Golfing In Aether News

In this update, we’ve introduced team and co-op game options as part of custom sessions. Additionally, we’ve added an extra XP level and new customisation unlocks.

There is also an option for always-on player collisions as well as several other quality-of-life improvements.


When creating a custom session online or offline, you now have the option to choose team scoring options. In this system, all scores on a team are summed up and divided among the team members, with rounding.


There are several options available. The “auto” option can include two or four teams, while there its a single team option for cooperative play. If you prefer to manually select and assign teams, a custom option is also available.


When set to custom, in offline local play you pick a team on the player select screen. For online play teams are assigned in the lobby, to access this select the view button to switch menu pages.

In both online and offline sessions, you can also opt to not assign players to a team, thereby treating them as individual players. This option enables you to play mixed teams against players.


A requested feature was to allow always on collisions, we also found online play needed improvements to be able to accomplish this. A key change was making the collisions server sided (on the p2p host) so that there is a single point of authority rather than a miss-match of ball movements.


We have enabled collisions to be on always as part of the "Race" preset, but you can customise whether to be on or off, as well as only while moving, as part of custom session settings.


In this update we are introducing XP Level 6 to give something extra for players who have played for a long time to progress towards.

The XP amount to complete this level is the same for each levels 4 and 5. When completed you will receive an additional three ball unlocks.


For playing between March and end of May (while running this update) you will unlock the above customisation. Each feature a colour customisable design.


We have added a bunny ears hat to the customisation available at the start of the game. The hat works particularly well with the Whisker ball customisation in the new XP level.


In this update you will also find a number of other improvements such as tweaks to the camera to be smoother in certain situations when using the no bounce mode. There are also a number of fixes so check the full notes below.

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

[h2]General[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where leaderboard scores could be reported higher than they should be.
  
• Fixed various instances where master sound settings were not being respected. This included lava, an impact sound, and XP ticker.
  
• Added additional smoothing behaviour when camera is in 'no bounce' mode so it will not track ball as it goes into a sloped hole (and instead will remain at static height).
  
• Added a change to enable collisions between players during practice mode.
  
• Fixed an issue where resetting a replay wouldn't correctly orientate the ghost.
  
• Fixed an instance where you could loose input when skipping a level while in shared input mode.
  
• Fixed a logic problem where if you nudged a player into a hole and used skip level in the process.
  
• Added a sync mechanic for the level sequence playing where a client running faster hardware must wait for the host to complete loading.
  
• Added a tweak to reduce stuttering in level sequences on particually low end hardware by delaying ending the loading screen by a few seconds.
  

[h2]Customization[/h2]

• Added rabbit ears hat.
  
• Added Shelly, Coil, and Waves as part of Spring unlocks.
  
• Added Whisker, Donut, and Streak to XP Level 6 unlocks.
  
• Fixed sun hat clipping at low quality / LOD levels.
  

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Fixed cup material friction to enable balls to stop quicker.
  
• Fixed a small wall gap on Center Path.
  
• Fixed a small wall gap on Putt Pendulum.
  
• Fixed alignment of some walls on Behind the Tee.
  
• Fixed a raised log on Up the Stairs.
  
• Fixed a wall gap on Speed Bump.
  
• Fixed alignment of a wall on Right Angle.
  
• Fixed placement of a log on Right Angle.
  
• Fixed Don't Fall In has a log raised too high.
  
• Fixed a small wall gap on Don't Fall In.
  
• Fixed some minor material detail on Rock Bottom.
  
• Fixed placement of a stump on Hole in Fun.
  
• Fixed a collision with ramp on Curve It.
  
• Fixed some minor material detail on Rail crossing.
  
• Fixed some minor material details on Cliffhanger.
  
• Fixed LOD quality on wall some wall pieces to ensure no stand-out brick gaps far from camera.
  
• Fixed rock placement on Bridge hole.
  
• Fixed a minor wall gap on Up, Down, and Around.
  
• Fixed flag raise radius on sinkhole being too small.
  
• Added new blocking volumes for camera so when in 'no bounce' smoothing mode the camera will not follow the players ball into out of bound pits e.g. water.
  
• Fixed a small collision issue on the first corner of Cauldron.
  
• Added a tweak to fences to make them fade out a bit further from the camera so your view is obstructed less by then. You can disable this feature in graphics settings by turning off proximity dithering.
  
• Added improvements to rock placement on leapfrog and crazy golf.
  
• Fixed an issue where an out of bounds part of a water wheel wouldn't reset the player.
  
• Fixed rock placement on What goes around.
  
