|
____________________
[II] The El-Fish FAQ
___________
[1] General
________________
[1-1] Disclaimer
This FAQ is for the use of people who play and use El-Fish by Animatek.
The
author of this FAQ (and all contributors) is/are in no way be
responsible for
anything you do after reading this FAQ. This FAQ guarantees *nothing* at
all. All of the information in this FAQ could be complete crap. You
decide.
The author(s) are in no way related to Animatek, Maxis, or any trademark
holder herein shown, and this FAQ should be treated as "unofficial"
work.
________________
[1-2] Trademarks
El-Fish is a registered trademark of Animatek, Maxis and Electronic
Arts,
and currently Bullet-Proof Software is a licensor.
All trademarks (shown and not shown) are acknowledged.
_______________
[1-3] Copyright
The El-Fish Breeder's Guild El-Fish FAQ is Copyright 2000 by Juan Miguel
Martinez, a.k.a. El-Breeder. All rights reserved. You are granted the
following rights:
I. To make copies of this FAQ in original form, as long as
(a) the copies are complete and are unaltered by
anyone other
than the copyright holder or
anyone designed by the author(s);
(b) the copies are in electronic form;
(c) they give credit to the author(s).
II. To distribute this work, under the provisions above, as long
as
(a) no fee is charged;
(b) they give credit to the author(s), in any
description;
(d) the distributed form is not in an electronic
magazine or
within computer software;
(e) the distributed form is the newest version of
the FAQ
(email the author to find the latest
version number);
(f) the distributed form is electronic.
You may NOT distribute this FAQ in *any* non-electronic
media.
You may NOT distribute this FAQ in any electronic
magazine.
You may NOT distribute this FAQ within computer
software.
NOTE: These rights are temporary, and may be revoked
upon written, oral, or other notice by the copyright holder. If you
wish to distribute this FAQ within a magazine or electronic magazine, get
in touch with the author.
NOTE: You might be familiar with these words, read
ahead.
____________________________
[1-4] Foreword by the author
Well, it's here. I always wanted to make FAQs of everything which didn't
had
FAQ. But El-Fish was my choice, cause it's one of the most underrated
and
forgotten games in my opinion. This FAQ might tell tons of things you
already
know, but anyway having them organized in a FAQ is always good. And I
think
that you might ignore certain facts about El-Fish that I've discovered.
One friend told me that this is a extremely large FAQ for such an easy
and
simple game, but, that's the way I write.
So, I hope that something, even the smallest sentence, helps you to
enjoy more
that incredible game called El-Fish.
While doing this FAQ (done in about a week) I made many experiments with
El-Fish to ratify the words inside this FAQ. But as a mere mortal, I can
make
errors. If so, don't complain, tell me where I am wrong and I'll fix it.
Afterall, a FAQ is done with the contributions of lots of people, right?
And finally, I have to admit that this is not really a FAQ. A FAQ is a
list
of (F)requently (A)sked (Q)uestions, but I used the more broad FAQ
denomination for files containing information about games or other
subjects.
So you will find many answers to many questions you could have regarding
El-Fish, but not exactly as question/answers.
P.S.: Please forgive my english, I am spanish. I might make tons of
mistakes.
____________________
[1-5] About this FAQ
This FAQ should be very easy to use, despite the gramatical / ortographical
mistakes. I based its structure (and the disclaimer and copyright) in a
good
FAQ by Toby Goldstone, the Unofficial Quake FAQ. Thanks to him for that
good
work (well I like to see fishes swimming but I also like to frag a
little).
This FAQ doesn't have any kind of corrections other than the ones I make
after
reading a bit around. So punctuation, gramatic, etc., might be awful.
Ignore
them.
The logo was done by me, and it's just the ASCII version of the El-Fish
title.
You can compare. In my opinion I did a fairly good work (or at least
just
decent!).
The El-Fish story is done based in my own investigations and a Wired
article
by Dan Ruby. Further information was obtained from Keiko M. Randolph.
Dave
from the EA tech support confirmed me the total abandonment of the EF
product
line.
Besides the Toby Goldstone unadvised help, there are many other persons
who
contributed to the creation of this FAQ not directly, but by publishing
their
own work in El-Fish and teaching me that way certain facts about
El-Fish.
Thanks to all of them. They are (in no particular order) Susan Langston
Pence,
Mark Lo and Patricia Shaw, Senusi Lewis, Phill Spulick and Brian Cody.
Special thanks go to Mark Lo helping me with various Mac issues, to
Phill
Spulick for the help about some DOS things, and Jose Isla for good
review of
the preview.
The preview FAQ was sent to Mark Lo, Patricia Shaw, Phill Spulick,
Senusi
Lewis, and Jose Isla. Thanks again to them for their support.
This FAQ applies specially to El-Fish 1.02 for DOS, other versions might
be
little different than this one. Since El-Fish also can be installed in a
variety of resolutions, this FAQ will refer to the 640x480 version, and
state
it clearly when referring to other resolutions. Please forgive the lack
of
information about the Mac versions of EF. There are some facts, but
since I
don't have a Mac... If anyone can help...
_______________________________
[1-6] Where can I get this FAQ?
This FAQ is distributed at the El-Fish Breeder's Guild. There you can
find the
last version of this FAQ. As other people distribute it in their
homepage, I
will put them here too. For the addresses go to the appendix A-1, Web
Pages.
It's also distributed at GameFAQs.
The truth is that El-Fish Breeder's Guild doesn't exist anymore, so go
to
other EF pages or to GameFAQs to check if there are new versions.
______________________________
[1-7] Can I maintain this FAQ?
Actually I am abandoning this project, due to lack of motivation. I am
kinda
tired of EF in this moment and I need to rest. So, what I am searching
for is
someone who whish to maintain it, it's a low update FAQ. Any EF fan will
be
welcomed. The only requirements is maintaining it in english, so it
reaches
the most people, and keep both DOS and Mac information. You will get the
credit, copyright and everything else of this FAQ. If you are
interested, just
contact me.
However, don't worry, I will still keep maintaining this FAQ until
someone
else arrives.
_________________
[2] About El-Fish
______________________
[2-1] What is El-Fish?
It's hard to say if this is a game, cause there is no target at all (in
SimCity at least you had to earn bucks to survive). It's more an
entertaining
application, or a fun program, than a game. But anyway, it's so
entertaining
and fun that it should be called a game. El-Fish creators call it a
software
toy. So:
El-Fish (from now on EF) is a software toy where you can catch and breed
colorful fishes, design beautiful aquariums and watch the fishes swim in
them.
This doesn't sound too entertaining. But trust me, it is. And it's very
beautiful, good graphics everywhere, and you can use your own music too!
It has a very sophisticated engine for generating fishes, using 56 genes
which
control more than 800 variable parameters for fishes (color, shape), it
can
make thousands and thousands of different fishes of many sizes, shapes
and
colors. It also "animates" them, I mean, generates all the possible
images of
the fishes so you can really watch them swim, with the tails waving
behind
them, and the body looks three-dimensional, the light reflects and just
everything. EF was the first game where you were able to create and
render in
3-D your characters.
The aquariums are 3-D too. The fishes will swim in front or behind of
the
plants and decoration. You can use many different graphics, including
your
own (it's fun to see fishes watching TV!). The only real flaw is that
the
objects and plants you place in the aquarium are 2-D. Besides placing
all kind
of objects you can choose between lots of aquarium bottoms and
backgrounds,
and you can also set a color frame.
A special mention should go to the plants. You have many kinds of
plants, dark
green or bright red, and each time you place one, it's also generated!
Every
plant has it's own shape and number of leaves, and you can make them
tall or
short, have wide roots or make them grow from just one point. This
little
thing makes a lot in the final work, cause you can place many plants of
the
same kind and all of them are different, making the aquarium look more
real.
EF comes with some object libraries, including plants, reefs, rocks and
decoration, and a set to make your own buildings with pieces in the
aquarium.
All the graphics are really beautiful, with sunken ships, neptune
statues,
stone frogs, and everything you need to life up a little that aquarium.
The
reefs and rocks look realistic, and the pre-made plants are just
thriving.
There are some additions you can put in the aquariums: the animations.
They
can be fixed (like an actinia, or a skull with an eel out of it's
eyesockets)
or moving (seahorses dancing around, or a cat's paw trying to catch a
fish!).
The last thing you can add to all this is music: EF has the same kind of
generator for music than for fishes and plants. There are eight styles
of
music, and the fractal generator fills them with notes, so the music can
be
also different for each aquarium.
After all that, you can see your fishes swimming in a beautiful
environment,
and you can give them food (which they don't need but they eat anyways),
or
turn off the light (other thing they don't need).
All these features are combined so your experience with EF is fun and
relaxing at the same time, with a nice and easy interface, highly
intuitive.
EF is not designed as an aquarium simulator. The fishes don't grow, nor
die,
no matter what you do (or don't do) to them. It's just a tool for
developing
relaxating and alive scenery. Once done everything and watched the
results a
little, the best thing you can do is make more!
______________________________
[2-2] Where can I get El-Fish?
EF was distributed first by Mindscape and later by Maxis. Currently is a
pretty old piece of software (it was done in '93) and it's very
difficult to
watch it in any shop. The distribution seems to be stopped at this
moment.
Maxis was absorbed by Electronic Arts, but in their catalog they don't
have
EF available. However, SimCity, SimAnt and all those old Maxis games are
still
distributed, so the conclusion is that probably El-Fish is no longer
available for buying.
That puts EF in the category of Abandonware. You can look in many
Abandonware
places for it, for example in Gangsters.org or in the Underdogs Home.
