Golfing In Aether News

Todays update is focused on quality of life, fixing any outstanding issues found and polishing the game further as feedback is received. Also included is a lot of the back-end changes and some of the assets to support the free autumn expansion DLC coming later this month. If you wish to read more about the autumn expansion then you may do so here.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1914980/announcements/detail/3296096514940897018

I’ve improved the way course generation happens by adding in two additional rules. The first is that a level is only saved to your profile as part of the next-game no repeats when you’ve actually started that very specific level.

Previously all nine holes were cached when you join, not factor in late joins or leaving mid-way through. This helps address the behaviour issue of where players complete their first game, then proceed to ‘test’ how random level variation is by creating games over and over. What was happening is after doing that and then deciding to actually play a round, by random chance they were seeing levels they’d seen previously just by putting into the no-repeat pool levels they hadn’t actually played.

The second improvement is there is now a priority pool for levels you haven’t previously completed. Random by nature can sometimes be perceived as not random enough so this rule will just make sure you’ll see all unique courses before seeing repeats at all. You’ll have to have played each of these levels and completed under any rank, difficulty, or season to remove from this priority pool.


I made changes to ball roll behaviour at low speeds, these are small tweaks as I want to see how it goes and get feedback rather than over do it. Specifically changed here is some additional dampening via a curve as the ball slows to 150 cm/s. This is multiplied against a clamped range of ground normal, so only something that kicks in on flat or very near flat surfaces. For reference 150 cm/s is roughly equal to firing the ball with the lower part of the power meter filled, so this shouldn’t really affect levels as a whole.

Some changes were also made to the vertical windmill radius areas as sometimes the ball would stop in these areas when really the intended point is for the blades to push you out of them.

Please do share any feedback you have on these changes or anything else in the game as there will absolutely be continued polishing along-side content additions.

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

[h2]General[/h2]

• Added improvements to pipe exit detection with improved radius, this will reduce delay in some rare cases.
  
• Added improvements to course generation by only restricting a level from pool after you’ve started it, rather than saving all 9 holes at the start. This means if you begin a 9 hole game, but quit round 2, those levels you didn’t play are still in the pool for the next game. Secondly a pool priority is given to levels you’ve not earned a rank on. If no such levels exist only then will the game pick from the wider pool.
  
• Added improvements to level streaming by reducing the time taken to load levels by around 60%. It should be noted in most cases you’d already have been hard to notice any loading event at all as they would load quicker than the couple seconds of fading in and out for transition.
  
• Added system for handling seasonal switching while using the same levels. This means the levels will be dynamically changed to reflect the season chosen. This will be usable when the Autumn Expansion releases later this month.
  
• Added back-end system to handle level unlocking via DLC ownership. This is for when the free Autumn DLC is released later this month. This is so I can test unfinished levels without maintaining separate builds.
  
• Added ability to restart a practice level from the xp screen. Any XP gained is kept, essentially instead of returning to the practice menu and re-picking the level, this just skips that step for you if you wish.
  
• Added slight tweaks to ball roll behaviour when it is at low speeds.
  
• Added improvements to the areas of vertical windmills by not allowing the ball to be launched from a spin area.
  
• Added small tweaks to enable collision detection radius to account for player latency.

[h2]Customization[/h2]

• Fixed the Eagle and Double Bogey hole out animations not using the players customization.

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Added improvements to lillypads. These now include slightly different tones for future support of autumn season.
  
• Added back-end support for future autumn ground variation.
  
• Added improvements to cherry tree’s with future support for autumn.
  
• Fixed a pipe alignment in “See you on the other side”.
  
• Fixed a physical material for the ‘Go for it’ hole in one ramp, which was slowing the ball incorrectly.
  
• Fixed some ground pieces particularly around hole areas not giving a correct sound response when hit with ball.
  
• Fixed an overlapping ground piece on ‘Speed Bump’.
  
• Fixed placement of a tree on ‘Speed Bump’.

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Added a change to the dark interface theme so level transitions will fade to a 70% white.
  
• Added backend improvements to camera fade so it is now called more unified, any fades part of sequences has been moved and instead called the same way as all other fades. The point of this is just tidy ups and error prevention.
  
• Fixed an initial white flicker when booting up the game due to a timing inconsistency with the fade behaviour.
  
• Fixed an issue relating to the wrapping of text on the intro screen. Text will now fade in after automatic wrapping has occurred.

