Hi All Golf Sim Fans,
I've been playing around with some old Red Chain Software: World Golf Challenge (WGC), I believe it is from 2011. I did this to get an idea of how everything got started and to have a look at the user interface etc., as it appears that Red Chain was the starting point. I came across this as it turns out that Fitness Golf uses this old software/interface, and they pointed me over to a forum where you could learn to do WGC Course design and create your own course and play it - after downloading some of the software, and the course designer and a manual put together by a handful of people that seem to be the only 'few' that design in this, still to this day.
Then, I find that after you read 51 pages into a 61 page design manual - you get to the point where you have your golfer standing on the first tee! (That's how long it takes!). it appears they may even have a LIDAR option. Anyway - it seems that if you mess around with this (WGC 2011), even as little bit, you can see where the whole Golf Sim software business got started (other than looking at console games like Links and JNPG).
It's interesting for me to look at the ball physics and how it bounces, and compare that to where things are with TGC 2019, and to see the different 'swing mechanics' you can choose in WGC, such as 2-click versus 3-click, etc. But, if you can get the game playable in WGC 2011, you can play it in the Simulator with Fitness Golf.
As I'm looking at this, I find somewhere that it says the guys that wrote the Red Chain Software were experts at what they did, and that there are 2 of them (I believe) and they both left Red Chain and joined Foresight Sports to help them in coding FSX. Then I notice that a typical course (file size) in WGC 2011 is around 324 MB, and that if you look at some of the newer FSX 2020 courses, they can be up to 800 MB-900 MB in size, which you would think would equal 3 times the level of detail, from 2011 to 2020, which seems about right to increase to 4K graphics.
So, my question is, if the software really does look as good as it does on the website, on a simulator screen (and if it is really 4K, as it appears it should be), and Foresight (FSX) have a few very interesting features, one that intrigues me most is: Real Weather - or something like that, where you go to a course, and tell it to set the weather exactly like it is on that day at the same golf course - now that sounds really, really interesting to me - as you could play Professional Courses on the same day the Pros play those courses, with the same weather conditions, and compare your game to the Pros for one incredible lesson in Golf Strategy.
Does anyone know if I have this history correct, and if so, can someone at Foresight Sports let us know if features like 'Real Weather', are still available in the new version, and if the new courses (2020) are truly 4K?
Also, has anyone done a side-by-side course flyby of a course in FSX2020 and compare it to TGC2019? I would be curious about that as well... not that one software would compete with the other, but that it would be a different software and different user/interface with unique features in one Sim software versus the other?
Seems like something to consider...
I've been playing around with some old Red Chain Software: World Golf Challenge (WGC), I believe it is from 2011. I did this to get an idea of how everything got started and to have a look at the user interface etc., as it appears that Red Chain was the starting point. I came across this as it turns out that Fitness Golf uses this old software/interface, and they pointed me over to a forum where you could learn to do WGC Course design and create your own course and play it - after downloading some of the software, and the course designer and a manual put together by a handful of people that seem to be the only 'few' that design in this, still to this day.
Then, I find that after you read 51 pages into a 61 page design manual - you get to the point where you have your golfer standing on the first tee! (That's how long it takes!). it appears they may even have a LIDAR option. Anyway - it seems that if you mess around with this (WGC 2011), even as little bit, you can see where the whole Golf Sim software business got started (other than looking at console games like Links and JNPG).
It's interesting for me to look at the ball physics and how it bounces, and compare that to where things are with TGC 2019, and to see the different 'swing mechanics' you can choose in WGC, such as 2-click versus 3-click, etc. But, if you can get the game playable in WGC 2011, you can play it in the Simulator with Fitness Golf.
As I'm looking at this, I find somewhere that it says the guys that wrote the Red Chain Software were experts at what they did, and that there are 2 of them (I believe) and they both left Red Chain and joined Foresight Sports to help them in coding FSX. Then I notice that a typical course (file size) in WGC 2011 is around 324 MB, and that if you look at some of the newer FSX 2020 courses, they can be up to 800 MB-900 MB in size, which you would think would equal 3 times the level of detail, from 2011 to 2020, which seems about right to increase to 4K graphics.
So, my question is, if the software really does look as good as it does on the website, on a simulator screen (and if it is really 4K, as it appears it should be), and Foresight (FSX) have a few very interesting features, one that intrigues me most is: Real Weather - or something like that, where you go to a course, and tell it to set the weather exactly like it is on that day at the same golf course - now that sounds really, really interesting to me - as you could play Professional Courses on the same day the Pros play those courses, with the same weather conditions, and compare your game to the Pros for one incredible lesson in Golf Strategy.
Does anyone know if I have this history correct, and if so, can someone at Foresight Sports let us know if features like 'Real Weather', are still available in the new version, and if the new courses (2020) are truly 4K?
Also, has anyone done a side-by-side course flyby of a course in FSX2020 and compare it to TGC2019? I would be curious about that as well... not that one software would compete with the other, but that it would be a different software and different user/interface with unique features in one Sim software versus the other?
Seems like something to consider...
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