Scootie
and the El-Fish has also a downloadable version of the game. Obtaining
EF this
way might look illegal, but in my opinion it's not. If there is no other
way
of getting it, then get it free.
To my knowledge, there are only english versions, for DOS and Mac, of EF.
There are no special Win95 versions (although EF runs in it very well
and even
in NT), and no Amiga versions either.
There are obscure references of a japanese version in CD, but besides
only ONE
reference in the entire web, I can't confirm this.
__________________________________
[2-3] What's the story of El-Fish?
That question is in fact a some more: Who made El-Fish? and: Which are
the
available versions? and: Is EF discontinued?
The EF concept was born in the head of Alexej Pajitnov and Vladimir
Polhilko.
Pajitnov is world-wide known by one of its first creations, Tetris. It's
also
one of my favorite games ever! Pajitnov also made many other great
mental
puzzles. Pokhilko was a research psychologist who ended as computer
programmer.
In 1989, when Polhilko met Pajitnov (or viceversa) they founded in
Moscow a
company called Intec, devoted to games sustained with scientists theories
such
as genetic evolution and enviromental behaviour. Henk Rogers, founder of
Bullet-Proof Software (this time in Redmond), made a joint venture
between
Intec and Bullet-Proof Software and AnimaTek was born.
With Rogers as a entrepeneur, AnimaTek was able to grow up its staff,
and the
first works were done. Do you know that first they started working with
flowers? Then, they chose butterflies. It would have been also cool to
view
El-Flower, or El-Butterfly. But finally they finished developing the
program
to work with fishes.
Soon AnimaTek realized that they couldn't market the program properly.
In 1991
and thanks to Esther Dyson (a computer industry expert) a meeting
between
AnimaTek and Jeff Braun (president of Maxis) was made in Moscow, and
Braun
offered quickly to shape and market EF around the world.
Maxis was the perfect match for EF. They already had many success in
software
toys and simulations, such as SimCity, SimAnt, SimEarth... The Maxis
team
started to polish a little te program, stripping off all the
complexities of
the original program, such as enviromental and behavioural issues.
AnimaTek
wanted to deal with these things but simply the computer standards in
that
time constrained it to a point where they had to choose only one part
for the
final EF.
Fast note about Maxis: Soon SimLife was out in the streets. SimLife
deals
more with environment and behaviour and lacks of the stunning rendered
graphics of EF. If there was only a program with both things....
Read more about the story of Animatek and El-Fish in the excellent Wired
article in the URL www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.02/maxis.html with more
information. Also, run EF and see the credit list too!
So everything was ready by spring '93. Maxis was the godfather of the
game
when it reached the shop shelves in 1993 (probably march or april), but
it was
under a publisher company called Mindscape. Shortly after it (and even
at the
same time), a release without Mindscape in the opening screens was
thrown to
the market. These versions are the same to my knowledge, but I can't
assure
cause I can't make them work in my puter. But I can assure that the
versions
are the 1.01 and the only difference found is the Mindscape logo.
In November of 1993 another version reached the streets. This version
1.02 is
the last one AFAIK, and the only complete version I have. It added a
third
resolution which improved even more the visual appealing of EF.
At the same time, a SVGA patch was released, it just transforms an old
1.01
version to be capable of installing the VESA 1.02 version (for DOS, not
for
Mac). The SVGA patch was redone in 1994, but there is no difference
between
them except the bootdisk makers. The SVGA patch is only available for
DOS
versions.
Animatek is now devoted to the development of tools for 3-D Worlds, and
Maxis
was absorbed by Electronic Arts. I don't know (and I don't really care)
what
happened to Mindscape. It seems that EF is now a forgotten product for
all of
them. I checked the EA web site, and its FTP, and besides the SVGA patch
and
a few fishes, nothing about EF. They even say in its tech support page
that
"no known issues have been detected for this product" when there is the
awful
"just one fish swimming" bug! However, there is a hidden set of pages
for old
Maxis games support and there you will find some references to EF.
So the version list for EF is:
El-Fish 1.01 (Mindscape version)
El-Fish 1.01 (Maxis version)
El-Fish 1.02
And of course the Mac version(s). If anyone can clarify for me the list
of
Mac versions (and their features) I will be very thankful.
There are obscure references to a Pentium ready version of EF, or to a
pentium
patch for EF. There is no pentium patch, the only way to obtain the
pentium
version is to exchange the installation disk with Maxis/EA. I am trying
to
locate this version. Any help would be appreciated.
Currently, the EF product line is totally discontinued. However, I've
found
the folowing information which can be interesting. KEIS International,
an
affiliated to AnimaTek, picked the rendering technologies of EF and
evolved
them into a product called PetFish.
This FAQ will apply mostly to version 1.02 for DOS, hi-res 640x480
installed
version. If not I will stand it clearly
_________________________________________________________
[2-3-1] Why the Mac version of El-Fish doesn't have bugs?
The DOS version was the first one to be finished. Mac versions where
done
later, when some issues where known.
Keeping with this issue, the next stage in the EF development should
have been
the CD version, but it seems it never was done. But there are (again
obscure)
references to a CD version of EF, for DOS and in Japanese. Any clue out
there?
______________________________________________________________
[2-3-2] What are the Differences between DOS and Mac Versions?
The Mac version uses MIDI directly, and the DOS version uses XMI and
includes
an utility to transform MIDI to XMI. This is due to the nature of the
sound
drivers in the DOS version. These drivers only play XMI.
In the DOS version you should transform an image file to TIFF or PCX and
then
transform it with an included utility to ISB, which is the format which
EF
uses for graphics. In Macs you can use directly PICT files.
In DOS versions there are three resolutions available: 376x348, 640x400
and
640x480. In Mac the resolutions available are AAAxBBB and CCCxDDD.
Aquarium files are incomaptible between DOS and Mac versions. I am
working in
the specifications of them and trying to figure out a way to translate
between
them.
________________
[3] Installation
________________________________________
[3-1] Getting ready for the Installation
Mac Users, please also read the DOS section to get some more
information.
____________________________
[3-1-1] Getting ready in DOS
EF works in any PC compatible 386 or better, with a mouse, and at least
4Mb
of RAM. Mouse is not really needed but without it you can't design
aquariums
properly, and generally the program usage will be very slow.
EF supports many soundcards, including SoundBlaster, Adlib, PAS and
Roland
compatibles, and Tandy and internal speaker. Note that the internal
speaker
is always used, even when you turn off all sound.
EF also supports three graphic resolutions: 376x348 (regular), 640x400
(hi-res) and 640x480 (since 1.02, earlier versions don't have it). For
the
640x480 hi-res VESA mode you need any VESA compliant card, and it should
work
even when the installation program says it's not supported. See the
troubleshooting section about this problem.
The last consideration is the size it will take on the hard disk. It's
fun
cause the installation disks are about 6.3Mb together, and the installed
program, even uncompressed is only 7.3Mb. Compressed again it's just
3.2Mb. If
the installation is all compressed, why that? Cause EF has three
different
EXE files for each resolution, and all graphic related things (objects,
ready
to swim fishes, icons and pics) are duplicated for regular and hi-res.
So
beside some common files such the sound drivers and roes, the rest is
duplicated and EF only uses one of them for installation.
But 7.3Mb is not enough for EF. The aquariums are from 100kb to 400kb,
depending on what do you place in them, and the animated fishes are from
33Kb
(the smallest I've seen) to 1.5Mb (the biggest I've seen), but they are
around
the size of the aquariums usually. So be prepared to have some megs used
by
EF, I have around 100Mb for it and sometimes it uses more.
You can install from floppies or from the hard disk. Choose either
option,
but I've seen problems with corrupted files using SmartDrive and other
caching
programs. From hard disk is much faster anyway. Just put the first disk
in any
folder and all the rest in the data folder (which the first disk should
have).
All the files with the $XX extension should go in the data folder. Subst
the
folder where everything is (see your DOS manual to learn how if you
don't
know) and go to the substed drive and you're ready.
A final note about the DOS version: It runs in my MS-DOS 6.22, and it
runs
under Win95 with it's MS-DOS 7.0, so you should have no problem. You
will
need to use any 5.0 or higher probably, but I am not sure if the lower
limit
is 5.0 or 4.0 or what.
______________________________
[3-1-2] Getting ready in a Mac
Minimum Requirements:
Macintosh computer, 68020 processor or above
5 MB RAM (3.5 MB free)
3.5" 1.4 MB high-density floppy disk drive
Hard disk with at least 10 MB free space
Color monitor with 8-bit (256-color) graphics
System 7.0 or above
Note that people recommends at least a 68030 processor or higher, unless
you
want to spend too much time animating fishes.
EF has also been tested successfully on a PowerPC 604 processor (Power
Computing Mac clone) and a G3 processor (UMAX Mac clone).
________________
[3-2] Installing
Besides the technical references, Mac and DOS installations are pretty
much
the same. In fact, the Mac installation is more easy than the DOS one.
Most
information here is about the DOS installation, the rest applies for
both
DOS and Mac versions.
The first choice you have to do is to decide what resolution you will
install.
There is only one good choice, 640x480, but you can do whatever you
want. But
it should be choosed now, cause there are two installation programs, one
for
regular and hi-res, and the other for the 640x480 mode. They work the
same
except that the normal installation will also ask you for regular or
hi-res.
If you choose the VESA mode, it's installed with the file called
INST_480.EXE
and the normal installer is called INSTALL.EXE. Just run it.
Note that when you run it and you don't have a mouse driver loaded, it
warns
you, but the mouse is not used in the installation, so just ignore it.
