** Anonymous Praise **

feldon34 · 01-17-2002, 11:56 AM

I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy your aquatrium. I have it on both of my computers in which they sit withion 4' of each other. Threre are times I can't sleep so well because of health problems and I come into my computer room and sit in the dark watching these aquariums. They seem to be good realxing therapy for me so that I can go back to bed and sleep.

Just wanted you to know how much I apreciate your beautiful work and I am looking forward to seeing and hopefully having some more of it.

I would like to get hold of some other forms of wild life like deer at a ripling lake or stream, with maybe a bald eagle soaring overhead.

If you can find the time drop this old man a line back and let me know what you think of my suggestions.

Keep up the beautiful work,

-Larry

feldon34 · 01-17-2002, 12:14 PM

Hi... I owned an Amiga and programmed the odd games in AMOS and Blitz....
I think your Marine fish tank screen save is great, I turned my T.V. off and just watched that the other night listening to music !

I have looked at the Fan page and seen the wish list and what's to come in later editions... I would love to see the following fish:

Synchiropus splendidus (Mandarinfish or Dragonette) - never been captive breed, mix's with other fish
Oxycirrhites typus (Long-Nosed Hawkfish) - May nudge inverts out of curiosity, mixes fine other fish
Ecsenius midas (Midas Blenny) - Very placid scares easy, hides in holes, mixes well
Lythrypnus dalli (Catalina Goby) - short lived easy to breed, mixes well

If I were going to have a tank at home the above fish would be the 4 of my most wanted (none growing bigger than 10cm)... But I don't feel that I have the experience to keep them well... That's why I am so happy to see your program, I am thinking of buying a huge screen and when your new version comes out I will buy that and not bother with the real thing (fingers crossed it will feature some of the above fish)!

Some thing I would like to see is a Virtual Marine Fish program were you start off with about $2,000 to make your first tank and stock it with fish, then enter it in shows and breed them to make extra cash to make bigger and better tanks and more specialized ones.

The way it could work is to show the tank from top view as a grid and each box on the grid is equal to 6inches (if it's a 3ft x 1ft tank, 6 squares across, 2 deep) when you click on one of the squares it will bring up different rock formation, coral, live
rock and special features (such as old pipe's, Chains, Twisted metal etc...) so you make the tank look how you want, and as you progress in the simulation you gain access to different suppliers of fish and features like rocks and Bow fronted tanks! (bigger features that take up more grid space, Multi pipe for eels etc.).

Also temperaments of fish would be a nice added feature, like if you put a Meat eating fish in the tank it eats your smaller fish like it would in real life. And a catalogue of how one fish reacts to the others it shares the tank with, like a diary. Feeding them and keeping the water levels right could also be added, buying and upgrading filters and different lights would add an extra element of realism. Also fish growth from a small fish to adult and different markings (textures) to fish of the same type to add a feeling of difference to them, and actually a naming feature to give it that personal pet like touch (and if possible individual temperaments like real odd tendency's like swimming upside down, playing with odd stones, following a certain fish in the tank, laying on a certain rock etc....) and for hermit crabs out growing one shell and needing a bigger newer one.

This will give people like me more of an insight into Marine fish keeping. You could easy charge the going rate of any expensive P.C game, and bring out extension packs every now and then(new fish, new tanks, new rocks and extra's).

Each tank you make can be then saved as a screen saver were you can just watch the fish in the same way as your original program for relaxation means. (you could store up to ten or so and the computer could randomly pick them to play, changing at set time intervals)... You could even make a Winamp Plug-in and the fish could react to the music, if its basey the more smaller fish might hide or swim around in a panic, or dancing crabs could be added... the possibilities are endless !

At the last three computer fairs I have been to I have seen your program running as selling points for the computer, the graphics and programming is spot on. May be in the future you could release it for the playstaion 2, as it has T.V out I am sure many people would buy if you added a larger array of fish to it and added some impressive GUI, screen savers and setups could be saved to memory card !

If any of this comes any place close to what you envisage for the future of your program I would grateful if you could let me know!

-Steve

P.S. I love the starfish extra... downloaded it the other day.

feldon34 · 01-17-2002, 12:17 PM

(as replied by e-mail)

Steve,

Some comments on your e-mail.

The Mandarinfish is almost a guarantee for a future version. Not sure about the others. Jim would like to do a Hawkfish. Added fish and invertebrates will always be in one file, the main Aquarium file. Your keycode will dictate what gets turned on and what doesn't. Jim does not feel that multiple files is necessary.

