336 replies to this topic

[Buck]

Those do look nice...

 

This whole thing is so strange.
This must be what it’s like to follow an ex on Instagram and watch their new relationship. 
 

But, oddly, here we are still living in the old house...

 

I guess we got the old house in the divorce… LOL

[yesrushdt]

A new lighting engine and 3d grass don't make the Virtual Golf 2 version look that much better.  There are talented designers out there like Dropzone73 that can take an existing course and make it look considerably better by using  higher resolution textures and skies among other new assets.

 

Andrew Jones from a 6/5/16 article:

Quote

 

"We wanted to build a game that has some longevity to it," he said. "Because we're not in the gaming industry, our goal is not to build a game, release it, come back to the game later and do version two. That's because we have all of this other work."

[Buck]

yesrushdt, on 06 Feb 2020 - 11:19 PM, said:

A new lighting engine and 3d grass don't make the Virtual Golf 2 version look that much better.  There are talented designers out there like Dropzone73 that can take an existing course and make it look considerably better by using  higher resolution textures and skies among other new assets.

 

Andrew Jones from a 6/5/16 article:

 

You mean the dropzone73 who is done doing courses because PP & TM is pointlessly cutting off 3rd party simulator access to the software this year?

 

(btw - I agree with you about DP73's courses and work - FIRST RATE stuff - huge blow to have him leaving the design community)

 

The reality is that this whole thing is on life support long term with the current trend.

[Joe Habiger]

Those screens look ok but I sound like a broken record, they show off the course with the worst dam sunset lighting and it makes the courses look worse than what we can do.

[Buck]

Joe Habiger, on 07 Feb 2020 - 5:27 PM, said:

Those screens look ok but I sound like a broken record, they show off the course with the worst dam sunset lighting and it makes the courses look worse than what we can do.

 

It’s a low bar that TM’s designers have to clear relative to the quality of what other Simulator software has offered over the years I think.

 

I’m sure all those people blasting that up on projectors with their $75k “sim rooms” think it’s epic and are loving it.

[Buck]

Another nice looking course.... not fancy or anything, but looks like an enjoyable one to play...

"GC München Eichenried"
 

Video link

[M Rose]

Technically sound as always... they do amazing bulkheads.

But it's always the default textures for every course.

[Joe Habiger]

TM VG2, looking at that video it looks great but from what I have seen I bet we could produce almost the same look with what we have now. I bet you probably couldn't tell the difference even.....

[bortimus]

I wonder why PP never builds courses with the overlay method?


I also miss seeing Mike’s fictional courses. Really great stuff. I was hoping we would see more of his Links 2003 courses appear in PG.

I wonder if he will make those available for TM VG2.

[Skunky]

Joe Habiger, on 23 May 2020 - 1:36 PM, said:

TM VG2, looking at that video it looks great but from what I have seen I bet we could produce almost the same look with what we have now. I bet you probably couldn't tell the difference even.....

joe ,i think you are right.i think we could make it look even better.i dont see any 3d grass,whats up with that.

[Buck]

Skunky, on 23 May 2020 - 2:50 PM, said:

joe ,i think you are right.i think we could make it look even better.i dont see any 3d grass,whats up with that.

 

They've had some grass on some videos I've seen I'm pretty sure -- but it does appear to be done in maybe a different way than you designers here are doing.

[Skunky]

iknow they have 3d grass,the question is why are they not using it?still having FPS issues? just wondering.and by the way the course looks great.just not cutting edge like you would think.

[Buck]

Skunky, on 23 May 2020 - 3:50 PM, said:

iknow they have 3d grass,the question is why are they not using it?still having FPS issues? just wondering.and by the way the course looks great.just not cutting edge like you would think.

If I had to guess maybe it’s just a slow ramp up to higher system requirements eventually?

If you cut out 3-D grass, this game runs well at very high resolutions on ridiculously low end hardware.

It’s possible trackman has a large install base of customers with older hardware still.

[RobC]

Nope.... It has grass it's just lodding(?) put at that distance... Like ours does.... That's all

[Buck]

RobC, on 23 May 2020 - 9:14 PM, said:

Nope.... It has grass it's just lodding(?) put at that distance... Like ours does.... That's all

 

Is it different grass?

Are they using that NVIDIA Turf Effects thing do you know?

 

(for that matter - is that what's being used here by you course designers also?)

[DPRoberts]

I've had a few brief discussions with Mike in the past about the grass. So, unless they've changed, they are using Turf Effects. We are using Stix Shader.

[Justin9926]

Buck, on 23 May 2020 - 5:10 PM, said:

It’s possible trackman has a large install base of customers with older hardware still.

Do you honestly believe someone that can afford a Trackman setup is using an old Hardware system.

 

[Buck]

Justin9926, on 24 May 2020 - 12:22 AM, said:

Do you honestly believe someone that can afford a Trackman setup is using an old Hardware system.

 

Sure - absolutely in fact.

 

The installation base includes many large facilities that probably have been customers for a long time - well before PP acquisition/partnership.

It's very realistic to envision such customers only upgrading their TM hardware if the PC's at each of their bays can continue to do the job.

 

Smart businesses don't spend extra money when they don't need to.

[Stingreye]

Buck, on 24 May 2020 - 12:31 AM, said:

Sure - absolutely in fact.

The installation base includes many large facilities that probably have been customers for a long time - well before PP acquisition/partnership.
It's very realistic to envision such customers only upgrading their TM hardware if the PC's at each of their bays can continue to do the job.

Smart businesses don't spend extra money when they don't need to.

TM calls out a GTX 1070 as the minimum required graphics card.

[Buck]

Stingreye, on 24 May 2020 - 03:24 AM, said:

TM calls out a GTX 1070 as the minimum required graphics card.

 

You are correct - they do say that for the latest version.

It might not be enforced though.  It'd be a somewhat unusual piece of modern software that literally won't launch w/o a specific GPU level.

 

Anyone else have guesses as to why they wouldn't be using 3DG all over?

 

If it isn't tech specs of host PC's, it's hard to understand why they wouldn't be, particularly on brand new courses.

I've had a 1070 on PG and it handled all 3DG I threw at it perfectly