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

Last week in the Season 1 Development Roadmap post I said I'd share some development screenshots and talk a bit more about what the in development expansion will include. Today I can show off both the overall Autumn season and two of the levels, there is also a teaser video at the end of this post showing parts of the levels being played.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1914980/Golfing_In_Aether/
Please note that this is all in development and not due to release till later this month so some things could well change in between now and then. One thing that won't change is that this is a completely FREE 'DLC'. While it will have its own store page for promotion, again, it will be free.


Okay, so what is the season? Well the season is effectively akin to a theme or a reskin of levels to match the actual seasonal appearence of autumn. This includes not just new textures, but also several new or significantly changed models.


This will work in the same way for the later Winter expansion, and the idea of this is you get at least a visual experience more fitting to the conditions around specific seasonal holidays. I deliberately don't restrict levels as a whole to each theme as I want to continuously add to a global level pool that can be picked each time you play.


From a gameplay perspective you will be able to choose the season when you start a session, this includes both custom and presets. I don't yet have the menu made for it, but you'll have a 3 way selection similar to what you find on the join menu as an extra step. Your choice will not effect the preset category e.g. Casual or Competitive etc. so you won't need to be in a custom match to specifically choose the season.

[hr][/hr]

The first new level is a mid game level featuring pinball-esc obstacles you have to navigate your ball into with a loosely random chance of where you'll exit. This will mean the difference between hole in one, a shortcut or the long route around the vertical windmill.


Once you do reach the final part of the level you have one last challenge to navigate and thats getting around the corner while avoding falling into the pond that has no wall stopping you.

[hr][/hr]

A late game level that easily covers the largest area in the game so far with gameplay being taken across three seperate islands. Traversing the islands is done by rails, specifically I had the idea of the ball rolling across the spacing of the third rail.


To start with you have to navigate a windmill obstacle thats blocking your path, this is mixed with reflecting around a couple corners. Your exit from this section will determine which rail you take, whether its the outer rail to the hole-in-one, or the shorter one to the central island where you have to navigate your way to the next rail which will take you to the final island where the hole is.

[hr][/hr]

If you've read this far then heres a very quick teaser trailer showing off of the mechanics found in the new levels actually in action.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
I'll likely do another development update in a weeks time to show more progress being made, but what do you think so far? Please let me know in the coments :)


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

Now that any significant launch fixes are out of the way I wanted to share the development roadmap for the coming season. This will focus on the major stuff I've got pre-planned. If you have suggestions for other stuff by all means share them as I'm sure there will room for other quality-of-life updates beyond whats discussed here :)

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

This will be a free DLC that will be more than just a map pack. The notable addition will be the game will be able to played in an autumn theme with likely some seasonal specific decorations added as well. This will be another session setting you get to pick when starting the game. Along with this seasonal theme will be the addition of lots of new levels playable in all seasonal themes. I have no screenshots to show off yet as I only started work on it this week. I will maybe do a development post in a week or so to show how its progressing :)

I just want to reiterate that this will be free, and not a paid addon. I fully intend to make it a DLC in the steam store as this helps with promotion, but it will be free. I know some of you like to look at packages added to steam in advance of release, so want to be extra clear on that. I actually have no plans for any paid addons for the remainder of this season. If you wish to support the game then please consider writing a review, and/or just let your friends know about the game.


This is something I’m actively working on but will be second to the expansion development. The game was built around native Linux support in mind with its choice of engine and any plugins used. There is a handful of things I need to tidy up and fix at this stage, but overall it is working and progressing along nicely.

[h2]Why not proton?[/h2]
While proton works for lots of games, I found it not to work flawlessly with Golfing in Aether, identifying a few issues. I also like to be in control of my own support rather than rely on others. If proton does end up working then great, that'll be two ways you play the game on Linux.

[h2]Steamdeck?[/h2]
Once Linux support is added then the game should play just fine on Steamdeck. There is full controller support and is quite suited for it. I did do a compatibility post on the forums here, but until I put out this Linux build (or proton improvements happen) the game isn't playable yet.


This hasn’t yet been actively requested but it is something I want to look into as other games have it. Initially as you know, I focused on Split Screen play where everyone uses their own controller. There is a 'hotseat' mode, which also works during online play, but this is more of game mode than a means of sharing controllers.

This shared controller mode will just mean when playing hotseat if you only have one controller you can optionally pass the pad instead. I will be looking at extending the number of local player numbers in this mode, perhaps to 8 or even more.

