Golfing In Aether News

This update contains a handful of quality of life additions, several bug-fixes, and also adds a couple of new hat options as part of an update to the free Dustbowl DLC.


In the previous update I added some hats to the free Leviathan DLC to match the earlier DLC's, such as Autumn and Winter, which include some seasonal content. So as part of this update I've added the 'Race' and 'Safety' helmets as part of the free Dustbowl DLC.


Each of these hats are well detailed for their size and come with all the usual color options included with other hats. You will find these available right away when you look in the hat/accessory options.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2577930/Golfing_in_Aether__Dustbowl/

Dustbowl was the fourth free expansion released last November. It introduced a desert-like environment featuring sand and dust covering the usual grassy levels. The theme supports all existing levels as well as the DLC adding ten additional levels to the game.

While I'm not ready to reveal what the next free expansion will be, there is some work towards it underway.


The invite and block menus have been reworked to focus on the consistent inspect menu for actions. Improvements have been made so you can maintain additional friends/block list in-game on top stream friends list.
The point of this is so when the game is available on other platforms as crossplay you also have this as an option as a fully functional alternative than having to use accounting linking already provided if its not something you want to do.

When in the friends menu, by default you'll only see your Steam friends list until you add a player from another platform, then you'll have an ability to switch views and interact with a combined list if you wish.


A report players menu has been added, these are automated reports based on options you pick and are sent to us to look into. The primary point of this menu is should you encounter players from other platforms outside Steam you have issue with.

You can still reach out to us at our support email with any specific issue, but if its with another Steam player your best bet is to just report them directly in Steam as all we will be doing is interfacing with platform account providers in most cases ourselves.
For proactively dealing with things like offensive names and that kind of thing we will be maintaining a basic filter list but are not expecting much in the way of problems.


You can also access this social menu now via the "Online" menu, it doesn't have to be solely done in-game.

We still don't have an launch date in mind for other platform versions of the game, such as consoles, but hopefully later this year.
It should be said the game is functional for crossplay already (it was developed originally from the start with this in mind) so don't expect any changes to how the game behaves beyond a few tweaks here and there to things like improving the in-game social menus.


Some of the settings found in 'game' settings have been moved to a dedicated 'online' menu as I thought it was a bit packed, especially with all the quick chat options in it.

You'll find an additional option for "Crossplay". When you disable this you'll only encounter non crossplay sessions and wont have any interactions beyond other Steam users. Leaderboards menu's will only display the Steamworks leaderboards and not the option to switch between those and global.

Functionally the game remains the same, its just a series of flags to provide a block to interacting with players not from Steam if that’s something you wish. You can also set a separate setting as part of creating a custom session and filter for these sessions if you wish that as well.


In graphics settings you will find an additional option to change the overall display gamma. This has a helpful widget in side description to assist with calibrating if needed.

Providing your monitor is set right and you don't usually have to worry about it in other games this likely isn't something you'll need to play with, this is just a per-game option if needed.


This won’t be something that’s hugely noticeable, but you will notice slightly more responsive leaderboard and friend list fetching for example. If you run the menu's at uncapped framerate rather than the default 60 then some menu's such as practice menu have been reworked internally to be less of a performance drain here.

The point of these changes was mostly for very low end hardware where even instances of a few too many UI elements could cause slowdowns. From a front end perspective you won't notice any functional difference.


A couple of levels got some minor fixes and tweaks where issues were identified, one such example was on the level "Mind the gap" where there was a chance to get stuck in the pipe leading to the waterwheel.
The geometry for this pipe has been reworked so should no longer happen.

Additionally while testing this I noticed a behaviour issue where if you reset the ball during a session (not practice) after going down a waterwheel, you would then fall off the waterwheel after exiting the pipe again. Maybe a niche issue but has now been fixed.

Please check the full notes below for all the changes made as its hard to mention everything, if you are aware of any issues then please let me know so they may be hotfixed.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1914980/Golfing_In_Aether/

[h2]General[/h2]

• Added additional gamma display settings. Existing brightness has been made to better reflect this is a world brightness setting.
  
• Fixed pathfinder mistakenly triggerable on ‘Birdies nest’.
  
