Brand new in this update is the Digital Caddy, your guide to Golf Pro VR. With a glance at your controller you can see information about your current shot, course conditions, scorecard and settings. Also included is an overhead map of the course which includes markers for yourself, your ball and your target hole. This map can be zoomed using the buttons on screen and panned using the touchpad on your controller. I've left the old main menu in until the next update.
Swing impact physics were also tweaked. An approximation of dynamic loft was implemented which means that you should have more control over the height and shape of your ball flight.
The next update will be a tutorial and demo which will explain all the features of the digital caddy. As always, let me know what you think!
Patch notes
Added Digital Caddy
Modified swing physics to include something like dynamic loft
Clubs now wrap around: You can press left from the driver to use the putter and the opposite
UI pointer now comes out the bottom of the controller
Changed UI pointer from tentacle to laser. RIP tentacle.
Update 3 - Introducing Villa Angeles
Included in this update is a new course, Villa Angeles, and a bug fix for a crash-on-start bug. If you were one of the ones affected by the bug and this does not fix it please let me know!
High above the clouds, Villa Angeles is a fantastical course built to satisfy a wealthy clientele. A short course, its challenge lies in the narrow approaches and carries over mountain gorges. If you can hit it straight there are plenty of opportunities for scoring here!
The new course marks a change in the artwork process for Golf Pro VR. Previously we were using the Unreal Engine landscape as the basis for our maps. This had several advantages: quick prototyping of large levels, easy level and material design. The advantages came with some disadvantages though: restricted materials, even polygon distribution, LOD + performance limits. With the new map we have transitioned to using static meshes for the world geometry. The new process lets us distribute geometry where we need it (sand traps, holes, edges in general), use more complicated materials and have things such as clean lines between the fairway and rough. It also frees up some performance that is now used on more sophisticated lighting. The downside is that it takes longer to create maps and this format is less amenable to a course creator. There is still work to be done on it but I think it’s an improvement. The existing two courses will be transitioned over to this new process.
Let me know what you think!
Bug Fix
Small update to fix a bug where the club was making contact with the ball twice.
Update 2 - Swing Mechanics
TL;DR:
Added a full set of irons (driver, 3-9 iron, PW, SW and putter). Lefty clubs too!
Entirely reworked how club-ball impact works, with the main goals of making it more consistant and fun
Updated ball flight physics to allow you to draw and fade your shots
New clubs
This week focused on the clubs. Eight new clubs were added and all clubs (new and old) have new textures. They are not final but should look better than the old ones. They also retract now when making contact with the ground so there should be significantly less clipping.
The way that club-ball impact works has been completely redone. Previously we relied on the default Unreal Engine physics to handle the forces generated when you hit the ball. While this worked and could be surprisingly fun it was simple and did not accurately represent how golf works. It could also be incredibly frustrating since the margin for error was almost non-existant.
After update 2, we use the built in physics to calculate the collision and then provide our own implementation of the forces. This pretty much boils down to an impulse put on the ball which sends it flying and spin imparted to the ball by a combination of the club used, the swing made and what shot shape the player had selected.
Just like real golf, if you make contact with the ball and the clubface is in line with the swing path the shot will go straight. Open the club face and your shot will fade, while a closed face will make it draw. Its a very simplified model but I think it does a decent job of imitating real golf while still being accessible to non-golfers.
Combined with the ball flight physics in this update, I believe this leads to both a more fun and more accurate game. There will still be changes to this model but it's a good foundation to work from.
Ball flight
The other major part of this update was changes to the ball flight physics. This pretty much came down to implementing the Magnus effect. This is the effect which causes a spinning ball to curve away from its principal flight path and is crucial in golf.
Small additions
This update adds a hole/distance indicator. Hold down on the trackpad and an arrow will appear by your ball with the distance to the current hole. There is also something to help read the greens if you hold right on the trackpad, but it needs a lot of work and is basically useless right now.
Going forward
Next update should include bug fixes and another course. I'm not happy with the techniques used to build the current courses and will be using this as a way to improve them. Multiplayer is slowly being worked on as well but is still a ways away.
Let me know what you think about these changes! I'll be making tweaks over the next few weeks and would love to hear what you think.
Patch notes:
Reworked swing mechanics entirely
Updated ball flight physics
Added full set of irons, pitching and sand wedges
Added new textures for all clubs, including roughness and metallic
Added settings screen to main menu, only includes setting for lefty clubs right now
Added yardage indicator to shots on the practice range. It appears when a ball gets deleted after a shot.
Introducing Rose Bluff - Update 1
Rose Bluff is a new course designed to help test distance, swing and green mechanics. Even more open than Hallerbos, it's challenge rests mostly on the greens. Let me know what you think!
Patch notes:
Added Rose Bluff course
Fixed bug where player would teleport to the center of the course after completing a round
Fixed bugs with main menu which could cause it to get stuck
Added static shadows to range and Rose Bluff. They look decent from far but pretty crappy up close, this will be improved
Fixed bug where scorecard could face the wrong direction
Update #1 tomorrow
The first content update for Golf Pro VR will be coming tomorrow! It includes a new course, Rose Bluff. This course is designed to be a little less challenging than Hallerbos. Also included are several bug fixes.
Added text to controls
Small update that just adds some text to the controls explaining how to drop a ball or the club. Sorry that wasn't clear AlienJitsu!
Bug fix
Just released a small update which is a temporary fix for people who were finding themselves beneath the floor. If you run into this issue please let me know, I haven't been able to reproduce it. Thanks!