• Fixed an issue where free camera wouldn't work when the game timer was set to none but free camera was still a percentage of the game timer. It will now be 50 seconds in this situation.
  
• Fixed rock placements on Deja vu.
  
• Fixed a small wall gap on Millpond.
  
• Fixed placement of rocks and log on Serpentine.
  
• Fixed some leaves floating, notably on Spin City.
  
• Fixed inconsistent Lilly appearance on Angler.
  
• Fixed appearance of rotators in distance levels.
  
• Added improvements to the replication of movers, these will now be exactly in sync. This is to accommodate for minor network time drift.
  

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Fixed an instance where returning to the main menu during split screen wouldn't promptly disable split screen while fading to white.
  
• Fixed new game menu having inconsistent icon.
  
• Fixed an issue where when player 2 pauses during split screen, background blur will overlap hole info.
  
• Added a change to hide some developer scores from leaderboard menus where testing was done on multiple different platforms (now only 1 will be shown).
  
• Fixed some rare quality issues with various text on XP screen.
  
• Fixed a potential issue where view button wouldn't work on some menus.
  
• Fixes scroll-bars out of alignment for session replay.
  
• Fixed appearance of some keys for replays.
  
• Added an adjustment to the contrast of some text such as 'its your turn'.
  
• Added various improvements to better support ultra-wide resolutions, e.g. 21:9. This includes tweaking how menus scale at extreme horizontal sizes and correctly highlighting these ratios in resolution settings.
  
• Added team option to custom session settings.
  
• Added a reorganisation of custom settings menus so they follow a consistent layout between online and offline.
  
• Added team selection function to player selection screen when using custom team options. Also added team selection to lobby when using custom and playing an online session.
  
• Fixed a navigation menu in progress saves menu.
  
• Fixed an instance where local settings wouldn't open.
  
• Fixed an issue where local players wouldn't be able to trigger the level name as part of focusing not the flag.
  
• Fixed an instance where the next hole number wouldn't display correctly while a spectator.
  
• Added a few changes to copywrite and credit screens.
  
• Fixed contrast of some faceplates.
  
• Fixed unnecessary countdown when using skip level in Hotseat.
  
• Fixed an issue where ending a turn could occur while in a menu didn't correctly transfer input.
  
• Fixed some instances where player names wouldn't appear in lobby right away.
  
• Fixed button to save progress save being incorrectly visible when watching a replay.
  
• Fixed opening social menu while on the scoreboard for the last hole could display a negative timer remaining for the level.
  
• Fixed instance where if in free camera and the player you were spectating completed the hole you would have 'free camera' displayed on the screen still while focusing on the flag.
  

The mac OS version of Golfing in Aether is now available, and it’s part of the ever-expanding cross-play support! This means you can play with your friends on Windows, Linux, or mac OS through Steam, as well as on other PC game stores like the Windows Game Store or console platforms like Xbox One, Xbox Series, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch. 



This is a free update so if you’ve already bought the game on Steam you can also run it on a Mac should you wish to do so. We are performing a very small Steam specific update on Windows and Linux as part of this release to ensure save games will continue to work across platforms.


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We'd like to start off with a short introduction for any new players who are first reading this annoucement. Golfing in Aether is a minigolf game that allows for cross platform online play for up to 16 players, and 4 players local via split screen.


Golfing in Aether stands out from other minigolf games in that it doesn’t revolve around fixed courses. Each time you play a new course, it’s assembled from the pool of 80 currently available levels. This different approach offers increased replayability, ensuring that each playthrough is slightly different.

You can also play with your friends on other platforms, including all the current generation of consoles. We’ve also released a native Linux version before this native mac OS version so it will run great on the Steam Deck.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2999530/Golfing_in_Aether__Cauldron/?snr=1_5_9__405

We keep adding to the game. Since our 2022 release, we’ve released five free expansions, introducing three new themes and 48 levels with new mechanics not present in the original release. Our most recent expansion, Cauldron, added a couple of volcanic levels amonst several other levels and new mechanics also added.


Accessibilty is a priority to us, and you’ll find extensive options in the game to ensure everyone can participate. Check out our website for a full list of supported accessibilty features and settings: https://www.vetron.net/golfinginaether-accessibility/.


More generally, you’ll also find helpful features such as the ability to create local profiles for each player. This way, when you want to play local multiplayer, you don’t have to repeatedly setup each player’s accessibility settings or type in their name. You can play with four gamepads in splitscreen or hotseat, and if playing hotseat mode, you can optionally share the same input device for up to eight players.