There is only one important consideration in the installation program:
it asks
for the owner of the copy of EF. This is very important cause all the
fishes
and aquariums you create have embedded and encoded your name; choose it
carefully, it's all in uppercase and you can't use strange signs, just
slash
and punctuation and maybe some more. Even when you write it in lowercase,
EF
will save it in uppercase. The limit is 15 chars for the name.
Once you have chose your soundcard (and maybe graphics card too) and
selected
where do you want it installed (an ELFISH folder in the root of any
partition
is my recommendaton), it will start to copy some files and then
uncompress
some more: exactly 104. This process without disk caching is fairly long
in
a Pentium due to very small buffers in the installation program. Maybe
if you
have a last-tech HD and a Pentium III you will think it's just normal.
It finishes, says a nice thing and you're ready for the El-Fish
experience.
__________________________________
[3-3] Installation Troubleshooting
These are the problems I've located installing EF, but there might be
more. If
you locate one, please tell me so I can put it here, but the best would
be the
problem AND the solution :)
There are no known issues in the Mac versions. These bugs have been
detected
in DOS versions.
___________________________
[3-3-1] It doesn't install!
Version 1.01 of EF doesn't install in my machine anymore. One of them
says
that it doesn't have enough space on your harddisk, and the other just
hangs.
You can install anyway, simply using the INSTALL.EXE found in version
1.02.
I have observed no problems with memory or hard disk space with version
1.02.
No probs with sound either, and I have a SB16 and a SB128PCI in the same
motherboard, and no problems with anything.
_________________________________________________________
[3-3-2] It says my graphic card doesn't support XXX mode!
There is a BIG problem in the graphic card detection in the installation
program anyway. It might have problems detecting your VGA or VESA card.
Since
modern cards have VESA 1.2 embedded in their BIOS, it's not that, so it
must
be the installation program. So it might say that your card doesn't
support
the 640x480 mode, even when EF will support it. There is a long
explanation
of this problem and how to solve it, but I will put here just a short
version.
Open in any text editor the file INST_480.PRG. Look for a line that
reads
":ASKOFMODE". Below it you will read "#VIDEOTEST", and below that line
you
will read "#if @reply ! 0 #RETURN;". That's the line which says "if the
result is different than 0 then return to the installation process, else
abort
everything". So you just change it, instructing the installation program
to
always continue the installation. There are 2 possible modifications,
one is
just "#RETURN;" and it will always return, and the other is more
elegant:
"#if @reply = 0 #RETURN;" which does the same if you have the problem,
and
corrects only that particular problem. Save the file and install again.
Now it
should not complain about your graphics card not supporting anything.
To get the already modified file for 640x480 installation and the
explanation,
get the El-Fish 1.02 640x480 Installation Patch at my home for EF, The
El-Fish
Breeder's Guild. It's a small file.
There might be problems too if the installation program for the regular
and
hi-res resolutions thinks that your graphics card is a monochrome
Hercules.
Just do the same with INSTALL.PRG.
_________
[4] Usage
Please forgive my complete ignorance of the Mac installed program. But
since
the program is almost exactly the same for DOS and Mac, Mac users should
just
pass the useless DOS information.
____________________
[4-1] Looking around
With your fresh installation of EF, there is something you should
notice: a
file called ELFISH.RED. It contains the EF redirection system, which
allows
you to place each kind of file where you want it. I usually don't touch
it,
besides renaming the folder ARTWORK for OBJECTS and then changing the
folder
name outside the RED file. It should be not very complex to figure out
how it
works, but if people start to have problems I will write some guidelines
to
alter the RED file.
Some programs come with EF, but they will be treated separately later.
You
should just pay attention to two of them. RECONFIG.EXE allows you to
change
your soundcard or remove the sound, and change your graphics card. It
might
be useful but if you installed correctly, unless you make a hardware
change
you will forget its existence.
The second program you should look for right now is the ELFISH.EXE file.
Try
to imagine what it does :)
_____________________
[4-2] The Environment
There are no special recommendations for running EF in a Mac, besides
having
lots of free memory. In DOS is more complex.
The best environment for EF is pure DOS, not under Windows. No memory
managers
either, except HIMEM.SYS. A disk caching program is VERY advisable, it
will
do no harm, except in certain installations I've made. Once installed
the
caching will make EF run more smoothly, specially if you have many
fishes.
EF will use any RAM until 16Mb, due to its old memory handling
architecture.
The last thing is that you should have loaded your mouse driver before
running
EF. It will run without it, but it's a pain to crawl to the exit button
just
to exit and load the mouse.
I've tested EF successfully under Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0. In 95 it
runs
perfectly. In NT it needs that you use FORCEDOS (so open a DOS windows
and
run EF with "FORCEDOS ELFISH.EXE") and at least in my case, the
soundcard
doesn't work, but you should have no probs with sound under NT.
Windows 95/98 users could be in the need of running EF in full DOS mode,
without the expanded memory manager. Read the READ.ME file accompanying
EF to
learn about bootdisks, configurations and how memory managers conflict
with
EF.
EF should work without problem in a variety of other systems, such as
Linux,
OS/2, etc. Tell me if you are successful with these OSes, and I'll put
the
results here.
_______________________________________
[4-2-1] Running El-Fish under OS/2 Warp
Games Settings for the El-Fish DOS Application in OS/2 Warp:
NAME
ELFISH.EXE
TITLE
El-Fish
TYPE
DOS
ASSOC_FILE
ELFISH.HLP
DEF_DIR
\ELFISH
SESSION_MODE
FULLSCREEN
DOS_BREAK
ON
DOS_FILES
30
DOS_HIGH
ON
DOS_UMB
ON
DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT
8
EMS_MEMORY_LIMIT
4096
IDLE_SECONDS
60
IDLE_SENSITIVITY
100
HW_ROM_TO_RAM
ON
KBD_ALTHOME_BYPASS
ON
HW_TIMER
ON
KBD_ALTHOME_BYPASS
ON
KBD_CTRL_BYPASS
CTRL_ESC
MOUSE_EXCLUSIVE_ACCESS ON
VIDEO_FASTPASTE
ON
VIDEO_8514A_XGA_IOTRAP OFF
XMS_MEMORY_LIMIT
64
FOLDER
GAMES
You should change the folder values to match your EF installation.
______________
[4-3] Starting
EF is a very easy program to use. With just some practice and no
knowledge at
all, soon you will master it. And it has a good help system. Nearly
every
place has its own help screen, accessible always with the key F1 (can
anyone
tell me if the Mac version has the same help system?).
Once started, you will see the logo screens and the music. To skip that
part,
just click your mouse (I guess any key will work too). You will reach
after
the opening part the main menu. Your work starts here. You have two
buttons
in the upper bar, which are available almost always inside EF, and they
are
the SYSTEM button, which opens a good menu, and the EXIT button, which
leads
you to the previous screen, and if you're in the main menu, exist EF.
The program usage should be not very hard to understand. There is a part
for
working with fishes, another one for working with aquariums, and another
one
for working with "films". In the bottom you will find the buttons for
file
management for roes, fishes, objects and tanks. Most of all this will be
explained later, each thing in it's section.
Everytime you see a "catalog" of objects (lots of fishes, aquariums or
graphics), you can double click on the images to watch their
information. That
information is different for each kind, so for fishes it will say the
date
of creation, the status of the fish, etc. For object libraries it will
say
the number of objects inside. For animations it will say the kind of
animation, and the number of frames. For tanks it will show a "packing
list"
with all the items inside the tank (note that you can save that list as
a text
file), and so on with all the kind of files. The exception is when
clicking
over a graphic object, it will show you the object at its real size, and
nothing else. The exception for this are the bottoms, the backgrounds
and the
music.
___________________________________
[4-4] Special things inside El-Fish
Well, there is not much to say, almost everything is at one or two
clicks
away. But I think that certain things should be explained.
Always remember that pressing F1 will open a small help screen. It will
not
tell much but it's better than nothing.
In the SYSTEM button, you will find the credits list as "About El-Fish".
Below
it you will find one of the most useful things for managing all things
inside
EF: the "Info" tool. This tool will tell you some statistics about EF,
such as
current number of fishes (it doesn't count the roes), number of tanks,
user
objects, animations, etc., and the version of EF you're using and the
mode
you're running it in. The version should read "1.02". If it doesn't,
then try
to get a newer version, trust me, it's much better. And the mode should
be
640x480, if not, then re-install, paying attention to what you can find
in the
installation chapter, above in this FAQ.
Still in the SYSTEM button, you will find "File", which will be disabled
most
of the time. It's a shortcut for the file manager of fishes and tanks.
You will
get it enabled inside the breeding or evolving screens, and instead of
getting
out to the main window, going to the fish manager and do whatever, you
can
access directly there with this little shortcut, and when you exit you
will
return to where you were first (breeding or evolving). The same goes for
tanks
and the tank designer screen. It's not really a lot but it saves a few
clicks.
The Setup option in the SYSTEM button will open a window where you can
do a
couple of things. Mainly it will allow you to customize the colors of
the EF
interface. Play around a little and you will figure out how it works,
it's
easy. The Setup window also allows you to turn sound off. That means
turning
off the soundcard, not the speaker. You will still hear beeps after
completing
certain operations such fish creation and many more. A lot annoying. The
last
thing you can set here is the fish default size, either zoomed or
normal.
When viewing a tank, you can click anywhere, and as long as you have the
mouse
button pressed, fishes will swim at max speed. If you click over an
animation,
it will make something. The crab will say hello to you with a hat,
seahorses
will jump, and the skull will let out it's eel.
