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Old 06-10-2008, 07:32 PM   #1681
Jav400
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I think Jim is shooting for slowly crawl.
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Old 06-10-2008, 09:09 PM   #1682
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That's the transition I was talking about. If I have time, I'll write code to make it smoothly crawl onto the glass. If not, it will wait until it is off-screen to do so.
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Old 06-10-2008, 10:01 PM   #1683
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That will entail restricting the size of the window one can view the SS in...
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Old 06-11-2008, 12:38 AM   #1684
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It's true that by stretching the window enormously wide, you can see the whole tank at once. If I'm forced to use the second technique, then the starfish wouldn't make the switch (just like before, when users would turn off automatic lights).
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Old 06-11-2008, 08:59 AM   #1685
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Any chance of making a color/size variation on the starfish and allow two (or more) in the tank at the same time? Just a little darker, I mean.
Thanks to Morgan, Tiny Snapshots is up and running again with "Tiny Järvafält" as the latest addition – Go have a look and tell me what you think.

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I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
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Old 06-11-2008, 09:06 AM   #1686
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I'm guessing that the big problem is the starfish can be at any orientation when it tries to climb the glass. You don't know which arm will be trying to climb and the rotation of the starfish can be anywhere from 1-360 degrees.

What I would do, since the starfish moves so slowly, is create a scripted animation of the starfish climbing up onto the glass starting from the arm touching the glass all the way to the starfish being up on the glass. Let's say the rotation of the starfish at the beginning of the script is 30 degrees and at the end the starfish has rotated a little bit and so it's 45 degrees. So now you have your scripted animation which works well starting at 30 degrees.

Now we know that, if the starfish is in the "home" or 0 degrees position, then the arms are sticking out at 0, 72, 144, 216, and 288 degrees (I divided 360 degrees by five). Since our animation looks best when the starfish is rotated 30 degrees, then let's add 30 degrees to all those numbers. So we know that if the starfish is at 30, 102, 174, 246, or 318 degrees, you can start the scripted animation (which starts at 30 degrees) and it will be fairly seamless. Even better if you can do a morph at each end.

So the starfish is crawling along, one of the arms is at 30, 102, 174, 246, or 318 degrees. Bam, you can spin the starfish around to 30 degrees and then start the scripted animation. Then at the end of the scripted animation, the dictated rotation should be 45 degrees, so you'd resume the 'live' animation of the starfish with a setting of 45 degrees.

Clear as mud? Did that make any sense at all?
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Old 06-11-2008, 10:26 AM   #1687
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TT -- It is my intention to eventually allow more than one starfish in the tank, and texture variations are planned. Probably not on the first release, though.

Morgan -- That is the general idea, but it's a pretty big programming job. One thing which makes it a little easier is that the starfish has no body - just 5 identical arms joined at the middle. While each arm can bend and curl independently, any one of them could be treated as the "lead" arm in climbing the glass, so it would take very little rotation to bring an arm into position to start the climb.
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Old 06-11-2008, 11:29 AM   #1688
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My solution rests on the theory that "one arm is as good as another". Trying to make the animation work on all 5 arms would indeed be a monumental programming job. Spinning the starfish around to your "preferred" scripted animation start makes you only have to deal with 1 special case instead of 5.
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Old 06-11-2008, 12:25 PM   #1689
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My 2 cents...
I assume the starfish crawls in any dirrection. If arm 1 touches the glass a routine hoists him into a vertical possition... ie.. he is now crawling up the glass. If any other arm touches the glass it appears as if it is up against an object it can not climb and starts a rotation. At this point.. it iether keeps rotating till arm 1 touches or.. it appears to change its mind and go in a new dirrection. Same process (except now vertical) when coming down off the glass. Arm 1 touches and he goes on the sand.. any other arm and it rotates, possibly crawling to another direction or.. until arm 1 touches

