12 replies to this topic

[Crusher]

In the meantime. Links 2003 is easy on your graphics card and has the swing types that are present in PG.  I go back and forth between the two games and when PG is finalized Links 2003 will always be a fall-back super golf game. Currently I have over 750 courses, all free from Links 2003 designers.

 

You can learn more about Links 2003 at Links Country Club.

 

[Parboy]

Loved Links since the 386 days. Can't play it after playing PG, just looks too dated.

[PinHi]

Certainly a great game yet - so many great courses - not nearly as many as that 750  but maybe around 180-200. Hope a lot of those designers come over to this game when designer is released - would see some great courses. Sure would be great if they could bring their designs they made in Links and use CF to make them useful for this game. That would be something!. Recognize a few names from Links that designed - that are here now. So we shall see what happens when CF is ready. Links is still great to play as well.

[Dazmaniac]

Just looking on Links Corner, they have 1920 course files on their servers available for download. Of these 533 are real life recreations (although in some cases there may be several versions of the same course available).

 

Yes not all of them would be classed as great or even keepers, but still plenty to go at.

[M Rose]

Certainly a great game yet - so many great courses - not nearly as many as that 750  but maybe around 180-200. Hope a lot of those designers come over to this game when designer is released - would see some great courses. Sure would be great if they could bring their designs they made in Links and use CF to make them useful for this game. That would be something!. Recognize a few names from Links that designed - that are here now. So we shall see what happens when CF is ready. Links is still great to play as well.

 

We're using a program called Terrain Forge which allows for conversions of Links 2003 course files (.crz) into the CF format; so far I have done one successful conversion and am working on a second. The elevations come out a bit blocky at first due to the algorithm which gives it a bit of a terraced / stair-step effect, but this is easily fixed with a few minutes of heavy smoothing.

 

I plan on doing most or all of my Links courses eventually.

[mebby]

I've been enjoying Links 2003 on my Surface Pro 3 when I travel. It's pretty good but not great. The wind and sloped lie impacts are way overdone. But... It works in a pinch!

[TimBoch]

After buying my new laptop about a year ago to better test and play PG, I had too many graphics problems with Links 2003 and had to finally give up.  Slowly, some of my courses are coming closer to conversion in Course Forge. I miss the APCD courses tour and the friends I have made over the last 10 years, but I am finding the Online Golf Tour a fun addition. Though I still find PG to be much harder than Links even at the easier settings.

[Armand]

I'm a bit of a course junkie, you might say ....  I have 1937 courses in my library for Links, 1498 unique courses with 358 unique real courses from around the world.

 

Links players have used the course designer (Arnold Palmer Course Designer or APCD) since September 2000, starting with Links 2001.  There have been:

♦ 900 courses released (including duplicates) for play with Links 2001 or newer;

♦ 666 courses released (including duplicates) that can be played only with Links 2003 or newer; and

♦ 371 courses released (including duplicates) than can be played only with Links 2003, v1.07 (i.e., "the mod').

 

As many as 123 courses were released in one month (January 2001, just 5 months after the APCD was available).  With the exception of May 2015 and September 2015, at least one course has been released in every month since September 2000.  Below is a bar chart showing the number of course releases (including duplicates), with the red line representing the cumulative total (% of total shown on the right axis).

 

 

I've not really played Links in the past 3-5 years, but I still collect the courses (for some unknown reason - probably habit!).

[Charles]

Oh, agree with this. For me too, Links is still the 'main frame' for PC golf. Play it every week since I bought the game in 04. Probably have around 1300 courses now. Stopped counting a while ago. All the P2P ones ofcourse and also some that have been retracted for some reason. Anyway, the greatest designs are all on board ofcourse. When I picked up on PG somewhere in 2012 I think, Links was still not threatened in anyway. I still find the sim the best since sliced bread, although now PG is finally getting legs, it looks finally getting bumped of that nr 1 spot. Still, I play it every week, in offline tournament mode on Daz's nice 'n neat set up, and I play against/with friends in the great 'REC' mode.

 

If there is one specific option I really love in Links, it's the 'ol recorded rounds thing. Playing against REC-rounds in matches is so much fun, it's right behind online matches but without the time hassle. I keep my fingers crossed that this will also be possible in PG. Andrew has mentioned it but there are some problems on this I gather, so I can't do  much more then hope. Anyway, Links was kingpin for me for many years. Still is a beautiful game. Runs smooth, plays fantastic with so much options and extra's, it boggles the mind really. A real shame this game got buried in legal b.s. etc. and disappeared new version-wise. But being kept alive (and even upgraded!) by such a great community is also something to behold. All for the love of a game! Big thanks to all those people for that. But the Links family is well represented in PG I see, with 'The Jones' leading the way and lot's 'partners in crime' on board. That almost garantees a smooth transition for the throne. The king may die sometime but the new one sure is going to step up! 

[JoeF]

I think the issue with recorded rounds has to do with the fact that the game calculates ball flight in real time.  So, though you could record the data generated by the swing the actual ball flight will be affected by whatever wind conditions are used.  For example - if you had recorded a gusty round and then you play against it the randomness of wind gusts, which happen in real time, could cause the ball flight to vary from that which was originally hit resulting in a shot ending up in a different spot on the course than had occurred in the original round.  If the devs can find a way to record and play back a shot by circumventing the real-time aspect of PG then recorded rounds would work.  Perhaps down the road they may determine how to do this.

[Charles]

If the devs can find a way to record and play back a shot by circumventing the real-time aspect of PG then recorded rounds would work.  Perhaps down the road they may determine how to do this.

Hallelujah to that JoeF! Jeeez, I shure hope the dev's will find a way. I remember Andrew posting an answer on this some time ago when I started on the subject. What you wrote shure is one of the problems. Another one seems to be (according to Andrew) the size of the REC file. The thing would be BIG wrote Andrew, although he did mention that they would look into it further into the future. Anyway, it shure would be great if this would at all be possible. Like all technical things, it's a challenge, and some guys love that!

[Acrilix]

I think the issue with recorded rounds has to do with the fact that the game calculates ball flight in real time.  So, though you could record the data generated by the swing the actual ball flight will be affected by whatever wind conditions are used.  For example - if you had recorded a gusty round and then you play against it the randomness of wind gusts, which happen in real time, could cause the ball flight to vary from that which was originally hit resulting in a shot ending up in a different spot on the course than had occurred in the original round.  If the devs can find a way to record and play back a shot by circumventing the real-time aspect of PG then recorded rounds would work.  Perhaps down the road they may determine how to do this.

 

There are already replays available in the game which obviously use past rather than live data, so I can see no reason why the same data cannot be used to create recorded rounds. My guess is the amount of data needed is the biggest problem here, and that complete rounds could end up becoming very large files.

[Crusher]

That would be nice.