http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles Wed, 13 May 2026 19:12:58 +0000 86400 Manage articles http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/corporate/perfect-parallel-teams-with-nicklaus-design-to-r63 September 16, 2014

U.S.-based video game developer and golf visualization company Perfect Parallel has announced a new strategic initiative with Nicklaus Design, the world leader in golf course design and the global firm founded by golf icon Jack Nicklaus, to adapt three-dimensional (3-D) modeling techniques developed in the gaming and entertainment world to the world of professional golf course design.

Nicklaus Design has adopted Perfect Parallel's software suite as its official 3-D course design engine, and will be the only golf course design firm with that capability. Nicklaus Design is integrating these tools with its T2Green CAD system to create virtual working models of its golf course designs, which can be viewed in three dimensions and actually played with a golf simulator during the design and construction process.

Although Nicklaus Design has been an industry leader since the late 1980s in the use of CAD systems to design golf courses, adding the Perfect Parallel engine will dramatically enhance the process by generating prototype course designs in a very realistic 3-D environment. These models will give Nicklaus Design and the client the ability to exchange realistic and detailed visual information during the design and permitting process and aid contractors in interpreting the final design during the construction process.

The Perfect Parallel team comes with a global reputation in 3-D modeling and simulation for entertainment uses, including Broadcast TV, sports visualization and simulation, and electronic gaming. Perfect Parallel will drive the joint initiative with Nicklaus Design by licensing the use of its software tools to develop and visualize its golf course designs.

"Forming this relationship was an important strategic decision for our design company, and we became interested in Perfect Parallel based on the realism and accuracy of the cutting-edge golf course models they have been able to produce for broadcast TV and video game products," said John Reese, CEO for the Nicklaus Companies. "As Nicklaus Design extends its golf course design business to geographical areas farther from home, where the traditional design and construction process is not as well understood, and where technology plays a very important role in local cultures and economies, the ability to demonstrate its reputation for quality with the latest professional-grade visualization software has become critical. In Perfect Parallel, we have found a company that understands the direction golf and technology are heading, and we are confident that the 3-D models we produce will provide graphic evidence of the technical and artistic superiority of our design work."

Nicklaus Design has created more than 380 courses open for play in 38 countries and 39 U.S states. No fewer than 110 Nicklaus Design courses have hosted a combined total of over 770 professional tournaments or significant national amateur championships. Close to 100 Nicklaus Design courses have appeared in various national and international Top-100 lists.

"We are proud of our position globally, and, in fact, we are currently working projects in 18 different countries," said Nicklaus Design President Jack Nicklaus II. "The universal language of visual communication allows us to reach across geographical, language and cultural differences and engage our clients in the design process. Our partnership with Perfect Parallel gives us access to tools that will revolutionize our communications by allowing everyone to visualize our designs in a realistic format as they take shape, whether at our design studio in Florida or in a client's office half a world away."

Perfect Parallel President and COO Andrew Jones is excited by the mutual benefits and potential of the new agreement reached with Nicklaus Design.

"Prior to the opportunity to work with Nicklaus Design, Perfect Parallel had never looked for a strategic corporate relationship or endorsement deal for our software," Jones said. "Our focus was licensing our core software suite to end users in the golf entertainment and media industries; however, it became clear early on in our discussions that a broader strategic relationship with Nicklaus Design will help expand our offerings and client base. There is no doubt in my mind that Perfect Parallel and all of its products will benefit from our association with Nicklaus Design, as we collaborate on developing technology and software for golf that integrates real world data with our virtual environments."

About Perfect Parallel Inc.
Perfect Parallel is a software company specializing in virtual sports gaming, broadcast television, marketing and simulation. All of Perfect Parallel's software products--including Terrain ForgeTM, Course ForgeTM, Broadcast Suite, and Perfect Golf--incorporate fully geo-referenced spatial data that enables the integration of real world data into their virtual environments. As the consumer and commercial markets surrounding broadcasting, gaming and mobile continue to battle for user time, Perfect Parallel is leading the push to integrate these three platforms into a single experience that will bring the user closer to the action and more integrated into it. The future of sports simulation is not just in making the experience more realistic, it is in making the user an integrated part of it and allowing users to compete against the professionals that are on television at their gaming console, PC or mobile device.