The new version coming out next week will have a Lionfish.

Having to feed the fish and mess with water levels, chemicals, disease, etc. is what an Aquarium simulator like AquaZone is for. There will NEVER be fish eating or attacking each other. This is SereneScreen you know.

As for arranging our own tanks, this would be a tremendous undertaking. Right now, the fish swimming around the coral is all hard-coded. This would have to be made completely modular to work with your idea. That said, you're not the only person who has requested this.

Some fish will chase each other and nibble on coral. Some fish will back up and swim differently. This kind of individual fish behavior is coming in the future.

"Saveable tanks" is something people have requested often. Also be aware that unlike other fish-themed screen savers, the backdrop and coral in SereneScreen Aquarium are soon to be overhauled with a fully 3D background. Nobody has ever done this before! The amount of time it takes to produce this single 3D tank backdrop/coral formation will preclude us getting lots of other backgrounds to choose from.

Jim has not yet ruled out bitmap/photograph backdrops behind the coral, but it seems unlikely. Some mockups I did:

https://www.feldoncentral.com/Sachs/...idescreen2.jpg
https://www.feldoncentral.com/Sachs/...PlusMockup.jpg

Fish, crabs, etc. won't be growing older as far as I know. It's like a snapshot in time.

Jim has pledged to NEVER have dancing, talking or singing fish, or mermaids, or sunken ships, or scuba guys.

The Aquarium won't be coming to Playstation 2 because of the way Sony licenses games and other products. However an X-Box version is a possibility.

ESHIREY · 01-17-2002, 03:21 PM

Hey feldon , that's a great job you did there . I had the first one on my desktops for a long time (well after you posted it ) and the second one is even better . That would be great if that one could be done . Makes it look more like a real tank or right in the ocean .

So have you heard anything about the release ? Is it still set for this week ? Like I said before in one of my post ....... I'm not holding anyone to a day or time . Just asking .

Again buddy , great job on the site .

feldon34 · 01-17-2002, 03:39 PM

Still no release date.

The new 300kb installer is being beta-tested at the moment, and the Lionfish has not reached perfection yet.

Soon...

01-17-2002, 11:56 AM	#1
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	Anonymous Praise I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy your aquatrium. I have it on both of my computers in which they sit withion 4' of each other. Threre are times I can't sleep so well because of health problems and I come into my computer room and sit in the dark watching these aquariums. They seem to be good realxing therapy for me so that I can go back to bed and sleep. Just wanted you to know how much I apreciate your beautiful work and I am looking forward to seeing and hopefully having some more of it. I would like to get hold of some other forms of wild life like deer at a ripling lake or stream, with maybe a bald eagle soaring overhead. If you can find the time drop this old man a line back and let me know what you think of my suggestions. Keep up the beautiful work, -Larry Last edited by feldon34; 01-17-2002 at 12:15 PM.

01-17-2002, 12:17 PM	#3
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	(as replied by e-mail) Steve, Some comments on your e-mail. The Mandarinfish is almost a guarantee for a future version. Not sure about the others. Jim would like to do a Hawkfish. Added fish and invertebrates will always be in one file, the main Aquarium file. Your keycode will dictate what gets turned on and what doesn't. Jim does not feel that multiple files is necessary. The new version coming out next week will have a Lionfish. Having to feed the fish and mess with water levels, chemicals, disease, etc. is what an Aquarium simulator like AquaZone is for. There will NEVER be fish eating or attacking each other. This is SereneScreen you know. As for arranging our own tanks, this would be a tremendous undertaking. Right now, the fish swimming around the coral is all hard-coded. This would have to be made completely modular to work with your idea. That said, you're not the only person who has requested this. Some fish will chase each other and nibble on coral. Some fish will back up and swim differently. This kind of individual fish behavior is coming in the future. "Saveable tanks" is something people have requested often. Also be aware that unlike other fish-themed screen savers, the backdrop and coral in SereneScreen Aquarium are soon to be overhauled with a fully 3D background. Nobody has ever done this before! The amount of time it takes to produce this single 3D tank backdrop/coral formation will preclude us getting lots of other backgrounds to choose from. Jim has not yet ruled out bitmap/photograph backdrops behind the coral, but it seems unlikely. Some mockups I did: https://www.feldoncentral.com/Sachs/...idescreen2.jpg https://www.feldoncentral.com/Sachs/...PlusMockup.jpg Fish, crabs, etc. won't be growing older as far as I know. It's like a snapshot in time. Jim has pledged to NEVER have dancing, talking or singing fish, or mermaids, or sunken ships, or scuba guys. The Aquarium won't be coming to Playstation 2 because of the way Sony licenses games and other products. However an X-Box version is a possibility. "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman

