hacking, adding fish, changing background

[MattNW]

I'm new to Serene Screen. Just got a copy today and I love it. Great job.

Being new I probably don't deserve to say this but I think customizability is a good idea. I've done my time as an aquarium owner (freshwater, never could afford a saltwater set up) and one of the greatest things about an aquarium is creating your own unique underwater landscape.

Actually I was drawn to this topic because of a desire to see what Serene Screen Marine Aquarium was capable of. Customizability is a growing trend in software titles. It lends life to a title because of the unlimited potential. People create add ons and trade them back and forth and show off their creations to friends who are then more likely to purchase the original.

Just as a real aquarium is a hobby a customizable virtual aquarium can also be a hobby. With a little support from the developers this could be so much more than it is presently.

Now maybe the title of this thread is misleading. When I saw it I was thinking more along the lines of customizing not hacking. Take a look at other popular software titles. I spend a lot of time with Microsoft Flight Simulator. One of the draws of that is the thousands of add on aircraft, sceneries, meshes and developing all of these add ons. Another great program Celestia (a virtual planetarium) has thousands of add ons such as the Hubble Telescope, Moons of Jupiter, high resolution textures etc.

Why couldn't Serene Screen do the same? I'm not intending to start a flame war but it seems like this great program could be so much more if we could add different species of fish. How about some of the other things involved in aquarium ownership such as choosing compatible species, cover to hide in for smaller fish, scavenger species to keep the whole thing clean, lighting cycles and temperature control? There are so many things involved in a real life aquarium that Serene Screen could duplicate.

The reason I'm pointing this out is because as I said above I've owned real aquariums and eventually they become less interesting than they were when nothing changes. When I owned one I was always buying new decorations, fish, special light filters, backgrounds and other things.

With a little support from the developers it might be possible to create a FDK (Fish Development Kit ) that would allow users to use existing movement models to create fish of thousands of species. A little work with the fish AI and you could choose a movement, behavior and environment profile for your skinned fish and have your own custom aquarium.

Someone mentioned above that this forum is open for suggestions so this has been mine.

[Jim Sachs]

Hi, Matt - Some of the things you ask for are planned for future versions (like cover to hide in for smaller fish, and scavenger species). Other things are just not technically possible, or artistically unacceptable to me (like allowing people to design their own fish).

Thanks for the suggestions, and keep 'em coming. There's a whole Wishlist thread which I review periodically.

[feldon34]

Jim is not really looking for this to become anyone's "hobby".

A long time ago there was a hint that Jim might produce or allow Prolific to produce an SDK. Then the Russians came out with a hacked version of the Aquarium with the ugliest fish you've ever seen in your life. Monstrous changes to the coral and fish that I cannot imagine anyone wanting to watch.

That pretty much cured Jim of any desire to allowing others to make changes. Now when the topic comes up, Jim's response is "there are many many competing Aquarium screen savers out there, why not contact them and ask if you can contribute to their work?" to which I respond, fruitlessly, "but this Aquarium is the only one that approaches realism and the fish I want to do would be equally realistic."

I'm glad to see people excited about the Aquarium, but it's a what-you-download-is-what-you-get situation. If you choose to modify the Aquarium, those modifications cannot be discussed here -- sorry.