** Welcome to the Mac Aquarium Forum!**

feldon34 · 07-02-2002, 10:28 AM

Welcome to the SereneScreen Aquarium for Macintosh forum!

This forum is specifically for technical support, questions, comments, and bug reports for SereneScreen Marine Aquarium 2.0, 2.6, and 3.0 for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X.

If you have not tested the Aquarium on your Mac yet, you're encouraged to download the 3 fish Mac demo and post your comments on it here!

07-03-2002, 03:36 PM

ohh right.. anyways.. Love the aquarium on my iMac.... But does anyone know is by any chance is there any plans to work with Nvidia to get some better optimized drivers for their Gforce stuff under OSX?

07-04-2002, 05:26 PM

A dream port for me...I've always lusted after the Windows version, and now I love seeing it on my G4 Cube/Studio Display setup. It runs beautifully with a Geforce2MX (~52fps on "flat out" setting).

I didn't hesitate one bit with the $12.95 price...in fact, I thought that was quite reasonable for such a beautiful piece of software. I even emailed Apple and recommended they include Aquarium in OS X 10.2!

Keep up the good work!!

07-04-2002, 06:15 PM

Very nice!

Thanks for supporting my OS of choise!

JLL · 07-04-2002, 06:33 PM

This is great!

Thanks for supporting Mac OS X - I bought it five minutes after reading about it.

feldon34 · 07-05-2002, 08:01 PM

I'd like to hear comments/concerns/observations/suggestions from Mac users on my Macintosh web area and also SereneScreen.com's Macintosh area.

iesposta · 07-06-2002, 01:08 AM

Yes! Yes! I just downloaded and registered.
I'm a longtime Mac user, both at home and at work.
I found the demo for Windows a long time ago, and recently got a Windows system that would run it well. I registered the Windows version about a month ago, and have been "lurking" on this forum, reading postings. ...learned a lot of amazing things, like about the author, Disney, and that people buying the screensaver just to run on an HDTV Plasma display!

When I bought the Windows version, I made sure to check the e-mail notification about updates. I only found the Mac version was available by stopping by this forum. I suggest an e-mail be sent out to the Windows registered version, for those that wanted notification about the screen saver, that a Beta version is available for Mac OS X. I'm sure there are people that use both systems, or know a Mac user that has admired the screen saver on a PC that would then try and/or purchase it!

-Iesposta

feldon34 · 07-06-2002, 10:21 AM

iesposta,

I'm hoping to announce the Mac version and a future scheduled chat with Jim in an e-mail to send out to all those folks who registered. 1,600 or so at last count.

07-06-2002, 04:42 PM

Just to add my sentiments to the bulletin board, I too bought the screen saver about 5 minutes after first checking it out. And the $12.95 price made the difference. As beautiful as it is, I'm not sure I'd have paid $21.95 for it. But I love it and plan to show various mac-centric friends of mine! Keep up the good work.

Reichart · 07-07-2002, 12:28 PM

We at Prolific are VERY VERY careful of SPAM.

Our database contains the email addresses of everyone that has purchased the product online. So far, we have only sent one email notice, which was when the PC version had such a noticeable change that we felt all people would want to know.

When it comes to notifying the Mac community only, by sending an email to every Windows owner, that seems like SPAM to me. I realize that we want to get the message out, and that Mac owners want to be notified. But we think it is more considerate to use normal channels.

We start right here on Feldon’s Fan site. Then we will begin to notify many of the online sites, like versiontracker.

Keep in mind, this is Beta, and first release. We did not want to get the word out to EVERYONE. If there was a problem, we wanted to affect the least people possible.

However, things are looking good. So this coming week we will increase awareness.

Hopefully you respect our strong position on SPAM. We only wish others were as considerate.

feldon34 · 07-07-2002, 01:33 PM

Alright. Well I've been waiting on Jim to give me a time for the next scheduled chat anyway, and then was going to tack on the Mac version release info to it.

