152 replies to this topic

[sirputterman]

The new information displays are nice. The driving and putting are nice.  I find the ball in flight looks like a humming bird going up and down and floating before ball lands.  But when it lands, the ball seems to drop abruptly.

 

I would have to say at this point that the only game-play change that impresed me is the Putting. It's tougher and that's a good thing. Everthing else makes this game IMHO seem way off kilter after adapting it to U5.

 

I think if it stays this way we will see more players asking for the version before U5 but include the putting change and a few of the information menus/displays.

 

Edit: I forgot to mention that at Ultra High the graphics seem a bit lighter and crisper.  That's a plus.

I agree on the ball tracer or follow look . The ball almost seemed to stutter and bob up and down  through the air and I found it so unrealistic that I turned it off as it was so bad. Chips seem to run out way too much but it may not being use to it. Still though for using a high lofted club unless you fully lofted it ran out far far too much.  

Found the lag it bit more too and no while I don't have a gaming pc It's not gerbals running it either. Running i7  3.5 Ghz and 8 gigs ram with a Radeon  HD 7700 card and while I plan in the future to bump up the Ram to 16 gigs and possibly a bigger card it certainly isn't going to happen this year so I hope the lag can be tamed down a bit. Playing on min min it was extremely hard to get close to the snap at times and may have to go to mod mod because of it.   

[Golden Bear]

My thought on the update is it is fantastic in almost all areas.  Chips  work perfectly once you realize where to land them on the greens.  
The putting is  realistic now too.  Approach shots roll up properly unlike before and short shots have lots of backspin, all good points.  Finally also hazard shots in the heavy rough can prove to be a penalty for next shot that is well deserved.  I had a shot with 85% lie that rolled out almost 2 clubs past distance mentioned, but should have because of where I landed it and was shooting a 1H, beautiful.  The graphical improvements when starting a round at about 5 am really pop at you with the improved lighting.  

 

Only one major bug I have encountered so far.  Having struck the pin from about 100 yards out, it shot backwards the 30 feet to the edge of green and about 80 more feet down the fairway, lol.  It also happened to an opponent almost as severe with about a 30 yard approach.  Definitely  the pins are reacting like cement at the moment.

 

But all and all a big thank you to Mike and all the guys for an outstanding update.

[Golden Bear]

Because Im wondering how this went through testing without the chipping acceleration and wedge approach spin issues not getting reported.  These 2 things are too major for a golf update released after testing.

Maybe Im wrong, maybe they were reported and they chose to push it through and change this on the fly.  Or maybe no one is seeing this as screwy.

It took me 11 holes to realize where to land chip shots and it is fairly easy.  Whatever the distance of the chip is to the cup, chip half that distance and voila.  Nothing is wrong at all with the chipping imo.  

 

ps...I always use the 56W whenever possible for chips and do in the scenario I mentioned above.

[MSPORTBMW]

I agree on the ball tracer or follow look . The ball almost seemed to stutter and bob up and down  through the air and I found it so unrealistic that I turned it off as it was so bad. Chips seem to run out way too much but it may not being use to it. Still though for using a high lofted club unless you fully lofted it ran out far far too much.  

Found the lag it bit more too and no while I don't have a gaming pc It's not gerbals running it either. Running i7  3.5 Ghz and 8 gigs ram with a Radeon  HD 7700 card and while I plan in the future to bump up the Ram to 16 gigs and possibly a bigger card it certainly isn't going to happen this year so I hope the lag can be tamed down a bit. Playing on min min it was extremely hard to get close to the snap at times and may have to go to mod mod because of it.   

Agreed about the follow ball view......looks terrible and very unrealistic compared to the last version.

Im still trying to get the hang of the chipping and putting, but only played 18 holes so far. And the swing meter does not seem as smooth now.

[Mike Jones]

You guys know there is a setting in the UI that allows you to adjust both the tracer and the 'catch' time of the follow camera? Generally lower settings allow you to fly with the ball while the higher settings have more of a 'ball fly off and then camera catch up' look to them. At least now you can choose and also the camera doesn't bounce with the ball which many people used to find off putting.

 

Play around with the settings in the game options and see how it goes.

[robbiet71]

I have had some slight frame rate issues which were causing me to mis-hit a lot of shots using MS. But it's intermittent and if I close the game and resume it usually sorts it out. Lowering the settings in game doesn't seem to help.

