Biotope

Released: Jul 23, 2019
Platforms: WindowsmacOS
Last updated: 04 Sep 2026, 04:26 GMT

Updates & announcements

9 posts

28 Dec 2024Developer post
Version 2024.1 (7784)
This version contains a preview of the upcoming Japanese translation. The dynamic water displacement has been integrated into the main version and two fish species will be renamed to match the internationally accepted taxonomy. Japanese localization I We are proud to announce the
This version contains a preview of the upcoming Japanese translation. The dynamic water displacement has been integrated into the main version and two fish species will be renamed to match the internationally accepted taxonomy.
Japanese localization I
We are proud to announce the upcoming release of BiOTOPE in Japanese. This has been one of the most requested translations overall. We tried to stick to the official terminology as much as possible when translating technical terms and proper names. In order to accommodate Japanese punctuation, we also had to make a few technical changes to our typesetting system and line break algorithm. This update contains translations of menus, quests, lexicon pages, descriptions of fish, plants and hardware items. The remaining translations will be given in the next update.
Water displacement II
The second iteration of dynamic water displacement, as it was already published in the beta, is now included in the main version. The dynamic water height is now calculated for all tanks in the background, not only for the currently displayed one. The water volume that is actually contained in a tank is also displayed in the stats overview page. The simulation understands the degree to which hardware devices are submerged and modulates their effects accordingly (a heater not in concact with water will not heat, etc).
New taxonomies
The two cichlid species Hemichromis stellifer and Hemichromis letourneuxi have each been renamed to Rubricatochromis. We are thus following the taxonomy of Lamboj & Koblmüller, 2022. Furthermore, we are replacing the outdated name for our pufferfish, Tetraodon nigroviridis, with the recommended name Dichotomyctere nigroviridis.
Bug fixes

Crashes: Fixed a possible stack overflow in the physics system and a possible crash due to undefined behavior (UB).
Hardening against corrupted save games: When loading a save game, only the necessary state variables are loaded and all derived variables are recalculated from scratch.
Fix for the file-open dialog: The path to the initial directory may not have been displayed correctly if it contained Unicode characters.
Copy & Paste: When pasting text from the clipboard into a text field, this may not have worked correctly if the text contained Unicode characters.
Original post
30 Dec 2022Developer post
New year's sale + dynamic submersion depth
New Year Discount Since we unfortunately missed the 'Winter Sale', we bring a New Year's Discount . BiOTOPE will be available at a discount for two weeks starting with the 30th of December. Development update Work on the new state variable submersion depth is nearing completion.
10 Dec 2022Developer post
Dynamic Water Displacement
A sneak preview of the next iteration on the topic of variable water levels: displacement! (A longer video is here on Twitter ) Going forward, the calculation of the water levels will also take into account how much space the objects take up in the aquarium. So, in the future, if
21 Nov 2022Developer post
Version 2022.1 (7688)
This version is a major update that we proudly managed to put together against all odds recently, celebrating our regained independence! New feature: Variable water volume From now on, the amount of water in the aquarium is no longer constant but can vary over time. This leads to
This version is a major update that we proudly managed to put together against all odds recently, celebrating our regained independence!
New feature: Variable water volume
From now on, the amount of water in the aquarium is no longer constant but can vary over time. This leads to new gameplay challenges and increases interactivity. In the first iteration, we focus mainly on the effects that a variable amount of water has on the simulation and handling. For example, the amount of water decreases over time due to evaporation and must be re-filled manually.
New display page: Heat balance
The heat balance, which is the basis for computing evaporation, can now be viewed on a separate statistics page. On the "Balance" information page, there is a new tab to display the flow of heat between sources and sinks. These calculations have always been done to determine temperature, but were never displayed. Motivated by the variable water volume, we wanted to make these calculations transparent to the players.
Redesign of water change: separation between refill and drain
Until now, a water change was an abstract process without visual feedback. Due to the variable water level, it is now possible to model draining and refilling as independent actions. The player must first perform a drain action, which visibly lowers the water level, and then perform a refill action. To this end, the "water tap" icon in the inventory has been repurposed. In addition, there is a new permanent inventory item, the "bucket", which stands for drainage of water by means of a hose and bucket.
New fish model: Mikrogeophagus Ramirezi
The Butterfly Cichlid (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi) is a new fish model, and the first new model ever since first release. Say hello to the butterfly cichlid!
Full change log

New features

Coupling of the visible water height to the actual amount of water present
Calculation of density, salinity, volume and evaporation of water
Display of the actual water level on the info page
Display of the heat balance on a separate statistics page
New inventory item "Bucket" to symbolize the draining of water by means of hose and bucket
The faucet item now only symbolizes filling up water, not the water change as a whole.
Adjustment of simulation code, fish behavior, particle effects, glass reflections, and falling physics to the fact that a fixed amount of water can no longer be assumed

Other changes

OpenGL 1.3 compatibility mode has been removed. OpenGL 3.2 or higher is now mandatory to run the program.
Improvement of texture compression quality, and subsequently a re-export of all textures as well as all inventory icons.

