| SimAQUARIUM Screensaver |
SimAQUARIUM
2
is an amazing aquarium screensaver created by the programmer and
3D-artist Ladislaw Vojnich. SimAQUARIUM is one of many advanced
screensavers he has been creating the past few years.
SimAQUARIUM today consists of five different tanks, each with
its own background. One of these nice reef tanks are free to use
for all and the other ones can be purchased for a small fee. |
The Free tank
This 'open waters' tank features a
slightly 'deeper' swimming area, allowing the fish to swim deeper
into the background. When the fish swim to the back of the tank they
move into the 'fog' some, increasing the illusion of distance.
This tank has a sandy bottom on which the
light rays wanders. There is no corals or rocks in this tank but
instead it allows the fish to swim more freely! New in this tank is also the red seastar (which was introduced first in Tank-5) move across the tank! The major feature
however, is that this aquarium
screensaver is totally free of charge! Just download
and enjoy! |
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Tank-1
This tank is a development of the first version of SimAQUARIUM, and
it features 'live' clams additionally to the swaying corals. The surface
and bubble column can be enabled/disabled and you can now populate
the aquarium with up to twelve fish at the same time! |
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Tank-2
This tank has the visibility feature (fog) which Tank 1 doesn't
have. As in Tank 1, the background has 'live' corals and clams,
and you can also in this tank have up to twelve fish swimming in
the aquarium. You have the same possibility to change the appearance
as you have in Tank 1 but the fish have more water to swim in. |
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Tank-3
This tank offers some new and improved features! Users have
more control over the aquarium's appearance and can adjust the colors
and lighting more precisely. You can easily fine tune the aquarium
to your likings. The layout is different from the other tanks with
its visible gravel front. The color fading background has replaced
the rock wall to make the aquarium look less crowded. This tank is
based on 1280x960 graphics which makes it look more clear and sharp. |
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Tank-4
This tank
includes many of the features Ladislaw introduced in previous tanks but
improved on all fronts. Tank-4 presents a much more life like marine
environment rich in swaying corals and with an impressive illusion
of depth. This tank also supports widescreen displays! (If run on
normal displays it includes a panning/zoom-in feature!) New in this tank is also the red seastar (which was introduced first in Tank-5) move across the tank! |
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Tank-5
A new amazing tank has been released in October, 2006! Tank 5 fully support 1080p HDTV and widescreen displays. In standard resolutions there is a nice zoom-in feature. New in this tank is also the red seastar which move across the tank! |
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| Requirements |
System
requirements
Due to the complex fish models and highly detailed live background,
the SimAQUARIUM screensaver is quite demanding and may not run well
on anything less than a GeForce2 MX video card and 500 MHz CPU.
Minimum system requirements
Hardware:
- Pentium II 300 MHz
- 64 MB RAM
- GeForce2 MX
Software:
- Win 9x/Me/2000/XP
- DirectX
8.1
- Flash6
player |
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| Main Features |
41 fish species in
Deluxe version (26 in Lite versions)
12 fish simultaneously in aquarium (only three in demo versions
and five in the unregistered Free! version)
swaying 3D corals (no corals in the Free! tank)
'live' clams, opens and closes (no clams in the Tank-4 and Free!
tank)
floating particles (except for Tank-2)
bubbles [on/off]
water surface [on/off]
music or bubble sound [on/off+volume]
timer for the automatic lights
9 customizable pre set appearances
on-screen display for all keyboard features
on-screen help menu (press F1-key at run)
timer for background change [on/off + timer]
manual and auto-switch of tank during program run
start random tank
set frame rate limit
widescreen support
New! Sea star now in Tank4, Tank5 and Free tank
|
adjustable water flow
speed
adjustable light caustics
adjustable light color
adjustable background and fog colors (Tank-3 and Tank-4)
adjustable light
adjustable saturation
adjustable contrast
adjustable visibility/fog (Tank-2,
Tank-3, Tank-4 and Tank-5)
mirror display
keep 4:3 aspect ratio or fit to screen
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| Keyboard and NumPad commands |
| During
program run you can alter the SimAQUARIUM appearance in many ways.
Keyboard Keys:
F1 The function key, F1 will bring upp the help
menu.
1-9 Each of these keys can have its own aquarium
setting saved to it. The appearance you create for key 9 is the
one SimAQUARIUM will fade to at the time set in the Settings tab.
Q/A Increase/Decrease Volume
Z Mute Sounds
W/S Light Caustics Intensity
E/D Water Flow Speed
R/F Increase/Decrease Visibility (Tank-2, Tank-3 and Tank-5
only!)
O/P Increase/Decrease Contrast
C Mirror tank display
V Toggle between stretch to fit or keep 4:3 display
ratio
N/M Switch to next or previously shown tank
Num Pad Keys: (Make sure Num Lock on your keyboard
is enabled first!)
+ Increase Light
-
Decrease Light
* Toggle between which color
to change; Background fade color, Fog color or Light color (only Tank-3!)
7/4 Increase/Decrease Red Light
8/5 Increase/Decrease Green Light
9/6 Increase/Decrease Blue Light
1/0 Increase/Decrease Saturation of Light color
2 Reset All to Default
Try below to see how the feature works! (Num Lock must be enabled
on your keyboard for this feature to work in SimAQUARIUM!) |
| The Settings Panel |
AQUARIUM
tab
In the aquarium tab of the SimAQUARIUM control panel you can
choose which aquarium SimAQUARIUM should run as default tank.
You can also have SimAQUARIUM make a random pick out of the
installed tanks when run, so you get a more varied screensaver.
You can now also shift aquarium during program run. Either
manually by using the keys N and M on your keyboard or by
setting the timed interval in this menu.
The "preload all tanks" feature makes SimAQUARIUM
preload the graphics for all installed tanks at startup. This
will make the startup take a few extra seconds, but on the
other hand the tank shift will be much smoother during program
run.
You can limit the amount of frames to be rendered per second.
The "Limit FPS to XX" is very useful if you don't
want SimAQUARIUM to use all your system resources but leave
some CPU power for other programs you have running in the
background. |
|
OPTIONS tab
In the options tab, you can make additional changes to the
aquarium behavior and appearance. The bubble column can be
turned on/off and also the water surface can be disabled/enabled.
To find out how well the aquarium performs on your computer
you can, if you enable "Show FrameRate" see the
update frequency of the animation during program run. Anything
above 30 FPS (frames per second) should be sufficient for
a smooth looking aquarium.
The sound can be turned on/off and you can also choose to
play any other sound/music file you have available.
The fade in/out interval is set to fade the aquarium to the
preset you have made for position nine. During program run
you can alter the appearances for all nine positions and have
different preset appearances just one key pressing away! |
|
FISH
tab
In the Aquarium menu, you can choose up to twelve
fish to simultaneously inhabit your aquarium. In the deluxe
version of SimAQUARIUM, there are 41 fishes to choose from and
in the standard version you have 26 species to choose from. |
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