When it plays smoothly it is nothing short of wonderful.

The chipping is a little tough to grasp at the moment. I tried charting distances on the practice range (aiming to the right where there is a flattish green like area without any rough) and achieved some consistency but when I took it to the course I was finding the chips running up to 20ft further. I am sure I will get used to it though.

Putting is really challenging as it should be IMO.

Played an evening round at Shadowlands and the sky was orangey awesome. Lol. I like the more vibrant colours. If I want drab I can look out of my window lol.

I had one weird thing at Florida Glades on the 16th I think. The little tree in the bunker near the green. I hit it and the camera shook like crazy for about three seconds and then the ball plopped down from the tree. Made me laugh.

I can understand frustration with performance issues...I am sure future updates will optimise performance further. As for the gameplay itself, I find the minority who are complaining about 'physics' to be somewhat at odds with my own perspective.

Best golf game in the process of being made, in my book.

[jimbob59]

Played for an hour last night, a bit rushed with no time to try anything  and felt slightly dissapointed.

 

Played a couple of hours this morning with time to try various cameras and settings  and   am thrilled with the  update.  Yep still a few tweeks  needed but very enjoyable.  Guys give it some gameplay time and some experementation   before  even  constructive critism.

I dont like the catch time - at a setting of 8 its not too bad  but no problem I simply turned it off  and its just the normal follow cam  I was used too in the last  Version.  You have the option.  

Puts between 6 and 12 feet may need some work  either by PP or probably more by myself.

I tried it on  Win10 and  hey all the missing arrows/ticks  etc are now there  and it works great looks like Ill be convering from win7

Look at the positives  being able to set handicaps is great amongst friends.

Passwords  for  lobby games is a big plus

The increased quality of the graphics  is superb

Chip, pitch and  lob shots

 

As I said  I can think of some tweeks that would improve it and no doubt will find a few more but Ill only respond with practical suggestions not rants and raves with emotive language about how this isnt correct or thats wrong.

Its still Early access and we  all have an opportunity to improve the game even further.

Jim

[Jimbo63]

I will leave it to others to discuss any playability issues and just say that graphically the change from U4 to U5 is amazing. I have just completed a round at Florida Glades and it looks brilliant - well done to all involved in the updating. One small question - is it possible to merge the path texture into the surrounding texture?

[jt83]

My aging PC could only manage a few holes, so I couldn't reach many conclusions, but here they are - 

 

Pros - Looks great, love the way the ball looks through the air, having the option to pitch/flop is nice.

Con - The putting.  Oh dear.  I for one liked the old system - distance was sort of taken care of for you, but that's not unrealistic IMO...if you face a long putt in real life, you know you have to hit it hard and vice versa.  You still have to worry about line and the slope you're on.

 

Edit - my OP started raving a bit, but now I realise my complaint could be fixed with one thing - yardage on the putting meter.  At the moment how are you meant to tell what a yellow range putt is?  Fixing that would make the game consistent in terms of the different strokes.

Edited by jt83, 14 June 2015 - 11:34 AM.

[Mike Jones]

We had the same sort of feedback on putting originally with our test group but as they played it more they started to get a handle on how far a ball would go on a flat green or when it's sloped. My rule of thumb is that 9 o clock on the meter is around 30 feet on a flat green stimp 10 and 12 o clock is around 70 feet. Once I had this in my head I was able to get putts reasonably close a lot more often. The other thing is that the slope plays more of a factor than you might think.

 

The problem with adding an actual yardage on the putt meter is that it will not take into account the speed of the green or the slope and it will confuse just as many people as it helps. Hope you stick with it and start to get the hang of it, I can tell you through our testers experiences it will get easier quite quickly.

[jt83]

Thanks for the reply Mike. Of course I'll give it a fair shake, but I think there has to be something...unless all new players plan on asking one of the devs for tips! I can only speak for myself, but it would take me less time to learn by getting to 9 o'clock, missing, and realising "oh I obviously didn't take the slope into account" than the current "umm, hmm" way.

[JOHNDALY91]

I think a solution is to remove purpleturf's ability to chip period. He is a real sob to beat once he gets his chipping grove on 😁, on a serious note the 3 click meter still needs optimization, its still too inconsistent with 80 +fps. The shot physics I'm sure will be tweaked with time.

