27 replies to this topic

[wjf67]

Is virtual reality the natural progression? Wearing those VR specs to provide a 360 degree experience?

[SFR]

It's one thing to play VR with fake clubs and a pretend swing like they have now, but when you are swinging real clubs I can't see how one could do that and wear any sort of device on your head and still not change the depth perception you need to hit the ball.

 

I think just getting all game physics to be accurate would be a huge advance in Simulator Golf.

[zmax - sim]

This is easy.

 

Perfect Golf 2 with 3D grass.  

[grumpter]

I can only imagine the number of injured wrists and broken simulator hardware.

[Dazmaniac]

I think full blown simulators are the height of golf simulation.

 

Yes, VR is cool and in the right situation is so immersive, like driving games, flight sims, FPS etc. With golf, while having the full 360 view would be cool, you only really need to be concentrating on the view where you're aiming, which is why golf simulators work so well and really don't require VR.

 

When playing a shot you only really need the view ahead and the periphery. You don't really need to be looking over your shoulder with a VR headset on IMO. Using real clubs, with real balls, hitting in to a rendered image of a golf course on a screen using a shot tracking device such as SkyTrak or Trackman for me is as good as it gets. 

[zmax - sim]

Daz,

Throw in scrambles online with 3 other guys from different parts of the world and using voice chat. It’s a blast. Only available with jnpg Simulator.

[shimonko]

Not VR - I've even tried playing JNPG in 3D with nVidia 3D Vision glasses - it just doesn't work for golf simulators as you get taken too much out of the club-ball world. Golfer needs to be in the real world, resulting strike in the virtual world.

The future is definitely higher poly vegetation to get that that photorealism back - that Links and WGT had despite the drawbacks with their 2.5D type worlds.

[DoGgs]

A proper sim setup holds much more appeal than any VR experience and i have no room for sim so PG2 will be my future...hopefully :/

[grumpter]

As others have pointed out a 350 degree view really wouldn't add much to the experience not to mention the issues with not being able to see the actual ball and club. However, I think there is some merit to an expanded view. Say 180 degrees where the simulator capture is over head, you have a screen in front of you and one to each side (3 total screens) where you can turn and hit in almost any direction forward.

 

The problem I see, which is already a problem holding back the simulator market, is space. We need homes with adequate space which around my part of the world is hard to find at an 'available to most anyone' price point. Not sure we will ever get there.

[shimonko]

Space is nice, but I use JNPG and even compete in OGT tournaments, especially long drive, at my local driving range - as I only have 8 foot ceilings at home.

There are quite a few guys who have cheap nets that they hit into in the backyard, and align and watch the result on a laptop. Was quite funny when one had to quit a round because it started raining.

[grumpter]

My home has 8 foot ceilings as well and I have a neighbor below plus to the side. No yard available and driving ranges are not open this time of year in my area. The only one open, that I have access to, would be limited to about 150 yard shots. Before I made the plunge I spoke with the owner of the company I work for and they were OK with me using some warehouse space as long as the sim can easily be removed in a relatively short amount of time. Right now it takes about 45 minutes to setup and another 45 to tear down. Thankfully I can leave it up for extended periods.

[shimonko]

Given the choice of 8' ceilings versus traveling to the simulator, I'd take the 8' ceilings. It's nice having it at home so one can just hit a few shots when there's a few minutes to spare.

I'm 6' tall - my ceiling has lots of marks on it from hitting on about 1 in 20 followthroughs, but it's just a bit a plaster and paint to fix.

[Armand]

Hmmmm ... I'm 6' tall as well and last time I tried, I could only swing a SW (comfortably) with 8' ceilings.  Different swings, obviously!

[shimonko]

I had to modify the swing quite a bit

[grumpter]

We just need to learn to keep it compact

 

[Jimbobh]

I would go for this one. (If I had that kind of money..lol)

 

[andrewjjones43#]

It’s funny. I have a 270cm height and have never hit the ceiling but every visitor comes round and hits it with first wood shot they play. I’ve always said to just do a normal swing but even scratch players suddenly produce a seal culling swing and hit the ceiling. It takes a while to forget about the restrictions.

[worrybirdie]

We lowly computer players worship you from below...but...of course...I don't have to get as much exercise.

[andrewjjones43#]

“Lowly computer player”!!!! I’ve been a computer player for nearly 40 years going back to the days of Leaderboard on the Commodore 64. I still play mostly on pc but that’s the brilliance of this game. You can do both with equal enjoyment.

[worrybirdie]

I started on Leaderboard too! The one with no trees, just a crude fairway shape and green. I was being a little facetious in my post.