The beta is uploading. Hopefully it will be done by the time I'm done typing this - if not, it will be available within a few minutes.
Huge warning: There are lots of things yet to do. Here's a partial list of current issues, all of which I plan to fix:
While walking on some surfaces the camera may get jittery. It's better in first person, but in "auto" it may bounce around when walking over uneven ground. I'll smooth that out in the next update.
Only parts of the boat detect collisions, so you might partially overlap a log or boulder and even get stuck there.
Rod control isn't as good as it should be yet. Right click to switch mouse-look on and off. Once you have line out the mouse won't move the camera but will move the rod by twisting your body. I'm going to experiment with using keys to switch the mouse between pointer, rod and camera control.
Fish AI - It's still fairly rough in some situations in the moving water, but it's really coming along. Find an area with an appropriate level of current for the conditions and you'll find some fish, though. Nightcrawlers and spinners work great on the rainbows.
The fishing guide- the advice should be accurate as far as fish activity, spawning, etc., but it doesn't yet talk about current, or river-type structures.
Walking limits - You can currently walk to the edge of the world. There will be limits in the future to keep you in the areas you're supposed to see, like not getting near the river upstream of the waterfall.
Sound - There's no sound for the flowing water or even the waterfall yet. That's coming, along with wading sounds.
Oh yeah, and waders. Right now wading requires wetting your pants.
I think that's most of it.
For those inclined to play with the new editing system, sign in as "lake tester" and you'll see some new buttons. You can manually add an object or add any number either to the whole map or to within a certain distance of your current location. There are some bugs in that system yet, and when all is said and done I'll try to make it more user friendly, but it's fun to play around with. I spent a lot of the day chasing down those ghost boulders. They're fixed now.
OK, it's creeping up on 2 AM here. I didn't quite it make my Saturday goal, but the upload is done now. Consider it very much a work in progress, but if you want to try out the river you're welcome to do that.
Here's the link:
http://www.pishtech.com/vrs_river_beta.zipJust download it and unzip it into the game folder.
Tight lines,
Paul