You can pick from cute color-pickable designs for your golf ball as well as various accessories such as hats. New ball customizations are unlocked as you complete levels and level up.


Golfing in Aether doesn’t require much RAM in general, so it will run smoothly under 8GB of RAM, provided you don’t have too many other applications open simultaneously. As shown in the screenshot above, the game’s memory footprint during testing never exceeded 4GB.

Current Mac Mini's should have no problem playing the game at 60+fps but may wish to play at either high settings or just manually disable some expensive graphical features such as the planar reflections on highest settings. For older generation mini's you may wish to lower settings to medium.

Note that this is a universal binary, but we are only testing against the latest version of mac OS. Any hardware that apple defines as obsolete may not work and we aren't supporting that.


Each Christmas, we offer some additional customization options as an unlock for playing the game. If you’d like to access these options, make sure to log in between now and January.

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

Check out the store page above and click the download button to try out the game on your Mac or other platform before buying. This makes it easy to answer any 'will it run' questions. We hope you like the game and will want to purchase the full version!

If you have any questions then don't hesitate to reach out in the discussion forums or our support email and we'll do our best to answer them.

This update brings four new localizations, plus adds additional progress save features for when playing in singleplayer. There are also several other fixes and small improvements.


Golfing in Aether now features a progress save system that allows you to make mid-game manual saves and reload them at any point.


When in-game you can find the progress saves menu by opening the ingame/pause menu (esc/start) and then selecting the Progress save button at the bottom. Note that progress saves only work in singleplayer, and not any competitive mulitplayer online or local.


Loading a save involves from the main menu selecting "New game" and you'll find progress saves button at the bottom of the green. There is also autosaves and checkpoint saves automatically created so you can recover most recent game progress and resume playing right away. Autosave frequency can be adjusted in game settings.

Typical and overall game progress is independent of this system and will continue to be saved automatically.


We've done further improvements to the scoreboard during offline play so there are none of the timers that are typically found in multiplayer e.g. "next game in 10 seconds..." you now press a button to advance to the next screen or game as you wish.

This will allow you time to look over scores for longer or jump to the next hole quicker if thats more your thing. Timers will remain in online multiplayer along with the vote system as its required for synchronization.


This is the second in a series of updates introducing additional localizations. In this update we have introduced Português with both Brazil and Portugal variations, we have also added Spanish.

It should be noted that even though these additional localizations have gone through QA, that mistakes can still happen, especially as these are not our native language. So please let us know if you have any feedback on these translations as they can be improved in future updates.

As part of this update, we have also performed several updates to previously added localizations French and German to improve the quality of these.


We've added the ability to change the background sky as seen on the main menu between the standard day to 'night' as seen in winter theme.

This is a small cosmetic change that may look good for playing over the winter season, it maybe can help with contrast as well.


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

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

[h2]General[/h2]

• Added Spanish, Latin Spanish, Portuguese, and Brazilian Portuguese localization.
  
• Fixed an issue where it was unable to pause while using Free Camera.
  
• Fixed an issue where if all players open the in-game menu during offline play the game wouldn’t pause.
  
• Fixed the power indicator flickering if you reset the ball and then move on the tee.

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Fixed a rare issue of where the ball could sometimes stop on the very edge of a hole.
  
• Fixed occasions where bamboo could cause camera to jump.
  
• Fixed an issue where on “Rail Crossing” it could be possible to fall off the rail when entering from a particular pipe.
  
• Fixed an issue where a leaderboard ghost may show up in tutorial upon replaying it.
  
• Added rework to the level “Mind the Gap” to make it easier to clear the ledge and achieve a hole in one. Visual quality of the level has also been improved.
  
• Fixed cloud positioning during practice mode.

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Fixed an issue with remapping keyboard controls when not using a mouse.
  
• Fixed some high contrast text issues on the practice, leaderboards and scoreboard.
  
• Added improvements to the scoreboard during offline play where the timers have been replaced with manual button presses. This allows you to skip in seconds or take as long as you want to look through stats.
  
• Fixed an issue where account username is shown on the podium in offline play, instead the player name (i.e. created character) is shown.
  
• Fixed an issue where going to inspect a player, selecting report then pressing back has navigation problems when done via the practice leaderboards menu.
  
• Added additional context when joining via a session invite code as to why the session may not be accessible, such as permissions or full.

This update introduces two new localizations, adds new customization, as well as adds a new tutorial system. There are also several other fixes and small improvements.


We've begun to look at additional localizations to the game and in this first in a series of updates we will start by introducing both French and German. Other languages will be added over the coming months in future updates.

