- I agree that the fish picking UI is a bit un-obvious. Maybe a "total fish" counter which goes up to 30, and the non-specifically assigned fish automatically go to random, if you decrement a fish then random makes up the slack? robnich -- MA 2.6 had "don't repeat random" in it. MA 3 doesn't. I think we pulled in the Goldfish spawning code to handle "favorites" levels to bias the selection towards the more favored fish. I'll put this on the list of things to examine for the next revision. Jim O'Connor Order N Development

10-27-2009, 08:45 AM	#9
somethingfishy Registered Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 11	Originally posted by JimO'Connor: Hi Something Fishy You have all 30 fish allocated as random. You need to decrease the number of random fish before you can increase the number of other fish. Lighting control isn't currently a feature of Marine Aquarium 3.0 Mac or Windows. I hope that this helps. Jim Ah, that did it. Thanks Jim. I guess global UI consistency is something which I was expecting rather than the internal consistency which was known only to the developer. I could not add another starfish to the tank and that was the only box that was not the random box (that was displaying a yellow boxed number 1) so I had believed it to be active. I had thought that the increment/decrement arrows were not functional when I could not add a starfish or add fish from other boxes. It is really your fault because you built something which is idiot-proof... without realising that it just attracts a more determined class of idiot. Last edited by somethingfishy; 10-27-2009 at 08:47 AM. Reason: typos

10-27-2009, 10:09 AM	#10
AlecM Registered Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 3	Bright/ Milky If by lightplay you mean do I see the light "shimmering" across, yes I get that. Thnx for the clue... I was trying to determine what I meant by "milky" and I think your saying it was "brightness" was on track - if I darken screen slightly it does reduce some of what I'm referring to. Thnx for the responsiveness. Best, Alec

10-27-2009, 01:40 PM	#11
JimO'Connor Mac Development Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Kenai, Alaska Posts: 678	I'm not working on MA 3 at this particular moment (back into kernel land), but keep the suggestions coming as I will be in the near future, and I'd like to get UI improvements and lighting improvements into the next minor release (we're at 3.0.1 now, with iTunes improvements from what is on the Nova download page). There is something to be said for getting SOMETHING in front of users and then refining it. Mike is on GA 2 for Snow Leopard at the moment, then he'll probably do some UI improvements -- he did the UI changes and Snow Leopard, and I stayed in the tank for MA 3. Jim O'Connor Order N Development

10-27-2009, 07:10 PM	#12
fargilan Registered Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 4	Masking Glitches in Background Just downloaded and am running in demo mode. Hope to find my original CD to take advantage of the discount, otherwise will purchase at full price. You have obviously worked hard on this update and it shows. Very beautiful. I noticed a few glitches in the masking of the background (occasional gray patches). Also, just a suggestion, but if the edges of the coral were just a little less hard then it may add to the realism. Otherwise, quite excellent.

10-28-2009, 11:56 AM	#13
JimO'Connor Mac Development Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Kenai, Alaska Posts: 678	Hi fargilan, Thanks for the kind words and suggestions. Edge softness isn't easy to pull off when the angle to the eyepoint isn't constant as the part which needs to be soft changes. We could maybe do it with multiple rendering passes per frame. Jim O'Connor Order N Development

10-28-2009, 05:31 PM	#14
fargilan Registered Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 4	Jim, Appearance of edge sharpness/softness is most likely influenced by sharp high res LCD monitors and the background that is used. Finding the right balance may be a moving target and if multiple rendering slows down the frame rates on slower computers, may not be worth the effort. Overall, a very minor thing since the fish don't go behind the coral anyway. I'm sure the lighting controls you plan to add will make the biggest difference. Looking forward to all the planned changes, and getting rid of 'Arabesque'. Fred

10-28-2009, 07:43 PM	#15
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,788	fargilan - What do you mean by "the fish don't go behind the coral"? Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

10-29-2009, 02:01 AM	#16
AKcrab Registered Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 233	Just installed the trial. This is very impressive.

10-29-2009, 05:39 AM	#17
JimO'Connor Mac Development Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Kenai, Alaska Posts: 678	Hi fargilan, I don't know what you mean by "don't go behind the corals", either. Could you elaborate a bit there for me? Multiple renderings would toss out whole generations of machines, unfortunately. I agree that the lighting controls will be the biggest win in the near future. Hi AKCrab, Good to see you again. I'll have to drive up your way one of these days. Jim O'Connor Order N Development

10-29-2009, 11:06 AM	#18
fargilan Registered Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 4	Jim(s), I just bought a full license last night and spent more time looking at the aquarium. My initial impression based on the demo with limited fish was that they darted up to the coral but did not go behind that 'layer' such that the masked edge of the coral was in front of the fish. I see now that the fish do appear to go behind the coral layer and occasionally swim 'through' two of the corals (sorry but I don't know corals very well or I'd name them). It appears that the fish are in 3D and the coral and background are 2D layers that the fish occasionally interact with. It's a nice effect and nicely done. Fred

10-29-2009, 12:11 PM	#19
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,788	Everything in the tank is 3D. The best way to see the effect is to use the left-right arrow keys to rapidly pan back and forth. Hitting the W key will show all the thousands of polygons which make up the 3D objects. As far as pass-throughs, we're working on them. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

10-29-2009, 03:42 PM	#20
fargilan Registered Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 4	Thanks Jim. Kinda fun watching the fish swim around in wireframe mode. I see now that the coral is 3D. Was it difficult putting the textures on the coral and maintaining the rough edges? It adds significantly to the realism. I noticed the transparency in the fins too. Very nice touch. Incidentally, my arrows don't pan but they do change the intensity of the background. Thanks for the tip. Fred