Finally, there is something which is not explained in the help system,
and
there is just an obscure reference in the manual. When viewing a tank
inside
EF, you can make screen captures with F5. It can save in PCX or TIFF
format,
and currently I have a captured tank with swimming fishes as my Windows
wallpaper (correctly transformed for 24 bit and 1280x1024!). One little
known
fact about screen grabbing is that if you do it with light turned off,
it
still makes it with the right colors. And never includes the cursor and
menu.
__________________________________
[4-5] Other things outside El-Fish
Mac versions doesn't have these utilities. These utilities are only
found in
the DOS versions.
In the EF installation, as said before, there come some programs. Two of
them,
PCONVERT.EXE and MCONVERT.EXE will be treated separately in the
graphics and
music chapters.
You will find a little program called INFO.EXE, which shows you some
facts
about your computer and current configuration. It's not very useful with
the
computers of today, but it was bundled with all the Maxis products
since...
VIEWER.EXE is a stand-alone viewer for tanks. Enough said. It just read
the
ELFISH.DMO file and show the aquariums inside there. Read the tank
chapter
to learn how films work. The mouse is not really needed for this one,
you
can move the cursor with arrow keys and the space bar acts like a mouse
click.
The menu (not shown by default) is still accessible with te F10 key, and
you
can capture the screen, turn off the light and everything like viewing a
slide
show inside EF. Exits with ESC too, and it has the usual F9 for light
and
everything.
AUTODEMO.EXE is a TSR for fast activation of the tank/film viewer. Not
very
good in my opinion, but in a time where "screensaver" was a new concept
under
DOS, it was pretty advanced.
____________
[4-6] Cheats
I haven't detected any kind of cheats for EF, such the FUND or JOKE of
other
Maxis games. If anyone know about something, a cheat, or hidden parts,
please
notify me so I can add it here for all users of EF.
The only real cheat is the genetical engineering. That's explained in
its
appropriate section, in the next chapter. The rest are only tips and
tricks
spreaded all around this FAQ.
_________________________
[5] About Fishes and Roes
________________________________
[5-1] Different Stages of Fishes
A fish in EF is basically just "genetic" information about the size and
color
of body and fins. That information is stored in a file called "roe". A
roe,
which is just a little egg (like caviar, made of tons of roes) will
contain
just that genetic information, the date of creation, the name of the
author,
and the original name of the fish. That file is very small, only 1548
bytes.
In a 500Kb zipped file you can have around 800-900 roes.
But EF must turn it into a fish before you can use it inside EF. To do
that,
just select the roe file manager (in the libraries section of the main
menu)
and the button "Restore From". Select the roes you want to restore and
EF will
create the next stage of the fish.
This stage is called simply "fish", and it just has a side view of the
resulting fish, so you can work with it. Now you can evolve or breed the
fish,
or make it available for swimming, whatever you want. The fish files
(still
not animated) are fairly small, from only 3-4Kb to around 16Kb and even
larger (although I've never seen a 20kb fish). It's the best way to
manage
fishes if you don't plan to watch them swim for now.
But to make the fish available to swim, you must animate it. That
creates a
lot of image frames of every position of the swimming fish, and add them
to
the fish file, creating a rather big fish file. Then it's a "ready to
swim"
fish, and it's noted by a "R" in the fish image. If for some reason you
stop
the animation process, it still saves the already processed frames but
the
fish is still not ready to swim, leaving it incomplete, and that's
denoted by
an "I" in the fish image.
________________________________
[5-2] Available Sizes for Fishes
Besides the resolutions (376x348, 640x400 and 640x480 under DOS), you
can have
the same fish in normal or zoomed mode. For EF, a fish animated in a
different
resolution is a "wrong mode" fish. That's no problem, they will swim the
same
way, just that they will look larger or smaller than they should.
But inside the actual resolution, you can make fishes look larger than
they
are, just selecting "zoomed" in the setup and then restoring and
animating
it. If you restore a fish from its roe with "normal" and then you select
"zoomed", the fish will animate larger but its image for the file
managers
will still look normal.
Taking all that into account, the normal vs. zoomed modes, and the
resolutions, you can have the same fish at 6 different sizes. Actually
the
difference between 640x480 and 640x400 is just the aspect ratio, so the
fishes
will look taller or shorter but nothing else. But all that has no sense,
cause
each fish has a fixed size, and EF only tries to animate it in a
proportioned
size to its actual resolution. Anyway it's good for tricks when you have
a
particular fish and it's too big or too small for what you want in the
tank.
I have the low-res EF installed for animating big fishes which I want to
be
smaller when swimming. It's kinda of a cheat, but it has good results.
The last thing you have to consider about fish size is the image size.
When
you add a fish to a tank, it says its actual size (it's strange but it's
the
only place where EF says it), but it's not really related to the size of
the
swimming fish. That's cause the image size is the side of the fish, and
the
swimming fish doesn't swim straight, and the fins wave as it swims, and
many
frames of the fish are very small when the fish looks to you and it
looks very
thin (although some fishes are very "fat"). So even knowing the size of
a
fish, there is no actual easy equation to discover the real size of the
fish.
But it's a good tip, and in 90% of the cases it works pretty good.
_____________________
[5-3] Kinds of Fishes
There are basically two kinds of fishes: normal and mutant. Normal
fishes are
available for evolving and breeding, but if you put the change threshold
too
high, the resulting fishes will be mutant. There are a variety of ways
to get
mutants, specially genetical engineering, but the easiest way is just
evolving
or breeding fishes and putting the shape or color changing sliders above
75%.
Mutants are sterile, and cannot be breed or evolved. Mutants have the
same
structure in the roe and it's just a byte in it to denote the mutant
factor.
It's very easy to hack them and make them evolve. But it's pretty
pointless,
cause fishes tend to be "normal", and any strange feature of the fish
will be
gradually removed. I normalize fishes to change colors usually.
There is a third class of fishes, they are the genetically engineered
ones.
They contain actually two fishes, the "potential" and the "real". Read
ahead
to learn about them.
_______________________
[5-3-1] Some Morphology
I guess that many of you were in the need of certain nomenclature to
describe
your fishes. Well, the best one is the nomenclature used in zoology and
tropical fish books. Here you have a little resumed version which I
think will
cover your description needs.
In EF all fishes are from the teleosseus family of fishes. That includes
all
the preteleosseus and the ganoidean fishes, except the flat fishes and
rare
shape like chest fishes and snakemorph fishes. The most wanted exception
is
the Hippocampus or seahorse, which is a fish, but can't be replied with
EF.
However, EF has the seahorse animation. Not the same but good.
Note that teleosseus fishes have two dorsal fins, one with hard radius
and
another one with soft radius. In EF this difference is not used, and
some
times you will find the hard radius fin behind the soft one. Ganoidean
fishes
have only one soft radius dorsal fin, but in EF you will find also
fishes with
only one hard radius dorsal fin. Curious, it seems that EF doesn't
take into
account all these ictiological facts, but in most times fishes fits.
Fishes have fins, of course. In EF certain fishes will not have certain
fins,
but usually most fishes have them all. The pectoral fins are the ones
placed
just behind the gills, and fishes always have one at each side of the
body.
Below them, you will find the ventral fins. These fins are also always
in a
number of two. In the top part of the fish (the back) you can find
either one
or two fins. The first one is the hard dorsal fin, and the one next to
the
tail is the soft dorsal fin. As explained, they are not always "soft"
and
"hard", but as a name they are not that bad. Alternative names are main
dorsal
fin for the one next to the head and secondary dorsal fin for the one
next
to the tail. Again in the ventral part, the fin placed between the
ventral
fins and the tail is the anal fin. Sometimes you will find two anal
fins, but
it's the same one, just divided. Finally, in the tail you will find the
caudal
fin.
The fins can be stripped, or gradient colored, or even spotted. Most
fins will
have either round or jagged edges. Caudal fins have also arched shape,
so the
caudal fin looks like a big C.
The body of the fish has an imaginary "middle line" which goes from the
head
to the tail. The shapes of the fish top and bottom from this line are
unrelated. So fishes can have a big upper part and a thin ventral part
(making
them look like a camel), or having a thin upper part and the ventral
part very
prominent (making them look like pregnant).
The head is the part of the fish delimited by the two gill lines. These
lines
are always two. The one next to the eye is the operculus line. The one
next
to the pectoral fin is the operculus edge. The operculus edge has a
distortion
in the curve, one times located in the top and another ones more in the
bottom. The eye is usually white or light gray in color, while the pupil
is
usually red. Finally, the lips of the fish always run along the ventral
line,
they can be more thick or not, change their color and have a black line.
_________________________
[5-4] Creating New Fishes
Well, fishes are not infinite, but taking into account the number of
variations for fish body size, body shape, fin width and length, etc.,
and all
the possible color variations for all those attributes, you will end
with too
many fishes. That for "normal" fishes, not mutations.
In short words, you just need to rescue the beautiful or funny or
strange
fishes from the huge number of possibilities. There are many ways to do
this,
and you can choose your way to get new fishes. These ways are four and
they
will be discussed now.
But when obtaining new fishes, you need to take into account the width
of the
fish, not only it's length or height. Sometimes the fish will be like
"fat"
and other times very thin, and just watching the image fish is not
enough.
Feel free to animate them and watch them swim as you evolve or breed to
check
that fact, cause a cute fish in the image might be ugly when swimming.
_______________________
[5-4-1] Catching Fishes
The basic way to get new fishes is catching them. You will find a little
map
and you can get them anywhere on the map. To my knowledge, there is no
difference in fishes catched in different parts of the map, it just uses
a
different random seed, or even just no difference at all. Just pick the
place
you feel lucky about and start collecting fishes. Keep the ones you want
and
save the interesting ones. You might think that getting from the center
makes
more strange fishes, but in my experience, everytime you think you have
found
a pattern in the map it makes an exception. It's just a way to get
random
fishes.
