Fitness Golf Demo

[skytrakali]

Has anybody tried the Fitness Golf demo on a laptop with only 4MB of RAM? I'm probably going to pull the trigger with FG, but I'd like to try it first. My ST-cave laptop is a bit old and only has 4MB RAM. (HP Pavilion g6). I'll happily upgrade in the long run, but I'd like to have a quick trial of Fitness Golf. If it's just clunky and a bit slow with 4MB then that's fine, but for all I know it may not work at all. Anybody out there got any experience of this?

(I observe that other forum threads often imply that the stated "minimun specs" for sims seem often to be over prescriptive i.e. to demand too much.......)

[fitness golfer]

I assume you mean that you have 4 GB of RAM not 4 MB. Your graphics card's video processing power is more important than the RAM. All of the SkyTrak simulation softwares really should have a dedicated graphics card to perform well and it looks like your laptop has an integrated graphics card so you may have to upgrade this. But, since the Fitness Golf trial is free why don't you give it a go and see how your system performs. Remember you can always change the graphics settings within the FG software to medium or minimum settings if the maximum settings are not working well.

[skytrakali]

Ack yes sorry GB not MB. How time has moved on! (My first home PC was a Sinclair ZX80 - that had one K of ram ! 4 GB still seems a massive amount to me)

That's a good suggestion - I'll give it a go and report back. But I suspect maybe that it won't run at all.

[Jwheels9876]

Just download it and see what it looks like.
I used an old laptop with like a 630 card in it and it ran with zero hiccups. The graphics aren't anything to be wowed by but they'll be ok if all you have is a crappy laptop...

I'd suggest seeing if Creative Golf 3d works also. That is better looking and IMO plays a little better also and it also ran on my older laptop without issues

[fitness golfer]

To each his own, but each individual user needs to decide what is best for them. Only Fitness Golf offers the ability to have a full aerobic workout while playing golf. Also, even if a user is not interested in the exercise modes, the price point is by far lower than any other SkyTrak simulator software out there. Fitness Golf offers play on over 160 courses, many of which are world famous, for the present sale price of $299. Keep in mind that the golf software engine that runs Fitness Golf was at one time used by over 10 simulator hardware companies, and to this date has most likely been used by more simulator golfers than any other software in the world.

[skytrakali]

Thanks to all for helpful replies - to Jwheels9876 I say: thanks that's a good idea - in fact I downloaded it and it works just fine with only 4MB RAM. Sure the graphics aren't as good as they could be but it works, the little birdies sing and the rain rains when I ask it to.

BTW Creative golf 3D actually runs at HIGH specs even on my rubbish old laptop but only ONE hole in the demo?! It's hard to get a good idea of the whole package with only one hole.

[Jwheels9876]

They must have changed it, it used to be 3 holes on like 6 different courses. The good thing about Fitness golf is you can find every course from here http://www.golfsimclubhouse.com/wgc2011/

[fitness golfer]

Or better yet, you can see the full Fitness Golf course list here:

http://www.fitnessgolf.net/courses.html

[thegreatradish]

I'd just like to say thank you to all concerned for making such a full featured demo of this product available, it really allows a proper evaluation of how the software works and performs.

I've had a little extra time over the holidays so I thought why not take a look at this, it's free after all. I am very impressed and now have an important decision to make about how I proceed. I bought an annual sub to JNPG in April and I do like the software but what has happened with the Trackman situation has put me off a bit, no one knows how much longer it'll continue to be available to Skytrak users for and with an ongoing cost every year to continue using it I don't know that it presents the best option for my circumstances.

I have no interest in online tours or societies etc, I just want a software package that I can play a decent number of courses on, at a reasonable (preferably one-off) cost with sound physics and environment, isn't overly technically demanding on my laptop (I have a desktop PC with good specs but don't want to keep it in the outbuilding my sim area is in, south-west Scotland is very damp and the shed was built as a temp structure in 1940, I much prefer just to take a laptop on each occasion) and will let my friends play along too when they come along. Also, what I really liked and is good for me is that no internet connection is needed outside the first use it seems, that's very nice and prevents me having to use my sketchy 4G signal on my phone as a wifi hotspot.

Fitness golf doesn't wow in the graphics department but that allows those with lower spec machines to use it, I would suggest the specs given as a minimum by Skytrak are actually a fair bit higher than are really needed. I forgot to run it on the first try with my dedicated GPU and it defaulted to the onboard Intel device yet it ran smoothly and without issues on lowish settings. For me, graphics are secondary to ball flight characteristics and environmentla physics and I have found FG to be very good there, better than I thought actually. I can't comment on the fitness element but for sim golf alone it's a really good piece of software and I'm sure there are many who would make good use of its low cost and low technical demands. I hope the folks at FG won't take offence at this but it I really like its simplicity, by that I mean it just works well and does the basic things you would want a golf sim to do very well. Let's not forget this is all available permanently for ~$300, that's significantly cheaper than the alternatives just now.

So, like I said, I have a decision to make. I had just assumed I would be renewing JNPG and hoping for the best, I wouldn't move to TGC given the cost and technical demands, CG3D is interesting but the model for extra courses would quickly make it expensive. I'll be using the remainder of my trial period to make a final decision but FG is shaping up to be my new sim of choice (please let it remain on sale long enough for me to make up my mind ).

[thegreatradish]

A little update and maybe some advice please to those who know. I also posted in the general forum about this because I thought there would be a bigger chance of someone with experience of Red Chain answering it but hope it's ok to post here too.
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? I 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 above, 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.

[HappyGilmore102]

HI

I just bought fitness golf, I own creative golf 3d as well.

Since i have only played 1 quick round on the Augusta course i can say that Fitness golf plays quite similar to CG3D.
The ball flight and distances and everything else seems fine to me.

I bought cg3d for the irish courses and i got fitness golf for the famous courses (most of the most famous courses are available).

I reckon that i'll probably play about 40 of the top real courses, that's all that interests me right now.

You can select different tees for most courses (not all) and you don't have to be connected to the internet to play once the courses are downloaded to your system.

I use a laptop that only has intergrated i5 intel hd 520 graphics and it looks fine and plays well in the low settings.
I could bump it up a bit, but I like the graphics as they are and prefer getting more out of the laptops battery.

For $299 its worth it for the better courses simulation, I tried WGT for $199 and found it to be a waste and unplayable due to the wgt chipping and putting issues.

Its $299 for 160 courses, the artificial courses look good, but don't interest me right now.

TGC is the best sim option left for skytrak, but it needs a constant internet connection and a top notch graphics card to run a cool, smooth and quite system.

E6 to expensive for me and JNPG gone, but happy as larry with my skytrak and sim options.

regards
HappyG

[skytrakali]

Generally I like the Fitness Golf demo - it's good fun and seems realistic. It runs fine with 4GB RAM and I'm about to pull the trigger and buy it. There's one thing that I can't nail though - when I hit a shot is there any way that I can get the data for that shot after I've hit it? Sometimes I want to see the launch angle, ball speed etc. but I CANNOT find out how to do this.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, and HAPPY GOLFING IN 2019 to all Forum readers/contributors !!!!!!!!!