[Jimbo63]

Just played Willow Heath and IMO the change to U5 makes the course look stunning. Congratulations to K11 you have set the bar very high for future course designers and I look forward to playing the courses that you are working on at the moment. But I still think some of those pin placements are fiendish 

[JoeF]

I could not get horizontal swing to work reliably at all.  When I switched back to vertical swing, the problems went away immediately.  I went to the driving range with horizontal swing and the numbers looked good, but the ball would not go.  I hit one with 100%+, 1[T], On Plane and .25 and the ball just dribbled a few yards.  I hit some vertical swing shots with numbers slightly worse and the ball took off just fine.

 

You're taking too much time to complete the swing.  There is a 3 second time limit to the swing in MS after which a severe distance penalty rapidly comes into effect.  Those dribbling mishits are the result.  Just pick up the pace of your horizontal swing and you'll be fine.  Same thing happens with the vertical swing, too.

[Kablammo11]

Just played Willow Heath and IMO the change to U5 makes the course look stunning. Congratulations to K11 you have set the bar very high for future course designers and I look forward to playing the courses that you are working on at the moment. But I still think some of those pin placements are fiendish 

 

Thank you, Jimbo63.

 

The current version of Willow Heath is a straight port to U5 made by the nice people at PG. I would like to thank them for the effort - profusely so!

 

Once the complete set of tools for working with in U5 has filtered down to me I will have another go at the place. Mainly to add some slighty better textures and work on the tree situation: Willow Heath trees are not Speedtrees, and never will be, due to legal, strategic and aesthetic considerations. But colliders will be added to them, so that they will be in play.(Currently, only the tree trunks are solid). I might plant a few strategic trees near the greens and fairways, just to give you guys an opportunity to find out about mean foliage, when I'm working it over.

CF having a new tool to assist in the planting of flags, yes, I will review every pin position and, if necessary, alter it. I may still opt for "fiendish", but will get rid of those that I deem unfair. As for the considerable amount of dead flat putts still on offer over there... they will disappear.

 

I hope you will equally appreciate my second design, the Black Swan, which is bound to hit the shelves soonish.

[Mick-S]

do we have to have PHYSX - CPU  on screen, not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, just that sort of thing annoys me.

[Mike Jones]

I have been fortunate to help K11 with the u5 update to Black Swan and let me tell you it's absolutely stunning in a bleak, western Ireland, type way! It's just missing a few sheep to munch their way through some of the weeds!

[Mick-S]

my frame rate has dropped quite a lot, used to get about 60fps on ultra high now get about 40-48fps on medium. ultra high unplayable.

[JoeF]

To those who are complaining about the chipping and the backspin - you need to rethink how you are hitting the ball.  

 

With chipping most people seem to be hitting the ball too hard for the new physics.  The ball now rolls much more naturally on the green than in the U4 version and as a result you don't need to hit a chip as hard.  Once you back off on how hard you hit your chip you'll see how much more realistic the results actually are.  

 

Backspin is affected by the physics changes to the greens as well.  The more you go beyond 12:00 the more backspin you will impart on the ball and the more pronounced the backspin will be.  You really have to consider how you want to play the shot into the green.  If you're hitting into an upslope going down a club and hitting it softer may be the best choice while hitting into a downslope one may want to overswing, increasing backspin and imparting more bite into the ball's landing, causing it to hold.  

 

The physics around the green have changed.  Now you have to change the way you play.  And once you do it becomes a thing of beauty.

[☠InDaSkies☠]

Although I love the look and the putting of the new update.  Amazing upgrades on those 2 things.  I gotta admit the physics are brutal.

Really to the point of cant believe this was tested and approved.  Or who is testing this?  The spin is overdramatized on alot of shots.  The chipping accelerates on landing even up steep hills.

Hoping others are seeing this and its not just me and anyone else I play with.  Hopefully fixed soon.

The chipping was discussed. And I know they are aware of this so please be patient I'm sure all will be addressed. We as testers take a lot of our time to test things and report them so you guy's will have a fun game to play. Id much rather be playing with friends and having a good time. So when were testing a new version we don't have the option to play anyone. So cut us a little slack. It is early access!