There are just a few simple rules about the fishes you catch "manually".
They
will be always normal fishes. Maybe EF has a 0.0000001% for you for
getting
a mutant fish, I've never seen a mutant catched fish. They will usually
have
green, blue or brown colors, with some variations and maybe another
color
one, but usually not very beautiful. And as last observation, they will
look
pretty normal. No long fins or strange bodies, just plain looking fishes
with
certain interesting features (high front, etc) but nothing spectacular.
So why getting them? Cause sometimes you will find a pretty interesting
shape.
Don't bother about colors, that can be fixed easily. But the shape is
the most
difficult thing to control in fish creation, so if you think that you've
found
an interesting fish to evolve a little, save it.
Anyway catching fishes is not really worth it. It's better to get any
fish and
evolve it with 75% of change in both shape and color, and you will get
many interesting chromatic fishes.
_______________________
[5-4-2] Evolving Fishes
This way you select a fish to use as a base, and make them change
gradually,
either in shape or in colors. You can select how fast they change from
the
base, either in color or shape, and then watch them evolve to new form
and
colors.
You can evolve fishes with two different aims: first, to get new fishes,
do it
changing them abruptly, over 50% of changing threshold, but not more
than 75%
unless you want to get a mutant. Second, you might have an interesting
fish
and you want to polish it a little more, making it bigger, smaller, or
make
the fins look better. For it, never use a threshold higher than 25%, or
the
resulting fishes will be too different from the base.
To obtain a particular result, you should be patient and make little
changes
for each "generation", and eliminate the ones going in the wrong
direction.
Evolving fishes searching a particular shape will be a hard process, so
just
be very patient. Remember that you can make evolve your "temporal"
fishes so
when a fish goes where you want to get, select the "change fish" and
select
the fish you want to keep evolving, and clear the rest of them. Do this
again
and again till you're lucky enough to have that long body or wide top fin
or
whatever you want in a fish.
You can also get better results ignoring color from first place, and
only
evolving the shape, and when you have the shape, change the colors.
Changing
colors will be a lot easier compared to searching a particular shape,
and if
you change shape and colors at the same time, the color differences can
hide
the shape changes, so you will not really know (until late) if that's
the
shape you want. Get colors which help you to distinguish in the image
the
features you want. When done, just make experiments with colors till you
think
the colors match with the fish.
_______________________
[5-4-3] Breeding Fishes
Breeding fishes is a lot like evolving, but in this case you get two
"base"
fishes. The characteristics of each fish are mixed and the resulting
fish will
be evolved. If you want to see the exact mix of breeding two fishes,
just set
the changing threshold to 0%, and three to five different fishes will
appear.
Breeding can be unpredictable, so if you plan to get a particular fish,
it's
better to evolve. While the evolving rules are easy to understand (just
evolve
some fishes and you will see they are basically random luck and
threshold
usage), the rules for shape mixing and all that are pretty confusing. If
you
mix two fishes with long fins, the resulting fish might not have fins at
all.
It doesn't have fixed and easy rules. It's just a matter of luck.
The "luck" part in breeding fishes is related to the genes. There is a
value
for each gen which indicates how strong is the gen. So EF compares this
value
for each gen in the parents' genes, and the strongest one wins, being
carried
to the breeded fish. The weakest gen, if not too weak, will modify the
strong
gen slightly.
And the changing threshold here doesn't seem to work the same way as in
evolving. It's more like telling EF to get the characteristics of each
fish
more randomly and do not make exact copies. It seems to be related to
the
way weak genes modify strong genes.
I know this explanation looks a lot confusing. But trust me, in my
experience
it works this way. If anyone can give a better explanation, please
submit it.
Mainly the breeding is useful for making always interesting fishes.
Since
evolving a particular fish feature is pretty difficult here, I get the
first
fishes from the breeding if they look interesting, and then I keep
evolving.
_____________________________
[5-4-4] Genetical Engineering
This is one of the funniest and more interesting ways of getting fishes.
Since
EF saves roes as pure and barely structured files, you can just get any
file
and rename it as .ROE and then tell EF to restore the fish from it. EF
will
make a VERY strange fish, most of the times ugly and with awful colors,
but
other times this way will grant you wonderful views of incredible
fishes.
This method doesn't always work. Some times, EF will crash or jump to
DOS when
trying to read the "roe". Other times, when you think you got a really
nice
fish, EF will jump to dos when you try to animate the fish. So you might
need
some tries before getting things to work with some new strange fishes.
This is the only real "cheat" you can do in EF, but since it's very
unpredictable, I don't really consider it a cheat. And, besides being
the
only cheat you can find for EF when searching for it in the Web, I think
that
sooner or later this was discovered by most of the EF long-term users.
And,
remember that in the manual it explains about this.
The other way of doing genetical engineering is opening the roe file
with a
hex editor and directly modify with the contents you want. There is a
part
with general fish information, a part for the shape, and a part for the
colors. Start modifying the file a little (again, any way you want) and
see
the results, and continue modifying till you're happy with the results.
There is something you should know about genetic engineered fishes. They
contain sometimes two fishes, and not one. One is the "image" fish,
which is
the one you restore from the newly created or modified roe. You restore
it,
animate it, and throw it to swim. The other, the "evolve" fish, is
obtained
making the fish evolve without change. If you evolve a fish without
change,
common sense will say that the resulting fish will be exactly the same
as the
original, but in these cases, you get a different fish. This doesn't
happen
always, but in many cases you can obtain this way two fishes from the
same
roe. This is kinda annoying, cause when you get a non-mutant fish with
these
ways, you can't make them evolve or breed them. But in other cases there
is no
"evolve" fish, so you can do whatever you want if you're lucky to get a
non-mutant.
The potential and real fishes are created due to the way EF uses the roe
information. There is the "genetic data" and the "shape data". If you
only
change one, there are inconsistencies. EF uses the shape data to render
the
fish with its characteristic shape and color, and the genetic data for
evolving and breeding. This duplication of the same data (after all the
shape
data is done thanks to the genetic data) prevents the genetic
engineering of
being more practical. Furthermore, EF has two sets of genetic data, one
for
evolving and another one for breeding. If there are also inconsistencies
between these genes, evolving and breeding will make different fishes
too.
In my opinion, the real fish is the one described in the first set of
genes,
the one used for evolving. However, when you evolve or breed a fish, in
any
amount, the resulting fish will have coordinated data for evolve genes,
breeding genes and shape data.
__________________________________
[5-5] Getting Fishes Ready to Swim
Actually this is the easiest thing about fishes. You just get the
selected
fishes and animate them, so you can add them to your tanks.
When animating, get a glance of how the fish will be, cause sometimes,
the
position of the fins, or the width, or many other factors might make an
otherwise beautiful fish look ugly. Since you can see the fish as it is
being
animated, take advantage of it and you might save some time working
further
in a bluff which is too thin or too wide.
_______________________________
[5-6] Facts and Tips for Fishes
When you have some interesting fishes, you might want to make a
"family",
which is just a group of related fishes. You can decide the way they are
related. Or you can start "designing" them with an aim in your mind.
The name of the fish is very important, and the comment for them too.
Always
name your fishes with cute names. It's pretty bad when you get some
fishes
and they are named F1, F2, F5 and F13. Think of a name relating to its
shape
or colors, like Flame, or Shoe, or Fastcar, or whatever you can imagine.
Maybe
it resembles something you know, like Dracula, or a politician, or a
singer.
If you seem to have trouble figuring out a good name depending of its
shape or
colors, then just use an unrelated name, like Mary, or Nuts, or Tree.
Then
always remember to add a little comment for the fish, like "evolved from
xxx
fish" or "fresh catched and color evolved" or something like that, so
you (and
other lucky users if you decide to publish it) will always remember how
this
fish was created.
Special care about this should have the Mac users of EF. In Mac, the
name of
the fish can have spaces, uppercase and lowercase letters, and can be
longer
than 8 characters. When distributing roes, try to make a short, 8
characters
long name, or distribute them in ZIP files admitting long filenames. DOS
users
will change the long filenames. But that's better than having F1, F2,
etc.
Also note that when you transform a fish into a roe, the comment for the
fish
is lost. So if you think the fish needs a comment, add a little text
file for
it.
Always make the colors the less important thing of a fish, cause it can
be
easily fixed at the end of the creation of the fish. And, complex colors
can
make difficult to distinguish the actual shape of fins, head, or hide
the
eye, or other things which will bother you in the fish creation.
When trying to emulate a real fish, always get the photo of the fish
handy,
and be very patient. First, try to get a fish of the same size and more
or
less same shape. Evolve it to get the particularities of the real fish,
like
fins and body shape. The more you get closer to the real fish, the
slower you
should evolve. When you're happy with the shape, then evolve colors
quickly
till you get some colors close, and keep evolving them slower till you
get
the result. Then save it for good, cause if you get there, it will be
after
many hours of work, and your fish will be very valuable.
Don't get into the "small fish syndrome". This affects breeders to see
what's
the smaller fish they can get. But if you get a too small fish (let's
say less
than 50Kb after animated), even when its image will look good, swimming
it
will be just a group of pixels, and you will barely distinguish a fish
in
them. Medium or big fishes look better, really. I think that most
breeders are
not affected now by the limit of amount of RAM which causes this
syndrome.
Before saying you have a real nice fish, watch it swim. Add two or three
of
them to a tank without too many decoration and see the effect. Sometimes
that
long bottom fin will look unnatural when swimming.
