48 replies to this topic

[Mike Jones]

Thanks for the support guys it's appreciated. We are in effect going about this game in a completely different way than any golf game developer before.

We are a group of sportsmad, specifically golfmad individuals, who are creating PerfectGolf because we love golf, we love playing golf, we love watching golf, we love designing courses to play golf on, we love making tools to enable other people to design courses for themselves and others and we love to watch people have fun playing our game. That is what we are about.

 

We are not a group of people from the games industry who have decided to create a golf game because we think it will make a quick buck or two.

 

It's an important distinction because although we are swiftly progressing to V 1.0 of our software, we know how far we have to go before we can accurately simulate all the intricacies of the real game which is our goal. Most if not all games companies DO NOT have this goal in mind. They take shortcuts with the physics or 'canned effects' much like some games developers do with car physics and have 'pre canned spins', slides and other unrealistic behaviour. All golf games to this point know the final destination of your ball the instant you have finished your virtual swing - the whole experience is faked.

 

Not so with PerfectGolf.  What if your ball takes an unexpected bobble on the ground, caused my random imperfections in the grass surface, what if the wind suddenly kicks up and knocks your ball out of the air and into the front bunker and so on. This is the task we have set ourselves and this is why one of our first deals was with a premier launch monitor company, so we could compare our in game data with their real ball tracking capabilities. 

 

We will have something for you to play soon and it will be a starting point from where we will continue, with your help and input, to push the boundaries for golf in the virtual world.

 

Create, Share, Play, Compete. 

[KenR]

Thanks for the update and your thoughts Mike. Looking forward to the first version of PP Golf and CF, and then taking part in it's future development. I think it's going to be a great ride....

[Dazmaniac]

I think it is great that PP are trying to push the envelope as far as golf gaming goes. How well this will be done and what elements may be beyond even their skills, only time will tell.

 

It would have been easy (in the loosest sense) for PP to give us a TW/Links 2003 hybrid type of golf game, but I'm sure if they did folks will be still be crying out for more, so more is what they are aiming for. I wish them all the best in trying to achieve this.

 

Looking forward to the future, when we as a community can begin to work alongside PP in trying to make these dreams come to fruition.

 

[MistyLogic]

I'm not so much foaming at the mouth to play but I AM foaming at the mouth to design. Will the beta allow us to tinker with creating our own courses too?

[Dazmaniac]

I'm not so much foaming at the mouth to play but I AM foaming at the mouth to design. Will the beta allow us to tinker with creating our own courses too?

 

To tinker with courses, you will require Unity 3D and also Course Forge.

 

Course Forge obviously works as PP have already churned out a number of courses. We are just waiting for the day they make it available to the community.

 

Once they do, you can tinker.

 

[Davefevs]

Starting to get really excited. I've been quiet on here for a while and nice to see the guys starting to post a bit more regularly.

I would like to start hitting some PP balls, even with no golfer animation, if that is possible. I admire the guys approach, and hopefully it will be a bit like field of dreams, but for golf.....build it and they will come.

I hope the guys can make it commercially viable.

[MistyLogic]

To tinker with courses, you will require Unity 3D and also Course Forge.

 

Course Forge obviously works as PP have already churned out a number of courses. We are just waiting for the day they make it available to the community.

 

Once they do, you can tinker.

 

Sounds good. I have Unity 3D loaded already. Once CF is available I can start divorce proceedings....I mean, tinker.

[woodworkery]

OMG, Mike is talking about VEM.....noooooooooooooo, I waited for VEM ? I have that already with WGT and believe me it's far from fun. Think about it, your in the zone your doing everything right, your - 7 on the front 9 , then VEM kicks in and there goes your game. Yeah thats so much fun.     NO thanks

[Mike Jones]

I could disagree but then I would have to some idea of what you are talking about in the first place. VEM could stand for Very Easy Mode, or Vehicle Emergency Maneuver - Hmm,  maybe we could add a handbrake to our golf cart for quick turns, now there's an idea....

[woodworkery]

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for determining a user skill level for user interaction with virtual equipment in an interactive computer game. The virtual equipment is capable of being manipulated through user interaction with an associated representation. Automatically adapting a virtual equipment model associated with the virtual equipment to reflect the determined user skill level. The virtual equipment model governs how the virtual equipment behaves in response to user interaction with the representation. .