Perfect Parallel Inc. is incorporated in Florida, with office locations in Buffalo, NY; Washington, DC; and Manchester, England. For more information on Perfect Parallel's visualization services visit http://www.perfectpa...m/visualization or contact them via email at info@perfectparallel.com.

About the Nicklaus Companies
The Nicklaus Companies is dedicated to promoting excellence in the game of golf, preserving its great traditions and growing the game. For nearly 50 years, the mission of the Nicklaus Companies has been to enhance the golf experience, and to bring to the national and international consumer, golf-related businesses and services that mirror the high standards established in the career and life of Jack Nicklaus. In 2007, Jack Nicklaus partnered with Howard Milstein to help further the growth of the company and to realize the full potential of the brands and branded businesses. Howard Milstein is Chairman of New York Private Bank & Trust and is actively involved in the Nicklaus Companies serving as Co-Chairman along with Jack.

Products and services include golf-course design, development of golf and real estate communities, and the marketing and licensing of golf products and services. Nicklaus-branded products have been marketed worldwide since 1962. The Jack Nicklaus and Golden Bear-branded lifestyle collection of products include: restaurants; beverages; wine; home appliances; flooring; cabinets; apparel; footwear; and golf equipment.

For more information on the Nicklaus Companies, please visit www.nicklaus.com.

###

Contacts:

Nicklaus Companies
Scott Tolley
Vice President, Corporate Communications
Tel: 561-227-0300
scott.tolley@nicklaus.com


Perfect Parallel
Andrew Jones
President and Chief Operating Officer
301.693.2639
andrew@perfectparallel.com
www.perfectparallel.com]]> Tue, 16 Sep 2014 12:27:43 +0000 0777d5c17d4066b82ab86dff8a46af6f http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/corporate/newspress/perfect-parallel-to-democratize-golf-games-ever-r62
Powered by Unity and built with additional tools for importing terrain and course building with CourseForge, Perfect Golf features properly geo-referenced golf courses from around the world.

Erik Lugris, Founder and CEO of Perfect Parallel, emphasizes "It's amazing what one company like Unity can do to for this generation of game developers. We will continue to take the lead set by David Helgason and Unity in helping to democratize the simulation generation - getting rid of the of old practices and expensive distribution models by empowering the golf enthusiast to have the ability to choose which software they wish to run on their purchased devices, allowing the device manufacturers to stand on their own merit and brand, while players will have the freedom to enjoy golf experiences any way they should."

We're excited to be at this point and are extremely grateful for the community support to cross the finish line. You won't be disappointed.]]> Wed, 16 Apr 2014 04:15:50 +0000 82aa4b0af34c2313a562076992e50aa3 http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/corporate/newspress/use-perfect-parallel-tools-to-build-the-most-re-r61 If your project requires highly accurate and realistic scenery based on locations from around the globe, you have two options: build your own tools, or get started right away using existing tools that are established and proven.

Contact Sales@PerfectParallel.com for more information.]]> Fri, 11 Apr 2014 02:34:31 +0000 bd4c9ab730f5513206b999ec0d90d1fb http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/corporate/physics-test-alpha-build-released-r60 In this build there is no golfer and there is no swingmeter, but you can change all the values that are core to our physics engine within the game environment and you can also save your settings and load them again when you play.
For now this is available as a windows executable but we hope to release in MAC format and maybe even web format very soon.
Instructions can be found on the initial splash screen. As always we welcome your feedback.
Perfect Parallel Team.
It can be downloaded from our downloads section]]> Sat, 20 Jul 2013 15:46:23 +0000 b73ce398c39f506af761d2277d853a92 http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/products/perfect-golf/golfdevblog/fly-by-creation-tool-r59 We have just released a video in our videos section that shows how simple it is to create helicopter fly bys in Course Forge for use in the game. You can create up to 4 fly bys of your choice on each hole. In general it is a simple as drawing a line along the path you want the camera to take. It will automatically create nodes along the way at which point you can edit the height, location, aiming point and speed of the camera. For this video I left everything at default to show how easy it is. Fri, 28 Jun 2013 19:26:51 +0000 140f6969d5213fd0ece03148e62e461e http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/products/perfect-golf/perfectgolf-ground-physics-testing-r58
Using a number of easily adjustable variables, we are able to create almost any type of surface material for our virtual balls to interact with. Bounce, Friction, Viscosity, Malleability, and Roll Friction can all be adjusted to create a lifelike experience no matter what type of surface we hit the ball onto.

