64 on Carnoustie!

[delaloi]

Ha! Not really. In the last few days I've installed FSX 2020, installed and played a bit with Reshade, and had my first proper round today with the new setup on a 3.0 version course.

The good: Whether due to the 2020 upgrade, Reshade, or (I suspect) a combination of the two, the graphics really are hugely improved. It is not photo-realistic, things are still a bit blocky and cartoony. But the system now illustrates elevation changes at a plausible level. Carnoustie on FSX 2018 (no Reshade) was basically featureless and no fun at all. Now I can see side-hills and dunes, the sculpting of the course, bounces to play. Much, much better. The contrast imposed by my current Reshade settings is a little harsher than I would ideally like, and I am still experimenting, but the trade-off is well worth it for the better terrain definition.

The bad: I didn't actually shoot 64, as the scorecard says. The game can't keep score. I didn't really just shoot 29 on the back 9 at Carnoustie. If it's not adding auto-putts then I think I shot about 79-80. If I add a stroke every hole it was 82. The summary of the game after the scorecard says I shot 77 -- maybe? Come on guys. Intellivision could keep score. Really not good.

The excellent: I did finish par-par-birdie in real life. WOOT! Probably never to be repeated on what may be the most brutal finishing stretch in golf. (I set wind at 10mph; today it was behind on 16 and 18; with the opposite wind I don't think Jack Nicklaus could go under par on those holes.)

[delaloi]

Just to follow up: Played Coeur d'Alene 3.0 for the first time today.

I see less performance difference here (FSX 2020 + Reshade vs. FSX 2018) than with Carnoustie, but there is improvement in the most important area for me which is illustrating terrain changes. It's better. And, the upgrade did not cost anything.

The scoring is batshit crazy. It's not adding a stroke a hole, or failing to count gimmes. It's just randomly forgetting a shot here or there. But the summary card after the scorecard is right (so long as you don't make anything worse than a double, at least you can figure out what you shot).

One wonders how such a thing can pass basic QC. But whatever.

[delaloi]

Just downloaded Pebble Beach 3.0 and had a look on the PC. The download file is 1GB, as opposed to the others 200-300MB. I think it shows. A new level of conveying elevation changes. Like, tee shot on 11 you can tell you are hitting straight uphill, whereas before it was just kind of blurry and you couldn't tell what you were seeing.

It looks like a major improvement and I can't wait to play it.

[delaloi]

Pebble 3.0 + Reshade is really excellent. The best overall golf sim experience I have played.

I holed 3 putts today (outside of 6-foot gimmes) which is almost unheard-of for me on FSX. Often I play 18 without holing a single putt. They may have made the 2020 putting physics more fair. But the course looks great and the ball physics around the whole course are really the best.

Illustrating terrain changes / ups and downs are at a totally different level from FSX 2018 (without Reshade). A different game.

I scrubbed the faces of my wedges before I played (they were getting pretty scruffy with ball coating). First full lob wedge I hit spun back 15 feet. Never happened before on FSX and at the time it was not useful for me so I was unhappy. But I looked at GCQ and had over 8000 backspin, whereas before the face scrub I was getting 4000 tops. (I know I need new wedges but it's kind of a pain to do a fitting session at this point...) Anyway the course reacted to the ball data.

Loving the free upgrade.

[AdamV]

Got any screenshot examples of what you’ve done with Reshade?

[delaloi]

I'm not super techy. I used Reshade settings that others on this board have posted. Home key pulls up Reshade menu. Set F12 to toggle effects on and off. Haven't yet found time to experiment much. I'm going to try a few different combinations of effects but I feel what I've got already is pretty good, and further improvement will be tweaking at the margins, not revolutionary.