• Fixed an issue where if in a standard game (not practice) you were to traverse a waterwheel, then immediately reset to the pipe exit just before the waterwheel, you might not correctly exit the waterwheel due to a change in collision state.
  
• Fixed a trigger for ‘Ghost Buster’ achievement as it was possible to achieve it in an instance where it shouldn’t be achievable.

[h2]Platform[/h2]

• Added improvements to the rich presence strings as well as improved support for Japanese.

[h2]Engine[/h2]

• Added update to FSR to latest FSR3 version.
  
• Added updates to various online subsystems.

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Fixed appearance of some blending glass pieces up close.
  
• Added a couple of rocks and tweaked the appearance of a few placements on Tee Time to improve quality.
  
• Fixed an instance where pipes on “Mind the Gap” had potential to stop the ball.
  
• Fixed a small gap in the water on "Up to Par".

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Fixed demo main menu string not fitting nice.
  
• Fixed an issue with manually disconnecting a local player after recent update.
  
• Added performance boost to the practice menu. Note: If capped at 60fps on a recommended spec machine you won’t notice this – but extremes for low spec / high framerate will.
  
• Fixed view button visible in leaderboard-less mode on XP screen.
  
• Added very small performance boost to the HUD. This is a very small change and more noticeable on CPU bound systems trying to support 8 players.
  
• Added slight tweak to padding values around HUD elements so a couple more characters for names can fit. Also added dynamic scaling so longer names will have their size reduced to fit. This works fine for names 12 to 16 characters, and any longer names will just get cropped.
  
• Added additional header strings for ‘end practice’ and ‘end the game’ when playing offline.
  
• Added a display gamma slider to graphics settings for all graphical modes. This also includes calibration helper widget in the description field.
  
• Fixed some brightness configuration values between 125 and 150% missing.
  
• Fixed an issue where horizontal navigation while using a gamepad in select settings menu (e.g. gamepad) would not update the description on the side bar.
  
• Added tweaks to text on loading screen to instead of saying “loading” will more accurately describe the process such as “starting new game” or “connecting to online session” etc.
  
• Fixed an instance where global player leaderboards could be found in global friends leaderboards.
  
• Fixed the default state for win rate displaying as 100% when starting the game for the first time.
  
• Fixed an instance where the play offline new game theme select menu may inconsistently show “Invite only” rather than “new game” as a menu title.
  
• Fixed a left and right navigation issue on some prompts.
  
• Fixed the season menu not displaying the correct menu name for the back button in some instances.
  
• Fixed some navigation issues on the player inspect menu.
  
• Fixed an issue with dpad navigation on the session info menu.
  
• Added a rework to how the session info screen is updated. Previously was based on lobby update bindings but I’ve noticed some unreliable behaviour so the cache of this data is checked every couple of seconds (while in this one menu) and refreshed if need be. This will help catch any network related or timing problems that could occur to the visual information displayed.
  
• Added new “Online” settings menu to the Settings menu. This has news settings such as to disable cross-network interactions with a “Crossplay” setting. Some of the settings from game settings such as leaderboards and quick chat have been moved here instead (this menu was particularly large so this should make it easier to navigate).
  Keyboard settings has been moved to a second column, and Online settings placed in its place, so this shouldn’t disrupt the navigation flow for gamepad users.
  
• Added an option to reach the social menu via the “Online” menu.
  
• Added new friends list menu which works more traditionally in that you select each friend and then get to perform an action, e.g. invite.
  The previous menu with having to use ‘input’ button to select friends you wished to invite was a bit awkward. This new menu will also make use of the same customization as found on the leaderboards menu.
  
• Added localization into Japanese of various legal texts where possible.
  
• Added ability to remove friends you’ve added that aren’t Steam friends. Steam friends cannot be managed in-game.
  
• Added various performance improvements to the backend flow relating to generating friends lists so it should be more responsive.
  
• Added ability to report players for online behaviour issues such as offensive names, spamming, or cheating. This would come in particular use for any players you encounter that don’t have a steam profile to be reported via.
  
• Added some refresh-rate improvements for leaderboards on scoreboard.
  
