Wishlist for Marine Aquarium 3 and Future

[feldon34]

Welcome to the continuing Marine Aquarium Wishlist thread!!

If you have an idea for a feature or fish you would like to see added to the Aquarium, reply to this thread!

You can also submit photos of fish you would like to see to our Marine Aquarium Fish Wishlist Page.

Those are uncredibly realistic!

I have never seen anything like this!

Have you noticed, even the eyes moves before a fish turn?

But only one thing , i only discovered today that disturb me now, those fishs are not breathing

So my only wish for a future version is to have the mouth moving , to simulate breathing

Beside that , it is simply perfert!

[BladeRunner]

With the recent v99E my biggest "wish" so far has been granted, (exit on mouse move) which was irritating before having to either press escape or the M key.

I have mentioned this in an e-mail in passing but I'll put it here as well. It is going to get really confusing (to a non fish expert), when more and more fish become available, (especially if the list above is added), knowing which Fish is which. An icon, (like the Aquarium exe one) next to each fish box that changes to the fish you have selected might be a good Idea or an icon with each fish name so you can see what they are when you are selecting them maybe?.

Other than that and a bottom dweller or two, some alternative background choices and 32bit colour support. Don't want much do I

I think fins need more flexible, gills need open and close like real things.

[feldon34]

Icons or images next to each fish would be great, and it wouldn't add to the filesize at all as he can just use the side profile textures.

As for 32 bit, less than 1% of 3d video cards are capable of running Direct3D or OpenGL in 24 or 32 bit. I'm guessing (could be wrong) that if your video card supported 24 or 32 bit 3D, it would work. Also, I doubt the textures on the fish even exist in 32 bit form. I have asked Jim to try to improve the aquarium so that it switches to 16 bit on launch. He says the Microsoft programmer tools aren't helpful at all in this regard and that if your card switches to 16 bit automatically, it's because of the 3d card, not because of anything he's doing.

[BladeRunner]

Thank's for the Reply feldon23 and I'm not sure about 1% of cards having 32 bit Colour support/texture support. All the latest 3D graphics cards support 32 bit colour and textures, as do the games. Nvidia cards have done so since the original TNT and the latest Voodoo cards also do even though 3DFX is now officially dead (Nvidia has swallowed them up).

There are probably more people out there with no 3d support at all than anything else, (the aquarium started in software the other day when I was messing around with drivers and I got 2fps ). The V3 was a popular card, (and still is a good budget choice), that doesn't support 32bit colour.

If you buy a new PC today of almost any spec it will contain a 3D card of some description and with a Geforce MX at $100 they are now affordable to all.

Sorry to babble but Graphics card are sort of my thing, I moderate the Video cards & Displays forum on HardwareCentral

I'm also a serious gamer and as such keep my system as cutting edge as possible.

Athlon T-bird 1000Mhz @ 1200Mhz
Abit KT7 Raid
256mb Mushkin PC133
4x IBM GXP75 15.3 gig in a Raid 1/0
Asus v7700 Geforce2 GTS, 230/390
Soundblaster Live
Win 98SE, Direct X 8 & Nvidia beta detonator 6.49

A Geforce Ultra is on the cards but I may give it a miss as NV20 is schedulled for Feb 2001 and many owners of Ultras are being plagued by a "Rolling Lines" image fault, that as yet has no fix.

The Aquarium runs superbly on the above system and I've seen 110fps at 1600 x 1200

I'm off to learn about the fish a bit as I'm no expert.

I managed a "high-end" Marine fish and invert. store for years., so I enjoy this program immensely!
Random thoughts:
I find that the fins do move in a convincing fashion, with the dorsal rigid yet unfolding at times (yellow tang), and the ventrals and caudals (tail) waving. Gil movement would be a nice addition.
I already got the fish I had requested a while ago, the Red Sea Semilarvatus butterfly. An Asfur angel would be cool,too. I like the Red Sea fish most of all.
Moving invertebrates would be cool, like a Harlequin shrimp or two, but I'd bet they'd be difficult, and really run up the poly. count.

I've got a Celeron 500@562, and a V3 2000 @ 180. With all 7 fish, I stay above 60fps @ 1024x780. Very smooth for an old system. That such a realistic program can run this well on such a system vouches for the competence of the programming.

Interestingly (to me,anyway), the frame-rate on the current E-build is quite a bit higher than with the demo version with exactly the same settings: fish,resolution,etc. I think it would be good to "upgrade" the demo to reflect the (apparently) more refined code, allowing it to run well on more systems.