Don't try to have always long or wide finned fishes, or with strange
forms.
A couple of normal shape fishes with good colors is always a good
addition to
most aquariums.
Fishes don't have behaviours: they will swim gladly among other fishes,
and
from the top to the bottom of the tank, and besides swimming around
them, they
will pay no attention to plants and other objects (or animations).
There is only one behaviour for fishes, and it's that sometimes they
swim in
banks. This behaviour is only observed in small fishes. For an
unexperienced
breeder, the smaller the fish, the greater probabilities they have of
swimming together. That's not exactly true. It's just that the first
"specie"
of fish you add to the tank in a number more than one, and being a small
fish,
will be a bank. This is more a tank designing tip than a fish tip, but
since
I think it's more related to fishes, it's here. There will be only one
bank,
so the first small set of fishes will be the bank. You can add any
number to
the bank, but remember to get it in first place to ensure the bank will
be
composed of the fish you want. Big fishes don't count, and I am trying
to
discover the limit where EF thinks a fish can swim in banks or not.
Again about banks: you might want to make a bank of fishes and then make
one
or two swim their way, not in the bank. Just make a copy (with a
different
name) of the fish, and add both of them. The first one will be the bank
(as
explained above) and the second will swim separately. Since you have
only one
bank, this will be only needed once for each tank. This is possible to
do
cause for EF there are no identical fishes if their name is different.
Having too many fishes is very confusing, so in fact, the best advice
is:
store everything as roe, and have them handy. Have only the fishes
you're
using in your aquariums, and the fish you plan to evolve or breed. If
you have
lots of space, save with the roe a copy of the fish, and you only copy
and
delete to avoid the beeps when restoring from roes. Managing a big fish
collection can be the difference between getting crazy and bored or
keeping
interested in EF.
Please, if you think you have a good tip or fact regarding fishes, and
it's
not shown here, submit it.
_________________________
[5-7] Distributing Fishes
Of course, the best way to distribute fishes is as roes. They take very
little
space, and they are perfectly compatible between all versions of EF.
Just add
a little text file with some notes about the fishes you're including,
your
name, or any data you think is related to the fishes. It's specially
useful
if you explain how you made the fish: catched, evolved or breeded? Or
genetically engineered? Should users use them as they are or do you
suggest
the zoomed version?
Feel free to add pics to the file if the roes are replications of real
fishes,
so users can compare (not all users will have an aquarium library!), or
any
other file you think is needed to explain the existence of the fishes.
Be
careful, cause adding a 500Kb TIFF file to a 4 roes collection will be
no
good!
Ensure that the names of the fishes are ok, and they are not just
RARE01,
RARE02, etc. If they are a lot of fishes, divide them into different
packs,
or at least in different folders. In the other hand, don't be ashamed to
distribute only a fish, specially if it is worth it for you. You're the
only
judger of your fishes.
Then pack them nicely inside a ZIP or HQX file, and submit them to any
web
site which admits new submissions. There is a list in the appendix of
such
sites. If you plan to distribute it from your web site, then be sure to
serve
it in both HQX and ZIP file so unexperienced users of one compressor
will have
available the other format.
___________________
[6] About Aquariums
_______________________
[6-1] Overview of Tanks
MOST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT TANKS: The tanks created in Mac are not
compatible
with the DOS EF, and the tanks created in DOS are not compatible in the
Mac
EF.
Ok, now you have tons of fishes, and you want to make a state-of-the-art
tank
to see them swim. Or maybe you have that strange couple of incredible
fishes
and want to make a custom aquarium to fit them nicely in a related
environment (I made a chinese style aquarium, music included, for the
Dragon
and its variated forms, for example). For that, just knowing how to use
the
tank designer might be enough for you. If not, read this general
information
about tanks.
Tanks are the other strong side of EF. In one place, fishes, and in the
other,
tanks. The rest you can do in EF is just to dress a little more these
things.
They are real 3-D, although the objects are 2-D. But you can place any
object
in any point of this 3-D space.
You can add fractal-generated plants, or fixed graphics, or animations
either
fixed or floating, and of course fishes, and to ice the cake, more
fractal-generated music. This chapter will explain briefly the
particularities
of designing aquariums.
As with fishes, which have a little image of them, when you save a tank
EF
generates another little image for it. That's the running yellow bar
when you
changed any graphics in the aquarium and save it. EF saves the aquarium
almost
instantly, but it takes its time to resize the image of the tank.
________________________
[6-2] Sizes of Aquariums
At least in the DOS platform, there are three sizes for aquariums, each
one
for each resolution. But since this is about 640x480, I will tell you
the size
of a tank in this resolution. Since tanks are 3-D, there are three axis.
The
size in pixels is approximate, cause they are shown for each object and
you
can't make the object go past certain limits, and I was too lazy to make
certain calculations.
The vertical axis, top-bottom, goes from approximately 100 pixels to
450. The
transversal axis from left to right, goes from 0 to 640 (really hard to
believe, uh?). And the depth axis, from back to front, goes from 0 to
256.
Other resolutions will have other set of coordinates.
Now a question comes along. What if you see a 640x480 aquarium in the
low-res
EF? Well, if the resolution is smaller than the tank, it's cropped. If
the
tank is smaller than the resolution, it's pushed to the back-left-bottom
part
and the rest is filled with the background and bottom chosen for the
tank.
When you open a tank of a different resolution and you save it after a
change
(even if you leave the position of the object you moved exactly the
same), it
is saved in the new resolution, and the new image (with the correct
size) is
created and saved in it.
____________________
[6-3] Tank Designing
Tank designing is an easy and gratifying task, it's just choosing what,
and
where to place it, and doing it. The tank designing interface is very
easy and
comfortable, and it's only confusing about changing the XZ and XY axis
movements and when you have too many objects in the aquarium (and that's
not
that bad with the PREV and NEXT buttons!).
Actually you should only be aware that deleting objects doesn't actually
delete them, but hide them. They are only deleted when you save the
tank.
_______________________________
[6-3-1] Bottoms and Backgrounds
This is the first step in designing the aquarium. You choose the sand,
gravel
or stones for the bottom of the aquarium, and then the background,
either
flat, with gradient or with plants.
About the frame... Well, I don't like it. Fishes swim in and out the
tank, so
the frame makes it look unnatural. My advice is to not use the frame,
but if
you think it's good, then go ahead. But without frames there is the
illusion
than your tank is bigger in the sides than what you're watching in the
screen.
__________________________
[6-3-2] Plants and Objects
There are many plant types and colors, and each time you place one they
are
different. You can choose bed size and overall size, and generate the
plant
till you're happy with the result. Note that setting the bed size in a
side
instead in the center has a good effect to make plants look more
variated. If
you want two plants exactly the same, just duplicate them.
About objects, well, you have some libraries and you can add your own
artwork.
There are no special considerations about this.
__________________
[6-3-3] Animations
EF have animations which aren't fishes. It's cool to add a cute effect
to the
tank. There are two kinds, the fixed and the free.
Fixed are for placing in the bottom of the tank (or above a rock or a
pedestal). They are added like any other graphic object in the tank.
Free animations are divided in swimming (seahorse), crawling (crab) and
top
(cat paw). They are added like fishes, but in its own category. Swimming
animations do not swim in banks!
Note that an animation is counted in EF as a fish! So adding tons of
animations might make EF show only a few fishes. Just be careful.
____________________
[6-3-4] Adding Music
Well, an easy part. See the music chapter in this FAQ to learn a little
about
it. Just be sure that the music match with the final aquarium. Test the
music
you choose listening to it, to see if it sounds good (specially if it
has been
converted from MIDI).
_____________________
[6-3-5] Adding Fishes
Read above in the fish chapter to learn about the swimming together
feature.
The rest is easy, just choose the fishes you want and add them in any
number.
Take into account the number of fishes you're adding. If you place too
many,
EF will make them swim in turns. The first ones you add will be the
first
shown. You will need to make some attempts to see if the number of
fishes you
have added is the best for the tank.
________________________
[6-4] Tips for Designing
Make a good use of the "duplicate" feature. The same graphic good placed
can
make a kewl effect, like an arch, or a complex big rock, etc. Experiment
with
it a little (specially with reefs and rocks) and you'll see. Combining
duplication and flipping some of the duplicates achieves the best
results.
If you're creating objects made of many other smaller objects, be
careful. It
might look ok when doing it, but when fishes swim between them when it
should
be a solid thing, it looks very bad. Just place all objects in the same
Z
coordinates, and them move them in the XY axis. This is specially true
if
you're making a building using pieces from the libraries.
Don't overcharge the tank with too many objects, or you will barely see
the
fishes. Big objects should be placed in the back bottom part, and
smaller ones
can be spread in the rest of the bottom. But don't be scared to put a
big
plant in the front if you like, if the plant has thin leaves you will
see the
fishes swimming through it.
Placing a fixed animation is always a good choice. I think I abuse of
the
actinia, but it's so cute... A fixed animation spices up a lot a tank,
specially if you're placing just a few fishes.
Please, if you think you have a good tip or fact regarding tank
designing,
and it's not shown here, submit it.
____________________________
[6-5] Distributing Aquariums
MOST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT TANKS: The tanks created in Mac are not
compatible
with the DOS EF, and the tanks created in DOS are not compatible in the
Mac
EF.
First of all, when you are watching your aquariums, if you double-click
over
one of them, a small window with some information will pop-up. The
information
in that window can be saved as a text file called PACKING.LST. Do it and
add
that file to your tank pack.