• Added ability to unblock players from the player inspect menu with the blocked players menu now taking the player to this menu instead following selecting the player you wish to unblock.
  
• Added some refresh rate improvements to the blocked players list and friends list.

Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.

For this update some of the themes included in free DLC such as Winter and Dustbowl have been each given some small visual improvements. There is also a bunch of general quality of life additions, and two new hat customizations.


The first addition is frost detailing on stone or wood surfaces, which takes advantage of some of the back-end support introduced with Dustbowl for these parts dynamically being changed as part of the level construction. This isn't a major change but does bring a bit of added natural coloring to levels running this theme.


Dustbowl has had some models such as the windmill and its bases tweaked to reflect a more worn out and damaged look.


For all themes the tracks for movers have been adjusted to have a terrain blending effect, making the gaps the boards raise from or run along seem more natural. This is a small change but particually in the winter and dustbowl themes this helps a lot with the look.


Earlier free DLC "Winter" and "Autumn" both recieved some additional customization even if they were part of timed events or just timed unlocks and I wanted to add some in-theme customization as part of this DLC as well. So now included are two novelty knit hats titled "Shark" and "Fish" somewhat matching the theme of the expansion. Just a little fun extra and these can be color customized like other accessories.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2293060/Golfing_in_Aether__Leviathan/

DLC store pages in general have been been given fresh images and added information, the only one I've yet to do is Dustbowl which may also get some themed customization in a future update.


Please check the full notes below for all the changes made as its hard to mention everything, if you are aware of any issues then please let me know so they may be hotfixed.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1914980/Golfing_In_Aether/

[h2]General[/h2]

• Added support for time based seasonal content – for instance, decorative items such as the pumpkins will now show up automatically around Halloween and the main menu text wishing Merry Christmas or Happy Halloween.

[h2]Platform[/h2]

• Added new images to store pages as well as added information in cases.

[h2]Engine[/h2]

• Added various internal refactoring of files as part of a general tidy up.

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Added additional frost layer for winter theme (from 2nd free expansion) on all wood, stone walls, and tree’s. This helps improve the theme with a bit more of a natural color rather than reused textures from the base game. The more recent Dustbowl expansion had this treatment.
  
• Added blended terrain to the mover stone piece so appears more seamless. This particularly helps the winter and dustbowl themes.
  
• Fixed snow coverage on a triangle piece on “Rebound”.
  
• Fixed flag raise range on “Up the stairs” being a little too short given the speed of shots taken.
  
• Added themed versions of the support posts holding up rails in some levels.
  
• Added visually damaged model of the windmill for Dustbowl theme.
  
• Fixed a couple levels lacking snow on windmill wall mounts.
  
• Fixed position of flippers in some levels to be more seamless with terrain for placement (as well as added blended terrain like other movers).
  
• Fixed some wall placement on Zig Zag.
  
• Fixed some minor wall gaps on Fore Fun.
  
• Fixed a stump too high on Hill climb.
  
• Fixed incorrect physical material on a decorative wall piece on Behind the Tee.
  
• Fixed the two top holes on Tee Time having a swapped camera.
  
• Fixed some rock placement on Centre Path.

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Fixed draw order of the “X” when no hat is selected on the choose players menu.
  
• Fixed incorrect main menu message shown in demo.
  
• Fixed some loading text not displayed if starting a custom game / session.

Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.

This is a small update primarily containing fixes following on from the recent update, which you can read about via the link below.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1914980/view/3989693438984004136
There are also a few quality of life additions such as a new achievements menu and improved loading screens.


The stats menu now has a view toggle button which includes combined progression and achievement information. This is instead of the previous two additional sub menus. In this menu page you can navigate to select either your XP level or one of the achievements to read a description as well as any additional progress infromation.

A new achievement "Breakfast Ball" has also been added. This achievement can be obtained during practice mode, with the requirements of "undo your first shot and then finish the hole with par or better".


You will now see a clearer description of what the loading state is as well as additional information such as when starting a new game that a course is being constructed. Previously the screen just said "Loading...". After a game is complete it will also state the completion state plus specifically that the game has ended and a new game is starting. To the left of the text is also a segmented progression wheel that will update as each stage of the loading is complete so you can get a clear indicator of progress.

