Optishot Software

[davray666]

Valid point. I for one would not like to have any Optishot club sensor integration with anything. That thing is a piece of crap. I have one, so I know.
But in the off chance I get a choice (for a Skytrak only sim) between.
1. TGC 1000$ + 1200$ for a sim PC.
2. 300$ for a Simway sim with 10 courses + a Laptop or PC I already have.
I would choose option 2 without any hesitation.
Does not mean you are wrong and I am right. Just 2 different opinions based on different priorities.

No I don't drink Budlight, beer is important. The amount of sim courses and on line play, is not.

[Sascha1818]

Why not go with WTG in that case ?

[luv2golf]

Valid point. I for one would not like to have any Optishot club sensor integration with anything. That thing is a piece of crap. I have one, so I know.
But in the off chance I get a choice (for a Skytrak only sim) between.
1. TGC 1000$ + 1200$ for a sim PC.
2. 300$ for a Simway sim with 10 courses + a Laptop or PC I already have.
I would choose option 2 without any hesitation.
Does not mean you are wrong and I am right. Just 2 different opinions based on different priorities.

No I don't drink Budlight, beer is important. The amount of sim courses and on line play, is not.

I agree 100% with you davray666. I even went so far to email simway and they are working with GC2 for sim.

Why can't skytrak work with them too? Yes, there's WGT, TGC, E6 and PG. I understand that to many irons in the fire takes away from each individual piece of software.

I don't agree with integrating the opti pad. I to have one with a great jagmanjoe turf top, but you know what, it's sitting in my garage. I would love to take my licence key, input it into Skytrak with Simway software on my regular laptop and play away. SkyTrak_Seth , I'd be happy to pass on the contact information, if they are willing to look at it, why not investigate the possibility?

[wbond]

Not a good analogy at all, not even in the same ballpark.

Most people around the net/web and elsewhere believe the cost of the GC2 is too expensive, so we will use this as a threshold, $6K. Skytrak was launched as an affordable device, $2k. We now want simulation so this thread was started with the thought of using optishot. If we do that, you get sim, skytrak and some club tracking for under 2.5K. Still affordable and less than half of the too expensive threshold.

Now if you want to get simulation and supposedly the best, we have 2k for skytrak, roughly 2k for software and then another approximately 1k for computer. Very close to the too expensive threshold. If you go the route of getting the base protee system with TGC, thats roughly 3K, plus 2k for skytrak. Once again, very close to the too expensive limit.

Optishot or just the software could be an alternative to keep this in the affordable range. We don't know pricing for other options yet, but based on whats quoted now, it's quite a significant jump in price to get TGC. No matter what you have to have a computer to run the software and more than likely that's an additional purchase for the majority.

BTW, Opti courses are $30 and they recently did a 10 pack for $15 each. (I didn't purchase any as i'm holding out to see what i can get for my skytrak)

Forget the opti cover, you need a jagman joe cover, no pain and just as good as my CCE mat.

TGC is worlds apart from opti, but so is the cost.

That is crazy talk my friend.
While the idea is a good one... Soon you will figure out that those limitations you spoke of will once again be present. How many courses do they offer now? And optional courses cost $60? And you still can't play Augusta. 10000 courses x $60 = Alot more than a Protee and a computer that you can launch a space shuttle with. Hmmm Seems you could buy a Protee and have it all. And get 70000 courses for free. Then let the SkyTrak do all the work and just use the Protee to give you the club data that is accurate. With 3 times the sensors in just 2 rows I would think that would be the choice of Champions. The biggest issue for me would be the fact that you don't have to worry about injuring yourself hitting down and through on the cheap surface you get with an optishot. I had my Protee 5 years now and the top is still in playable condition. How many $40 tops would you go through in 4 years? I had my Optishot 1 year and went through 3 aftermarket tops plus the original. But if you like limitations and somewhat accurate data and if you like playing the same courses then this would be a good plan. But, since Protee and SkyTrak already have a great relationship started my guess is you will see the Protee option long before talks even begin with optishot. If you do it right you only have to do it once. But if you try to skimp by on a dime then you might end up spending that dime over and over and over until you eventually spend the quarter and end up with a Protee and a Skytrak. Been there done that. Life is full of choices.

Let me ask you guys this. When you go to the store, which beer do you buy? Milwaukee's best? or Budlight? One is surely cheaper. the choice your talking about here is no different. But it's a one time spend. So yeah the price of TGC might look big. But in the end you'd save more money if you bought the Milwaukee best beer over a life time.

[Hoosierdaddy]

To each his own my friend. But online play is why I bought the Protee. If you just like to go out and bang the ball around anything works. But I am not that kind of guy. I like playing with others, telling jokes meeting new golf buddies, competing in the dead of winter in a sport I love more than my first born almost. Competitive golf is the only golf there is in my book. The rest is just practice. And practice is boring to me. My golf buddy and golf instructor once told me... you never really know your game until you put it on the line in a tournament. And the more you do it the better you get. You can hit balls on the range all winter, and you won't be any better at competitive golf than you were the day the course closed. Because the pressure is not there and you can't duplicate it. You can raise your heart rate and stuff like that but that mental block is gonna get you every time. The more you face those blocks the better you can deal with it. So like I said Dave. To each his own buddy.

