Hello I have been doing a bit of Beta testing lately and have so far run into the following issues:
1. When setting up the divers profile, it would be nice to be able to enter height and weight in the field instead of using the arrows, also i found that you have to multiple click the arrows to get them to increment (i.e you cannot hold the arrow to get a raspid increment) I found this step slow and somewhat irritating.
2. In the Catilina Dive Site i found that one of the pieces of kelp was waving wildly out of control and stretching to several times its size. I think this could be a graphical driver issue of some sort. ill post a screen capture later if you dont know what i am talking about.
3. It seemed that some of the catalina underwater landmarks were not present graphically (i.e. it showed a map symbol on map / radar , but no physical 3d modeling in the simulation window.) in particular i could not see the old pile of chains in the catalina map.
4. The BCD control seems to act weird sometimes when you near the ocean floor. for instance, usually when you get closer to the bottom it seems you have to add more and more volume to the BCD to maintain neutral buoyancy. In a particular instance I had to inflate my BCD completely while on the ocean floor before i even started to lift off of it. I was like i was stuck; after i freed myself off the floor i immediatly rocketed to the surface.
5. the lateral movement (sliding) of the diver seems weird while making turns while swimming. The diver seems too massive (i.e. too much inertia) or something because it seems to take quite a while to turn while moving forward. I would persume, even though i am not a real diver, that it is much easier to make turns and sto when swimming.
6.) I noticed that some of the buttons such as dive log do not function yet; i persume this is not a bug, but just fuinctionality that has yet to be added in the simulator.
7.) In the Ship Dive site some of the fish seem to appearalarminly gigantic and cube shape. the fist appear as gigantic cubes with the fish bitmaping wrapped around it. I'll post a picture if you have not seen or heard of this bug yet.
These next points are just some suggestions that could improve the experience, and personal ideas for improvement.
1.) I think more rocks and bottom features should be added to the catilina dive site to give it a more realistic / interesting atmosphere. The bottom sand texture gets a bit boring since there is so much of it. I have not dived in catilina, so i dont know if this what this particular site is really like. But i have been in a sumbarine in catalina and it seems like i have seenmore dense kelp forests and some more rocks / liverock/ coral on the bottom.
2.) It would be nice to have the radar/ map rotate to the direction you are traveling , upward on the screen instead of diver rotating like a real radar. it is sometimes difficult to use, by watching the diver icon rotate around.
3.) It would be nice to see some varried textues on the sunken ship to better and more realistically simulate the real site. also i think you should incorporate some areas where you can penetrate into the wreck, i.e. into some of the ship storage holds, and bridge, and cabins, etc.
Ill report back after i have done more beta testing! so far i am enjoying the experience and i especially love the graphics of the surface of the water... it looks very realistic.
Jeff
1. When setting up the divers profile, it would be nice to be able to enter height and weight in the field instead of using the arrows, also i found that you have to multiple click the arrows to get them to increment (i.e you cannot hold the arrow to get a raspid increment) I found this step slow and somewhat irritating.
2. In the Catilina Dive Site i found that one of the pieces of kelp was waving wildly out of control and stretching to several times its size. I think this could be a graphical driver issue of some sort. ill post a screen capture later if you dont know what i am talking about.
3. It seemed that some of the catalina underwater landmarks were not present graphically (i.e. it showed a map symbol on map / radar , but no physical 3d modeling in the simulation window.) in particular i could not see the old pile of chains in the catalina map.
4. The BCD control seems to act weird sometimes when you near the ocean floor. for instance, usually when you get closer to the bottom it seems you have to add more and more volume to the BCD to maintain neutral buoyancy. In a particular instance I had to inflate my BCD completely while on the ocean floor before i even started to lift off of it. I was like i was stuck; after i freed myself off the floor i immediatly rocketed to the surface.
5. the lateral movement (sliding) of the diver seems weird while making turns while swimming. The diver seems too massive (i.e. too much inertia) or something because it seems to take quite a while to turn while moving forward. I would persume, even though i am not a real diver, that it is much easier to make turns and sto when swimming.
6.) I noticed that some of the buttons such as dive log do not function yet; i persume this is not a bug, but just fuinctionality that has yet to be added in the simulator.
7.) In the Ship Dive site some of the fish seem to appearalarminly gigantic and cube shape. the fist appear as gigantic cubes with the fish bitmaping wrapped around it. I'll post a picture if you have not seen or heard of this bug yet.
These next points are just some suggestions that could improve the experience, and personal ideas for improvement.
1.) I think more rocks and bottom features should be added to the catilina dive site to give it a more realistic / interesting atmosphere. The bottom sand texture gets a bit boring since there is so much of it. I have not dived in catilina, so i dont know if this what this particular site is really like. But i have been in a sumbarine in catalina and it seems like i have seenmore dense kelp forests and some more rocks / liverock/ coral on the bottom.
2.) It would be nice to have the radar/ map rotate to the direction you are traveling , upward on the screen instead of diver rotating like a real radar. it is sometimes difficult to use, by watching the diver icon rotate around.
3.) It would be nice to see some varried textues on the sunken ship to better and more realistically simulate the real site. also i think you should incorporate some areas where you can penetrate into the wreck, i.e. into some of the ship storage holds, and bridge, and cabins, etc.
Ill report back after i have done more beta testing! so far i am enjoying the experience and i especially love the graphics of the surface of the water... it looks very realistic.
Jeff