The loading times were already very short so the focus of these changes was more on giving clearer information as to what is actually going on if not aware.


Check the full notes below for all the changes made, if you are aware of any issues then please let me know so they may be fixed for a future update.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1914980/Golfing_In_Aether/

[h2]General[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where if a player brings additional split screen local players into the session, and as the level timer is almost up so they are forced as spectator for the remainder of that round, the screen would still divide into split screen rather than stick to player 1 only moving camera around.
  
• Added ‘breakfast ball’ achievement. In practice mode, use the reset button to undo your first shot. Then finish the hole with a par or better.
  
• Fixed an issue where incorrect time would be applied to the time stat total during a late session join.
  
• Fixed an inconsistency with an achievement internal name. As this is a steam stat achievement this didn't effects its unlocking but would impact its result being displayed in achievements menu.

[h2]Engine[/h2]

• Added latest versions of various online subsystems and various other engine plugins used.

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Fixed an overlapping wall in “Drop to the left…”.
  
• Fixed a slightly low tree in “Shortcut”.
  
• Fixed some shadow pop in on some lods of one of the rock types.
  
• Fixed some incorrect physical behaviour applied to bamboo.
  
• Fixed some minor wall gaps on “Around the bend”.

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Fixed level par information not being shown on level title for split screen player on later rounds following various spectating actions in a previous round.
  
• Fixed the faceplate for melon not tiling on really wide menus such as new pre-game lobby.
  
• Fixed two quick chat messages being a bit too long to fit in quick chat side menu.
  
• Added internal refactoring for various menu interfaces with various cleanups where needed.
  
• Added support for additional application states to pause game when required.
  
• Added a change to the title of the previous ‘custom session’ menu when exclusively playing offline to instead say ‘custom game’, same for the level picker. Various other references to online play are removed for consistency.
  
• Fixed some inconsistent styling with a scroll bar on practice menu.
  
• Added layout improvements to the custom game/session levels menu to better handle the scroll bars.
  
• Added improved scrollbar shadows to all menus. This gives a smoother blending effect rather than abrupt dark shadow that was previous.
  
• Added new combined achievements and unlocks page to the stats menu. This replaces the previously two individual menus. All information is retained in this new menu along with it being much easier to get an overview of your current game progress in one single spot.
  
• Added a tweak so the stats animation will only play coming from the main menu, not going back from session replay.
  
• Added improved combo buttons which will render better at extreme resolutions.
  
• Added change to how in-game menu is constructed, with more of a shift to runtime with a singular widget rather than the ever growing pre-set variations needed. This will ease development and debugging.
  
• Added improvements to how replay’s are handled in game menu’s with some custom strings such as “continue watching” rather than the generic playing.
  
• Fixed a minor padding issue with the horizontal scroll theme select.
  
• Added a confirmation prompt to starting a replay via the practice and leaderboard menus. Other actions involve different menu’s you have to pass through such as picking your ball when you want to play for example, whereas a replay would just instantly start – which can be annoying if you press the wrong button, so an extra step to confirm the action has been added.
  
• Fixed some minor padding that was inconsistent in the ES3.1 graphics menu.
  
• Added additional input check mechanism to all menus which can better handle blocking of inputs when required due to application state change.
  
• Added additional explanation text to the theme select menu that states choice does not have an impact on the levels chosen.
  
• Added some loading screen improved descriptions to better explain current loading action – be it loading a practice level, generating a course for a new game, or starting a new game after the previous one was complete for example.
  
• Added a segmented progress wheel to loading screen for loading actions involving levels to give an indicator of actual progress.
  
• Added a minimum loading time of 2 seconds to loading, this is primarily for user experience and reliability, particularly as hardware advances to avoid timing related issues, both local and network related. It would also be the case that any information on these screens wouldn’t be readable at all if the screen became just a white flash.
  
• Added a slight reduction in hold to skip level sequence time by around 0.2 seconds as various platform and user operations have been moved earlier in the loading stack.
  
• Added an “X” instead of a blank space for the none accessory/hat option in the combo select area.
  
• Fixed some minor padding on the blocked players menu.
  
