Aquarium Desktop 2006 released!
Put virtual fish onto your Windows desktop!
Tuesday, November 8, 2005 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
Stardock has released Aquarium Desktop 2006.
Aquarium Desktop isn't a screensaver. The fish actually "live" on your Windows
desktop happily swimming within the borders of your screen. The fish, rendered
with exquisite detail in 3D, swim, turn, and simply look amazing.
Aquarium Desktop 2006 comes with several fish to start with. User can choose which fish to display on their desktop and even have multiple fish of the same underlying model. As a result, user can have as many or few fish as they want swimming. It also comes with a host of different plants that, like the fish, have been rendered from 3D models for very lifelike animation and detail. It also comes with multiple wallpapers, aquatic sound effects, and more.
The program is highly configurable. Plants can be sized. Sound effects added or disabled. And it is designed to be intelligent in its CPU usage. If the fish are covered (and when people are working, they tend to have windows on their desktops) the rendering goes into idle mode so that the fish don't slow down your computer. The graphics are also compressed in memory to minimize how much memory it's using.
Aquarium Desktop 2006 is a great fun way to liven up your desktop. For user who had the original Aquarium Desktop, they can upgrade to Aquarium Desktop 2006 at a reduced price and get access to additional fish. Additional "fish packs" will be made available as Christmas nears.
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Reply #22 Wednesday, November 9, 2005 1:28 PM
| You can turn off the shadows if you want. I turned them on because I like shadows. |
Thanks, maybe I'll pick it up then.
Reply #24 Wednesday, November 9, 2005 6:34 PM
Reply #25 Wednesday, November 9, 2005 6:55 PM
Reply #26 Wednesday, November 9, 2005 7:07 PM
Reply #27 Wednesday, November 9, 2005 7:07 PM
| For users who had the original Aquarium Desktop, they can upgrade to Aquarium Desktop 2006 at a reduced price and get access to additional fish. |
I'm guessing, yes once you pay for it.
Reply #28 Wednesday, November 9, 2005 9:01 PM
Reply #29 Thursday, November 10, 2005 12:33 AM
Reply #31 Thursday, November 10, 2005 5:04 AM
| I'm guessing, yes once you pay for it. |
Duh, that'll teach me to read the announcement properly.
Reply #32 Thursday, November 10, 2005 5:08 AM
Reply #34 Thursday, November 10, 2005 9:05 AM
Great program!!!
Reply #35 Thursday, November 10, 2005 9:35 AM
| Is there a way to save the desktop after you have added objects? Is there a way of auto-starting wihtout the Welcome Box in the center of the screen? |
The program will autosave your desktop on exit, so the next time you start it up your aquarium will be restored. As for the Welcome box, that shouldn't be appearing on auto-start....
Reply #36 Thursday, November 10, 2005 9:37 AM
| Why do I have about a dozen anchors and how can I get rid of them? |
You shouldn't be seeing this on a new install. You may want to try uninstalling and reinstalling the program since you mentioned you're only seeing the Chest in your list.
Reply #37 Thursday, November 10, 2005 1:12 PM
Reply #38 Thursday, November 10, 2005 2:08 PM
| Looks great and would love to buy it. Look foward to it, specially with the new fish sets. Hope they add some other creatures like sharks, maybe some jellyfish and a crab or lobster running at the buttom of the screen once in a while. Another idea would be to have the fish once in a while run from the sceen when you move the mouse or click. Kinda like when you touch a real aquarium and the fish run and hide. Kinda gives it more realism. |
Those are EXCELLENT ideas, DJBandit
) I just bought the AD proggie (I was going to get it earlier this year when I got Natural Desktop but ran out of funds at the time..lol), and I love it so far. The fact that the screen is the "aquarium" should be made more noticeable, though, I think. Having the fish stop and "hover" at the right or left side of my screen is a bit disconcerting, but if there was a "tank" edge border visible it might make more sense. Maybe adding a partial lid image to the wall paper would also make it seem more like it's an aquarium. I would love to see more salt water items available (fish, sponges, jelly fish, anemone, etc.). I didn't care for the chest or bottle images (the chest especially since it didn't seem to look "real" like the anchors, log, plants, etc.) It appeared to be drawn by a very talented child, but didn't seem to have the same depth and look/feel to it as the other objects.DD
DD
Reply #39 Thursday, November 10, 2005 5:27 PM
Reply #40 Thursday, November 10, 2005 6:21 PM
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Reply #21 Wednesday, November 9, 2005 1:24 PM