398 replies to this topic

[Richard]

The conversion process is pretty easy in fact I'm hoping that most of it can be automated. When doing tests and updating older courses, the lighting has changed so textures need to be recoloured and if you want to use 3d grass on your meshes (who wouldn't!) you have to assign one of the turf effects grass objects to the relevant layer in the layer's library. That's about it.

 

This is great news. My main concern in my initial post was recovering the current user designed courses. My other concern, which I trust the developers are handling is the missing components, i.e. career mode and stats primarily. I, and I believe many here, have absolutely no problem paying for a new game. (Of course, I need to update to Windows 10 first. Ya, I know is was a DS for missing the freebie. )

[Dazmaniac]

Bingo!    People can now slowly walk away from the cliff.  

 

... and start bedding down in their nuclear bunkers, lol.

 

[M Rose]

The conversion process is pretty easy in fact I'm hoping that most of it can be automated. When doing tests and updating older courses, the lighting has changed so textures need to be recoloured and if you want to use 3d grass on your meshes (who wouldn't!) you have to assign one of the turf effects grass objects to the relevant layer in the layer's library. That's about it.

 

Good to know Mike, thanks.

I have a few things in progress that I'd hate to have to start over..... 
 

[RobV]

Good luck

[Buck]

I give up.   War World III is about to start anyway.... Enjoy PG1 while you can.

 

Sure hope not

Completely un-necessary provocation going on...

[zmax - sim]

Sure hope not
Completely un-necessary provocation going on...

I should have added a joking smiley.

[zmax - sim]

Furthmore, Mikes comment in a way is a hint on how close we are to PG 2.0. IMO....

[Arsam]

Thanks Mike for the insight, it relieves a good bit of confusion (at least on my part).  Sometimes it just takes a few lines of information from someone in the know to settle things down.

[worrybirdie]

Or just a little reassurance. Faith is a valuable commodity...not to be squandered...and no...I'm not religious (about most things).

[gravedodger]

Really looking forward to the new release and ready to hit that 'buy me' button on release ... hurry up

[✠ davef ✠]

looked at the profile,says i joined May of 2013, what the hell are a few more years.lol

where in the heck did those years go.

[MimicPS]

On the subject of version-chasing and the game not receiving the devlopment focus, I think we all have to accept that the game springs out of what is actually the course visualization business, which leads on to the broadcast suite business, and filters on down into the game itself. The game does not lead the development.

 

PP are always going to want the best visualization to offer its broadcast and design clients, and so naturally have to keep up to an extent with the development curve in terms of 3D environment design. I'm pretty sure though, that as a business they are aware of the razor's edge they have to tread between constant updating to new versions of Unity and actually producing output. As a business which produces output throughout the year but especially during a season, they need to be keeping the plates spinning with their current offering whilst also planning for the step-forward.

 

Very reassuring to hear some of the semi-official comment on how updating into a newer version may work for designs already released. In my mind, I have never been under any impression other than when a major ground-upwards step forward in the game comes, it will be a completely new release. So it should be, because that will allow for some much needed focus also on parts of the game which are frustratingly lagging a little behind - some elements of gameplay which still do not quite work in terms of golf scoring (concede in matchplay for example), and a game GUI which does justice to what is still for me the most engaging golf game/sim available.

[Dazmaniac]

I remember when Mike first posted about the possibility of using the PP simulator software to create a golf game on PC, over at LinksCorner years back.

So glad it saw the light of day.

[Andrew]

Thanks for the thoughts everyone.... On the subject of version chasing Unity 2017 is by and large the same as Unity 5.6  which is what we had started building the next version of the game on.  Its just Unity changed their pricing model.  One of the best things about Unity2017 is the move from .Net 2.0 to .Net 4.6 with all its async and await goodness (for the technical minded) which will make much of the data loading proceses much better and also make Xbox much easier.

 

We understand the value of the user course catalog and will try to make the conversion process as simple as possible.  As Mike stated we would love to have a little exe that just does the conversion (remember crx to crz)  but at the same time that may not be possible without taking away a significant amount of dev time from something else.  But we will make it as easy and convenient as possible.

 

With any development cycle we begin with the engine (Networking, event system, etc) then we move on to Course Forge and then finally the asset loading, game play and the UI.  We are  currently finishing work on Course Forge.  Part of the reason for limited amount of news is that talking about engine improvements is not very interesting and does not mean much to many as it has no real impact on features etc. However for us it means we can finally ditch steam networking and move to Unity networking which will open up cross device multiplayer.

 

We will shortly be moving on to Game Play and while I have started this the real news here is that we are moving from a player based game play to a ball based gameplay.  Many of you will know if all the bugs that were floating around from Alternate Shot which we played Whack A Mole with during PG1.  This decision will vastly improve the game flow and allow for much easier game flow mechanics.  For example the old concede code was over 200 lines of code.  With the new game play it is about 10.

 

I am sure Mike will do a post once CF development is finished covering the new things that will be in CF.

[frank70]

Thanks Andrew.

Are there, if i may ask, any plans to make any changes with the core gameplay? (Swings, physics, balancing of difficulty).

For instance: TGC2 has a tempo element in the controller. But it is implemented rather poorly - it's not granular enough. But as an idea i think it's very good. A tempo element that is more subtle could be a huge improvement for JNPGs controller swing.

[NoPutt]

Thanks Andrew, exciting news.

[Buck]

Superb update Andrew!
Many thanks for sharing!

That's just the sort of interesting stuff we all love to hear about...

[yesrushdt]

 Many of you will know if all the bugs that were floating around from Alternate Shot which we played Whack A Mole with during PG1. 

 

There are still bugs floating around Alternate Shot.  I was just playing Alternate Shot earlier this week actually and our team wrongly won the hole when my partner dropped a ball (after hitting it in the water).  The other team had already holed out to save par while my team was getting ready to hit our 7th shot.  Strange how this happened by choosing the drop area (instead of how it used to occur by hitting the concede button).

[pingzing]

Cheers for the Update news

It`s been very flat around here, i have lost  a bit of interest in game play and design

So this will give me  a little ray of sunshine  and  some baking powder into my scones to give them a lift

 

Thanks 

[JCat04]

Cheers for the Update news

It`s been very flat around here, i have lost  a bit of interest in game play and design

So this will give me  a little ray of sunshine  and  some baking powder into my scones to give them a lift

 

Thanks 

 

I too was encouraged to read the most recent development news from Andrew and Mike.  Even more than the news about 3-D grass via Turf Effects, I'm more juiced over what new high-quality mo-caps will do for the game.  As a real time swing controller only player,  I've found the new mo-caps of TGC 2 have made a huge positive impact on that game for me.  I don't doubt that equivalent, or better, mo-caps for JNPG 2 2 would have a similar positive impact.  The animation staying synced up more tightly to the stick motion is crucial to the enjoyment of a thumbstick control scheme in a golf game. 

 

I can understand how those of you who play JNPG using 3-click, or motion (mouse) control are still enjoying and getting a lot out of it.  Neither of those control methods appeal to me, otherwise I'd still be playing JNPG regularly.   Andrews comments about Unity's .net 4.6 and what it will do for multiplayer gaming and cross-platforming are new to me.  I'm very intrigued to learn more about it.   

 

I can't wait to see JNPG 2 with new mo-caps and 3-D grass, cross-platform play with at least XBox One players, but I'm tempering my expectations into waiting until next year for any of that to come about.