And just to set the record straight. You don't have to spend $1200 on a computer. I spent right at $800 and I know you can get what I got for much less, a year later. And if you buy the stuff used you can get by even cheaper than that.

But like I said you can spend dime after dime or just dig deeper and spend that quarter because we all know that is where we want to end up.

[FaultyClubs]

I don't see that Optishot (ie Dancin Dogg) brings anything to this discussion. DD hardware isn't worth much and DD license their software from Simway. If you want an affordable simulator then get Simway talking to Skytrak. Although I've not seen anything yet showing Skytrak is your friend when it comes to affordable simulators. Hopefully I'm proven wrong when, and if, they ever sell a working simulator.

Anyway I'd also be interested in a Simway based simulator at the right price. The Optishot sim software is reasonable and it runs well on just about anything. It even has online play although I'm not sure if that is Simway or Optishot.

[Bubba22]

There are too many hardware and software bing bounced around here. A Simway based simulator would be a Golfacheiver. They use Simway software. Check their software prices. It's not cheap. Not sure Oprishot and Skytrak will happen anytime soon. I agree with Hoosierdaddy comments. Everyone buys a sim and software for different reasons. Expecting all these companies to merge hardware and software will require a very patient wait.

[davray666]

This started off as an idea (e.g not even a serious proposal). I can say one thing about the discussions here, there are some passionate people around. It's like "you can call my wife ugly but say anything about my simulator and I will drill you a new one"
Anyway. SkyTrak_Seth Seth said that they are not against any sim software and will look in to other alternatives in due time. As of now they are loaded with 5 sim partners working hard to integrate them. I guess that is both a reasonable and expected reaction.
Why not WGT instead of Simway, well I don't know maybe that is a good alternative. We will know once the terms and conditions are presented.

[Bubba22]

There at many reasons why or why not a Sim hardware will use different softwares. If Skytrak integrates with all the softwares it's planning on, that will be the most by a specific hardware company. Look a Foresight, Trackman, Flightscope, About Golf. How many software companies her they integrated with? Usually 1-2 only. I hope Skytrak just gets the planned stuff done first, then look at others. It certainly won't happen anytime soon.

[davray666]

Again a valid point but you fail to acknowledge that the golf sim scene has changed drastically this year. E.g. what used to be the norm will probably not be anymore.
If companies like About Golf, FullSwing etc ... don't change, they will fade away. So those are good examples on what not to do.
It will be interesting to see what Foresight will do. I can imagine there are daily strategy meeting's over there.
Once Rapsodo has cleaned up, documented and tested the driver and API for each platform. They give it to the sim software supplier and let them integrate. The reason they are busy now is because that stuff is not ready yet.
Then when all that is done all they have to do at Skytrak is sit back and count the money from the 99$/year subscription. Brilliant, I wish I would have come up with that idea.
That is until something better comes along.

PS. I forgot about the Golf Achiever. So after you mentioned it I went over there and checked the prices just for fun because I would never invest in a sensor that only measures ball speed and direction. Guess what? 1095$ for the sensor and sim with 54 courses. Pretty decent if you ask me.

[Bubba22]

Being in the sim discussion for over 7 years and I don't think the market has changed that much. What's happened is the market has added another cheaper alternative in the Skytrak. About Golf, Full Swing, Trackman etc are still around. Their prices are and always will be for high rollers. These are guys that have a 50k budget. Those guys are not buying a Skytrak. What happen is that Foresight and Flightscope etc. (Mid range priced sims), will have to reduce their prices or come out with an alternatively priced sim to compete. No doubt their hardware is overall more accurate than Skytrak. Golfacheiver is a good example of a mid range company that will really suffer. Check their prices from a few years ago. So yes, Skytrak has affected some but not the high end units as their market is not us. I am under NDA so can't discuss everything, but there are thing coming over the next few years that will have more impact.

[luv2golf]

Yes, this thread was started as a discussion and it's gotten pretty heated. This was an idea and as a current optishot owner and a skytrak owner, I'd like to know if this is possible.

If foresight is looking at Simway, why shouldn't Skytrak? Perfect Golf will have sim and online play, maybe not a million fake courses to choose from, but I don't need all that too.

For alot of us, it's about cost. I want a good product at a fair price. If I was looking to spend 10K plus, I would of never owned an optishot to begin with. I used it for 3 winters and it served it's purpose. The sim play was fun and the online play was fun too.

Even the tournaments that were held here were fun too. That will still continue, I just want a golf sim that's more realistic to my ball flight, club head speed and distance.

