To install the SimAQUARIUM main program, double-click on the SimAQUARIUM executable (*.EXE) file. This file can be downloaded from our website directly or through links presented in the email we sent you after purchase.

You uninstall SimAQUARIUM by going to the uninstall shortcut in Start Menu > SimAQUARIUM 2 > Uninstall SimAQUARIUM

 

SimAQUARIUM can be started either automatically as a screensaver by your Windows OS or manually by using a shortcut, whenever you wish - at your convenience.

- Direct (manual) start
You can manually start SimAQUARIUM either by clicking the SimAQUARIUM desktop icon, or by going to Start Menu > SimAQUARIUM 2 > SimAQUARIUM 2

Note: In order to terminate the SimAQUARIUM 2 Screensaver when it is running, press the Esc key or the Space bar on your keyboard. Also, depending on how you adjusted SimAQUARIUM 2 Screensaver in Settings menu, a mouse movement can terminate the screensaver. Please see the OPTIONS Tab for more details.

When you install SimAQUARIUM on your system it is also installed as a Windows screensaver. Windows will be able to start SimAQUARIUM automatically when your computer has been left idle for a certain time period.

Settings: Click on this button to access the SimAQUARIUM 2 control panel. There you can adjust the appearance of SimAQUARIUM. For instance you can there turn water surface on/off and decide which and how many fish that should populate the aquarium. Please see the OPTIONS Tab Chapter for more details.

Preview: Here you can quickly see if you are satisfied with changes made to the selected screen saver. Simply click on the Preview button and the screen saver will start.

Wait: Indicates how many minutes the computer will have to stay idle before a screensaver is started.

The SimAQUARIUM control panel offers you a possibility to adjust the SimAQUARIUM appearance in many ways. All according to your own likings, of course. You have four tabs to browse among. 

The easiest way to access SimAQUARIUM Control Panel is to go to Start Menu > SimAQUARIUM 2 > SimAQUARIUM 2 Settings
 

AQUARIUM Tab: shows you general information about the SimAQUARIUM, installed tank modules and more.

FISH Tab: allows you to specify species and number of fish that will swim in your aquarium.

OPTIONS Tab: allows you to specify screen resolution, sound, aquarium appearance and other functionalities.

HELP & SETUP Tab: gives you an overview of help instructions and the SimAQUARIUM Activation option.

 

Play Random: When this checkbox is enabled, a tank will randomly be chosen from the list of installed tanks every time SimAQUARIUM is started.

Use same settings: This concerns the adjustments made in OPTIONS and FISH tabs. Each tank can have its own settings (different display resolution, sound, fish selection...). When this checkbox is enabled, ALL tanks will be using the same settings (that are adjusted in the OPTIONS and FISH tabs).

Shift aquariums: After the set time has passed, next aquarium tank will automatically load and run.

Preload all tanks: When enabled, SimAQUARIUM will initially load all installed tanks so the tank manual or automatic tank transitions will be smoother. Note: This will however cause a delay at start-up while reading in the aquarium graphics files to memory instead of having the delay in-between tank shifts.

Limit FPS: When enabled, this option allows only a preferred number of frames per second (FPS) to be rendered. This is very useful if you don't want SimAQUARIUM to use all your system resources but to leave some CPU power for some other background running programs (e.g. CD-Rom burning software and similar).

Here you can create your custom fish list that will swim in your virtual aquarium. There are two lists (columns): the list of available fish and the list of fish in aquarium.

Click on the arrows to scroll the list of available fish up or down. Depending on the version you registered this list have 41 fish in SimAQUARIUM Deluxe version and 26 in SimAQUARIUM Lite version.

Fish in aquarium list has 12 slots which you can fill with fish. This means you can have a maximum of 12 fish swimming in your virtual aquarium at a time.

In order to transfer the fish from the left fish list to the right fish list, you simply click on the desired fish thumbnail picture.

As soon as the Fish in Aquarium list is full (all 12 slots filled) you can not add fish any more. To make room for new fish you must delete the fish from the Fish in Aquarium list. You do this simply by clicking on a fish thumbnail picture you want to remove.