• Fixed an issue with the secondary view for the race scoreboard due to changes in recent update.
  
• Fixed some shadow behaviour relating to the player widget in the scoreboard.
  
• Fixed an issue where Thumbstick navigation in the scoreboard was inverted (dpad was correct) as part of added input from previous update.
  
• Added some increased minimum padding to the on HUD player widget during race mode so double digit race positions have sufficient space.
  
• Added a quality pass on all menu icons with better targeted resolution in cases where it was required or a few cases entirely new icons.
  
• Added new stat for ‘fewest strokes’ during race mode to replace previous strokes stat. In this game mode as strokes don’t matter towards score an uncapped strokes will be shown without par factored in.
  
• Added a tweak to the pregame lobby added in previous update so the visual look of scrollbars is more consistent with other menus.
  
• Added a “player has left the session” activity message which will also show up in menu’s with the embedded quick chat like scoreboard and pre-game lobby.
  
• Added improved rendering quality for the holeout animations when using split screen. Particularly the text wasn’t scaling nice so these have been tweaked to be as consistent as on a single screen.
  
• Fixed some race place behaviour relating to on screen HUD where it was possible to display a place incremented beyond total players by one in some instances when playing with multiple players in both split screen and online multiplayer.

Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.

This is a fairly sizable update featuring a rework of various online multiplayer menus, some new achievements, various quality of life additions, and bug-fixes.


The previous lobby has been completely re-done, instead of a small widget this is now a full size menu with access to lots of different information and function. For starters the quick chat is available on the side list rather than to side of the menu so have dedicated space to see messages.

At the bottom of the menu is a brief description of the current game mode including what you have to do to win. You can via gamepad or the onscreen buttons at the bottom of the screen reach the full social menu if you wish to invite friends, block players, or send a friend invite.

This menu now has a 'ready' system rather than direct host control for starting sessions. The host still has some control, as when the host selects ready the session will begin a 20 second countdown, if all bar one player has readied up this will be immediately cut down to 10 seconds, and if all players are ready then it will begin in 3 seconds. The point of this timer is give players a chance to perform any actions in the menu's if they need to without it holding up the game starting by any more than a few seconds.


By pressing tab or start button you can switch the menu view where you can instead of accessing quick chat be able to navigate the player list and inspect anyone as needed. Once you inspect someone you get direct access to any actions such as sending friend request or blocking.

At the bottom of this page is also a more detailed breakdown of the settings the sessions have set. So if this were a custom session in particular you'd be able to see any changes to the standard preset the host had chosen if you've forgotten since reading via the session list info.


On the scoreboard when playing in online multiplayer you will now have the ability to use quick chat in a right side panel. Previously on some small screens the menu would kind of get in the way when the chat was to the side. An option to reach the full social menu is accessibly by Y or by pressing the button at the bottom.

To make room for this a slightly different stats layout features in this mode. You can press the view button to view scoreboard details as previous, and this will hide the quick chat to make room.

On the details page you can inspect players in the same way as added on the new pre-game lobby menu.


This menu was introduced in the last update but has been updated to now include all the back-end support to offer a link the players steam profile (providing that player is playing on steam).

If you open this while in a scoreboard or pre-game lobby you will see any relevant countdowns such as till next hole start or session start. This is replicated across all social menus.


This is in addition to existing steam leaderboards, but you will now be able to switch the menu on any menu where leaderboards are displayed between the current platform (steam) and a more global leaderboard set that includes players from anywhere.

These global leaderboards obviously do not make use of Steam leaderboards so lack functions like being able to compete against another players ghost, or watch their replay. Your highest score (as well as ghost) will however be uploaded to both leaderboards going forwards (if you view the leaderboards or replay a particularly level this action will occur then).

As previously mentioned, Golfing in Aether is only available on Steam but was developed in a way to allow cross network play so some day it may be available on consoles or other pc store fronts. I like supporting Steam specific features such as the leaderboards so you'll basically have both systems working along side one another with the default visible being Steam.


This update features 4 new achievements, two of which I felt offered a fun side challenge, and two others that are more of a progressional metric to track.


The first is "Speedrun", which is a reasonably difficult challenge of having to complete a 9 hole session in under 90 seconds. This only factors in actual gameplay time, so is the time stat shown on the scoreboard.

