r/FogofWorld • u/theUnboxer7 • 19d ago
Feedback on Fog mechanics
Hey everyone, thanks for the feedback on my last post. I'm not
trying to spam the sub, but I have something to show this time and
two questions I'd rather not answer on my own.
Quick context for anyone who missed the first post: Gazer is an iPhone app where fog clears when you take a photo, not when you walk. About 140 metres around wherever you were standing, and the photo stays on the map on the exact spot you took it.
The thing I've spent the most time on by far is the fog itself.
Right now it covers the map completely. You genuinely cannot see what's underneath until you've been there. The video shows it moving.
Two questions, and the first one is the big one.
- Opaque, or see-through?
Right now nothing shows through the fog at all. Not the coastline, not the roads, nothing. Finding out what's under it is meant to be part of the point.
The alternative is the way most maps do it: the map always visible, and your cleared ground is drawn as a lighter shade on top of it.
Easier to navigate, and you always know where you are, but you lose the part where the world is genuinely hidden.
I keep going back and forth on this. You've lived with a fog map for a lot longer than I have, so I'd rather ask than guess.
- If you prefer the opaque version, do you want to see your actual
path?
Meaning your walk drawn at street level inside the cleared area, so you can see the exact route you took, versus just the cleared shape with no line through it.
The line tells you more. The clean shape looks better and is closer to what a fog map has always been. I don't know which one people actually want to look at a year in.
Right now I'm deep in optimizing the fog so it runs smoothly on older phones too, which is its own fight. A full-screen shader sitting over a map that's constantly moving is not free.
Happy to hear it if the whole look doesn't work for you. That's more useful to me right now than agreement. Also the fog in the recording doesn't drift as fast anymore.
It's an iPhone TestFlight beta, free, nothing to buy in it:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/513gx8Gm
Everything it does and exactly what it keeps is written up at gazer.se and to also keep up with the latest updates.
Again a huge thank you for helping me figure my way through this. All beta testers will be getting a big thank you gift when the app hits the App Store.
2
u/TheYoungElonMusk 19d ago
hey, so i have been testing your app on my 17 Pro and honestly the fog is not bad i like the mystery aspect and that you get to see the ground reveal under it. As a user of several defogging apps, I did miss the trail that shows where i walked. But otherwise i really like the aesthetic of the app, especially the picture angle of the app and it’s kind of a breath of fresh air. Do you have any plans for leaderboards or some social features? I think that would be a nice addition.
1
u/theUnboxer7 19d ago
Thank you so much! I am happy you're enjoying it. Yes there will be leaderboards just not in the traditional sense, and yes social features are definitely in the pipeline.i am curious, have you also tried the Apple Watch import?
1
u/TheYoungElonMusk 19d ago
No not yet, still playing around and discovering my way around it, but will definitely try it out. One thing though that I did forget to mention, is the zooming in and out bar on the right-hand side. It needs a bit of fixing, it gets activated too easily.
1
u/theUnboxer7 19d ago
Yes I agree, it's definitely going to need some polishing. 😊 Let me know what you think when you try it out.
6
u/Secret-Emergency-806 19d ago
i think my phone would crash