01-17-2002, 03:39 PM	#5
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	Still no release date. The new 300kb installer is being beta-tested at the moment, and the Lionfish has not reached perfection yet. Soon... "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman

01-17-2002, 12:14 PM	#2
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	Hi... I owned an Amiga and programmed the odd games in AMOS and Blitz.... I think your Marine fish tank screen save is great, I turned my T.V. off and just watched that the other night listening to music ! I have looked at the Fan page and seen the wish list and what's to come in later editions... I would love to see the following fish: Synchiropus splendidus (Mandarinfish or Dragonette) - never been captive breed, mix's with other fish Oxycirrhites typus (Long-Nosed Hawkfish) - May nudge inverts out of curiosity, mixes fine other fish Ecsenius midas (Midas Blenny) - Very placid scares easy, hides in holes, mixes well Lythrypnus dalli (Catalina Goby) - short lived easy to breed, mixes well If I were going to have a tank at home the above fish would be the 4 of my most wanted (none growing bigger than 10cm)... But I don't feel that I have the experience to keep them well... That's why I am so happy to see your program, I am thinking of buying a huge screen and when your new version comes out I will buy that and not bother with the real thing (fingers crossed it will feature some of the above fish)! Some thing I would like to see is a Virtual Marine Fish program were you start off with about $2,000 to make your first tank and stock it with fish, then enter it in shows and breed them to make extra cash to make bigger and better tanks and more specialized ones. The way it could work is to show the tank from top view as a grid and each box on the grid is equal to 6inches (if it's a 3ft x 1ft tank, 6 squares across, 2 deep) when you click on one of the squares it will bring up different rock formation, coral, live rock and special features (such as old pipe's, Chains, Twisted metal etc...) so you make the tank look how you want, and as you progress in the simulation you gain access to different suppliers of fish and features like rocks and Bow fronted tanks! (bigger features that take up more grid space, Multi pipe for eels etc.). Also temperaments of fish would be a nice added feature, like if you put a Meat eating fish in the tank it eats your smaller fish like it would in real life. And a catalogue of how one fish reacts to the others it shares the tank with, like a diary. Feeding them and keeping the water levels right could also be added, buying and upgrading filters and different lights would add an extra element of realism. Also fish growth from a small fish to adult and different markings (textures) to fish of the same type to add a feeling of difference to them, and actually a naming feature to give it that personal pet like touch (and if possible individual temperaments like real odd tendency's like swimming upside down, playing with odd stones, following a certain fish in the tank, laying on a certain rock etc....) and for hermit crabs out growing one shell and needing a bigger newer one. This will give people like me more of an insight into Marine fish keeping. You could easy charge the going rate of any expensive P.C game, and bring out extension packs every now and then(new fish, new tanks, new rocks and extra's). Each tank you make can be then saved as a screen saver were you can just watch the fish in the same way as your original program for relaxation means. (you could store up to ten or so and the computer could randomly pick them to play, changing at set time intervals)... You could even make a Winamp Plug-in and the fish could react to the music, if its basey the more smaller fish might hide or swim around in a panic, or dancing crabs could be added... the possibilities are endless ! At the last three computer fairs I have been to I have seen your program running as selling points for the computer, the graphics and programming is spot on. May be in the future you could release it for the playstaion 2, as it has T.V out I am sure many people would buy if you added a larger array of fish to it and added some impressive GUI, screen savers and setups could be saved to memory card ! If any of this comes any place close to what you envisage for the future of your program I would grateful if you could let me know! -Steve P.S. I love the starfish extra... downloaded it the other day.

01-17-2002, 03:21 PM	#4
ESHIREY Smilie Dragon Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Lebanon, PA Posts: 4,725	Hey feldon , that's a great job you did there . I had the first one on my desktops for a long time (well after you posted it ) and the second one is even better . That would be great if that one could be done . Makes it look more like a real tank or right in the ocean . So have you heard anything about the release ? Is it still set for this week ? Like I said before in one of my post ....... I'm not holding anyone to a day or time . Just asking . Again buddy , great job on the site .