SkyTrak and The Golf Club (TGC) Simulation Software

[soccerdude]

Hi Seth. I'm new to this forum but have been reading as much as I can about SkyTrak on this and other forums. It seems that many experienced sim users think that The Golf Club game is the best simulator software out there right now. In fact, if I'm understanding and remembering things correctly, Bubba22 and Zmax were instrumental (please correct me if I'm wrong) in getting ProTee to integrate their sim hardware (and gc2) with The Golf Club software. So my question to you/SkyTrak is simply this: Has there been any thought to integrating SkyTrak with The Golf Club? And if so, what are the odds that this might happen? And if so, when?

[Jel]

Maybe this post should be changed to "best PC for golf simulator" as there's very little talk about TGC and Skytrak

[Ironstrokes]

Maybe this post should be changed to "best PC for golf simulator" as there's very little talk about TGC and Skytrak

haha I was thinking the same thing. I know its mostly about PCs to run TGC but still hilarious how everything is just about PCs on this thread. I also do realize its because there is nothing else to talk about with the darkness skytrak is leaving us in right now. I just want to see skytrak! Give me some light....I even take a low wattage light......a Christmas light?........please?

[ryanoneill1]

What is worse is we all built/bought PC's to run TGC and we don't know if it will ever come out for Skytrak.

[Tekbud]

Indeed... However it runs the e6 demo smoothly...

[Ironstrokes]

What is worse is we all built/bought PC's to run TGC and we don't know if it will ever come out for Skytrak.

Yea, definitely this

[fortysixandtwo]

What kind of fps are you all getting with those i7 and gtx 970 cards?

[ks-man]

What kind of fps are you all getting with those i7 and gtx 970 cards?

It depends on the course. Definitely not running as smoothly as I would have thought. On many courses during static screens I will get 60fps but when the ball is in the air it will drop to high 30s low 40s. I dialed my settings way down. When they were higher during the static screens it would typically be high 40s and occasionally up to 50.

[wee988]

While 60fps is awesome....I thought the human eye can't distinguish much difference past about 30fps (slightly higher than 30fps I think)?

[ProTee United]

See post #525 for recommended settings.

[mthunt]

I think you mean 525. That's where your recommendations are.

[mthunt]

KS, you don't like 40fps? What are you hoping for?

I recommend you turn object detail to 1. It greatly improves the performance and object detail is only the number of triangles used to draw tee markers, benches, ball cleaners, carts ect. A high object detail isn't neccessary as the benefits are low and it is hard on performance. The more triangles, the longer to draw.

[ks-man]

I'll have to check what I'm set at for object detail. My guess is that I'm set to 1 since that is what ProTee recommends but I don't fully remember off the top of my head. The bigger issue I have is there's like a flickering that appears in the trees that I think is related to the shadows. I guess I just expected everything to look better based on what I had read. I have an 4.0ghz i7 4790 with 16gb of ram, and I paid to upgrade from an originally recommended NVidia 960 to the 970 (wasn't an upgrade option so I paid for the 970 as a full cost upgrade). I think I use object detail 1 (though I want to confirm when I get home) with something like 1000 and 600 for trees.

My projector is 1920x1200 on an HQ2 screen and while I think the game looks good I thought the whole thing would just look better. I don't know if my expectations were just too high considering this is a projection screen rather than a computer monitor. The FPS dip is far from my biggest complaint but I assumed the reason is my lowish settings which I'd imagine I need or else the FPS would get much worse..

[mthunt]

I get the flicker on my XBox1 so I don't think its your settings.

[keither5150]

Here's hoping that ST users get TGC soon. We only have about 30 players that play regularly on the tour. There seems to be a great many ST users. It would be great if we had hundreds of players in the tournaments. Finishing in the top ten doesn't mean that much if there are only 20 players in the tournament. You guys will love TGC..... way better than E6.

[Bubba22]

There will be more players once Skytrak and ES16 get integration.

[Joko]

Ha!! My new estimate on when SkyTrak releases TGC is March of 2016. ES16 will get it no later than beginning of February.

[doublebogey]

Joko, that's a pretty aggressive estimate for TGC on ST...

[fortysixandtwo]

I would've thought 30-40 fps would be great for a golf game. I was under the impression 60 fps or more was for the hard core graphics games that need high end video cards.
I imagine it's never going to look as great on an impact screen compared to an ips monitor or 4ktv..

It depends on the course. Definitely not running as smoothly as I would have thought. On many courses during static screens I will get 60fps but when the ball is in the air it will drop to high 30s low 40s. I dialed my settings way down. When they were higher during the static screens it would typically be high 40s and occasionally up to 50.

[Brettster]

We only have about 30 players that play regularly on the tour. There seems to be a great many ST users. It would be great if we had hundreds of players in the tournaments.

