Game Options / VR

Simulation

This page allows to set some parameters which adjust the physical effects of the boat or the environment.

Water Current Multiplier

The Llangollen Canal (in the Pontcysyllte area) has some notable current. This current will vary depending on the profile of the canal. You can increase the general current or set it to 0 with this multiplier.

Propeller Effect

Narrowboats have a single propeller. The Propeller or "Pop Walk" effect is most notable when you stop the boat by going into reverse gear. Depending on the turning direction of the propeller, the boats stern will swing to one side. By default this games boats are set to run with a "right turning" propeller which will let the boat tend to go to the port side when reversing. You can adjust the effect here or set it to the center to have no Propeller Effect.

Powerless Steering Factor

Steering on a narrowboat is most effective when in forward gear. Hence the term "No gear no steer!". But the rudder also has a limited effect when the boat is moving without thrust or in reverse gear. The boats in this game vary a bit in their powerless steering effect but you can adjust the general factor of this effect here. Or turn it off by pulling the slider to 0.

Defaults

The small "Defaults" button on this page only resets all Simulation factors to the game defaults. The big "Defaults" button on the page bottom right resets all Options to the game defaults.

Performance

This section in the game options allows to adjust the display quality to the device performance. Feel free to increase the values if your hardware permits.

Visibility

How far away you can "see" in the game. Normally, you can keep this on "Automatic Visibility ON".

Shadow Range

Render Shadows of trees and other Objects on a longer distance. Set this to 0 if you require better game performance.

Rope Elements

Just the "chain" elements of the rope when mooring.

Show Frames/Second

This will display a value during the game which measures how good your device performs.

Half Display Resolution

Enable this to speed up the display. Or if you want to conserve battery on mobile devices with high resolution displays.

Limit FPS to 30

This can save a bit of battery on well performing mobile devices. (Auto-enabled)

Inputs (Joystick / Gamepad)

You can control the tiller and throttle/gear with a joystick or a gamepad. At the moment there's no support for other game functions but I plan to add button support for basic game functions.

On Android, Gamepads should be connectable either by Bluetooth or sometimes by USB OTG. Hardware Keyboards may also be able to connect throttle/tiller via the cursor keys. On iOS, your (Bluetooth) Gamepad naturally needs to be compatible with Apple devices.

Connect the Gamepad before starting the game.

Select an input device

Usually, your device should be available for selection here. Select "None" to disable the Joystick support.

Axis/Stick for Throttle Control

Select the Axis or just press "Learn" to auto-select the axis via stick-movement.

Incremental Throttle

If this is enabled then your throttle will increase when the stick is moved up and decrease when the stick is moved down. Disabling "Incremental Throttle" will result in the throttle level behaving exactly like the joystick which might be only desirable if you have joystick without auto-center (not flipping back).

Axis/Stick for Tiller Control

Select the Axis or "Learn".

Inverted Tiller Control

When you enable this option then the boat will turn left if you move the joystick to the left (so the tiller moves right) and vice versa.

Remote

This page is only useful for use in conjunction with (cardboard) VR mode. Basically it allows to use a second device as controller/gampad for the (first) device/phone in your VR gear.

Requirements: Both devices have to be in the same local network. I.e. in your home wifi. The game needs to run on both devices.

What won't work:

• at least one device is (only) online via a phone network / data plan (except it connects to some LTE router or similar)
• you are in a public WiFi (those block communitcation from device to device)
• one game runs in the Browser (HTML)

Server / Game:

The lower part of the options screen is for the device/phone which you plan to put into your vr headset/gear. Check "Let this device be remote controlled". Take note of the devices address in red.

Client / Controller:

The upper part of the options screen is for configuring the "other", controller device. Make sure that "Let this device be remote controlled" is disabled on that device. Then complete & verify the address of your server/game device in the entry field and press "Connect". If all works well, then a very pixelated representation of the game device should be displayed.

You can now navigate the menus and use the touch controls via the client/controller device. Please note that the representation of the remote screen will be very coarse and slowly updated. This is to optimize performance. But the controls should react fairly directly. You will also see a representation of the control screen "below you" in VR with an indicator which part of the screen is currently touched/clicked.

VR

This game should support a simple VR display on mobile devices which are equipped with a "gyro" sensor. There are a number of gears available (often labled "Google Cardboard compatible") equipped with lenses where you can insert your phone and try it out. There is no game support for PC/Mac based VR equiment, yet. (Although this is not impossible for future releases.)

Important:

• This is all very experimental! Expect problems to occur. Feel free to tell me about it in the forums.
• The VR support in this game is very minimal. I would suggest that you should not afford some VR gear only to use it in this game.
• "Magnet Buttons" are not supported. There is minimal support for "Touch Buttons" of some VR Gears but using these alone might be frustrating.
• The use of slow devices or devices with lower display resolutions may probably not make much sense.

Presets:

At the moment there is only a minimal set of parameter presets. If you don't get satisfying results then feel free to adjust the parameters yourself or send the QR-Code which came with the device (i.e. a good picture of it) to me via mail (see "About page"). I will then send you the parameters back when I find time and also add the preset in the next version.

Always offer VR:

This will allow you play any level in VR-Mode. UI intensive tasks like locks may be frustrating to use though.

Control possibilities:

Touch Button Support: Your gear might be equipped with one or two touch buttons which simply touch the display of your phone. While in VR you will notice the game controls "below" you. If you look at them, a cursor will appear. Aim, then "click" the controls via the touch buttons.

Gamepad Support: If you configured your Bluetooth gamepad this may be used to control throttle and tiller.

Remote Support: See above. Set up a second device to basically replace the inaccessible touch screen of your VR device. This is the most powerful option. But also requires getting used to it. Also, you might need a hands-free VR gear (or someone else which operates the controls for you).