WWF Free Rivers Reviews

First of all I’d like to make it clear to those who are complaining that WWFFreeRivers is still one month old, means coming across bugs is expected. The idea is very good but the storytelling is very short. The major thing that needs to be fixed is camera stability; you can see that for yourselves, the map keeps moving even with the camera is sit still. Creatures are objects, nothing is moving except for a few animals but moving in the same place, that could be changed and would give a huge push towards the interactive environment. Also a cave system would be a nice addition since we can look under the ground, so maybe add some fossils or anything that could be found under the surface. And I guess everything could be enlarged a little bit, font included. There’s a lot more but it’s gonna be a hard job so I’ll wait for the next update to leave another review.
Thank you for wanting to share awareness in an enjoyable way.

Q: Why not make this an app that allows you to manipulate the screen with just your fingers alone?

A: Because then it wouldn’t have augmented reality.

Q: Why not make it so it doesn’t have to access your camera?

A: Because then it wouldn’t have augmented reality.

The biggest selling point of WWFFreeRivers is that it allows you to try out AUGMENTED REALITY. If not for that feature, most people (including myself) would never have downloaded it. This is the first AR app I’ve ever used, and the chance to try out AR on my device is the reason I (and many others, no doubt) downloaded it. In the process, I learned a few things about dams and their impact on the environment. For the WWF, that’s a win. No, this is not an app you’re going to use for months and years. You’re going to explore it, maybe show it to some family and friends that haven’t seen AR before and then delete it when the newness if it all wears off. It’s sort of a proof-of-concept demo for AR that takes advantage of the relative newness of the technology to get a message across to people. Maybe in a year or so AR will be old hat for everyone and that window of opportunity will have closed for the WWF.

If augmented reality is just placing an object into space so you can see what’s behind it, WWFFreeRivers does it very well. Sit on your couch and listen to the narrator and tap on the predefined interaction zones and it’s almost like you’re really in your grandma’s living room while she reads the encyclopedia entry on ecology to you and holds the book up so you can see the pictures.

Seriously though, if the “table” lands where you didn’t intend you are forced to sit through the narrative before the menu that allows you to reposition it is enabled. And even after you reposition it it only stays where it is if you don’t move around at all. It doesn’t seem to anchor itself to anything in reality. But as long as you don’t do it in a room with walls you will eventually be able to walk all the way around it.

I think WWFFreeRivers is a beautiful demonstration of the negative effects that growing civilizations can have on natural processes. I enjoyed the fact I had to get out of my chair and actually go close with the camera to see the whole environment and interactive with all the people/animals. There was slight lag when you would get up close to the river but it was slight and nothing to complain about or leave a bad review. Overall the experience was great and I’m glad I got to interact with the storytelling.

AR is not a gimmick, and it’s exactly what you’d expect it to be. I wouldn’t exactly call this educational app a toddler’s toy, and AR does require the use of a camera. This developer accomplished something incredible, and people are here complaining that they don’t like AR, complaining that their cat can’t play it? Give me a break. Great job, dev! Also, complaining when something free is provided? An excellent contribution to the community.

How can this get bad reviews? It’s free! If I can get it to work (relatively well) on my big iPad Pro 12.9” with attached keyboard, what is the problem? Have trouble finding the icons, but not that interested in the story/audio anyway. I absolutely love the beautiful graphics and nature sounds! Moving my iPad around over the table allows me to see the rivers and landscape—fun! Amazing technology!

Augmented reality is a cool new thing, true. But if your going to add it to an app you should actually augment reality.

WWFFreeRivers pointlessly uses augmented reality as a control that could easily been done, and a lot better with traditional controls - pan, pinch and zoom.

The static map that is a one and done, doesn’t take any input from reality to generate - same map regardless of the surface or environment. The single map is glitchy at best, jumping all over the place as you move your device.

WWFFreeRivers also misrepresented itself as allowing you to adjust the landscape. WWFFreeRivers guides you through a fixed story, allowing you to click “change the landscape” but should be viewed as a click to view next segment of the story, because there are no options, just a single choice at each point in the story.

Ok, so there may be a few bugs here and there, but WWFFreeRivers is still gorgeous as it is! I love the augmented reality choice for WWFFreeRivers! Anyways, creators, I hope that even though there may be a few bugs, you can take them into consideration, and fix them. Other than that, WWFFreeRivers totally deserves 5 stars! Way to go!

Thank you.

My kid, he like WWFFreeRivers very much, he like the elephant and love the farmer, but i have a little suggestion that adding some more action to the creature, like lion, farmer, bird, or village had people walking around, fish can swim up and down, etc.
anyway this is WWFFreeRivers that people should try.

This is a perfect example of why I don’t like most AR apps. It’s just used as a gimmick. WWFFreeRivers would be far better if you could just use it like a normal app without the camera, able to pan, pinch and zoom like other touch apps.
At least give us a choice.
I like the concept of WWFFreeRivers itself, but hate having to wave my iPad around our small living room to play.

Your gaming community will boom if you make it possible to create Ai life that can course it’s on history and different types of civilizations and also be able to destroy our creation

WWFFreeRivers is intended to spread awareness of the global environment impact of our relationship with rivers. I think it does that pretty well. The AR aspects of it are quite well done as well. No complaints.

Of course you need the camera permission to use it its an AR app😂 works well on my iphone 7 and it super interesting to see

I couldn’t get the camera to work and WWFFreeRivers was intended for my toddler. If I find it difficult to use she would stand no chance. This looks like a lovely app if only it didn’t require a camera.
Please make a simplified version for children that is easier to use.

So when I tried too open it it started too but then it just went black and
I ended up on the home screen on my phone just deleted it

Really good could use some more work and gets your phone pretty hot im guessing it really stresses the processors, ram and gpu in the phone so be careful if your using it outside on a hot day could make your phone over heat. Again though it is really nice

When I open WWFFreeRivers , it says, “Point camera towards ground in well lit area” (or something like that), and I do, then it says, “The area has to be well lit”, but it is! Even if I take it outside, it does the same thing! Please, please, please, update this because I can tell it’s an amazing app, but I can’t use it!

Ugh. I have had WWFFreeRivers for a year now but I haven’t even started to use it. I can’t open WWFFreeRivers on my iPad. When I try, it just kicks me out before I can even try it. I can’t get past the opening. I saw everything and I thought it would be fun, but it’s not IF YOU CANT GET PAST THE OPENING!!!! 😾😡

Whenever I try to get into WWFFreeRivers I only get as far as the white background with words.
And it freezes and kicks me out.

There’s no point for augmented reality. It is cool for about 3 seconds, but it’s really just waisting development resources when you could focus on building incredible models.

The result is you end up focusing on the gimmick which then detracts from the supposed point of it all.

WWFFreeRivers is intended to spread awareness of the global environment impact of our relationship with rivers. I think it does that pretty well. The AR aspects of it are quite well done as well. No complaints.

The WWF Free Rivers augmented reality experience is really cool. The interactive is beautifully designed and I’m all for the educational aspects. However, this is resource intensive and did cause my iPhone 6s to heat up so I got worried about my battery. Otherwise very cool.