News

06/06/2019 iOS. First beta testing on apple iOS devices begins.

(Updated:)

If you own an iOS device (to be exact, one of the devices mentioned below or newer) then you are invited to beta test the Narrowboat Simulator.

Just open this link on that device: (Apple will require you to install its "Testflight" app.)

https://testflight.apple.com/join/9nI2biMZ

If you encounter problems then I would be glad if you tell me as exact as possible where and when it happened and which device you are using. This can probably be done via the Testflight app but can also post in this forum or send me an e-mail to wombatstampede@yahoo.de. I will need to know exactly what kind of device you were using. Ideally also your iOS version.

I expect that especially older apple devices might encounter problems running the app. But I can't tell for sure. It ran fine on the iPhone 5S at least.

While beta testing the app will be free (probably for one or two months, maybe longer when updates are required). I plan to offer the app in the store for a price. While I have doubts that this will cover more than the yearly apple developer fee and maybe a purchase of some used mac (if i am lucky) or other apple test device(s) this will anyway mark some transition of a pure hobby project to a commercial one.

27/05/2019 Carefully approaching Apple...

Recently, my wife found a decent test-apple: A quite affordable (used) iPhone 5S. Some days about fighting with XCode, Mojave and so on followed. The first test run was a 90% fail (music + menus worked). Today another approach and... success!

It seems that the time will soon come where I pay some 99 quids to apple to be allowed to put this up for public testing (and later in the app store). So expect some new infos about this in the next days/weeks.

Important to say that the 5S will roughly be the among the oldest devices supported by this game. In technical terms, I need "GLES3" which is not available on older apple devices (i.e. the iPhone 5).

After 1 year of "coming soon" I dared to release the first beta of the new version today. I'll start with Windows version and HTML (that should run in modern Browsers). Edit 28/04/2019: The Android Beta has now been released as well.

Naturally, versions for Linux and MacOS will follow "some days" later.

I wrote this news articles to tell some background about the calculations and thoughts which led to the water current "feature" for the upcoming llangollen canal section. Further down I'll also shortly mention the topics Propeller Effect and Powerless Steering.

Width and Wrong Angles:

The task was to get a somewhat plausible amount and direction of current depending on the specific part of the canal.

Ok, the current speed roughly (!) depends on how much water goes through a canal with a certain depth and width. For now, let's assume the depth stays the same and the amount of water is constant. Then the speed of the current is roughly proportional to the canals width. And the direction is "just" parallel to the canal bank...

How easy can this be? The easy approach would be to start at one canal bank and measure the distance until you hit the other side at a right angle. But... canals are narrow and banks, especially near bridges, other narrow passages or wide winding holes can be far from being parallel. This is where that formula may give a wrong direction for the current and also an incorrect canal width.

The solution? I draw a path along the center of the canal. Here's an example of such a path:

This path already gives a direction for the current (along the path). To obtain the width for a certain point on the canal, I (virtually) jump to the closest point of the path. Then measure in right angles to the left and right of the path until I hit the bank. Add those distances and there I`ve got the width.

Turning round round:

Two other effects were also long due to arrive in the simulator: The Propeller Effect also called "Propwash" or "Transverse Thrust". I experienced it on my first holidays nearly on every wide lock: You perfectly line up the boat with the lock wall and go in reverse to stop the boat. And there you have it: A beautiful diagonal. Ok, there's a center line and my bunch of kids to deal with this... or a second boat that pushes you back into position.

The videos of Willow Wren Training proved to be very helpful (not only) when learning about the Propeller Effect as well as about powerless steering. Have a look for yourself: youtu.be/GwEV5iu9vx4?t=111

So starting with the next version, "No gear, no steer" will not be completely true anymore. But in case this bothers you too much: It can all be adjusted. Also, you can tell the game if you want the propeller to turn left OR right (spared a joke here).

Don't be fooled by the screenshot. The next release won't be a VR game. But I plan to add some limited VR functionality at some time in the future. At the moment I still don't have a plan how to get the inputs / user interface properly done. But I guess that some gamepad, external controllers or - maybe - the touchscreen of another mobile device linked via local wifi will be required. The screenshot was captured on an Android phone and shows the basic Google Cardboard style VR. A phone equipped with gyroscope sensor is mandatory for such a thing to work properly.

February, the time where you encounter winter stoppages on the british canals. And... even worse... I am in the course of adding even two of them in my game!

The reason is simple. The new level has two open ends. And while It is planned to continue the canal on these two ends I thought that it is perferable that boats don't fall off either end until then. So I added two generously sized winding holes to avoid flat earthers biggest fear.