I'm curious what the winners are shooting, over 4 championship rounds? I checked out the online Tours for TGC, but those are golfers NOT using the simulator, and the scores are ridiculous -50 and more! Just craziness... Then you see some of the new courses developed for TGC and how ridiculous those are, trying to keep the scores low for non-simulator gamer players.

I hope they can find a better way to do course management, and save courses locally, as it appears the TGC sim courses are much more valuable/fun to play.

There will be more players once Skytrak and ES16 get integration.

I'm looking forward to ES16, and so glad I waited and did not purchase ST!

[keither5150]

Tekbud, We don't set our handicaps, the game does. Your math skills need some work. Over 2 rounds I shot an average of 3.5 strokes (per round) below my 10 handicap. You've never shot 4 strokes better than you average? Playing with handicaps allows anyone who can put 2 better than average rounds together, a shot at winning. Stroke play, I would be in the middle of the pack. I really don't think that anyone would tank rounds on purpose to raise their handicap, just so they can win a tournament that has no prizes. In fact, my practice rounds are usually the ones in the 70's and I tank when it counts. All the imaginary pressure is hard to deal with. I usually shoot in the 80's when it counts. And Yes.... Yah it is fun, win or lose.... mostly lose.

[Tekbud]

@keither1550. Looks like we were posting at the same time. I wasn't referring to your post, but to a 71 shot by a 17 handicap which would be about 16-18 shots less than their normal good round if handicaps are similar to USGA. mthunt clarified that be thought his kid may have played some and his post on the subject helped. Problem solved. Believe me, all of us ST users are ready for the tour. Have been for many months... I just hope its a fair and fun competition. When I start seeing one person at -25 and 2nd place 15 shots behind it gets me wondering. Seen those too much in real golf.

[keither5150]

No problem, I was confused. From the number of posts it seems that there are a great many ST users. It will be awesome with more players. I also don't think that anyone would bother cheating. We all buy simulators because we want to improve our game. If one cheats, they are just ruining the gauge in which they measure improvement. A few guys that have won because of handicaps not being accurate usually apologize to the field as there is no way for you to manually change your handicap. Letting your 10 year old golf on your username may not be a great idea if you are going to compete. I recorded a whole round and put it on Youtube including my snowman on a 318 yard par 4 that I was trying to drive the green. If you take a mulligan, you are cheating yourself. Over 84 rounds, I average 8 over par. The tournament gave me a 10 based on previous tournament scores. When I first started with TGC, I was about a 19 handicap. The game has great stats, it keeps track of fairways in reg, greens in reg, average scores on par 3,4,5's average drives, longest drive, longest hole out, how many birdies, pars, eagles, albatrosses , aces and more. TGC makes a guy feel like a kid at Christmas. We are all waiting for more players on the tour. TGC is absolutely money well spent. You guys will love it.

[Bubba22]

Sim play is different thn real play, let's face it. Handicap scores will stretch farther than in real life. Part is due to the fact that one doesn't lose as much strokes in places like sand, deep rough, sidehill lies, wind etc etc etc.. Also not to mention gimmee putting is a factor. Now this is the case irrespective of what sim you use, GC2 to About golf to Trackman. The fact is that the person that wins is usually the one that has a hot round with chipping and putting, just like real golf. That's what I love about sim online competition!

[mthunt]

Tekbud, I'm not a sandbagger. These handicaps just landed on us without even knowing there would be one. I had it corrected. Read the post as soon as it happened. It was an error.

http://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/...6250#post46250

[Tekbud]

Maybe all us skytrak users will get to feel like kids at Xmas, on Xmas... With the release of TGC for skytrak. Wouldn't that be something?

[luv2golf]

Gonna chime in here, for what it's worth, I bought a GC2, hope to have by the end of this week/beginning of next.

I just can't/won't wait anymore. Enough is enough. I'm torn if I'll keep my ST. Depends on how the GC2 preforms for range use. If I can get shot shape on a screen (basic skyrak type range) then it's gone. At least I know I'll be playing sim within a week.

[Tekbud]

luv2golf Did you buy a gc2 new? If not, where did you get it if you don't mind me asking?

[Mickey]

Has it become the consensus view (to the extent that there can be a consensus) that TGC is a better option than E6 for skytrak users? The reason I ask is that, as far as I can tell, E6 will be made available before TGC.

[Bubba22]

I have all three software TGC, E6 and PG. They are all good. TGC is my favorite but I play them all. Sascha has given a good rundown on them. TGC and PG are adding features as we speak. E6 has an excellent range for practice. The next TGC update will add many features for sim play. You can see the grafics on all three and decide what suits your eye.

[luv2golf]

I recall seeing a yearly price on TGC ($379 per year) or buy it for $995, but I'm not sure if that was for protee/gc2 users or for all sim partners.

Just to note too, PG pricing is $249 per year. I'm not sure if you will have to pay for the $20 steam version too or if it's covered in the yearly subscription.

[TorchRedRob]

Don't forget post #437, where Protee says they will offer $99 cashback when TGC comes out for ST (so hopefully $896 or better purchase price).