20 replies to this topic

[Dazmaniac]

Last year, this was posted here on site:-

 

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.

 

I am now wondering if the deal only included The Masters, as whenever Sky Sports show other virtual courses, they seem to still be using the software from Pinpoint Broadcast. I watch Sky's golf coverage every week and am always hopefully of seeing some PP created virtual courses appearing, but it never comes to be.

 

They were even previewing holes in the Shot Centre tonight (with Denis Pugh and Peter Oosterhuis) during the Valero Texas Open coverage and the virtual Augusta they were using was the Pinpoint Broadcast version.

 

Maybe details of the agreement cannot be shared, but it seems odd for a multi-year licensing and service contract to be signed off and then we never see the product being used, only at Augusta.

 

[KChavis]

I sent Andrew a PM about a month ago asking when we could see their work on a live golf telecast - he said the next time we could see their content would be the Masters.  So, maybe the 1st time we will see it will be the Masters....Thanks

[Davefevs]

....and hopefully a lot more content after the Masters.

[Dazmaniac]

I sent Andrew a PM about a month ago asking when we could see their work on a live golf telecast - he said the next time we could see their content would be the Masters.  So, maybe the 1st time we will see it will be the Masters....Thanks

 

It was used by Sky Sports at last years Masters, so this will be the second Masters where PP have provided Sky Sports with the virtual course.

 

I was querying more the other events Sky Sports cover, as they do just about all the European and PGA Tour events, but the virtual courses used are not PP's, so I was trying to find out what the multi-year deal included. It would seem it is just helping with coverage at Augusta and nothing else.

 

[Dazmaniac]

Just been watching Sky Sports News (before the footy comes on) and whilst Kirsty Gallagher (nice) was talking to Sir Nick Faldo, on the right of the screen they were running fly-by's of the holes at August National with PP's version of the course.

 

Gotta say, it looked really, really good. Hoping to see more through the week when Mark Roe and Butch Harmon get on the Sky Pad and look at some holes in detail as well as the coverage itself using the fly-by's on a regular basis.

 

Nice work fellas.

[Jimbobh]

Fly overs can be viewed here

http://www1.skysport...rs/course-guide

[shimonko]

Great to see there's no tree shadows popping into existence like seen in The Golf Game flybys. TGC seems to billboard at around 200-250 yards, possibly allowing the sheer quantity of trees they generate.

 

IIRC Mike mentioned PP does it at 400 yards but I can't even pick it up on these flybys beyond 400 yards. Wonder if PP's prerendering (baking) the shadows or is running super pumped graphics hardware for the broadcast?

[Kablammo11]

Both, I reckon.  You can set the billboard transition as far away as you wish in Unity, if you have enough CPU performance to render all the trees. 

 

The reason why the trees are "popping" so badly in TGC is probably due to the fact that they set the dissolve of the transition to 0. And I'm sure that TGC will improve in that regard - some of the gameplay videos on YouTube look dreadful in that respect (and in quite a few other respects as well,) but surely that must not be their final product. I can't see HBS ever settle for this.

Now if somehow they could find a way not to use the same tree over and over and over again.... looks like the best ever reason put forward to install a law that forbids cloning.

[shimonko]

Are you talking about the fade in of the billboards? If so, from memory it was only the tree that morphed into the billboard, the shadow was off unless it was 100% mesh. There was an extreme fading of the shadow of meshes as they got farther away though--I can't recall understanding what was going on there.

 

The other possibility Unity allows that I've only briefly played with, not sure if you have, is defining multiple meshes of each tree at different level of details (LOD), then telling Unity which distance range to use each mesh. So a 2000 poly tree up close for example, a 500 poly tree further away and a 50 poly tree way in back. 

 

It's good to see the qualify of the PP flybys, and I definitely appreciate that the guys are not tempted to rush out 'just another golf game'. And that Mike hopes he's still working on it 20 years. It drove me insane that Links could only have limited new functionality hacked into it.

[Kablammo11]

There was a bit of everyting wrong in there, but I lack the sufficient wherewithal to offer a technically sound explanation. I would have to go back into Unity just to make certain, but afaik the shadow draw distance is a value that is different from the tree billboard distance. In my project, the former is set at around 800 meters, if memory serves me right, and the latter at around 300 meters.

What this means? I have no clue. But I'd tentatively suggest that billboard trees do cast a shadow...

[shimonko]

Yes, you're right, shadow distance is different - I never noticed it before and just found it in Project Settings/Quality. So controlled  by the quality level the player chooses.

 

Just playing quickly around now, billboard trees within the shadowed region don't cast shadows, but possibly there's a setting somewhere controlling that. 

[Kablammo11]

...or we could bake a light map (?). Or CF does that automatically when the game file is being exported (???). Of course, with a light map the shadows wouldn't sway in the wind as the trees do, but that would be acceptable to me.

There is so much we don't know. With Unity, I often feel like a fool who has been mistakenly invited to a mensa meeting.

[Mike Jones]

Lightmaps are always static but can be faded out at closer range so real time shadows are seen. Of course if you go for a dynamic system with a day/night cycle you cant use lightmaps and real time shadows are your only option.

[shimonko]

Those Battlefield/Call of Duty/.... level designers have it so easy.

[Kablammo11]

Mike, I'd go for any damn system that let's me bonk a little ball with a stick across some greenish surface. Unless it's baseball. The dynamic time of day system will not happen tomorrow, I'm pretty sure of that.

Oh, and Mike, unless you are given explicit directions on the lighting of your Augusta Flybys, really try getting your sunlight lower so that it has a chance to cast longer shadows and to bring into relief (literally) the humps and bumps of the course. Currently, the light seems to be at 50 degrees or so and it kills many subtle details on greens and fairways, making them look very flat and uniform. 

 

Shimonko, I just checked: Billboards do not cast shadows - but shadows can be cast on them.

[Kablammo11]

Just spotted this: Click on this link

 

The Guardian Online, curtesy of Sky Sports, is showing PP flybys of Augusta, too. Looks like the work of our chaps is being put to good use around the world. 

[shimonko]

A nice thing about the flybys is the camera being much lower to the ground than the typical helicopter flyby, allowing a shorter focal length to be used. The true contours of Augusta finally show up on video.

[JoeF]

Sure would be nice if PP put those flybys together in Hi Def and put it up for all to see. These look good in a small frame but I would love to see the true quality at full screen in 1920 x 1080.

[FixAmer1st]

Great videos. Can't wait to swing my golf club there.

Mike, a question.

I love the steeply sloped sand trap sides. Does a ball that lands towards the top, unless plugged, roll down towards the bottom? Even a little or half way down?

Jerry

[Mike Jones]

Just depends on the physics Jerry, nothing is 'pre canned' . My experience has been that the ball usually rolls down the steepest parts of the bunker onto the flatter parts. We're still tweaking physics so hopefully we will have the option to create multiple sand types.