You don't need any particular stroke count to complete this challenge, so using a mode such as race may be easier. You can use custom session settings and pick 9 levels you feel most confident in. Generally you'll want to have a bunch of levels that you can complete in around 5 seconds to free up some extra time for other levels that take longer than 9 seconds to complete.

In testing it took me a few attempts as it is fairly difficult but as its a time focused one it isn't a long grinding one to complete.


The second achievement is "Barkie", which is a fun one where you have to complete a hole with a score of par after for whatever reason hitting a tree with your ball. Full size tree's or just stumps will count, but logs (like you find on the course itself) will not. You can do this in any mode including practice, but cannot use the reset or undo function after hitting a tree (as you've un-done your shot you'll have to hit a tree again for it to count).

This is one you can chase after as a side challenge or you may end up with it someday following a questionable shot, as you only need par following it's not supposed to be particually difficult and just a bit of fun.


Next is "Fashionista", this is a straight up tracking achievement I've placed to really gauge how many players are making full use of customization. To complete this you just need to have any ball design other than the default white ball, as well as equipping any accessory / hat option other than the default none option.


Finally is "On the Green", which makes use of an added additional style XP rule where if your ball comes to a stop within the marked area surrounding the hole on your first shot you will receive an ‘on the green’ bonus of 50 XP. I added this XP bonus as a way to highlight particually a shot in a hard level that would otherwise of been a hole in one if playing on easy (due to the sloped holes). The achievement will unlock when reach XP / Scoreboard menu following this action.



All the achievement icons have been reworked to feature a border showing their type. Bronze achievements are relatively easy to complete, Silver are more time or progression focused, and Gold offers some difficult challenges including the completionist achievement.

The goal was always to offer a balanced mix of your standard progression types as well as some more unique fun side challenges to complete. I'm not against adding more in future but I would want those to fall more in the 'fun side challenges' category rather than progression.

I deliberately avoided arbitrary ones for say getting birdies, bogies, par a hundred times as nobody wants that. Some progression or tick box achievements such as "watch a replay" or "reach XP level 3" are always necessary as it helps with gauging players interest. This lets more development be put either into better explaining how features work so more players know how to use it, or just focusing on features that players actually are using.

I'm always open to hearing feedback on these. Long term I'd like to look at doing more with how achievements are represented in-game and perhaps offer some rewards for completing the actions that leads to them being earned.


When you use the focus flag button (middle mouse or right thumbstick press) after holding for a second or so the name of the level and any other relevant information will fade into view. This is the same widget that is displayed at the start of the session following the level sequence.

This widget has also been tweaked to appear on each screen during split screen and fade out rather than disappear as it did previously when playing local multiplayer.


A requested feature, like with what was previously implemented for practice mode, you can now hold down either spacebar or A on gamepad (or equivilant) and be able to skip the level sequence.

This will also work when playing a session with local players in any combination. However online multiplayer sessions do not feature skip behavior due to issues it could cause.


The level short spring now has one of the flipper obstacles that was added in the dustbowl expansion. This I feel adds to the gameplay of the level, it was originally something I wanted to have feature. It also offers an additional route to getting a hole in one, to aid perhaps overly high previous difficulty.

Various other previous levels I have gone back and improved sound placement, and several have various small tidy ups as well.


Levels that include the rotator obstacles have had their ground pieces reworked to fix a an issue that could occur where was possible for a player not able to regain input if the ball stopped in a particular spot where the rotator couldn't hit them, but were still considered in the bounds.


As this is a fairly large update please check the full notes below for all the changes made as its hard to mention everything, if you are aware of any issues then please let me know so they may be hotfixed.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1914980/Golfing_In_Aether/

[h2]General[/h2]

• Added change to flag raise detection on short spring.
  
• Added “Speedrun” achievement for completing a 9 hole session in under 90 seconds. This only factors in gameplay time (so from point of hole starting to holeout etc. not scoreboard/menu time), which you can see as a stat that’s displayed on the scoreboard. You can do this with a custom level selection via custom session if you wish.
  