It does exactly what you described  it takes your shot even if you hit the proper shot and the swing meter perfectly, and does what it wants with the shot.

Clubs don't go their proper distance, winds are more are less than what your told. Things like that.

[woodworkery]

This is the proper name...Virtual Equipment Model

[Acrilix]

OMG, Mike is talking about VEM.....noooooooooooooo, I waited for VEM ? I have that already with WGT and believe me it's far from fun. Think about it, your in the zone your doing everything right, your - 7 on the front 9 , then VEM kicks in and there goes your game. Yeah thats so much fun.     NO thanks

 

I just went to the WGT site to read up on what VEM is, and Mike's comments about simulating the effects experienced in actual golf bears no resemblance whatsoever to VEM. As far as I can tell, the idea of VEM is to create a sort of self-adjusting handicapping. Mike's idea of simulating real golf will not be like this - ie. it will affect everyone at any time, just as in real life.

[SouthStPaul]

Woodworkery, IMO, I think that Mike is referring to introducing variable conditions and not necessarily punishing someone for having a good round.  IRL there are unexpected circumstances that could result in a bad shot; for example a gust of wind may reroute a drive into the rough.  This could occur whether you are -7 or +7, it just happens.  Like IRL, this would require a recovery shot and could still produce a positive result such as a par or birdie.

I think that the intention is to produce a superior simulation, not to punish or level the playing field.  For those that are looking for more of an arcade experience, perhaps the developers could make this an optional feature.

[KenR]

I would suggest keeping in mind something regarding the wind though; "gusts of wind" that can knock a shot down generally only occur on somewhat windy days. On a day when winds are light or on a hot almost windless day in the middle of the summer you're not going to play an approach shot to a green with a pond or stream in front of it and suddenly have a blast of wind come out of nowhere and drown your ball. So having random gusts of wind built into the game may provide more realism, but it should only occur under really windy conditions, not just any time.

[axe360]

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[Mike Jones]

Yep, the guys are correct, having a game which auto adjusts difficulty based on how well you play is not in our plans. I see no point in that game model for us at all. You either make something realistic or you don't and having the golf course or conditions conspire against you is not something that we would like to see.

 

Sometimes in real golf you do get that feeling though hehe 

[Razor]

I hope that the scoring is not such that -7 on 9 holes is but an extremely rare, if not nearly impossible. If it is truly realistic, that type of scoring would be so far off real life golf that this game would become a joke just like the scoring at WGT. How many pros have been -7 in nine holes? Please keep it real.

ray

[Davefevs]

I hope that the scoring is not such that -7 on 9 holes is but an extremely rare, if not nearly impossible. If it is truly realistic, that type of scoring would be so far off real life golf that this game would become a joke just like the scoring at WGT. How many pros have been -7 in nine holes? Please keep it real.
ray

I think it is fair to have spurts of birdies and eagles, just in real life.....the pros do. Whether that happens on 1-9 or 10-18 or any other combination of 9 holes, does happen....just not every round!

I'm guessing it could depend on your skill level.

[Acrilix]

I think it is fair to have spurts of birdies and eagles, just in real life.....the pros do. Whether that happens on 1-9 or 10-18 or any other combination of 9 holes, does happen....just not every round!

I'm guessing it could depend on your skill level.

 

I think some of us would just like to see an end to consistently 'unrealistic' play in golf games. In real life, a pro might have a run of 7 birdies in 9 holes maybe a dozen times in their whole career, and even then that's probably just the very best of the golf world. The problem with computer golf is that players will do these 'super rounds' of -18 or more every time they play, day in, day out. It's laughably unrealistic, and anything that is introduced that adds some realism to lessen this happening should be welcomed. I doubt that anything will actually play a major part in stopping the 'silly' scores, but I applaud the attempt to make this game more realistic than anything that has gone before.

So, bring on the unpredictable wind, the divots, and the occasional kid running on, and nicking your ball on the Municipals!!

[Davefevs]

I agree.

I hope that the ball physics have sufficient subtle differences that although the player might think they've hit it spot on, the ball will end up in slightly different spots.

Just be cause the "swingmeter" might show a 6 oc snap, doesn't mean it must go perfectly straight. We've all hit golf shots that feel like they've come out of the sweet spot, but don't go quite where we expect.