first impressions on ga beta 0.9

[ewald]

Hi all, Hi Reichart!

Thank you for the beta!

My first impressions:

I really like the goldfish. The movement and collision detection is well done.

I am more sceptical concerning the background. Especially the rock needs bether (higher resolution) textures applied to it.

Overall, a nice product with place for improvements

P.S. no bubbles?

regards,
Ewald

[Mary]

I have just splashed out and bought it while it was at a lower price!
Haven't really had time to watch it much so far but where are the bubbles? The sound is there but not the bubbles! I think the fish are great; had a tank of them a few years back and find that these are pretty good.
Mary

[roseangel]

The fish don't look quite real - they are missing nostrils, and do a bit too much swimming and not enough cruising (also I think Ginger has a bit of tail rot) - but overall it looks good. I am sure that it will be a winner when finished.

[ewald]

Originally posted by roseangel
The fish do a bit too much swimming and not enough cruising

I agree on this...

[ewald]

I like that you can increase/decrease the number of plants shown (welcome to the jungle)

[ewald]

Originally posted by Reichart
Our primary focus is to get to version 1.0, which will feature more fish, and bubbles.

how many different fish will be in 1.0?

[raven]

Originally posted by ewald
I like that you can increase/decrease the number of plants shown (welcome to the jungle)

I agree, the fishtank is a bit small but by adding more plants it seems deeper, makes me feel less guilty for keeping my goldfish on a tiny 15 inch screen...

[EddieWan]

bubbles are coming later, before version 1.0, Remember it is a beta and a work that is still in progress, but so far it is looking very good

[memilm]

How about another plant art? Or a better rock?
It would be nice to have a pool with wishes of plants and rocks to implement...

[memilm]

It would be nice to have a fine selection of the plant, I mean the posibility to have specific amount of specific plants on specified positions in the tank. The actualy more or less plants option could be better...

[Lostboy]

For a beta, this is awesome. Here’s my first impressions:

The Fish:
1) The fish aesthetics look great. Near perfection.
2) I love how they swim a lot from the background to the foreground and vice versa, so they're not always on a side view like the MA.
3) Their AI is pretty good, except that when they come to the sides or bottom of the tank, they always bump themselves. I'd be great if they'd slow down before slamming into the side.
4) I love how they don't go off the side, and stay within the screen.
5) When they shake their fins it doesn't look natural enough. I mean, the animation is terrific, but it looks like they shake for a few seconds, then pause for a few seconds, etc. So, better swimming AI would be good. (Although maybe I just don’t know fish enough. I’m not sure if they actually do this in real life).

The Tank:
1) I hope there's going to be a 3D version in the future.
2) My first impression was that something didn’t quite look right, but after playing with the options and turning the background black, that made a big difference. So in other words, I don't care for the blue/green background.
3) The plants are great compared to just a still picture of plants. However, when they do flow I have movement lines flowing through it (don't know how to explain it), which makes it look unreal.
4) The option of adding or removing the plants is great.

My overall impression is that this aquarium is amazing. I can't wait to see what the future holds!

[Discovery One]

This is going to be great! First impression, though, is that a) my plants disappear periodicaly, which (I assume) is because I'm on the demo, and b) the mouth looks wrong. A carp's mouth opens into more of a tube, doesn't it?

[Liath]

Great job guys!
Thanks for the beta. Love the depth of the tank and the plant feature. Hopefully this will lead to more fun stuff in future screen savers. The fish movements are fantastic. I do agree with some of the others in that something doesn’t quite look right with the mouth. They look a bit like zombie fish, but it would be nearly impossible to capture the personality and natural curiosty of live goldfish. The only problem I’ve found so far, is that the bubble volume control doesn’t work on my computer. Anyone else have this problem? Cheers Prolific!

[Socrates]

It's a nice effort, but it's not MA.

I really really like the way the fish has so many curves and bumps. I also really like the overall layout of the tank.

The fish is a bit cartoon-like. The mouth just makes realism impossible. Would be better to leave the mouth closed unless they plan to make it look like an actual mouth and not a southpark-like hole in the texture. When a mouth moves, other parts of the face and head move too.

The plants are doing a lot of weird pixel and feild effects when they sway. The grass looking plants are almost believeable, but the leafier plants just look like a bad cut and past job.

IS the movement of the fish natural? It seems to float up like a bubble and then has to struggle to get down. Also it seems to shake its tail for comical effect? Is that the way these fish really behave? I never owned that particular type of goldfish.

[skypx]

I tried it, but I did not like it at all. I think I'll stick to MA & MAT.

[Socrates]

Just watched the mouths a little more.

It's mostly "Algernon" that has a really bad mouth.

The other two are not nearly as unrealstic. Not perfect but definitely a whole better.

[ewald]

Originally posted by Socrates
The plants are doing a lot of weird pixel and feild effects when they sway. The grass looking plants are almost believeable, but the leafier plants just look like a bad cut and past job.

all background elements need to be much more photorealistic (maybe at the sacrifice of moving plants)

I hope the bubbles won't be exactly the same as in MA(T)

[Liath]

IS the movement of the fish natural? It seems to float up like a bubble and then has to struggle to get down.

Most of the fancy goldfish I've seen do look like they are struggling to stay afloat. They are almost always swimming. Not quite as much tail shaking (though there is a lot of that), but almost constant, steady tail movement. They always seem to be annoying the other more laid back fish in the tank.

It may help GA to have at least one less ornate fish in the tank that swims more like a normal fish. It would help add a little diversity.

[Marian Nichols]

You must remember that these type of goldfish are a mutation of the real carp. They do not have the slim streamline bodies of their ancesters. Thus they have shorter swim bladders, this does make it hard to stay afloat, some will even swim upsidedown! Goldfish like most fish must continually open and close their mouths forcing water by and over their gills in their respiration. By and large this is a very realistic reproduction of one of natures most love water inhabitant. And I personally am thoughly enjoying this special program.

[Liath]

I guess my biggest problem with the movement is that they all very often shake their tales in unison as if they are on some sort of sequence. It would be nice if they had slightly different timing to their movement. They look like a bunch of synchronized swimmers. I solved the problem by simply removing Ginger and Algernon, and have Oreo swimming alone. The effect is stunningly real. Everyone who has come into my office today has been completely amazed, and everyone is in agreement that Oreo beats all of the MA2 fish hands down.

I would just like to add that it's not that Oreo is better in terms of artistry, it's just that the programming is obviously more sophisticated. This is very exciting, and means many more wonderful things will be coming to both MA, GA and the freshwater aquarium (FA?)