New Version 99H Released - BANDING BUG

[Digital Lungfish]

Stop by Jim's site to pick it up -

www.serenescreen.com/news.htm

Be aware that while the Purple Tang and Queen Angel are now available, this version does not yet make use of or require DirectX 8.

- DL

[Digital Lungfish]

Jim,

Here's my personal observations with regards to the new version -

* No noticable improvement in the banding issue on the Powder Blue Tang.

* Purple Tang appears to have the same texture compression banding as the Power Blue Tang, only far more noticable.

* Not sure if this is a texture issue or what, but there's a hovering artifact just above the coral in the background. I've seen fish swim behind it as they pass by and from time to time it disappears and reappears.

<img src=http://www.facelink.com/edit/raw/rawimage/03/1676903.jpg>

- DL

[Jim Sachs]

There is no banding on any machine here. The artifact you point out also does not show up here.

Refresh my memory as to what card and drivers you are using.

Jim,
I've got the same thing that DL does in the new version.

[Jav400]

I also have noticed that if I watch it closely that speck or hairline or whatever you want to call it, changes color from brown to black. Back and forth over and over. And by the way right now I use a TNT2 Ultra / Det3 v6.50 Drivers

[asprague]

Jim,

The artifact that DL pointed out appears on my machine, but *not* all the time.

I am using an ATI Expert 2000 video card, DirectX 8a.

Arnold

[hooters]

I also have the litle mark on mine now , but not all the time it goes and comes and changes colour as described above - in wireframe mode it seems to be present all the time - cant say anything about the colour banding though none hear and my framerate went up with the new version and the new fish look Gr8 so Im happy thnx Jim
oh i'm hearing a new sound mixed with the other bubble sound was another soundloop added or am i hearing things ?

[Xandrin]

I also see this speck now. System is...

Compaq Deskpro EN
800mhz P3
128MB System RAM
Onboard Intel 815 4MB Video Accelerator

Speck fluctuates in color as mentioned above.

[Jim Sachs]

Yes, the sound was broadened a bit. I'll look into the "speck" problem. Is it there when the Purple Tang is not in the tank?

[Jav400]

Jim,
Yes, it is. What I did was to download the new version, moved the old version from the system files to the recycle bin, and installed the 99H to the desktop. It uses the old registry files, and the same fish and settings as before. I have tried this on my system at home and my system at the office on my desk and the "speck" shows up in both with no other changes. Michael

[Dave Snotear]

First of all,love the new fish.The new queen angel looks beautiful as does the purple sailfish.Secondly,I see an improvement in the background with the lights all the way up.It's much smoother looking.Third,(I'm not sure if thirdly is a word),I have a 25-30 FPS increase.As for the artifact,yes I have it,but only when the clown triggerfish is in the tank.I ran the aquarium with only 1 fish through the entire list of fish and found said artifacts only with the triggerfish.I also loaded up the aquarium w/7 fish of different assortments and only noticed the artifacts when the triggerfish was present.Hope this helps you out.This is still an amazing simulation and I don't regret for a second my investment.



Dave Snotear


PS If you would like my system info,let me know.

[Jav400]

Jim,
I concur with Dave. Evidently he and I had the same idea. I followed the same process and got the same results, when I returned he had already posted this info. Whatever is causing it, is tied in with the Clown Trigger.

[feldon34]

The plot thickens! Depending on the fish you have selected for the tank, this little object is revealed in the wireframe (at various sizes depending on the fish, which explains why certain fish will minimize/eliminate its visibility in rendered mode):



And as for the Powder Blue Tang, there's only one way that the banding can be demonstrated, and that's with a Photoshop mockup with the banding smoothed out. Here's my shot at it:



And I agree that the Purple Tang has even more banding than the Powder Blue Tang. None of the other fish (maybe the Yellow Tang) have appreciable banding as they don't really have one large swath of color, but intricate details which require fewer smooth color changes.

[feldon34]

The new sound effect is the first thing I noticed!! And the Queen Angel looks just unbelieveable (actually, it looks VERY believable!). Also, I haven't tried to reproduce this yet, but under Windows 2000, after running .99H and turning on the Purple Tang, I then tried to run .99G and it just hung at a black screen with the sound going. Looks like the "oops, that fish doesn't exist in this version" bug has resurfaced. Just passing this on.

Otherwise Jim you can have some peace as the DirectX 8 saga continues

Of course the moment I found out about this release, I updated my website.

[asprague]

Morgan,

To thicken the plot even more, sometimes there is one line/artifact as shown above in the wireframe and sometimes two. They are very close to each other, one above the other.

Arnold

P.S. What *is* banding???? Maybe a pic with a fish and an arrow pointing toward the banding might help us dummies out here.

[hpman77]

I also noticed that spot, and also only when clown trigger is swimming around.
It also changes it's color too, from brown to black.
The sound is better now, and my frames got a bit increased (15fps) with all 7 fish swimming.

Pentium III 450mmx
192MB Ram
Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Windows ME

[cimeboat]

I'm not seeing 99h at Jim's site?

[feldon34]

CIME,

You can grab it here:

www.serenescreen.com/Aquarium99H.exe

Or from my website.

You probably just need to hit Refresh/Reload on Jim's site as it is probably a cached version.

[cimeboat]

Thanks Feldon that was it!

[feldon34]

from asprague
What *is* banding???? Maybe a pic with a fish and an arrow pointing toward the banding might help us dummies out here.

Banding is a bit hard to explain. It's not a lack of colors, because both the .99H version and my mocked-up version of the Purple Tang both start to lose definition when you try to bring the number of colors down below 350. It's as if, somewhere along the way from the original texture map, to the final version, color definition was severely clipped to something like 128 colors (6 bit) or worse.

I think the compression engine being used by Jim is seeing similar areas of purple and throwing away too much relevant information. And actually, the Purple Tang and Powder Blue Tang also exhibit some color splotching where incorrect interpolation of colors is being introduced to the image. If you look at the Purple Tang, many of the purple colors have shifted to brown and green in splotches.