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?

[luv2golf]

I have an i5 with lots of everything and a GTX 970 4mb. On high, 1920x1080 it chokes on 4 detail and high settings on trees. I'd love to see the PC that runs 4k. I. Pretty happy with detail 3 and trees at about half.

WOW, that's pretty beefy.

[keither5150]

mthunt I have a i7 with a GTX 970. I run on high, detail 5 and turn the trees down to 1/4 to 1/3. Depending on the course, I get about 30-45 FPS. I think that HB studios just needs to add a little bit of motion blur when the trees are moving fast on your screen. First person shooters do this all the time. The motion blur can be near the outside of the image so not to lessen to look as most people will be watching the ball.

[MrHogan]

What resolution would I need for a 9x8ft impact screen? I have a 1080p projector but wondering if I'd really notice much of a difference with a super high res?
Ideally I'd like a laptop but there's not many capable of running TGC with bells and whistles turned on. If I drop the resolution a bit can I then have a regular laptop? I don't want trees to suddenly appear mid ball flight, I think that's my only concern.

[keither5150]

1280x1024 would best fill your screen. If you go much higher resolution you will have black bars at the top and bottom. I am running 1680x1050 to fill my screen. I don't notice much difference between 1680x1050 to 1920x1080. Quality is about the same, it is just cropped a bit. I would rather fill the screen. Who cares if you only see half of the golf bag near the edge.

[Sascha1818]

A "normal" Laptop will not do, not even on the lowest settings. I tried it. I just bought a high end gaming laptop with a GTX 980m (around 2400 $) and at detail 3 trees half and half it's a playable 35-50 fps . Depends on the course too. A lot of trees will sometimes make it drop to 25-30 and highland courses will mostly stay around 50. But for my setup and because of my travels I needed a laptop so that's what I got.

[Sascha1818]

Here the specs of my laptop. They are in German but I'm sure you can figure out the important numbers ;-)

• Intel Core i7-4720HQ Quad-Core Prozessor (6MB Cache, 4x 2,60 - 3,60 GHz, Hyper-Threading und Turbo Boost)
• 16GB DDR3 1866MHz Kingston HyperX (32GB möglich)
• 1000GB HDD + 250GB SSD
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M 4GB GDDR5
• Intel Wireless Dual-AC 7265 M.2
• 39,6cm (15.6") Full-HD (1920x1080) Non-Glare IPS
• Kartenleser, RJ45 Port (LAN), 4x USB 3.0 (1x mit Power-Off Ladefunktion, 1x eSATA/USB-Combo-Port), 2x MiniDisplay port 1.2, HDMI (mit HDCP), Kopfhörerausgang, Audioeingang, Mikrofoneingang, S/PDIF (optisch)
• Tastatur mit Nummernblock, Beleuchtung und Multi gesture Touchpad mit Scrollfunktion
• High Definition Audio, Sound Blaster® X-FI® MB3
• Anschluss für Sicherheitsschloss, TPM 2.0, Fingerprint-Reader
• 2.0 MP Videokamera, eingebautes Mikrofon
• 180W Netzteil, 60 Wh Akku (ca. 4-5 Stunden Laufzeit bei geringer Last)
• 24 Monate Herstellergarantie (24 Monate PickUp & Return innerhalb Deutschlands)
• Windows 10 Home 64-bit

[sb81]

Jeez, guess TGC isn't optimized at all.

Sure, it looks really good for a golf game, but terrain shouldn't be that taxing on hardware.

[keither5150]

The PC game (sim game) is a console port. You would think that the game would run really smooth on the Xbox one. This is not the case. HB needs to optimize the game for higher end hardware. They still don't support sli or crossfire. I think a lot has to do with camera angles. You would think that if you turn the detail down, the game would get smoother. Even at 55 FPS the games gets choppy while the ball is landing. Every Youtube video on the net is proof of that.

[MrHogan]

Ok thanks for that. Kills any ideas of shelling out for a laptop then.

[keither5150]

You also want to have above recommended specs. TGC is hard on video cards. Not so hard on processor and Ram. Desktops should have GTX970 or better. Laptops should have a GTX 980M or better. Laptops can play the game but don't expect any laptop to run at detail level 5. The game still looks pretty good at detail level 3 and 4.

[chibearfan]

Anyone else worried that Protee owns this forum and pushing TGC and Skytrak so much? I don't see Protee posting pictures in other hardware threads except the Skytrak. So are we all fools for getting a Skytrak hoping to use TGC on it? Or am I just being paranoid? Its so weird that if you try to buy something off http://www.protee-united.com it takes you to https://www.swingsense.com. Why are there so many separate companies? This thread has been going on for 6 months and it seems like Skytrak(Seth) is communicating to Protee via this forum. You would like they would email each other offline from this forum to get everything setup. Also it seems like a couple months ago there were videos of the beta with Skytrak and TGC. How have the people beta testing not had issues with putting or distances being off?

[bennyg211]

No, not worried. Remember, you don't have to buy anything.
Look out, 👀 They're watching us....

[ProTee United]

Potato Ridge is a 6978 yd. Par 72 course with LOTS of plants.

[V8burble]

This all looks great but quick question - are these new courses available immediately or require the next "course sync"?
Looks fantastic and in reality I'd probably just sit on the bench and wish I didn't have to hit a ball into the lake!

[mthunt]

Some available some not but they sync all the time.

[beretta5spd]

when we get TGC working with Skytrak I guarantee you I'll be checking this thread out for courses to play. So cool

[Bubba22]

Majority are available now. The problem is one needs more time to be able to play all these courses.

[wbond]

Or to even be able to play them at all. Obvious skytrak owner here!!!!!

Majority are available now. The problem is one needs more time to be able to play all these courses.

[ProTee United]

Tuh 3 - Delta Theme (6900 yards) - JUST WOW!

[Sascha1818]

I just played this course on the PC and I have to say ........... it's crazy..... i have never been in the water that much.

[MrHogan]

Could someone post pictures of the same scene at the different detail levels?
This would enable me to make a decision as to what level I'd like and therefore buy an appropriate graphics card and computer, it could be that with my 9x8ft screen I might not need to spend £1500. If I don't want to overspend by say £750 unnecessarily.

[ProTee United]

Here are the settings we use that work great with a decent PC (i5/i7) and GTX680 GPU or better.

VSync ON -> This is important to show a smooth ball flight.
Depth of field OFF -> This gives you a blurry view in the distance. You like it or you don't.
Anti Aliasing ON -> This gives the best images. It will round the edges.
Object Detail 1 -> This looks great. No need to set this higher.
HQ Tree Count -> 1000 is more than enough HQ trees to show within your camera view.
HQ Tree Distance -> 614 is good to make sure 500 yard holes have HQ Trees rendered at the back.

The 2 screen shots below are taken using an i7 laptop with a GTX880m. 1920x1080 resolution / high detail.

Course example with OBJECT DETAIL 1:



The same course but with OBJECT DETAIL 4:

[mthunt]

Wow. I always wondered what those setting were for. Thanks

[Sascha1818]

Thanks a lot Protee, I will change to these settings as well and I'm sure it will be working great. I mean it has been working good most of the time with mine but your settings make a lot more sense and be easier on the hardware. Thanks again

[MrHogan]

I can't tell the difference between those 2 images.
So if I go level 1 and run at 1280x1024 16:12 then I won't need a magnificent computer and perhaps even a Laptop with a GTX 970M ?