As opposed to the launch and 'in flight' ball data we have available, the ground physics is much harder to quantify as there is little available data to support the reaction of various types of grass and other surfaces on a golf ball - it's much more of a 'touchy feely' thing!
With so many variables to take into account it's taken a while to get values we are happy with all lengths of shots with different clubs on different surfaces but things are progressing well. From low flying but high spinning wedge shots which skip forward before spinning themselves to a halt or 2 iron 'stingers' which bore through the wind and chase down the fairway, we can now produce all these shots and more in PerfectGolf

Video to follow shortly..]]> Fri, 28 Jun 2013 13:23:46 +0000 06409663226af2f3114485aa4e0a23b4 http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/corporate/importing-national-map-viewer-into-course-forge-r57 The functionality supports ESRI ARC Grid and ERDAS Imagine elevation data rasters and JPEG2000, JPG, and TIF high resolution imagery in some cases in 0.15M resolution.]]> Tue, 04 Jun 2013 12:42:03 +0000 6c4b761a28b734fe93831e3fb400ce87 http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/corporate/importing-apcd-crz-files-into-course-forge-r56 The end result is pretty much a direct copy of what you had in APCD. You can find the video in our videos page.]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 23:17:36 +0000 1c9ac0159c94d8d0cbedc973445af2da http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/corporate/importing-bing-maps-into-course-forge-r55
Simply run course converter and navigate to the Create from Maps tab and then zoom in to any place in the world using the map based interface. Once you have identified the part of the world to import click the Generate button and wait for it to download the data. If selected at the end of the process you will be prompted to save a jpg file which is the image, the XYZ file which is your ascii grid and a heightmap file.
The heightmap file and jpg can then be imported directly into Unity and Course Forge.
Check out the video in our videos section]]> Mon, 13 May 2013 12:59:55 +0000 2a79ea27c279e471f4d180b08d62b00a http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/corporate/perfect-parallel-signs-agreement-with-sky-sports-r54 AUGUSTA, G.A.- For Immediate Release - The fierce competition to attract viewers places major television networks at the cutting edge of broadcast innovation. British broadcaster Sky Sports who will show more than 5,000 hours of golf programming this year amongst the 40,000 hours of sports programming it shows across its six dedicated channels, is looking at Buffalo-based Perfect Parallel to do just that.

Perfect Parallel has pioneered the use of accurately-georeferenced terrain data along with high-resolution images of golf courses to create broadcast quality images and video feeds.
Last week, Sky Sports entered in a multi-year licensing and service contract with Perfect Parallel. Sky Sports will have unlimited access to Perfect Parallel’s content for its live broadcasts of PGA and European Tour events in both Europe and the United States. The agreement began at the most prestigious golf tournament in the world, The Masters.

“Our content allowed Sky Sports to feature the most innovative, comprehensive broadcast out there,” said Buffalo resident and Perfect Parallel founder, Erik Lugris. “And exposure on this level is very difficult to come by.”

Lugris also explained how the partnership with Sky Sports at Augusta has spiked the interest for other opportunities. The three-dimensional content can also be developed for video games, simulators and golf course architects.