It should be noted that even though these additional localizations have gone through QA, that mistakes can still happen, especially as these are not our native language. So please let us know if you have any feedback on these translations as they can be improved in future updates.


As a fun addition to localization we looked at some regionally themed hats to add. Each of these can be color customized and are available to all players to equip with no unlock requirements.


Golfing in Aether now features an on-demand tutorial to teach you basic controls and how to play. When starting from a fresh saved-game you will be prompted on first launch of the game if you wish to play it, but it is not a requirement to do so. The tutorial can be started at any other point from the button on the main menu.

For most players it will take only around five minutes to complete. Its possible we will add additional steps to this tutorial in the future, but for now we wanted to start with the basics of how to launch the ball and other common mechanics.


We've added an option to cancel the automatic starting of a new game upon completing an offline 9 hole game. To do this there will be a button on the scoreboard that can be pressed, or press e.g. B on gamepad.

After this is pressed the text in the bottom left will change from "new game starting in..." to "returning to main menu in...". You can of course press skip at any point to speed that action up.


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

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

[h2]General[/h2]

• Added German and French localization.
  
• Added change to camera switch behaviour when spectating. Now when you press camera switch the free camera will engage right away. When playing it will remain as before and enter top camera or hold to enter free camera.
  
• Added a short tutorial that goes over the controls of launching the ball. This is very brief and may be expanded on later.

[h2]Customization[/h2]

• Added Beret hat.
  
• Added Tyrolean (aka Bavarian) hat.

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Fixed an issue when selecting player reports for a user already on your friend list using a controller.
  
• Fixed an issue when as a dedicated spectator, when going between social menu / inspect and scoreboard the scoreboard time remaining wasn’t exact. This didn’t effect players.
  
• Added improvement to loading screen so that the custom scale is used, so will be much bigger at 150% to improve readability.
  
• Added ability to return to main menu in offline mode after the podium, on the scoreboard. This is “Cancel new game” button. The way this works is similar to how selecting “restart level” works in practice, in that the time is not skipped when pressed, but you can also press skip right away if you want to go now or continue looking at scores.
  
• Fixed an issue with the appearance of some how-to-play button prompts.
  
• Added further increase to font size on the hole info.
  
• Fixed various Japanese localization issues.
  
• Fixed an inconsistency where entering an invite code did not take you to the session info but rather to the session directly. You now go to session info to choose to play or spectate.
  
• Fixed joining via invite code not having correct loading screen text.

This is a update primarily containing fixes following on from the recent major update, which you can read about via the link below.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1914980/announcements/detail/6122166977349061820
There are also a few quality of life additions such improving the line during level into sequences so it can be recolored, and adding a level skip option for offline play.


The effect has been updated to support color options as part of either accessibilty or personal preference. We've also made the line a bit thicker and tapered the starting point as part of improving the appearence and making it easier to see.


You can find a seperate color option under HUD color settings, when changing the HUD color preset this will also change to match.


This is somewhat a 'puzzle skip' function for accessibility purposes, and only works in offline play (excluding practice, which is a single level). Its particually helpful if you were to disable all time time limits so you can 'give up' or just 'skip' a level if you no longer wish to keep playing it. When playing local play such as split-screen this can work per player as well.

If you've taken no strokes at all you'll be given par (but no XP), and otherwise be indicated as if you've played it. Whereas if you've already taken a number of strokes beyond that this will instead be the score recorded. You'll only get Style XP and not any holeout XP.

Achievements cannot be earned using this, nor as already stated can you earn XP either so it has no negative effect on anything.

Its also worth noting if you don't like playing a particular level you can always use the custom settings to pick and choose which levels will be in the random rotation. With there being 80 in the game now theres plenty of variety.


Check the full notes below for all the changes made, if you are aware of any issues then please let us 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 relating to timed Halloween content (not available yet).
  
• Added ability to change the level intro sequence line color. When changing a preset this is set to the same color as idle power, but you can set individually if you wish.

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where rotators in ES3.1 mode didn’t cast shadows.
  
• Fixed an issue relating to shadow bias in ES3.1 mode.
  
• Fixed a floating stump on “boneyard”.
  
• Added improved level intro sequence line.

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Added skip level button to in-game menu when playing offline menu. This is per player (when split screen etc.) and allows you to ‘give up’ or ‘skip puzzle’ for the current level. Either your current strokes or Par, whichever is greater will be recorded on the scoreboard. You will not get holeout or time XP, and will be ineligible to earn any score based achievement.
  
• Added slight increase in font size for the level info HUD element for hole and par text.