Beta testing the latest VR Sportfishing build

[Fisherman]

This is a great update, Paul! Thank you!
Some quick first impressions and experiences:
1) The catfishing and carp is a lot of fun, no doubt, but I was glad to catch some white bass! A good middle stage between the crappie and the bass. They have almost disappeared from our local lake so it was a pleasant surprise.
2) I am very serious about this point. I will not be satisfied until I can pilot and fish from MY OWN HOUSEBOAT now! The shoreline touches on the Mighty Miss are the best you have ever done. But when I saw the houseboats, I felt very impressed with the detail and size, yet you have "Missed the boat" on this one. You have to add houseboats! That would be beyond cool...
3) Initially could not catch a tagged bass from the dock. Next time in, was given a choice of boats to fish from, chose the johnboat, which ran out of gas two trips in. Was not allowed to purchase gas for it since I did not own it, new trips did not change that status and the other boats would not work either. Solution was nightcrawlers from the dock which got me enough tagged bass to buy my own boat which works fine.
4) Speaking of which, it is a bit disappointing that only bass are tagged still.
5) The Mighty Miss map is a maze of smaller waterways to discover, it may replace Eagle Lake as my favorite!
6)The mini map still does not work properly fro me, no biggie as it is only needed on dark and stormy nights during tournaments when the baitshop is almost impossible to locate.
7) The rodtip is a bit hard to see on overcast days, and since everybody knows the biggest cats are caught at night, perhaps a lantern or "glowtip" would be a nice touch.

[gonefishin]

The Mississippi River addition is awesome

[gonefishin]

6)The mini map still does not work properly fro me, no biggie as it is only needed on dark and stormy nights during tournaments when the baitshop is almost impossible to locate.
7) The rodtip is a bit hard to see on overcast days, and since everybody knows the biggest cats are caught at night, perhaps a lantern or "glowtip" would be a nice touch.

Yeah the overhead map works great but the minimap always appears green with a red dot. Maybe I'm missing something...

I agree with your rodtip suggestion. Would be cool to be able to buy bell add-ons.
What would also be great now that we have catfish and carp is the addition of appropriate baits (stinkbait, dough balls, etc.).

[reelfish074]

Hello all!

Great update but has anyone else had this problem with the water reflection in the new Mississippi map?
Like the reflection of the trees and hills in the water jitters from side to side. It's quite annoying if you know it is there.
Maybe it's a bad download and install on my part?
Thanks.

No, I also get it. I only get it at the dam where the current is really fast though.

[Anguis]

Cool to get an update to test! The Pool 8 map looks great. Performance for me is so-so: looks up-and down-stream (north and south) bog things down (VD set to 70%); banks (east and west) and up-close stuff tends to run fine. The map really draws one in to explore.

Is the LOD system in place for vegetation? If it's running for the 3D objects, it looks like it's implemented very well - I couldn't notice the switching. Like I said, I still get low fps, but the switching seems really smooth.

[reelfish074]

I had to set my draw distance to 10%. No matter what I set texture or anti-a to, I have to set my draw distance down a load to get it to not lag.

[paul]

I've noticed the reflection jumping only on one run. I'll look into it. It may be related to the wind and motion of the water. Have you seen it when there's no wind?

Currently worms (keep them small - whole nightcrawlers are too big) and grubs will be the most productive baits.

The deep holes will have more catfish when the water is cold. Due to the low visibility, both channel cats and flathead cats are happy in relatively shallow water, at least when they're active.

Yes, some areas are packed with fish, and other areas hold almost none, but that varies with season, conditions, etc. The real river is much the same way. Certain stretches of the main channel are often vastly better than most others, and some backwaters are much more reliable. So far the in-game hot spots seem to be pretty similar to the real ones I know on the river, which makes me think I'll have to fish the real equivalents of some of the hot spots I'm finding in the game, in case that holes true there too.

A two pound white bass is a pretty nice fish. The biggest I've caught in real life have been around 21 inches, probably close to 3 pounds, both those are rare.

Paul

[reelfish074]

I always have no wind. Try going all the way up to the dam and look at the water, it will always jump a bit.

[Rob G]

I have downloaded the Beta Three times new clean installs three times and it ask for launch.exe I check for the file it's not there any ideals. Thanks

[paul]

I found an issue in the installer related to the missing launch.exe file. Please browse to the folder with the game and run pvrs.exe to start the game.

Paul

[gonefishin]

Paul,

Wonderful job with the latest beta! VRSF has come a long way in terms of performance, graphics, and features since I started playing it a few years ago. The Mississippi River addition really makes me feel like I'm actually there, fishing for monster flatheads, while we can't do much of anything for awhile due to the intense heat wave that won't seem to go away. I still have my VR headset and Stix controller but prefer playing without them for the meantime.

I'm playing on a daily basis now and have encountered some glitches. I also have some innovative ideas to make the game even more realistic. I know you're a busy individual and who knows how often you check these forums. So I won't divulge the details here. Let me know if you're interested.

[paul]

I'm very interested! =) The more feedback on the beta, and suggestions for future improvements, the better. Feel free to email me with bug reports, ideas, etc., at paul @ pishtech.com. Thanks,

Paul

[reelfish074]

Also, the forum needs some new posts

You should post your ideas on here also

[paul]

Yes, it does. =)

I agree about the need for gar. Last night I did some fishing in the real world equivalent of this location. If you head out from the harbor, turn right (south) and go down a mile or so, when the main channel breaks to the right (west) there's a slough that breaks off to the left (east.) Go down that slough until it opens up to a shallow bay to your left, before the slough turns hard right. At that bend is one of my favorite catfish spots. I fished there from 9 PM till 2:30 AM last night and caught 2 flatheads, both about 7 or 8 pounds, and had numerous bites from longnose gar. They usually just play with the baits (live bluegills) but occasionally one will get hooked throughly. I had a monster to the boat last night. I tried to take a picture using my phone and head lamp, but gave up on that. I eventually decided to net it and bring it aboard, though usually with gar I release them in the water. I've caught one that I measured at 50 inches before, but this one was bigger. 52? 54? I can't say, but it was a freaky fish. I would have thought it was an alligator gar if we had any around here. Since we don't I can safely say it was just a really big longnose gar. As I was getting the net it position (huge musky net in one hand, musky rod with this fish on in the other) it made a final thrash away from the boat and came loose, in the process yanking my rod hand into the rod holder on the side of the boat. My hand is a bit torn up from that, but I would probably have been bleeding if I'd got it into the boat anyway. Handling those critters is always an adventure.

Anyway, I'll plan on adding gar to the game soon.

Has anyone caught a big (30+ pound) catfishing yet?

Paul

[reelfish074]

28 is my max still, but pretty close!

Gar would be really awesome, I have always wanted to catch one IRL but no luck.