Opinion on Red Chain / Fitness Golf software

[thegreatradish]

Hi all,

I've posted this in here because although it relates to Skytrak I feel that there will be many of you who don't visit that forum who have knowledge of Red Chain from the past. I'm looking for advice, I'll explain why in a moment but yesterday I posted this in the ST forum:

https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/skytrak/175372-fitness-golf-demo?p=176166#post176166

So, as you can see I am seriously thinking of Fitness Golf as my software solution for my Skytrak but in an off-topic area in another forum I use (private, non golf or sim related) I posted my setup - yeah I was showing off . Anyway, I had mentioned some of the above when another user piped up with:

Do not buy that, you will regret it. I'm not sure if you are aware but that is basically pound for pound the Red Chain software from years back. Unless they have overhauled the code, which I doubt, it's lame and has serious underlying issues with ball flight physics and doesn't even apply basic essentials like rough penalties etc. It's not worthy of being used as software for simulation, it's a game. The only serious option you have is The Golf Club

I asked him to elaborate because when I've been playing it I have really enjoyed it and thought the physics were on a par with JNPG. He hasn't replied. Have I missed something here? Was Red Chain really that bad? The link I provided already ruled out TGC but he didn't seem to register that. I didn't know anything about it being built on Red Chain, I'm new to the sim game and I had never even heard of it until today. Sure, I can see it's dated in graphics terms but that isn't something that bothers me - so long as the golf is simulated to a high standard then I am happy. How did those of you who have used Red Chain find it, purely in terms of the fidelity of its ball flight and environmental physics? Input much appreciated, I'd like to grab Fitness Golf while it's still on sale but if the consensus is that it's built on poor software then I'd rather just renew JNPG when the time comes.

[fitness golfer]

I'm not sure who would make the above statements but they are certainly misinformed. Yes, Fitness Golf uses the Red Chain golf engine but we have made modifications to improve the simulated game play with the SkyTrak hardware. As I said before in another thread, the Red Chain engine has almost certainly been used by more simulator golfers than any software in history. Red Chain presently works exclusively for Foresight Sports developing their simulator software. The Fitness Golf ball flight physics are great and I don't know of any simulator software that does this better with the SkyTrak hardware. The Fitness Golf software takes spin decay into consideration which I know for a fact that not all of the SkyTrak simulator softwares do. Without factoring in spin decay, all hooks, draws, slices, and fades will be exaggerated compared to real life. As far as rough and bunker penalties go, these are determined by the individual course designers so this will vary from course to course just like in real life. The reason we offer a fully functioning demo with three representative courses is so that potential customers can thoroughly evaluate the software to make sure it meets their needs and works properly with their computers.

[thegreatradish]

Thanks for replying! I've just spent the whole day playing rounds between JNPG and the Fitness Golf demo. I really can't see at all where the poster I spoke about above got his info because I found the ball flight physics in FG to be every bit as good as JNPG and did not come across any oddities with the environmental physics either, everything behaved as I would expect.

The software is very good indeed and I enjoyed my rounds today. I still have a good number of days left of the demo so I will continue to evaluate my options going forward but FG is definitely i my thoughts.

[mmlincon]

You'll find as many opinions on forums as people. Go with the one YOU like. The only negative I'd give the Red Chain software is it's dated graphically. It was the best simulated model out there and probably is still the most accurate. TGC and JNPG have some funky physics around the greens IMO.

[grant2145]

The courses and game play in Fitness Golf and Foresight's FR1 are the same or very close to it apart from the fitness part. The FR1 software is still very sought after and can go for $1,000+ for licenses that include as many courses as fitness golf provides.