Here you can make additional changes to SimAQUARIUM appearance.

Show Framerate: Enable or disable the frame rate display in the upper left corner of the aquarium. It presents the number of pictures per second (fps = frames per second) your computer is capable of displaying. The faster computer you have, the higher frame rate you can get. A frame rate of 30 fps is giving you smooth animation while anything below 20 fps is giving jerky/skippy/choppy animation. For comparison: a television picture has 25 fps.

Exit on Mouse Move: It can be somewhat annoying to have the screensaver terminated when the mouse pointer is moved even the slightest (like by an accidental bumping into the table). If you disable this option, mouse movement won’t affect the SimAQUARIUM run and you can the exit the SimAQUARIUM screen saver only by pressing the Escape or Space Bar key. Please see the Keyboard Instructions Chapter for more details.

Fade In/Out to preset #9 every X minutes: To each number on your keyboard (range from 1-9) a different pre-set aquarium appearance has been assigned. The preset appearance set for key #9 is an artificial night view of the aquarium. The #9 preset repeatedly appears after the specified time has passed and darkens the aquarium for a few seconds. This is to protect the phosphor layer of your monitor from wearing out, which might occur if the same image is displayed for a long time on the monitor. (LCD monitor owners don't have use of this option.)

If you find this feature useless or distracting set the value to zero minutes or simply disable it.

Display Resolution: Here you set the screen resolution for SimAQUARIUM and the color depth to use. The higher the selected resolution is the better image quality is presented in the aquarium. (Note: Higher resolution can lower the frame per second rate).

Optimal resolution for SimAQUARIUM Tank1 & Tank2 is 1024*768 in 32bit color depth. For other tanks optimal resolution is 1280*960.

If your Desktop screen resolution is different from the one set for SimAQUARIUM, each time SimAQUARIUM starts, the monitor will noisily flicker. Although this flickering is completely harmless it can be avoided if you match Desktop and SimAQUARIUM screen resolution and color depth. Please note that this flickering won't happen on high-quality CRT or LCD monitors.

Bubbles Sound ON: If you find bubbles sound irritating you may want to disable this option.

Play Selected Music: Instead of the bubbles sound you can set your own music to play. Check the Play Selected Music checkbox and then select the music file you want to be played.

Note: You can decrease or increase bubbles sound our music volume in the screensaver while it is running. Please see the Keyboard Instructions Chapter for more details.

To save changes and close the AQUARIUM tab or exit the SimAQUARIUM Control Panel, click on EXIT button.

Your computer has to be online (connected to the Internet) in order for the options in the HELP & SETUP Tab to work.

In the SimAQUARIUM Activation textbox, enter (type or copy/paste) the Activation Code (AC) you have received by email after the purchase. Then press ACTIVATE button and wait while SimAQUARIUM connects to our online Internet server and verify your Activation Code. You will be informed whether the screensaver is activated or not.

Note: Your computer must be online (connected to the Internet) while activation is processing.
Note: Your firewall (if you have one) must allow SimAQUARIUM to access the Internet in order for the options in the HELP & SETUP Tab to work.

To activate the set of screensavers you have purchased, you have to access SimAQUARIUM Control Panel and enter your Activation Code in SimAQUARIUM Activation field which is located in HELP & SETUP tab.

1. First you have to start the SimAQUARIUM2 Control Panel. Simply go to Start Menu > SimAQUARIUM2 > SimAQUARIUM Settings

2. When you are in SimAQUARIUM2 Control Panel click on the HELP & SETUP tab. You will find SimAQUARIUM Activation field located at the bottom of the panel. Enter (type or Copy/Paste) the Activation Code (AC) you have received by email after the purchase. Then press ACTIVATE button.

3. Wait while SimAQUARIUM connects to our online Internet server to verify your Activation Code. You will be informed whether the Activation is approved or not.