Make a little text file about the aquarium, decide if you should add the
roes
for fishes, and pack everything in a ZIP or HQX. Submit it to any web
site
accepting tank submissions, or add it to your web site.
Tanks are not cross-platform. Mac tanks can't be seen inside the DOS EF,
and
viceversa. Be sure to set it clear when distributing your tanks, so Mac
users
don't waste time getting a DOS tank they will not be able to see, and
viceversa.
If you choose to distribute roes with the aquarium, cause you think they
are
the best for it (instead of any other fish, and you see the tank and
fishes as
a complete set), you might want to add a little information about the
fishes
too.
If you used custom artwork, you might decide to distribute the ISB file
so
other EF users can place it in their aquariums. Add a little information
for
it too.
______________________________________
[6-5-1] Which Files go inside the Tank
Inside the tank they are included: the background and bottom, all
graphic
objects, and the music file if any. Mac tanks will have a MIDI file, and
DOS
tanks will have a XMI file.
These items are not saved within the tank file: all animations (fixed
and
free) and fishes.
Take this into account when distributing tanks. Since all the EF
releases have
the same animations, you should be only worried about fishes. And since
the
best way to distribute fishes is as roes, do it that way.
__________________
[7] About Graphics
Graphics are the most powerful thing when making the tank design.
Besides the
infinite plant variety, and the object libraries, you can use any image
you
have (with a few restrictions) to place in your tank.
_________________________________
[7-1] Different Kinds of Graphics
For EF, once you've placed it in the tank, there is no difference
between
plants, user objects or library objects. All of them share the same
palette
and have transparency, and they can be duplicated and flipped. The only
difference is how you obtain them.
____________________
[7-2] Using PCONVERT
This is an excerpt of the EF READ.ME file of the DOS versions:
To use PCONVERT.EXE, the file you are going to convert must be a 256
color or
8 bit .pcx or .tif file. The background color must be color zero (in
most
cases black) and the file needs to be smaller than 60K. In some cases,
you may
have a file less than 60K that you have problems converting. This is due
to
the fact that some art packages have a compressed format that is better
than
the El-Fish compression. If you are converting a .tif file, it must be
in the
un-compressed format.
I think it's clear enough to give you directions on preparing images for
using
inside EF. Just load the EF palette (obtained from any EF capture!), and
be
sure to use color 0 as the transparent color, and the colors above 16
for the
rest of the pic. Save it in PCX and done.
If your graphic is too big, split it in two images and merge them inside
the
tank.
Again, you should be careful of the palette. PCONVERT will try to match
the
image colors with EF internal colors, but if they are the same, no
problem. If
they differ a little you might get undesired results. As explained in
the
palette specifications (found in the appendix C), you will have only 240
colors in a 6 bit resolution to make the graphics.
For Mac this utility doesn't exist, cause (supposedly) they use directly
PICT
files.
___________________________________
[7-3] Getting Graphics from El-Fish
Actually, getting images should be not very difficult. There are plenty
of
them in many web sites. You should only be aware of the size and colors.
Pale
colors will match poorly with the rest of EF graphics. Edit them using
the
EF palette.
In fact, the "hard" part of all this is getting a good painting program,
which
should allow to load palettes, and test transparency. I use PSP6 for
PC's,
and Photoshop would be my choice for Mac's.
_________________________
[8] About Music and Sound
This chapter will only refer briefly to the sound in EF.
In the DOS versions, the default chord and songs for EF are saved inside
the
file EFSND.BSE. Inside it you can find with any sound ripper the XMI's
of the
program. For Mac, all the resources (graphics, cursors, sounds) are
found
inside the executable. Open it with a resource editor.
The rest of the chapter will discuss (also briefly, there is not much to
tell)
about music to use with tanks. Mac versions use MIDI files. The DOS EF
can use
almost any XMI music file (very similar to MIDI music) inside a tank.
Both
versions have also a fractal music generator. This little feature allows
to
have exclusive music for each tank without too much effort.
_______________________________
[8-1] Using the Music Generator
When you choose to generate your music for your tank, you have eight
styles
to choose from. Each style has three base songs, which are used then to
make
the final song. Each one of the three bases is picked randomly each time
you
select an style.
The songs generated are also randomly long, from a short 3 minute song
to a
long 10 minutes piece. DOS users can even save it as XMI to use in other
tanks
if they want. I don't know if Mac users can save the MIDI.
Actually choosing music seems to be not used for long. Most breeders
(including me) make the generation and selection very quickly, cause
after all
the effort of designing the tank, we can't wait to hear 10 songs to
choose the
best one. But, trust me, if you are a more little patient, your final
tank
feeling can improve a lot.
Basically, I recommend to hear at least 20-30 seconds of the song before
saying "it's cute", cause these songs tend to be repetitive, and other
times
change abruptly into another style or tempo. I've seen good aquariums
which
I don't like to see for long cause I can't stand the music. Ok, ok, it's
not
an MP3, but they are also notes and rhythms, and if they are awful, then
the
rest is not as good as it should be. You have to try to ice the cake in
tank designing when adding music, usually the last step. Don't be too lazy
or impatient.
_______________________________________
[8-2] Using External Music and MCONVERT
The Mac EF can use directly any MIDI file. MIDI files can be found
anywhere
in internet without any problem. Where Mac users don't have a problem,
DOS
users have the XMI limitation, I guess I should talk a little about it.
The DOS EF version includes a kewl utility to transform MIDI music files
into
XMI for use inside EF. This is really fun, cause one of the funniest
things I
ever made in EF is a dark tank with dark, scary fishes swimming with the
Beethoven's 5th symphony as background.
Read ahead in the limitations chapter about limits of this program when
converting from MIDI to XMI.
______________________________
[8-3] How to get tons of Music
Out there, in the web, there are tons of MIDI files ready for you to use
in
your tank. What about some classical music, or the last pop hit, or just
your
favorite artist and song for the tank? Just search a little and you will
be
rewarded. Get a hold of the list in the appendix to start.
And there is also another way to get lots of music: from other games.
Many
games use either MIDI or any other form of digital music (contraposed to
digitized music such as MOD, S3M and other waves). But also a good part
of
games use music in XMI format. So you just get them in XMI, or in MIDI
and
transform them to XMI and done. Certain games save their music files
inside
other files, so a file ripper could be handy (unless you want to make
some
hex editing!).
(Note from the author: I have a rather big collection of MIDI and XMI
music
files from many games, so if you're interested in something in
particular,
just contact me and I will gladly help you.)
And finally, there are music converters so you can use even more music
formats
such as MUS, WRK, and many others.
______________________
[9] Things for El-Fish
___________________________
[9-1] The El-Fish "Runtime"
NOTE: Again, this is only about the DOS version. If any Mac user can
tell me
the way and file list a Mac runtime needs, I will be glad to add it
here.
The EF "runtime" is the minimal set of files needed to view a tank. They
don't
include the EF executable ELFISH.EXE, but the VIEWER.EXE. Also includes
the
necessary sound drivers, and the configuration files. Here is the list:
VIEWER.EXE Executable file
EPICTURE.DBP Picture file (cursors are read from here)
XX_MDR.DLL Sound driver file
SOUNDLIB.MIR Sound driver file
ELFISH.INS Main configuration file
ELFISH.RED Redirection file
ELFISH.DMO Slide show file
No more files are needed besides the tank, the fishes and the
animations, but
there are certain facts you should be aware of when preparing the
runtime.
First of all, the cursor is read from the picture file, but nothing
else.
There will be no icons, or splash screens, so actually you can trim this
file.
In my 1.02 version, at 640x480, you can trim the file EPICTURE.DBP as
small as
3830 bytes and it still works. If this file is too small you will notice
it
cause the viewer will jump to DOS.
Unless you actually add all the sound drivers and the configuration
utility,
it will use the sound driver you have set it for. I recommend the SB
driver
cause it's now the most common.
The ELFISH.RED redirection file should be changed, so EF search for all
the
files in the same folder. All the lines regarding folders should be
changed to
contain no folder, like this:
PIC_DIR := #;
Now you get it. You only need the tanks and their files, and edit the
DMO file
to show them. As explained in the tank chapter, you need the tank file,
the
animated fishes included in those tanks, and the MVY files for the
animations
if any. Then edit the DMO file as explained to show the tanks in the
order
you want. If you only have one to show, then add it with a very high
time,
like 100,000 seconds or so (the viewer won't crash with high values).
Now pack everything to show it to a friend which doesn't have EF
installed and
don't want it anyway. It's a cute gift. Or you can use it yourself for
the
times when you don't want all the EF stuff but still want to view tanks
from
time to time. The packed runtime can be as little as only 200 Kb, and
the rest
depends on what do you add, but in only 1Mb you can have a good example
of
what's EF.
_____________________________
[9-2] Other Planned Utilities
EF can have a complete set of utilities for it. Here are some ideas if
any
programmer out there want to make them. Contact any EF fan (like me!) if
you
need help and directions.
Random Slide Show Generator: It just reads the DMO file and rearranges
the
tanks so next time the viewer runs you start with different aquariums.
Optionally it launch the viewer after the rearrangement.
ISO Compiler: This could be the most wanted utility I can imagine for
me. It
just read some images and joins them inside an object library, so you
will not
only have the Reefs, Rocks and Plants but also the Tech, the Flower and
the
Heroes libraries, for example.
El-Fish Customizer: This one changes the EF cursors and icons for other
ones.
Great to have a different interface, other than colors. It could also
change
the splash screens, the fishing map, and even the credit list (in other
file).
Fish Analyzer: An editor for roes. Basically it should be able to change
a
mutant into a normal fish, but a little editing would be good too, if
anyone
discovers the format of roes any day of these.
