.99K News

[feldon34]

I'm not trying to rush anything....but when is the new version due out? I guess I just can't wait. Jim, you have done such a fine job on the screensaver, it is unbelievable. I never that I would see the day that I would actually spend money on an SS. But this one gets my vote.....and my money. I look forward to any new versions that you may be working on.

Tha last days we've been informed that the new version .99K will probably be released this week.
In the meantime this is my addition to some "new" fishes.
To receive the latest news about everything regarding the SS, go to the daily chat.


Ingo

[Jav400]

The new 99k version will include an Always On Top Button for windowed mode, and a No Repeat On Random Button for those people who set for random fish. Jim is also hoping to have bullet-proof password protection, and re-awake after sleep working. If that isn't enough, he also thinks he has solved the sound not stopping in Win 2k. The Banggai Cardinal has been delayed, but a reworked Picasso Trigger, and a new Regal Angel and another new fish ( Jim hasn't confirmed what this will be, but he is leaning towards a Blue Damsel ) is being worked on to replace it. With everything he has going on at once right now, it is extreemly difficult to give an exact date for release, but he is close to having the new version finished.

Thanks for the info. My work schedule is such that it is hard for me to make it into the chatroom when anyone else is there. I am eagerly awaiting the next update and will try to ne as patient as possible. Now I just need to figure out how to become a registered user of the message board.

[Jav400]

Howlingmine,

Thats easy, just go here and fill out the form, www.ezboard.com/intl/aeng..._join.html

[Digital Lungfish]

Blue Damsels as schooling fish would certainly be a nice addition (groups of 3-5 fish as a base would be a nice start). Of course, schooling is likely to come later on in development, but it's worth the wait.

- DL

Thanks for the info, I signed up for the mesage board tonight. I eagerly await the new version.

[feldon34]

Digital,

Actually, .99K was originally slated to have a school of 3 Banggai Cardinals, but the fish proved to be too complex for the current fish model. Each fish has about 300 points which are just moved around to make each fish, Banggai will need 400 points, requiring some rewrites to the fish animation engine as the current engine is rather hard-wired...

So Blue Damsel was simply the best picture Jim could find of a nice reflective, bright fish at the time. I think he still intends the Banggai Cardinal for the schooler.

I've updated my website to include the hefty list of features slated for .99K...

Picasso Trigger has been improved
new Regal Angel
new Blue Damsel
Background rescales to fit all ratios including 1280x1024 and HDTV
'No duplicate Random' feature
Windowed mode now has 'Always On Top' feature
Monitor shutdown (EnergyStar) is working
Alt+Tab and Ctrl+Alt+Del bypassing of password is disabled
Windows 2000 sound loop bug fixed (hopefully)
'Waking up' on Windows 2000 and/or Microsoft Intellimouse fixed

[feldon34]

And further details of the 'No duplicate Random' feature. If you have selected 4 fish and then have 3 random slots, the 3 random slots will NOT duplicate amongst themselves OR the 4 fish you have chosen.

VERY cool!! Thanks Jim!

[ajlaban]

Hi Morgan,

About the random fish feature of .99k, I feel this feature will not be complete, for me at least, unless it incorporates an "exclude fish" ability. As I read your last post, I assume this ability is not going to be in .99k. Well, we will accept these features as they come and be thankful that Jim continues to improve this already marvelous program. I do hope, however, that the "exclude fish" in random mode is in the future agenda.

[Digital Lungfish]

On the plus side, the Damsels are brightly colored fish (almost neon). So they'll make a welcome addition to the aquarium until the Banggai Cardinal is ready.

Now the question is, will the Blue Damsels be able to school (now or in the future)? I know that Jim's intention was for the Banggais to be first, but I'm sure they're not likely to be the ONLY ones, or are they?

- DL

Well, blue damsel is nice. quite cute as i see from a picture of it. but the fish im concern about is the Regal Angel. Just wanna ask, is the Regal Angel :-

1) Normal Regal Angel
or
2) A Red Sea Regal Angel

A Red Sea Regal Angel Is Much more captivating.

[Jim Sachs]

No, the Damsels won't school yet.

Also, the fins and tail of the Blue Damsel is extremely transparent. In the picture which Morgan is using for the icons, they have a reddish tint because whatever background was behind the fish was reddish. In the Aquarium, the Blue Damsels are much more monochrome blue. Just don't want the users to be disappointed that they are not more colorful.

[feldon34]

The roadblocks to .99K...

As you've noticed, there have been several .99 versions of the Aquarium and the DirectX 8 version of the Aquarium keeps slipping into the future. There are many reasons for this, namely Jim's commitment to the Aquarium running on a much lower set of hardware than Microsoft are willing to accept.

So as a result, Jim has resumed development on .99 versions which use DirectX 6 (he never really stopped) and is trying to get every feature we've been hearing about implemented into the Aquarium. The .99K feature list above is complete except for 3 things. To quote Jim:

''There are really 3 problems, all incredibly slippery. The monitor will not wake up after sleep mode on Windows 2000.

The password protection box is underneath the main screen half the time on Windows 98, making it almost impossible for the User to get out of the screen saver without blindly typing the password.

Pressing Alt-Tab in Windows 98 allows you to bypass the Password protection.''

and ''Fixing any of these problems on some cards or operating systems breaks it on others.''

So until these problems are resolved, Jim is not happy releasing the Aquarium. I asked him about releasing a version without these, but this is not an option.

[feldon34]

I just want to re-iterate that .99K has 2 great new fish, the Regal Tang is bluer, the Picasso Trigger is nicer, and all the other features described above.

However, until the Password feature works properly under Windows 98, and until the Sleep mode works properly under Windows 2000, Jim has told me repeatedly that he wants to hold the release back.

If he released .99K as it is now, he would get thousands of tech support e-mails and a lot of phone calls as well. So for anyone who grabbed .99K this morning, enjoy it! But be aware that this is NOT the final release and is missing the 2 features above.

I hope you understand.

And as much as you guys who managed to download it would love to post about .99K, let's save those posts up until .99K is out. Thanks!