Remember, in my case, the 1,600 people are totally opt-in.

07-07-2002, 08:39 PM

I only get 14fps on my G3 400Mhz Powerbook (Pismo) 512MB ram, 1024X768. I did'nt see any system reqiurements on the download site. Is this version G4 only?

David Long
davidlong@charter.net

feldon34 · 07-07-2002, 10:42 PM

David,

The key sticking point in your situation is the underpowered ATI Rage Mobility 8MB chipset Apple was putting in the 400 and 500 MHz G3 Powerbooks. I wish I had better news.

07-08-2002, 07:23 AM

Jim O'Conner suggested switching from millions of colors to thounsands, that helped a great deal, doubling my frame rate.

Thanks Jim

David Long
davidlong@charter.net

07-09-2002, 06:06 PM

I bought it right away, even though I usually avoid CPU burner programs and it felt a little dirty after seeing it on XP several time. I really shy away from Windoze stuff, but this is really impressive and after showing it off at work today no one said, "I've seen that before", so I felt much better. I can't wait for more fish and creatures! HURRY!

The only bug I have seen is one fish kinda disappeared and halfway reappeared as if it was behind the coral, even though it was in front of it, but I only saw it once.

As for features I'd like to see would be the ability to change the color of the background because I hate blue, and the ability to turn off the coral and sand completely and just have fish, kinda like Afterdark or Atlantis. Can't wait for the new coral though... maybe I won't want to turn it off.

mrtew@comcast.net

07-09-2002, 10:36 PM

Very cool screensaver!! I sent in my order yesterday but have yet to receive my code. How long does it typically take? Thanks!

ps I'd agree with the previous poster, the ability to turn off the coral and sand would be pretty cool-- just fishies by themselves (and maybe some bubbles from below!)

07-09-2002, 11:11 PM

WOW! this thing is really cool! I registered it about 5 min after I downloaded the demo. I just hope that the Mac version stays up to date and is given as much attention as the windows version.

07-10-2002, 02:03 AM

I love the screensaver. I was wondering do you think you will make the aquarium shot any more "sharp" It seems a bit fuzzy or pixelated for me on a G4 Powermac and an iBook. Great work, registered and happy otherwise

feldon34 · 07-10-2002, 02:04 AM

Well the funny thing is, you guys are getting the Aquarium after it's been in development for 2 years. The Windows version had humble beginnings, with just 7 fish. It slowly evolved to 10, then 12, then 14, etc. I remember when RANDOM, the Starfish, etc. etc. were added. I think Jim plans to add another few fish, but beyond this point, beyond the 3D background, he plans to add premium creature packages such as Hermit Crabs, Coral Shrimps, etc.

As for the background, unlike other screen savers where they can just drop in another photo, SereneScreen Aquarium for Macintosh (I guess they're officially calling it Marine Aquarium Mac OS X--go figure) may have a flat photographed coral background, but there are shadow map objects (also called "lightplay" objects) which also have to be modeled and texture mapped in 3D.

feldon34 · 07-10-2002, 02:12 AM

I love the screensaver. I was wondering do you think you will make the aquarium shot any more "sharp" It seems a bit fuzzy or pixelated for me on a G4 Powermac and an iBook. Great work, registered and happy otherwise

The coral background for the Aquarium is a 1024x768 bitmap. I know on the PC, you get the best results running the Aquarium at exactly this resolution. I don't know enough about the Mac version to know if anti-aliasing kicks in or just how the background looks stretched to another size.

If we could just clone Jim, we'd get that resolution-independant 3D background sooner.