• Added new readying up system for multiplayer sessions to replace sole host starting. This behaves somewhat similar to existing scoreboard skip behaviour. The way this works is if the host sets ready the game will begin a 20 second countdown, alternatively if 50% of players (when total players is greater than 2) set ready this countdown will be set to 10 seconds. If all players go ready the session will begin immediately.
  As a note, existing behaviour is that any player who’s idle during the first hole once they receive their 30 second countdown is removed from the session. This way you’ll never get stuck on that 1 player who doesn’t ready up or just goes idle.
  
• Added ability to skip the level sequence in any offline mode similar to how practice behaves.
  
• Added ability to pause the game session when playing with local players in any hotseat mode.
  
• Added a tweak so when playing hotseat with local players, if a player doesn’t take their turn they are made invisible again so don’t overlap the next player taking their shot.
  
• Added a tweak so when playing hotseat if a player goes out of bounds while on the tee they are made hidden again.
  
• Added tweak to how FOV is handled with two player splitscreen as it was a little close.
  
• Added additional rule check for the situation where one play finishes a round while the other is still on the tee and thus hidden. Now when spectating the selected player will always be visible regardless of any override.
  
• Added ability to pull down previous leaderboard scores and xp stats to update save-games in case of a cloud save sync failure at platform level.
  
• Added an additional check for out of bounds water using different method to help with reliability.
  
• Added a remote play touch input configuration for mobile. I would recommend playing with some kind of controller but if you absolutely have to use purely touch input this will make it playable.
  
• Fixed values for Completionist and Around the World achievements not factoring in level totals from recent free expansion which introduced 10 new levels bringing total levels to 70 (not 60).
  
• Added new function where if you hold the flag focus button down for more than a second the level title (as shown at the start) will reappear. It will fade out again as you release the hold.
  
• Added fashionista achievement for both customizing your ball (to any configuration besides default white) and equipping a hat.
  
• Added additional style XP rule where if during a ‘Hard’ level (i.e. without sloped holes) your ball comes to a stop within the marked area on your first shot you will receive an ‘on the green’ bonus of 50 XP. You will not receive this as part of a hole in one, its simply a way to differentiate a shot that was close to being a hole in one. You will not be required to get the ball in the hole on the next shot to get this bonus, simply come to a stop in the marked area (usually marked in yellow on a hard level).
  
• Added On the Green achievement which makes use of the above mentioned on the green bonus.
  
• Added Barkie achievement, which you can get for hitting both par (or better) and a tree during a level. Note if you use reset/undo this will also undo registering hitting a tree. Trees and Stumps count, logs do not.

[h2]Platform[/h2]

• Added new achievement icons featuring bronze, silver, and gold outlines which give a difficulty or value indicator of the achievement.
  
• Added an official touch controls controller config for Remote play on Phone and Tablet.

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Added Flipper from recent Dustbowl expansion to previous “Short Spring” Level. This is a balance to bring an additional little bit easier method to get a hole in one as well as at same time adds a fresh hazard to the level that can add a bit of challenge if you aren’t careful.
  
• Fixed a slightly incorrect fence collision.
  
• Fixed various physical materials to compensate physics at an engine level have shifted over time (things should be more consistent now as UE5 matures).
  
• Fixed a physical material generation issue on some ground pieces in some rotator configurations such as on “What goes around…”, “Downhill from here…” and “Waterhole” that could cause a ball to not trigger the power meter upon stopping.
  
• Fixed one of the grass physical materials not having the sufficient restitution.
  
• Added logs to list of meshes that won’t block the camera.
  
• Fixed a small wall alignment issue on “Ponds of rage”
  
• Fixed sound placement of various levels from Leviathan Expansion.
  
• Fixed a scalability issue that could lead to a hole blocked on “Whirly Fun” preventing holeout.
  
• Fixed a small wall gap on “boneyard”.
  
• Fixed a small gap that could occur on some cornered walls.
  
• Fixed flag not rendering correctly for remote client players on Up, Down, and Around.
  
• Added unique surface type to differentiate between trees and logs.

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Added improvements to the subtitles on all main menus to show the current active platform player e.g. if playing on Steam your Steam name.
  
