what ever happend to all this?

[reelfish074]

paul » Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:11 pm

Yep, I remeber promising that bass game. And an open water multi-species fishing game (including both *fly fishing* and conventional tackle) is next in the pipeline. It will give you that bass fix. Part of the reason I'm doing the ice fishing game is to develop the 3D programming and modeling skills I'll need for more demanding future games. It turns out the ice fishing game includes more advanced modeling and animation that I anticipated, so I'm really getting an education.

Besides gaining the 3D skills from this project I'm getting a lot from it that will really help in the next game: I've developed animated models of fish, a spinning reel and rods, people, trees, vegetation, etc. A great deal of what I've been creating will become parts of future games. And many parts of the next game will be easier now that I know my way around the tools and the engine. For instance, modeling a fishing boat will be a lot easier than an ice shanty. A shanty sounds pretty simple; after all, a lot of them are basically just cubes. But a fishing boat (unlike a portable ice shanty) has a huge advantage: It doesn't have to fold up into a sled. =)

I don't want to give away much about the open water game yet, but I can tell you it will feature a lot of things you don't find in other fishing games. It will let you fish from a boat, including casting, still fishing, and trolling. *You'll also be able to wade or fish from shore*. You'll have lots of artificial lures, live bait, and *fly tackle* too. And as for fishing locations, you'll never run out of new waters to explore. The fish behavior and feeding patterns will be more sophisticated and realistic than that in any other fishing game. I wish I could share all the details now - there's some really exiting stuff that will go into that one, but I've got to get the ice fishing game finished first.

Paul
paul
Site Admin

Posts: 513
Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2005 10:28 am
Location: La Crosse, WI USA
Private messageWebsite

I PUT *'s AROUND THINGS THAT ARE NOT IN THE GAME

[paul]

A lot has happened since I posted that. I had a long list of things I wanted to include in a single fishing game. I decided if I waited to release the game until it had every feature I wanted it would take far too long. In other words, VRS wouldn't be available at all right now if I held out for every feature. On the other hand it already includes a lot of things that weren't on that list, including support for customized lakes, the fishing guide showing locations on a map, support for virtual reality displays (the only fishing game that supports them, to the best of my knowledge), support for Stix controllers, etc.

That being said, VRS is getting new features and will continue to do so. The features you mention, fly fishing, wading and walking, are all on the list of things to add in future updates.

This next update will be ready for beta testing soon. I'm hoping to make it available sometime on Monday, and it includes more than originally planned. It will include:

The passage of time, so you’re not just fishing an endless day like most other games.
Fishing conditions that can change
A menu system allowing you to start a fishing trip at any time of day.
A choice between accelerated time (12:1, so a 6 hour tournament day takes 30 minutes of real time) or real time for fishing trips. Tournaments always use accelerated time the way they did before.
Slip bobbers for fishing live bait, with control over the fishing depth.
A performance improvement that may speed the game up on many computers.
Dynamic weather with clouds that come and go, including varying amounts of rain, and even thunderstorms.
A choice between constant weather (so it stays the way you set it for a trip) or changing naturally.
Accurate sun and moon positions and movement.
Dynamic lighting that's effected by the sun and moon positions, cloud cover, moon phase, etc.
Colorful sunrises and sunsets.
Separate daytime and nighttime wildlife sounds (owls and frogs at night.)
An automated screen shot function - press a key to instantly create and save a screen shot.
A new reservoir featuring a dam, an old river channel, a feeder creek, and a flooded roadbed, and a town on the shore.
Automatic re-rigging with the same bait or lure if you have more of the same one after you lose one.
Additions to the custom lake support including general-purpose objects that can be positioned anywhere in the scene.
The ability to re-open the reel at any time while fishing (turn the mouse wheel to open the reel.)

True, fly fishing, wading and walking aren’t in this update, but rest assured they’re coming. Other features came before those based on people’s responses to my posts about upcoming features, and my own assessment of what improvements would add the most enjoyment for the most people. Other things that will definitely be included in future updates including seating for trolling, rivers, more species including catfish, sturgeon, salmon, etc., more docks, standing timber, and a record book. On top of my “hopefully” list is on-line multiplayer fishing.

Paul

[reelfish074]

*stares at the list you put up in disbelieve*..... How the heck did you get all this done since the last update?!