Fixes of serious bugs

Crash when pressing the escape key while moving an object with the mouse button held down
Crash when loading a profile while a previous load operation was not yet completed
Crash when a savegame contains invalid floating point values

Other bug fixes

Collision geometry for object "Exotic Totem"
Overlong title label in the status panel for the T5 light
The marker line from the status panel is pointing in the wrong direction
Bad textures (mipmaps) for the fish model "Hemichromis Stellifer"
Bad textures (specular map) for the fish model "Hemichromis Letourneuxi"
Improvement of physics stability and performance since the last update
Water evaporation was calculated incorrectly
Glass reflections sometimes flicker
Compression artifacts on texture for object "Blue Life 'Clean' 300 internal filter"
Scrollbar of listboxes sometimes can't be clicked
Original post
18 Nov 2022Developer post
Transfer of Ownership
This is a notice about a changed legal situation around BiOTOPE. The developers of the aquarium simulator "BiOTOPE" - MBL Development - and the previous publisher - 2Tainment GmbH - have mutually agreed to terminate the existing publishing contract and return all rights back to t
06 Oct 2020Developer post
Version 2020.1.2 (7369)
This is a patch to address the DPI scaling issue under Windows, that happens on 4K displays and maybe others. Going fullscreen on a monitor with active DPI scaling should no longer result in the game window being oversized and only partially visible.
26 Aug 2020Developer post
Version 2020.1.1 (7351)
This is a small maintenance update. Serious bugs Fixed an engine issue that could lead to invisible items after loading a game, or to the game crashing after switching saves. Fixed a physics glitch were objects were able to fall through the floor. Fixed a possible corruption of i
This is a small maintenance update.
Serious bugs

Fixed an engine issue that could lead to invisible items after loading a game, or to the game crashing after switching saves.
Fixed a physics glitch were objects were able to fall through the floor.
Fixed a possible corruption of item positions after importing a save game into an active slot.
Fixed a possible corruption of the game state by an undo action that changes the installed hardware.
Fixed the zip importer that was not able to read zip files created on the Mac.

Clipping Bugs

Fixed wrong reflection of the lamp in the water surface.
Fixed wrong double reflection of the heater in the side walls.
Fixed that plants and other items were partly rendered outside of the tank.

Other changes

Fixed screen position of the oxygen concentration in the analyzer view.
Fixed several typos and text appearance errors.
It is no longer possible to select items while the main menu is active.
Holding the space bar for quick select is now ignored when the main menu is active.
Original post
11 Aug 2020Developer post
Version 2020.1 (7317)
This is a small maintenance update. Savegame management New options have been added to delete, import or export save states. Save and exit: After saving, the player now has the option to return to the game. The Newgame Assistant will now switch to the selected save slot only upon
This is a small maintenance update.
Savegame management

New options have been added to delete, import or export save states.
Save and exit: After saving, the player now has the option to return to the game.
The Newgame Assistant will now switch to the selected save slot only upon completion, and not before.
The tutorial notifications are now reset correctly when changing save games.

Other changes

The sex selection (♂/♀) for the species Maylandia lombardoi has been corrected.
The history curves now have labels.
The category and topic selection in the Lexicon is now properly highlighted.
The notification window now has a close button.
Fish and plants in the player inventory now correctly display a given name (if they have one).
The 'Buy' button is now grayed out if you already have 5 or more tanks.
Fixed possible crackling noises during sound playback (audio codec issue).
Original post
08 Nov 2019Developer post
Version 2019.4 (7216)
This is a small maintenance update. Community Feedback The current version and build number is shown in the settings under the tab "general". A 500 W heater was added. Other changes The pH value in the tutorial was errorneously 11, this was corrected to 7. The quest conditions fo
This is a small maintenance update.
Community Feedback

The current version and build number is shown in the settings under the tab "general".
A 500 W heater was added.

Other changes

The pH value in the tutorial was errorneously 11, this was corrected to 7.
The quest conditions for the quest "Botanist" now show the correct number of days.
The quest "Time Lapse" can now only be completed with the fastest time lapse.
Names with umlauts or other special characters can be entered.
Sex selection will no longer be reset after each purchase.
Original post

Updates & announcements

Japanese localization I

Water displacement II

New taxonomies

Bug fixes

New Year Discount

Development update

New feature: Variable water volume

New display page: Heat balance

Redesign of water change: separation between refill and drain

New fish model: Mikrogeophagus Ramirezi

Full change log

New features

Other changes

Fixes of serious bugs

Other bug fixes

Serious bugs

Clipping Bugs

Other changes

Savegame management

Other changes

Community Feedback

Other changes