4. In case of any troubles with the activation process, please contact technical support.

During program run you can alter the SimAQUARIUM appearance in many ways.

Keyboard Keys:

Q: How secure is your online order form?
A: Our order form is 99.98% secure! Our credit card billing company www.2checkout.com is recognized as a world leader in credit card processing, safety and reliability.
 

Q: I don’t like to order on-line, can I send you a check, money order, or cash?
A: Yes of course! We understand that although on-line shopping is now safer then ever, some people are still hesitant about giving out their credit card information over the internet. You can send us payments by a check or money order. Please, email us for more details.
 

Q: What is your company refund policy?
A: Due to the nature of our products we cannot offer refunds. Once you receive the activation code, it cannot be returned without you still having the ability to use it. You can run the free demo of the screensaver beforehand to make sure it runs properly on your system.
 

Q: I have lost or haven't received my SimAQUARIUM Activation Code!
A: If you have lost or haven't received your Activation Code please fill the form on this page: http://www.simaquarium.com/contact.shtml
Within few seconds you will receive your Activation Code.

 

Q: I keep getting message that files are corrupted each time when I try to install the screensaver.
A: All you have to do is to re-download the screensaver. If that doesn't help then you have a virus that is attaching itself to main executable file.
 

Q: My firewall tells me SimAQUARIUM tries to connect to the Internet.
A: Each time the screensaver starts, Flash Player wants to check with www.macromedia.com. Since the SimAQUARIUM Control Panel is made in Macromedia Flash, this is unavoidable.
 

Q: Your screensavers don’t work on my computer!
A: There are the few most common reasons why our screensavers may not work:
1. your DirectX version is less than DirectX 8.1 version
2. you don't have the latest drivers installed for your 3D video card
3. you have non-standard, tweaked, corrupted or messy driver settings for your 3D video card
4. your computer doesn't meet the hardware requirements
5. you don’t have a 3D video card

The most helpful solution to this problem is to install the latest drivers for your 3D video card and leave the default drivers settings intact.
 

Q: A required .DLL file, D3D8.DLL, was not found.
A: This message means that the screensaver is trying to use Direct3D, but the DLL file containing the core functionality for it is missing. See below how to install DirectX and 3D video card drivers.
 

Q: What is DirectX and how do I install the latest DirectX version?
A: SimAQUARIUM uses your 3D video card through Direct3D API. Support for Direct3D is provided by Microsoft's DirectX drivers. Virtually all modern games for the PC require DirectX. It provides a consistent programming interface to a wide variety of graphics cards and enables game programmers to reach the widest audience.

So the solution is to make sure that you have a complete and up-to-date set of DirectX components. To download the latest version from Microsoft, go to their DirectX download page:

Q: I get this error message: 'Failed to create Direct3D Device Interface. Unrecognised error value'.
A: You get this message because your computer or laptop doesn't have a 3D video card. Our screensavers require 3D video cards with at least 8Mb of video memory onboard.
 

Q: When the screensavers are running, they look really skippy and jerky (or choppy and laggy)
A: Check the system requirements! If your 3D video card is below requirements it needs to do AGP texturing. This can cause the screensavers to perform badly.

Also, there were few reports caused by the increased hard disk activity due to AntiVirus background scanning or scheduled internet downloads. Since hard disks are CPU dependent - this might cause "choppiness" while SimAQUARIUM is running.

Programs running as a background process could affect the performances of SimAQUARIUM.

Minimum system requirements:
- Pentium III 500 MHz
- 128 MB RAM
- GeForce2
 

Q: Do your screensavers work on WinNT4.0, Linux and Macintosh platforms? Are there any future plans to port your screensavers on these platforms?
A: Windows NT 4.0 doesn't support Direct3D and thus our screensavers don't work.
 

Q: I tried to increase/decrease light, contrast, color saturation etc. but screensaver keeps exiting to desktop.
A: Your Numeric Keypad is disabled. Enable your Numeric Keypad by pressing the NumLock key (the NumLock light on your keyboard should lit green when the Numeric Keypad is enabled).