So that being said, I look forward to the next couple of months..........Going to watch my Steelers destroy the Pats - TOMORROW (I hope)!!! Awww.......thought today was Thursday, holidays kill me.

[liturbo]

FaultyClubs--I agree that the OptiShot ("OS") hitting pad doesn't really add much but the sim software and graphics are not bad--thus, if DD owns full rights to the software or can sublicense it to whomever they want then it could be a cost effective option. If you had the option of using the hitting pad some people might like the additional info. The other benefit is the OS infrastructure and development (online play, menu development etc.). Depending on the OS/Simway licensing/development agreement SimWay may not, and likely cant, just license the same software they created for OS. If that is the case then starting from square one with SimWay and ST might be significantly more expensive. I completely agree with wbond--people ring their hands over whether to invest 2K in a ST --those considering an ST clearly don't want to incur the $6K plus cost of a gc2. A basic sim set up with ST, a projector, screen, netting etc runs at least $4k. For an addict like Hoosierdaddy adding 3k for Protee plus possibly (but hopefully not) an additional 1k or more for the TGC ST sim software may be worth it. Not everyone will feel the same especially if they have to invest another $1-1.2k for a new gaming computer. Hoosierdaddy's suggestion would require an additional $4-5k pushing the total minimum investment to at least $8k. Reasonable men can differ as to what they want to do with their money. As a closing point I am not sure I followed Hoosierdaddy's beer analogy but I can categorically state that neither of his 2 beer options come close to my idea of an acceptable option--as I said reasonable men can differ.

[luv2golf]

Again, not sure how this became a debate........... We are discussing Simway for use with Skytrak. It just happens that simway licenses to dancin dog and golfachiever.

Who they currently license to is a moot point, we are hoping that maybe testing and descent pricing might be an option for skytrak users.

[JohnMeyer]

Couldnt agree more with the pro simway comments. Optishot from a hardware point of view is not good, but software wise it is more than adequate as a sim platform and has many of the features already up and running that all other software hasnt got yet. Simultaneous online multiplayer, single location multiplayer, full featured driving range etc, low CPU requirements etc. If an API was developed that simply meant that Skytraks data could be sent "Optishot "software then youd have a fully working sim up and running with very little development cost

As you say Skytrak appear to have gone with WGT as there base level software supplier, which is fine, but imo that software "out of the box" is not as good as the current Optishot software in terms if sim play as it simply wasnt designed to be. However we just dont know yet as its all still very early days

The number of courses option is irrelevant really in my opinion, as how many courses will you ever actually play, and how many of them are even suitable for sim play anyway.

All of this is part of why I pulled the plug on ST purchase, just too many things we dont know yet, but to keep on topic the Optishot software would no doubt be a nice turn key option if it was possible, which youll never know unless you ask and I think its been a question worth asking

[Hoosierdaddy]

Not a good analogy at all, not even in the same ballpark.

Most people around the net/web and elsewhere believe the cost of the GC2 is too expensive, so we will use this as a threshold, $6K. Skytrak was launched as an affordable device, $2k. We now want simulation so this thread was started with the thought of using optishot. If we do that, you get sim, skytrak and some club tracking for under 2.5K. Still affordable and less than half of the too expensive threshold.

Now if you want to get simulation and supposedly the best, we have 2k for skytrak, roughly 2k for software and then another approximately 1k for computer. Very close to the too expensive threshold. If you go the route of getting the base protee system with TGC, thats roughly 3K, plus 2k for skytrak. Once again, very close to the too expensive limit.

Optishot or just the software could be an alternative to keep this in the affordable range. We don't know pricing for other options yet, but based on whats quoted now, it's quite a significant jump in price to get TGC. No matter what you have to have a computer to run the software and more than likely that's an additional purchase for the majority.

BTW, Opti courses are $30 and they recently did a 10 pack for $15 each. (I didn't purchase any as i'm holding out to see what i can get for my skytrak)

Forget the opti cover, you need a jagman joe cover, no pain and just as good as my CCE mat.

TGC is worlds apart from opti, but so is the cost.

I think you got it backwards.... Most peoples wives think its to expensive.... If most people had their way they would own one. And the only reason most people are on here looking for alternates is because they know if they bought one it would be hard to play it from the refigerator box they would be living in. So lets not confuse things any more than they already are.

And I am not saying you have to spend a ton on stuff you can get by just like you did with the opti. But you'll be disappointed just like you are with the opti. Every time you take the cheap road you limit yourself as to what you can do. So if you want an open highway with lots or room Then spend some cash. If you want to limp down the narrow road you created for yourself then thats your choice.

Catch you later
If I ever run out of courses to play on TGC I might drop on down to WGT and play a round with ya.

[davray666]

Hoosierdaddy how much did you pay for your Skytrak and TGC? In case it was free I think that would be interesting to know considering your strong opinion on the value vs. pretty much anyting else.