is it a male starfish?
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Old 06-11-2008, 01:17 PM   #1690
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The only issue with waiting for arm 1 to be available to go up or down is that decreases the chance that the starfish will go up on the glass or be able to come down off the glass by 400%. Once the starfish gets up on the glass, it will be there for a long time, and it will very rarely go up on the glass.
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Old 06-11-2008, 06:00 PM   #1691
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Ok... my 2 cents part 2
When starfish gets close glass. note which arm is closest. write routine to move away from glass, orient self and crawl up glass. Each arm would have a different move away program to provide a seemingly random crawl up on glass even though in fact it was always the same orientation. To get off glass.. write a slip routine.... where he just falls off.. include a cloud of debris / gravel to accompany the "oops" and hide the recovery (right side up landing)
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Old 06-11-2008, 07:43 PM   #1692
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Ah, a cloud of debris. Which of these buttons do I push to create that? Regarding whether it's a male or female starfish - I have't seen the underside in a long time, and I'm not quite sure what I'm looking for...
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Old 06-11-2008, 08:10 PM   #1693
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for 4 cents you don't get much in the way of details

Its been a long time for me too
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Old 06-13-2008, 06:03 PM   #1694
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Howdy ...

I've been a SS user for several years and would like to be added to the 3.0 beta tester list. I just got me a brand new shinny VISTA machine with a 26" monitor, 2.6 looks awesome. Keep up the good work Jim...

BOING!!!

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Old 06-14-2008, 02:56 AM   #1695
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Thumbs Up Beta tester, where can i sign up Jim?

Hi Jim,

Now i got my new machine it may be the right configuration to give a European contribution from a long time user of SS.

My Configuration:
2 24" widescreens ( Iiyama and Fujitsu Siemens both running max resolution 1920 x 1080 )
Intel 9550 Quadcore Proc.
Asus Maximus Extreme MotherB. with special Asus Cooling tower
2 GB DDR3 mem.
2 ( crossfire ) Club 3D 8800GT videocard
Windows Vista Ultimat Dual Boot ( 32 / 64 )
A fast machine as you can see

Isabeau
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Regis SS with Guus@Eberstadt,nl since version 1

I have not updated my config underneath ( will do that later )
Intel Quadcore Q9550
Club 3D8800 GTS 640mb DDR3
Kingston 2GB DDR3
Asus Extreme Maximus FSB 1600
3.6 TB HD's
24" Iiyama Prolite B2403WS
24" Fujitsu Siemens L2W
32 bit Vista Ultimate full version
Xclio A380 twin engine
=========================
Intel Core i7-920 LGA 1366
Asus P6T Deluxe
6GB Corsair XMS3-1600 DDR3
1 Saphire ATI HD4870 X2 2GB
Creative X-Fi Titanium
Corsair PSU 750watt TX
Thermaltake VH6000BWS Armor+
24" Fujitsu Siemens L2W
32" Samsung Flatscreen TV as second screen
Windows Vista 64 Ultimate full version
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Old 06-14-2008, 03:27 AM   #1696
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The program is still in Alpha testing while I work out the ugliest bugs. It should be able to go into wider Beta testing pretty soon.
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Old 06-14-2008, 05:59 AM   #1697
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Originally posted by Isabeau:
2 ( crossfire ) Club 3D 8800GT videocard
Windows Vista Ultimat Dual Boot ( 32 / 64 )  

Doesn't 'crossfire' refer to an ATI card where as 8800GT is a Nvidia card?
First time I've seen Vista Ultimate dual boot with 32bit and 64bit version. Do you have many apps that won't run under the 64bit OS?
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Old 06-14-2008, 06:24 AM   #1698
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You know, maybe a "SereneScreen Marine Aquarium 3.0 Beta Testing Info" thread might be a good idea right about now. A sticky thread right at the top, containing just one post from a moderator, letting everyone know that they can all be beta testers for the low price of such-n-such, and that they should get in before the beta testing is over because that's when the price will go up, and that they should keep checking that particular thread to find out when the beta testing will start and end, how to pay and participate, etc..., etc...
Patrick
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Old 06-14-2008, 12:18 PM   #1699
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Exclamation MA 3.0 as a motion desktop background

Also, is there any word on the possiblity of using MA 3.0 like a DreamScene (i.e. a motion desktop background), at least for Vista users?

I would much prefer a running EXE that is constantly changing over a pre-captured movie.
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Old 06-14-2008, 01:52 PM   #1700
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There's probably a way of doing it in Vista. If I find out how, I'll do everything I can to keep the information from getting out.
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