07-02-2002, 10:28 AM	#1
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	Welcome to the Mac Aquarium Forum! Welcome to the SereneScreen Aquarium for Macintosh forum! This forum is specifically for technical support, questions, comments, and bug reports for SereneScreen Marine Aquarium 2.0, 2.6, and 3.0 for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. If you have not tested the Aquarium on your Mac yet, you're encouraged to download the 3 fish Mac demo and post your comments on it here! "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

07-04-2002, 06:33 PM	#5
JLL Registered Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Copenhagen, Denmark Posts: 1	This is great! Thanks for supporting Mac OS X - I bought it five minutes after reading about it. JLL

07-05-2002, 08:01 PM	#6
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	I'd like to hear comments/concerns/observations/suggestions from Mac users on my Macintosh web area and also SereneScreen.com's Macintosh area. "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 Last edited by feldon34; 07-23-2002 at 08:37 PM.

07-06-2002, 10:21 AM	#8
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	iesposta, I'm hoping to announce the Mac version and a future scheduled chat with Jim in an e-mail to send out to all those folks who registered. 1,600 or so at last count. "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

07-07-2002, 12:28 PM	#10
Reichart CTO Prolific Publishing Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Maui Posts: 423	SPAMing Windows users with Mac arrival We at Prolific are VERY VERY careful of SPAM. Our database contains the email addresses of everyone that has purchased the product online. So far, we have only sent one email notice, which was when the PC version had such a noticeable change that we felt all people would want to know. When it comes to notifying the Mac community only, by sending an email to every Windows owner, that seems like SPAM to me. I realize that we want to get the message out, and that Mac owners want to be notified. But we think it is more considerate to use normal channels. We start right here on Feldon’s Fan site. Then we will begin to notify many of the online sites, like versiontracker. Keep in mind, this is Beta, and first release. We did not want to get the word out to EVERYONE. If there was a problem, we wanted to affect the least people possible. However, things are looking good. So this coming week we will increase awareness. Hopefully you respect our strong position on SPAM. We only wish others were as considerate. *Reichart...* , CTO, Prolific Publishing, Inc. Come visit us Prolific Publishing, Inc.

07-03-2002, 03:36 PM	#2
Unregistered Guest Posts: n/a	ohh right.. anyways.. Love the aquarium on my iMac.... But does anyone know is by any chance is there any plans to work with Nvidia to get some better optimized drivers for their Gforce stuff under OSX?

07-04-2002, 05:26 PM	#3
Unregistered Guest Posts: n/a	A dream port for me...I've always lusted after the Windows version, and now I love seeing it on my G4 Cube/Studio Display setup. It runs beautifully with a Geforce2MX (~52fps on "flat out" setting). I didn't hesitate one bit with the $12.95 price...in fact, I thought that was quite reasonable for such a beautiful piece of software. I even emailed Apple and recommended they include Aquarium in OS X 10.2! Keep up the good work!!

07-04-2002, 06:15 PM	#4
aholck Guest Posts: n/a	Very nice! Thanks for supporting my OS of choise!

07-06-2002, 01:08 AM	#7
iesposta Registered Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 4	Yes! Yes! I just downloaded and registered. I'm a longtime Mac user, both at home and at work. I found the demo for Windows a long time ago, and recently got a Windows system that would run it well. I registered the Windows version about a month ago, and have been "lurking" on this forum, reading postings. ...learned a lot of amazing things, like about the author, Disney, and that people buying the screensaver just to run on an HDTV Plasma display! When I bought the Windows version, I made sure to check the e-mail notification about updates. I only found the Mac version was available by stopping by this forum. I suggest an e-mail be sent out to the Windows registered version, for those that wanted notification about the screen saver, that a Beta version is available for Mac OS X. I'm sure there are people that use both systems, or know a Mac user that has admired the screen saver on a PC that would then try and/or purchase it! -Iesposta

07-06-2002, 04:42 PM	#9
Unregistered Guest Posts: n/a	Just to add my sentiments to the bulletin board, I too bought the screen saver about 5 minutes after first checking it out. And the $12.95 price made the difference. As beautiful as it is, I'm not sure I'd have paid $21.95 for it. But I love it and plan to show various mac-centric friends of mine! Keep up the good work.