Mac-PC Tank Converter: Tanks are incompatible between the Mac and PC
versions
of EF. 99% of the data is the same, but located at different places. I
am
working in a way to completely disassemble the tank and reassemble it.
The PC
to Mac converter is little harder, cause it will have to make also the
MacBin
header.
Tank Stripper: It just get out those images and songs from tanks. Images
and
music already inside can't be exchanged between aquariums, so it would
be
handy.
ISB Recoverer: Kewl, we have a PCX to ISB converter, but what about the
inverse? Might be the less useful one, but it could help sometimes.
Tank Refresher: It takes new images to construct the bottom and
background
libraries, so you can have new styles for tanks. What about fishes
swimming
over a persian carpet with Van Gogh pictures in the wall? Cute!
Animation Editor: Using the already existing MVY files, create your own
one.
TV's with some movie frames in them, or swimming coke cans, or instead
that
cat paw, a good dragon's claw :)
Music Tool: Get out and in the default EF songs and sounds, and
substitute
them with your own ones. It would be also good to translate back from
XMI to
MIDI.
Speed Patcher: Just alters the EF executable so it uses a bigger maximum
animation number. See below the "only one fish" bug.
Sound Patcher: Just alters the EF executable so it never does anymore
those
annoying beeps. See below the "always beeping" limitation.
El-Fish New Generation: Anyone out there is interested in porting EF to
Linux
or Windows or MacOS or whatever, with more resolutions and 16/24 bits
color
depth? A remake of EF is needed for all the EF fans worldwide. The same
concept re-executed.
You have other ideas? Have you located an interesting tool for EF? Tell
me so
I can put it here.
_________________________
[10] Limitations and Bugs
Please note that all these things are observed in the DOS version of EF.
Mac
limitations and bugs are not shown here. I don't have a Mac to make the
needed
tests. Help!
______________
[10-1] Overall
EF can only have 300 objects of each class at the same time. These
classes
are: fishes (roes are not included), tanks, object libraries, user
objects,
and animations (the total of animations and fixed animated objects).
That
means you can have 500 fishes in your FISH folder, but EF will only
recognize
the first 300 it founds. You can have 200 fishes and 200 tanks thought.
The
limit of 300 is just for each class.
The obvious limit is in the number of fishes, of course. The common
solution
is to move and restore the fishes to other folders than the default FISH
one.
I have inside that folder many others for each group of fishes. Anyway I
consider more practical to create copies of fishes for each aquarium and
save
all together as a set to avoid confusion.
_____________
[10-2] Fishes
When catching, evolving or breeding fishes, EF keeps temporal fishes,
which
you might save or not as you want. But EF can't keep more than 18
temporal
fishes at the same time. Also, it can't relocate temporal fishes between
one
action and another, so if you catch a fish and you want to evolve it,
you
should save it first, and once you have a good result, delete your
temporal
fishes.
There should be a limit of how small can be a fish, but it seems that a
black
point dancing in a tank has no thrill, so just make small gnomes.
In the big part, it seems that EF has a limit too, but I haven't found
it. I
can animate the Ao fish zoomed at 640x480, giving an almost 2Mb FSH
file, and
no problem. The fish looked great (errr, I mean, big) in the tank, with
no
cropped edges. But there should be a limit for the fish frames, it seems
to be
256x256 pixels. Any part of the fish outside that size frame will be
cropped.
Please, anyone can confirm this?
EF only has a set of fishes (always of the same specie) for bank
swimming. The
rest of the fishes, no matter the number or size, will swim each one in
a
different direction. However, there is no limit for the bank size. It
can be
of only two fishes or of 50 fishes.
And to finish with fishes, the "jumping fish bug". Certain fishes are
animated
incorrectly, causing certain frames of the fish animation to be more up
than
the rest of them. When the fish swims in the same place, those frames
appear
and the fish seems to jump in the same place. Looks awful. I have seen
this
bug many times, but right now I can't locate an example. Help! To my
knowledge
there is no solution for this problem, besides evolving your fish till
it
doesn't jump (which is not a solution anyway!). It has been observed in
fishes
with long bottom fins and short top fins.
_____________________
[10-3] Tank designing
MOST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT TANKS: The tanks created in Mac are not
compatible
with the DOS EF, and the tanks created in DOS are not compatible in the
Mac
EF.
EF can only handle 128 fixed objects in your aquarium. That includes
plants,
objects and fixed animated objects. That includes the "deleted" objects.
To
get rid of the deleted objects, just save the tank and edit again. The
places
will be free again allowing you to place more objects to the top limit
of 128.
You can only add 256 different fishes to the tank, and 256 different
free animated objects. There should be a limit for total animations, but
it
seems to be very high, like 32767 or 65535. I added 315 seahorses
without
problem (besides taking too long), and inside the tank file, it's saved
in a
2 byte integer. I don't know if there is really a limit for the total,
but
it's not really needed, cause EF has an internal limit of how many
animations
it shows at the same time, and EF just makes turns for the animations,
so when
one enters another exits.
I haven't detected a limit in the final aquarium file size, but if you
create
a too big plant, EF might refuse to place it and it will tell you to
redo the
plant.
__________________________
[10-4] Converting Graphics
The original picture, before converting it to ISB, should not be larger
than
60Kb in size. That limits greatly the size of the graphics you can use
to
spice up your tank.
The only solution is to split the original image into two or more
images, and
then join them inside the tank.
_______________________
[10-5] Converting Music
This is copied from the El-Fish Readme file:
If you try to convert a MIDI file that does not have the volume set inside the midi file, it will play at a very low
volume. For a midi file to be converted to the proper El-Fish
format, it should be authored in channels 2 through 10 where
channel 10 contains all percussion tracks.
Until now I haven't found a MIDI file which doesn't work for EF
properly.
Anyway my knowledge of structure of MIDI files is very little, so who
knows.
Many XMI files (specially from other games) have been tried with EF
without
problem. Just be sure they are long enough and not a plink or a couple
of
notes, or your fishes will look like they are swimming in a modern gabba
disco.
_________________________
[10-6] The Annoying Beeps
EF uses speaker beeps (and I mean the classic internal speaker beeps) to
warn
when certain operations are finished. For example, when restoring fishes
from
roes, it beeps for each fish, which can be a lot bothering when
restoring lots
of fishes at the same time. But it doesn't beep for other long
operations,
instead it plays the nice harp, such as entering a file manager.
It's kinda stupid that way, cause you can't turn off the beeps. You can
turn
off the sound, but not the beeper. All it does is mute the soundcard.
The beep
remains, and there is no normal way to deactivate it.
A solution could be the use of a TSR which intercepts the callings to
the
speaker and mutes it. I have one but it doesn't work in my pentium. It
would
be nice to locate one or more utilities which can do this with EF.
Another solution would be a patch for the EF executable file, which
stops the
beeps. Any programmer interested?
______________________________________
[10-7] Too few fishes at the same time
EF uses a little algorithm to determine the speed of your computer, and
then
figure out the maximum number of animations it can show without them
getting
slower than they should be. This is neat but the algorithm has a serious
bug.
Modern computers (in a normal P-200 it happens) are too fast for what
that
algorithm predicted. The result is saved in a too little space. Let me
explain it clearly. The algorithm ranges the speed with a number, let's
say
it uses 2 bytes to store that result. So the results can be from 0 to
65535.
But with a pentium, imagine that the result would be 78000 (for example,
I
don't know the real numbers). But when storing that number inside the 2
bytes,
the space is not enough. So it only stores the modulus of the
more-than-2-bytes number. So for EF the computer has a speed of aprox
12500.
Now EF takes that number and starts to decide how many animations it can
show.
10000 units of speed for the background process, and 5000 units for each
animation larger than this, and 10000 for each animation larger than
this
other (again I don't know the real numbers, these are only as examples).
So
for EF your puter is too slow, it will only show one animation at a time
cause
for EF that's what your computer can handle.
There is other explanation, it can be caused if the number is stored as
signed
and the result is too big to be positive (so a result of 32768 would be
read
as -1). Anyway the final effect is the same.
In a pentium 200 the result is only one fish at a time, no matter how
small it
is or how many you put, it will only show one. I would like to hear more
experiences about this, maybe a PII-300 will show 7 fishes but not more,
for
example. That way I could figure out the way it really decides the
speed.
All this stuff is explained to tell you that the problem is not that you
have
too few megs of RAM or your computer is too slow. It's to explain you
that
your puter is actually too fast.
One solution is, of course, slowing down your computer. I use a little
program
called Mo'Slo, which can slow your computer by percentages. If I slow my
P-200
to 68% of its speed, EF shows tons of fishes. If I slow it only to 69%
(that's
only 1% faster) EF only shows one fish at the same time, again. The
advice is
that you should experiment with different slowdowns, so EF can show many
fishes and you don't waste CPU. If you slow too much, again EF will
start to
show too few fishes at the same time.
The problem is that if you use Mo'Slo directly with EF, it doesn't work.
You
have to create another shell with Mo'Slo slowing down COMMAND.COM, and
under
that shell, run EF. In The El-Fish Breeder's Guild you can find a pack
with
Mo'Slo and detailed instructions.
Another solution is to make a patch for the EF executable which, for
example,
let's you hard-code inside EF the maximum number of animations at the
same
time, instead of letting it use the result of the speed test algorithm.
Any
programmer interested? :)
_________________________________
[10-8] Other Limitations and Bugs
If you find any bug or limitation in EF not shown here, please send it
to me.
Don't forget to explain it, telling the version of EF you're using, the
environment where EF is running and all the data and ideas you have.
|