I played my fourth round today on a 3.0 course, Royal Birkdale. Not a course that translated well on FSX 2018. I think I now see what we have here:

• Get Reshade. Toggle on and off and there is simply no argument. FSX 2020 without Reshade looks like you are laying a veil across your screen to look through. Video purists may balk at the high-contrast look but it really does provide more definition which is what you need here
• Reshade aside, I would put FSX2020 graphics improvement at around 20%. But in this context that is huge. It's really game-changing. If all you do is look at the cartoony yellow grass in the rough, you will think it still sucks. But look more closely at the bunker definition and visibility of slopes and terrain. It's WAY better. Add Reshade and you have a different play experience. Particularly on the links courses where slopes and bunkers are hard to see at the best of times. You can now see what the golf course looks like. And I feel the ball physics (direction and distance of bounce, etc) are excellent.
• The impossible putting cup has been tweaked. I think I holed 4 putts today. Probably an all-time record. You actually feel like you have a chance on a 12-footer. Previously anything outside gimme range was just a faint prayer. Now it feels fair. Much better.
• I have encountered a strange Unplayable Lie mod a few times, on Birkdale and Pebble. Occasionally you hit a real clunker, into impossible rough/gorse. The ball looks like it's going straight into a bush, makes a strange plonk bounce sound, and you get an unplayable lie and a free drop. It can help, probably unfairly.
• Severe Lie Penalty has been minimized if not eliminated. This is probably unfairly helpful. You can hit one in the middle of the dunes, which in life you would be super lucky to find at all, and all you get is Lie Penalty (or even Flyer Chance), and you can play out almost unhindered. I took advantage of this a couple of times today on Birkdale en route to a smooth 77! :-)

I see many people criticizing Foresight, probably well deserved. But FSX 2020 is a definite upgrade from 2018, and the cost was zero. And, I'm playing my fantastic golf sim while most poor buggers are hitting plastic balls at best. Life is good!

[AdamV]

Great feedback. I don’t really feel like I have a veil over my FSX (epson 3500L projector), but I’m going to try reshade anyway, with the settings I’ve seen on here.

My issue with FSX is less about colour and detail, and more about depth and scale. On most courses everything in the distance is so big you can’t get any appreciation for true size, elevation is only ok at times. TGC seems better at this.

[AdamV]

Gave Reshade a go and got it working, certainly noticeable, over exposed almost with some plugins. But dual monitor setup wasn’t working well for me.

Not sure what’s needed to get that sorted so have uninstalled it for now.

[delaloi]

Played Merion 3.0. The trees look like it's blowing a hurricane with wind set at 10mph. It's a bit distracting. But it's again much improved in conveying distance and terrain changes. I like the course a lot.

As for putting, I had 4 lip-outs and 1 holed putt in the round. But possibly just unlucky -- a couple of the lip-outs were moving pretty fast. I still think it's become slightly more receptive.

[AdamV]

Agreed, Merion looks really nice now.

Spyglass Hill with a little re-shade looks amazing and that’s still the old version too.

[delaloi]

Today Kingsbarns 3.0. The course really looks good. The most immediately noticeable change is that the grass and gorse has grown about 2 feet, which makes many of the tee shots semi-blind. You have 3-foot high brush blocking your view of the fairway on many holes. Often you cannot even see the top of the aiming stick. But again the conveyance of terrain is massively improved (with Reshade).

In terms of playability, as with other courses Severe Lie Penalty seems to have been disabled. I hit a couple of howlers into deep gorse on the wrong side of dunes -- just card an X on the real course -- but here there is still no big problem getting out, just hammer something in a good direction and subtract 10-15% from the distance. This is very forgiving, so don't let those scores in the 70s go to your head...

I'm now counting lip-outs and holed putts -- today 2 of each. Of course I felt like both of the lip-outs should have gone in, and the holed putts were dead in the heart and if they had not dropped I would have put my putter through the GCQ. (So, fairly realistic probably...)

[delaloi]

Downloaded and played Castle Stuart 3.0 today. It's great, I think even nicer than Kingsbarns. It's a dramatic layout and the terrain changes really jump out. The previous version was already one of my faves and 3.0 is a significant upgrade.

Again, Severe Lie Penalty nowhere to be seen. 2 lip-outs and 3 holed putts. It might be a little more forgiving than the previous FSX, but still it's really hard to make those 7-10 footers.