For the record I have never been scuba diving. Snorkeling is the extent of my experience and I didn't go deeper then I could hold my breath and kick my fins too. So now that it's clear I am no expert on diving... I am an expert on gaming and I have played virtually ever sort of 3d game and simulation that has been out. For 3d going back to Quake, to Doom, Wolfenstein 3D (first night it appeared on Apogee BBS) Ultima Underworld, or the early sort of faked 3d like Rescue on Fractalus on my Atari 400. I remember playing hours of Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer..etc....I have been playing multiplayer online since LPMuds and having to sneak on the ORNL servers via 1200 baud to log on to telnet...(not a good idea by the way, ORNL has a low sense of humor about such things)
That said...I know the pedegree of Cascade when it did Microsoft titles...and what you guys have done in the past. I know what you are capable of and am glad to support your work. That said I can only hope this is released due to needing some cash flow, and that you will be updating this title quite a bit. Some things that need fixing:
As previously mentioned the stuck pivot point of view is a hang up the AD keys are needed, When I swim I am not stuck on a pivot i can go side to side....(slower) and with some arm ainimations in first person that would be even better.
Lighting and graphics ....this does not remotely reflect the sort of lighting I would expect from a modern underwater sim.....the shimmer and ray effects could be done....it makes the world seem very 90's console....textures and graphics in general even on high in this game really is lacking in detail, compare to say the current Spear fihing game.....Depth Hunter
Movement...just as the air has WIND, the water has currents this is not remotely felt.......the gentle drifting etc, and or waves at surface.....heck even the Ancient game Sub Culture did this...
AI... at first glance the fish look fairly good the way the swim together etc....but as you watch them it's very obvious they stay in very defined orbs.....real schools travel.....I understand why you need a specific area for thim to congregate but how about that area not be stagnant and move around more?
Also some particle effect on bottom with movement of sand with current would REALLY make it look sharp...
The light..works on fish but not walls of wreck....that's rather disconcerting when wreck diving to not be able to see the walls!...the fish light up fine. which makes it even weirder.
The underwater catagory in sims and games has really been left out way too much honestly. Heck I woul jump and an updated sequel to sub culture. I also like your companies philosophy and look forward to seeing you do train sims again, but honestly given the wait for this...I really feel this is not at a pay per use stage....it's barely Beta.....please tell me this isn't a sign you guys are desperate to cash in for what you can.......stick with this, and make it what it should be, and what I know you guy are capable fo doing. If I seem critical it's only because I really want you guys to make this what it should be, and succeed. Because if this is the end product Depth Hunter has you beat....and you can crack the surface there.
As for the dive realism. I'm no dive master, but the previous post had good points, and a sim SHOULD really teach you about concepts and for that.
Oh and one more things...even snorkeling I understood that you could kick at different speeds.......having just one velocity needs to be fixed too.
Also would like to see true first person perpective through mask.....bonus if you can do droplet effects on interior of mask.
Don't settle......keep at it.
Best wishes...and beleive it or not your advocate on many forums.