07-07-2002, 01:33 PM	#11
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	Alright. Well I've been waiting on Jim to give me a time for the next scheduled chat anyway, and then was going to tack on the Mac version release info to it. Remember, in my case, the 1,600 people are totally opt-in. "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

07-07-2002, 08:39 PM	#12
Unregistered Guest Posts: n/a	I only get 14fps on my G3 400Mhz Powerbook (Pismo) 512MB ram, 1024X768. I did'nt see any system reqiurements on the download site. Is this version G4 only? David Long davidlong@charter.net

07-07-2002, 10:42 PM	#13
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	David, The key sticking point in your situation is the underpowered ATI Rage Mobility 8MB chipset Apple was putting in the 400 and 500 MHz G3 Powerbooks. I wish I had better news. "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

07-08-2002, 07:23 AM	#14
Unregistered Guest Posts: n/a	Jim O'Conner suggested switching from millions of colors to thounsands, that helped a great deal, doubling my frame rate. Thanks Jim David Long davidlong@charter.net

07-09-2002, 06:06 PM	#15
Unregistered Guest Posts: n/a	I bought it right away, even though I usually avoid CPU burner programs and it felt a little dirty after seeing it on XP several time. I really shy away from Windoze stuff, but this is really impressive and after showing it off at work today no one said, "I've seen that before", so I felt much better. I can't wait for more fish and creatures! HURRY! The only bug I have seen is one fish kinda disappeared and halfway reappeared as if it was behind the coral, even though it was in front of it, but I only saw it once. As for features I'd like to see would be the ability to change the color of the background because I hate blue, and the ability to turn off the coral and sand completely and just have fish, kinda like Afterdark or Atlantis. Can't wait for the new coral though... maybe I won't want to turn it off. mrtew@comcast.net

07-09-2002, 10:36 PM	#16
Unregistered Guest Posts: n/a	Very cool screensaver!! I sent in my order yesterday but have yet to receive my code. How long does it typically take? Thanks! ps I'd agree with the previous poster, the ability to turn off the coral and sand would be pretty cool-- just fishies by themselves (and maybe some bubbles from below!)

07-09-2002, 11:11 PM	#17
Unregistered Guest Posts: n/a	WOW! this thing is really cool! I registered it about 5 min after I downloaded the demo. I just hope that the Mac version stays up to date and is given as much attention as the windows version.

07-10-2002, 02:03 AM	#18
Unregistered Guest Posts: n/a	I love the screensaver. I was wondering do you think you will make the aquarium shot any more "sharp" It seems a bit fuzzy or pixelated for me on a G4 Powermac and an iBook. Great work, registered and happy otherwise

07-10-2002, 02:04 AM	#19
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	Well the funny thing is, you guys are getting the Aquarium after it's been in development for 2 years. The Windows version had humble beginnings, with just 7 fish. It slowly evolved to 10, then 12, then 14, etc. I remember when RANDOM, the Starfish, etc. etc. were added. I think Jim plans to add another few fish, but beyond this point, beyond the 3D background, he plans to add premium creature packages such as Hermit Crabs, Coral Shrimps, etc. As for the background, unlike other screen savers where they can just drop in another photo, SereneScreen Aquarium for Macintosh (I guess they're officially calling it Marine Aquarium Mac OS X--go figure) may have a flat photographed coral background, but there are shadow map objects (also called "lightplay" objects) which also have to be modeled and texture mapped in 3D. "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 Last edited by feldon34; 07-10-2002 at 02:10 AM.

07-10-2002, 02:12 AM	#20
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	I love the screensaver. I was wondering do you think you will make the aquarium shot any more "sharp" It seems a bit fuzzy or pixelated for me on a G4 Powermac and an iBook. Great work, registered and happy otherwise The coral background for the Aquarium is a 1024x768 bitmap. I know on the PC, you get the best results running the Aquarium at exactly this resolution. I don't know enough about the Mac version to know if anti-aliasing kicks in or just how the background looks stretched to another size. If we could just clone Jim, we'd get that resolution-independant 3D background sooner. "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