“Things are looking bright for us right now.”]]> Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:51:11 +0000 1d7f7abc18fcb43975065399b0d1e48e http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/corporate/brand-identities-approved-r53 Perfect Parallel's Advertising Agency, "One Group" blows the team away again by delivering fresh product identities for our upcoming product launches. Special thanks to John Pelerossi for always delivering the goods.]]> Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:26:45 +0000 b3e3e393c77e35a4a3f3cbd1e429b5dc http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/products/broadcast-suite/perfect-broadcast-suite-r45 Suite version 1.0" explains Andrew Jones, Director of Programming
Services at Perfect Parallel. "We listenend to our customers and they
told us what they needed and what they wanted. I believe that Version
1.0 will do just that.
Perfect Broadcast Suite Version 1.0 is a
black box solution for Sports Television Broadcast Networks looking to
take control over their virtual sports envirnoments and leverage their
own content realtime for maximum advertising exposure for their
advertisors and spornsors.
We met with several networks and
they all told us the same thing. We want to use your technology. Can
you build us a Suite of Products for our platform.]]> Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:39:25 +0000 2b24d495052a8ce66358eb576b8912c8 http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/products/course-forge/courseforge%e2%84%a2-in-action-r43
Our Kickstarter funding drive is now underway so if you want to be using these tools to create your own golf course please pledge so we can get this show on the road!


]]> Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:23:55 +0000 903ce9225fca3e988c2af215d4e544d3 http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/products/perfect-golf/golfdevblog/live-leaderboard-visual-brainstorming-r42

Part of the beauty and the battle when designing an interface is there are an infinite number of directions one can take it. As one of our goals as a company is to be truly multi platform, we look at all interface and design decisions from that perspective. Would it look good on a tablet ? How can we make the experience as good for a mouse user as a touch user, or even a gesture user. What sizes of text read best on what devices, how much can we or do we want to fit on screen?

Whilst this live leaderboard image does not represent the final or even pre-alpha version of the interface it does however illustrate how a visual mockup can serve to generate talking points and discussions, and eventually end in better decisions, far more than just text can.

The point is further illustrated by one of our forum users and posters on another forum who mocked up what one of our screenshots would look like with a moving sky. We all looked at it and after seeing what a difference it made saw it's value and made it a priority for the future to at least have a moving sky, even before the full weather system is developed. The great thing about mockups is they don't even need to be that well made, they can be scribbles or doodles. Anything visual just seems to get the creative juices flowing and the critque and comments come oozing out. So when commenting or suggesting ideas or features, a quick mockup goes a long way to get that idea into the game.

Even better than a static image is a video clip, of how a leaderboard like this would function and be updated.

[ylwm_vimeo height="530" width="940"]55091649[/ylwm_vimeo]

I encourage you to join the forums, comment on this live leaderboard, other blogs we make and on everything we post. Your input is hugely valuable to us and all our ideas together will go toward making perfectGolf..perfect.]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 14:03:45 +0000 a8baa56554f96369ab93e4f3bb068c22 http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/products/course-forge/the-three-click-bunker-r41
First of all you use a simplified version of Unity's Terrain sculpting tools to mould the terrain, it's like a paintbrush but you're painting hills, slopes and valleys instead. If you can use any computer paint program such as MS Paint you can use this!





Once you're happy with your bunker elevations you can now draw the more detailed bunker outline in our shape drawing tool. Make sure 'bunker' is ticked.





Click 'Create bunker' - This creates your detailed bunker mesh automatically.





Click 'Finish' - This adds the textures and dirt lip automatically. Of course if you want more control you can easily change the textures and the type of bunker edge ie grass, dirt etc for a different look.





That's it!



With lots of automation like this which takes the hard work out of building your course, you can spend more time designing it and less time building it. Share it with the Online community and have it played and rated by other players. If we like it, we'll use it for one of our real time tournaments and you'll get rewarded with special 'in game' items only available to course builders.

These tools are for you. Go on..... be creative!]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 11:53:41 +0000 0f28b5d49b3020afeecd95b4009adf4c http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/corporate/newspress/perfect-parallel-enter-into-an-agreement-with-t-r39 In the comments section to the announcement of PerfectGolf I talked about some news that was coming, well here it is....Finally...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TRACKMAN AND PERFECT PARALLEL ENTER INTO AGREEMENT

Washington, DC (November 16, 2012)- We are pleased to announce that "Perfect Parallel has entered into an agreement with TrackMan to develop an integration of their respective products that has the potential to bring real world data to virtual world game play, and next gen 3D visualization to real world play"

This arrangement is a continuation of our commitment to bring the most accurate and realistic golf simulation experience to the gaming industry. This also confirms that our decision to develop on the Unity framework was the right choice. By selecting an engine that is platform agnostic and building our own tools specifically focused on the creation of outdoor environments over the last 12 months we have built a great foundation. David Helgason, Co-Founder and CEO of Unity Technologies went on to say "This is without a doubt the most realistic expression of a run time golf application that I have seen to date.Your team has pushed Unity to it's limits.We love to see that...."



