Marine Aquarium 3.2 in Beta

[JimO'Connor]

Please download at http://www.orderndev.com/downloads/M...quarium3-2.dmg

This is a beta build with a drop dead date of 1/31/2012.

This build will automatically pull your MA 3 keycode for its own use, but it will keep its own preferences separate from MA 3 (unlike the prior build), so you should be able to use both at the same time.

Features:
eel
background control
manual panning

Feedback is appreciated. Please include what OS and what machine you have.

Thanks,
Jim

[Time Crystal Pilot]

Not sure if I should be asking this, but having been a fan of Jim Sachs ever since I first heard Richard Wagner's Overture to The flying Dutchman from a SID 6581 in the summer of 1987 at a friend's home, I wonder if the credits for MA3's design still apply as stated in the (PowerPC) Mac version, especially as they differ from those given in the Windows (XP) version.
I hope this is not felt too impertinent a question to be posed by a lurker.

[feldon34]

Which of those credits do you think is no longer correct?

[Time Crystal Pilot]

I assume the Windows version is maintained by Jim, so if I had to decide which version I deem more trustworthy, that would be the obvious choice.
But as they do not strictly contradict, just differ, all I actually do is wonder why.

[Jim Sachs]

I wrote the Windows version. Jim O'Connor and Michael Babin did the Mac conversion. They are entirely trustworthy

The Mac conversion was not a trivial job, since the entire program had to be converted from DirectX to OpenGL. There are things which DirectX can do which require some pretty clever work-arounds in OpenGL (which is why I didn't write it in OpenGL to begin with).

[Time Crystal Pilot]

Now I know for sure that I should not have asked.
I am probably attaching too much importance to the term design in those credits.
(And I didn't make clear enough in my first post above that I do.)

I appreciate very much the work that Jim O'Connor and Michael Babin did. I am really sorry that I inadvertently made it appear as if I didn't.

[JimO'Connor]

TCP -- don't know why you think you shouldn't have asked. I appreciate the attention to detail!

[cohiba420]

Hi Jim,
So far, so good. Love how the eel tracks the fish in front of it. Have not noticed any issues so far with fish swimming through objects, or really anything else out of the norm thus far. Running this on a Macbook pro with OS 10.6.8. Will also be installing on my home Mac mini with 10.6.4 & will let you know what I find. Appreciate the chance to provide feedback & keep up the great work!

[JimO'Connor]

Thanks for the feedback, cohiba420.

I think recent changes made pass throughs more noticeable (they should happen less, but when they do they really POP), so I'm going to work on that before we release.

There is a spelling error in the Background tab (missing the 'R').

I should have a build with some fixes in the next week, well in advance of the drop dead date.

[Araquay]

Very happy to see this happen. I can't begin to imagine how intricate the conversion process can is.

[Endie]

Beta-build is Intel-only. I hope the final 3.2 release (or a new beta) will support Tiger/PPC as well, since the Readme says it does. MA3 runs pretty good on my 'old' dual 1,25 G4 MDD, and i can't wait to see the eel in and the bugs out...

Andreas.

[JimO'Connor]

New MA3.2 beta up. Same URL.
This should support PPC.
The changing between background colors should be smoother. The problem only showed up if you used the keys to change preferences.
I didn't get the feature done to the point I want to show it, so this isn't a huge difference.

Feedback is appreciated.

[cohiba420]

installed. (thank you!!) looks nice, but I noticed one of the clown fish blinked out of existence (it was near the pink blob (between the coral and the cave, on top) and then popped back. was gone for about 5 seconds.

[JimO'Connor]

Yes, the fish popping through the reef is a problem. That and my new feature are what is keeping me from calling this done.

[Endie]

New version for PPC - Thanks! Installed it on my old G4. Eel looks great so far (imho a bit too bright compared to the PC version that fits more the ambience of the dark cave). It seems that the eel on the PC version gets darker the more it stucks deeper in the cave. Is that because of my old Radeon 9000 Pro in my G4 (missing shader or something...)?
Besides a few german translation bugs and UI glitches relating to it, the fish section in the preference pane of the screensaver version is a whole mess (missing fish, doubled fish, missing random button,...) In the program version everything looks and works fine. I've attached the screenshots of the preference pane to see the difference.

[JimO'Connor]

We really need shaders now for a lot of things.

Thanks for pointing out the problems in the UI for German. I haven't looked at German in some time.

[Feashman]

This is, without question, the best screen saver rendering of the marine environment that I have seen on any platform. Congratulations.

The 3.2 beta has some nice enhancements. Any reason that you removed the triggerfish from this rev?

Suggestion for future releases: Think I read that you were going to have fish pecking at the coral. How about having the clown fish live in the anemone on the right side of the panorama? Would also like to see more invertabrates.

[JimO'Connor]

The clown and picasso triggers should both be in there.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Feashman]

Jim:

Just noticed the post from 2/2/12 from Endie. He exactly describes the problem. The fish selection in the Application works fine. The fish selection screen embedded in the screen saver preferences is messed up. Some fish repeat, others, like the trigger fish, are missing.

BTW, I am running on a 2011 MacBook Pro.

Feashman

[JimO'Connor]

Thanks, I'll fix it this weekend, and should have a new build.