I think this would make a good program for the aquarium market, albeit with a much more comprehensive fish catalog.

[feldon34]

Invertebrates are coming! Jim has told me that a banded coral shrimp will be one of the first. I'll quote most of his e-mail here:

-----------------
[Jim Sachs]

The movement of the fish was just a quick algorithm to get a version of the Aquarium on the market. I studied real fish for many hours, and put in the minimum number of visual cues to convince the casual observer that these fish were real. I have always planned to refine these movements -- their mouths and gills will move, and you will be able to feed the fish. The fish will exhibit individual behavior characteristic of their species (timid, aggressive, schooling, etc.)

There will probably be about 10 more conventional fish added before I start on the invertebrates. The first invertebrate will probably be a starfish, followed by a banded coral shrimp. The last one will probably be the octopus (could easily be 3000 polygons, and a programming nightmare). I know that people have grand expectations for this simulation, and I'll do my best. But before asking for the moon, take a look at all the state-of-the-art programs that huge teams of programmers and artists have ever produced, even with multi-million-dollar budgets. I think the Aquarium stacks up pretty well even in it's current form. Each of the hundreds of daily requests could take a whole career to fully pursue, and I have to walk a fine line of maximum effect for minimum effort, or I'll never get it done.

Then there are 3 more SereneScreen programs after this one!

There will also be new backgrounds, and a widescreen version with a wider than normal background. Eventually the backgrounds will be modeled in 3D like the fish, which is very time consuming, but will make things easier for new effects I have planned later.

I have also always planned to have pictures of the available fish in the Settings screen, but there are more urgent matters at the moment.

---------------------------------------

As a longtime NAUI diver from California, we certainly need to see garibaldi, moray eels, sharks, lobsters, crabs, abalone, sea urchins, and kelp!

I like nearly all of the ideas that have been mentioned so far. I love all the options for this program to customize it, and it should remain this way to fit everyone's individual tastes. Here are some ideas I think would look great in this screensaver:

- Have a snail.

- Have personalities & real behaviors of the fish, more then just shy and aggressive etc. Have them nibble on the coral and rocks at the bottom. Have them go to the top for air, have them chase other fish, etc, depending on how that actual fish of that type would really act. The more real and life-like, the better.

- Maybe have decorations, like a fake sunken ship, etc. (I say maybe because this might make it look cheesy and cluttered).

- Fish that don't swim off the edge.

Need Mandrinfish (synchiropus Splendidus) to see in Sachs Aquarium....

Well, all the ideas here are really good and I can't wait for new ones to come up! For most of the ideas that come up I say 'why didn't I think of that!'. If Jim were to take in most of these ideas, I think the Aquarium could become very popular! :rollin:

Zempheth!

Hmmm....I agree with Lostboy - decorations would be cheesy & cluttered.

Sea horses would be fantastic, as would shrimp.

Something I'd love to see would be cuttlefish and/or octopus. Shame about the high poly-counts required for those sort of beasties. I suspect color changing might be a bit beyond the program too. Granted, it could be done with palette switching, but I reckon that'll probably look a bit cheesy. Maybe a transparent overlay on top of the white cuttlefish might be a bit more convincing....

Catfish

[feldon34]

According to an e-mail I got from Jim, color-changing is a given for Octopus.

'nother vote for 32-bit support.

I think the octipus will be great!

[feldon34]

This is the best Screensaver where ever I have see.
The Fish what I wish to see is a Splendidus Synchiropus.
I can not wait for new Features in this Program :-))

3DMitch
12/16/00 5:34:23 pm

[feldon34]

Dogface Pufferfish are very cool fish I like these as they have a good personality but any puffer will do!

Skye

[feldon34]

The Mandarinfish is a cool fish that I kept for a while in my own tank. They add a lot of color to the tank.

Brandon & Karla

[feldon34]

Hi, I just wanted to say that I think most people are wanting some variation in the fish...me included. I looked at the pictures on your site and the only fish I would choose are the Lionfish, Seahorse, and maybe the Clown Trigger. The rest of the fish just look too similar in shape and size to the fish that are already in the screensaver.
I got the screensaver probably the first week it was out, and since then I have been checking back on the Sachs website, looking at the comments and news, and I really believe people are disappointed that there are no new backgrounds, and not much variation. There was even talk early on about small octopus and lobster/crabs ( which would have been awesome!)
Either way, I just wanted to lend my 2 cents and cast a vote for some of the more unique fish and/or backgrounds.

Fzoul