Erik Lugris, Founder of Perfect Parallel adds that "If anyone out there had any doubts that this game would make it to market this confirms that our product is ready for prime time. We continue to stand by our commitment to involve the community in building the best game play around for what is already the most realistic 3D golf experience."

We are currently putting the finishing touches on our kickstarter campaign and we hope to launch it very soon. We will have some great community rewards and lots of ability to participate in on-going development of our game.]]> Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:48:08 +0000 e00da03b685a0dd18fb6a08af0923de0 http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/media/ball-camera-r37 Virtual Camera Fun. Mon, 05 Nov 2012 17:12:20 +0000 3988c7f88ebcb58c6ce932b957b6f332 http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/products/perfect-golf/golfdevblog/some-virtual-camera-fun-r36
Here' a small video showing a sneak peak showing some custom tracking cams. First up we have the ball tracking cam where you can see the shot from the viewpoint of perhaps a playing partner as he waits to hit his own tee shot. Next up we have what you might call 'spectator view' where you (and our resident Heron!) watch the ball take off and land from away off to the side taking in some nice scenery along the way. Finally we have a 'ball cam' view as we soar high in the air with the ball before swooping down to it's final resting point.

These are only a few early options based on some of the requests and feedback we've received already. All the cams here show the ball 'comet' trail' for better visibility in the video but as with most things you can turn it on and off as you like.

Remember if you want to see something in our game - all you have to do it ask!]]> Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:46:09 +0000 42a0e188f5033bc65bf8d78622277c4e http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/products/perfect-golf/golfdevblog/home-improvements-r35

Sorry no Tim Allen today, although I'm told he's a keen golfer and plays charity pro-ams quite regularly so maybe there's a tie in there ? ;)However I do have some homes for you. We've been creating homes that can be used in multiple locations across the world, essentially building a library of different roofs, homes, pools, gardens, outbuildings, hotels that we can put together and create neighbourhood surrounding our courses.

Starting off with the least detailed buildings and working toward the courseside hotels, homes and clubhouses it's important to keep the polycount down, as there is little point having detailed window frames on a house in the distance. Now that's attention to detail in the bad sense!

I also wanted to show you a little of the construction. Just how simple these homes need to be. Â The detail really comes out in the painted texture maps. These are small images that we wrap onto the building models. We use multiple channels inside the image to let the shaders switch colors for roofs, windows, door and more. Just another way we optimize all the content to run optimally whenever you play.







Building these homes makes it very easy for us to recreate any course in the world. surrounding it with neighbourhoods, iconic structures and skylines.



Courses in the UK are often surrounded by neighbourhoods of homes and buildings, so when viewing flybs or course guides if the homes are not there it creates a disconnect. Courses like St.Annes old links have some holes where the whole right side of the fairway is almost lined with homes. A flyby or playable course hole without those would feel wrong.

Furthermore I've been told sometimes, ' Aim for the right window of that house and you will be in position A' , taken not completely literally these tips really help. I can imagine playing our game and utilising these real life tips in your virtual competition rounds.

]]> Mon, 05 Nov 2012 14:48:40 +0000 7f1de29e6da19d22b51c68001e7e0e54 http://www.perfectparallel.com/articles/_/products/perfect-golf/golfdevblog/a-bit-of-physics-r34



Hey guys - as you could see in our last blog post, we have our golfer taking some basic shots, which means we've started tip-toeing into the shot physics.

This is something we really want to get right, so we're taking our time with it. Not only are we governing the ball flight with classical mechanics, but we're also referencing with real-world data in order to make sure that the physics isn't just right in theory, but also in practice.

Just wanted to let you guys know that work is currently being done on that front and that we are very excited to get to a point where we can let you guys take some swings yourself and give us some feedback. No promises on when that will be just yet, but we're getting closer every day.]]> Fri, 02 Nov 2012 19:45:18 +0000 02522a2b2726fb0a03bb19f2d8d9524d