• Added tweaks to the news area on the main menu to be more consistent.
  
• Fixed editing an existing profile the text entry field would display a helper text in the wrong state.
  
• Added improvements to how alignment of scoreboard headers is handled at extreme or irregular resolutions.
  
• Added improvements to quick chat search when typing Japanese.
  
• Added character limit to quick chat search function.
  
• Fixed an issue where if you searched for quick chat message, sent it, then opened a fresh search and pressed a number key without typing the same message could be sent.
  
• Added new text strings (including localization) for all stats displayed on the scoreboard.
  
• Added ability to quick chat within the scoreboard with it visible when not in details view.
  
• Added replaced emoji set for quick chat using Noto fonts, this replaces previous emoji licenced from Twitter.
  
• Fixed an issue where ‘vote skip’ would be shown if you had leaderboardless mode enabled in some game sessions when on the XP page.
  
• Added ability to open full player inspect menu from either session replay, recent players, or in detailed view on the scoreboard.
  
• Added ability to open the players steam profile from the player inspect menu.
  
• Fixed some inconsistent shadows on the main menu.
  
• Added tweaks to spacing of bottom glyphs to help fit more text on some smaller menus under localization.
  
• Added a change to how multiplayer custom sessions are setup by removing the session name option. Sessions are shown in the session list and info by player names anyway so this just simplifies things.
  
• Fixed an issue with very slightly inconsistent shading on some menu widgets.
  
• Added “levelname” console command which will display the current level name.
  
• Fixed some wrap behaviour on button glyphs when moving between some menu states.
  
• Fixed inconsistent corners on some description boxes.
  
• Added ability to open social menu from scoreboard.
  
• Fixed a padding issue with the quick chat search box in which some menu combinations an inconsistent spacing could appear.
  
• Fixed an issue relating to overlapping inputs that could potentially occur in some menus when using both a prompt and quick chat search at the same time.
  
• Fixed an issue where if you picked a local player profile for player 1 you would see the settings menu for primary profile and not that specific local profile.
  
• Added optional non-steam leaderboards which will work across all platforms. On leaderboards menus you can press the view button to toggle between seeing either global or platform specific (steam). Note that steam leaderboards make use of ghosts for other players whereas global do not. When viewing the leaderboards menu or completing a level the best score will be submitted to each leaderboard automatically, including copying an existing better leaderboard score from one to the other.
  
• Fixed an issue with playing in shared input competitive mode during offline where it could be possible to open more than one pause menu as any other player besides player 1.
  
• Added an indicator to all in-game menus that highlight the name of the player the menu relates to as well as whether this is a local or platform profile.
  
• Added additional text to pre-game lobby and scoreboard (as well as session replays) which indicate the account name the local player is tied to.
  
• Added an additional check to handle local players quick chat in split screen when playing with keyboard on player 1 to retain gamepad glyphs for other players.
  
• Fixed an issue where the HUD would be temporarily hidden while in local multiplayer and one of the players opened a sub menu from the game menu.
  
• Fixed some local player menus able to stay open in some combination when a round ends.
  
• Fixed some local player menu background blur having inconsistent sort order.
  
• Added a prompt explaining player was automatically removed from a session due to inactivity.
  
• Fixed some standalone scrollbars that had an inconsistent appearance during hover (they’d loose their round corners).
  
• Fixed an issue where it were possible if a local player left, on the next hole a name widget would be shown with invalid information. The widget for this player is now removed properly.
  
• Fixed some states where if players spammed the quick chat before game was properly loaded it was possible to trigger a message without a valid player name.
  
• Fixed an issue where player name was not visible on quick chat prompt when in sequence and playing with multiple local players.
  
• Added level title widget to each player screen during split screen and fade out.
  
• Added new achievements and updated achievement icons to the achievements menu.

Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.

This is a small update containing a couple of fixes following on from the recent update, which you can read about via the link below.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1914980/announcements/detail/3870345047345223950


Check the full notes below for all the changes made, if you are aware of any issues then please let me know so they may be hotfixed.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1914980/Golfing_In_Aether/

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Fixed a text string on the scoreboard not behaving correct when in leaderboardless mode.
  
• Fixed various text strings.

Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.