I have nothing to show off at this time and no set release date. However I wish this to be in the game for upcoming holidays.


This will be similar in feature to the autumn expansion except will feature a winter theme. I have nothing really to say about this as I likely won’t begin work on this till sometime in November. But in short, expect a new winter theme and more levels.


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

This update contains a mix of fixes, various quality of life additions, and some tidy ups in the direction of supporting post launch content coming this season. There are also a bunch of items from my quality-of-life list that I hadn't got done prior to launch ticked off.

The size of the update is mostly due to a one-time moving of files around and clearing up some references. Normally updates wont be anywhere near this big.

If any of you have feedback, suggestions, or ideas about the game I’m always happy to hear them :)

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

[h2]General[/h2]

• Fixed a delay timer potentially interfering with camera reset in practice mode.
  
• Fixed ability to fight the yaw while focusing flag and an instance where it may become stuck if you mashed buttons and reset camera.
  
• Added tweaks to scoring of levels. I’ve adjusted the timing value to have a 2.5 second offset, which will mean net 10XP difference. This is to bring some later game levels into a more ideal difficulty for achieving S Ranks. The early levels I’ve so far not experienced any issues with. Always open to feedback on the levels however.
  
• Added change to waiting for players menu by showing the preset image and icon rather than a picture of the first level. This helps players joining see easier what kind of session they are in and is consistent with the join menu behavior, plus that first level picture was often incorrect as it only shows the base version and isn’t correct for hard etc.
  
• Added independent graphics quality settings to the system save game when running in ES3.1. This means that while stuff like display and frame rate settings will be shared, the quality and some of advanced settings will be only to that specific mode.

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Fixed a couple minor wall gaps on ‘See you on the other side’
  
• Added a tidy up by reducing number of materials for track pieces. This won’t affect performance in a meaningful way but will help with error prevention.
  
• Added internal changes to future support additional ground types. No new ground types are currently included.
  
• Fixed a wall gap on spin city.
  
• Fixed a wall on ‘Getting Tee’d off’ out of alignment.
  
• Added improved round corner and round end cap wall meshes. These were earlier made meshes and compared to other wall meshes I simply felt quality could be better. A positive side effect of this rework will see triangle count of these meshes be reduced by around 25%.

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Fixed an issue with displaying XP level after reaching level 5 in the scoreboard.
  
• Fixed an element pressable that shouldn’t be (and has no effect) on the stat menu. The container for holeouts had visual pressable feedback when it shouldn’t, it also has no reason to have this.
  
• Added to stats menu a stat that specifically shows how many levels excluding difficulty variations you’ve played. This is same progress as the ‘Around the World’ achievement.
  
• Added time to be displayed as part of the holeout animation when in a race session.
  
• Added dedicated graphics settings menu for when running in the ES3.1 performance mode. Given most graphical features don’t work or are simply disabled in this mode you will find less options here compared to normal. However, if your goal is to tweak to get more performance then only showing actually valid options is a huge help. Essentially this mode is low/med in terms of regular DX12 features. Shadows are supported, if you disable these via the settings you will get further performance improvements.
  
• Fixed some container text strings being incorrect on the graphics menu.
  

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

Small update with a mixture of fixes and some tweaking of the scoring values based on feedback. I’d already made some animations for ‘Eagle’ and ‘Double Bogey’ and so on but just forgotten about them. But after it was brought to my attention I got those fixed up and implemented fully. I would like to make additional animations so theres more variation for all existing categories at some point, it’s on the list of things to get done just not top of the priority list.

If any of you have feedback, suggestions, or ideas about the game I’m always happy to hear them :) Updates for Golfing in Aether should slow down in a day or so to hopefully something more weekly, being launch day I didn’t want to sit on fixes or easy to implement feedback.

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

[h2]General[/h2]

• Added tweaked XP values for Eagle. Normally XP values are 200 for Par, 350 for Birdie and 500 for Hole In One. For Par 4 courses, Birdie is now worth 300 and Eagle 400. Any number of bogeys are still worth 100 XP.

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Added animations for Eagle, Double and Tripple bogey. The double and triple reuse the same animation just with text changed.
  
• Added improvements to the back-end of how animations are selected. In order to implement this I figured I’d mays well do some tidying up in the process. This will help with error prevention.
  
• Fixed an issue where the score was always described as ‘birdie’ in small text on the XP screen.
  
• Fixed XP screen showing incorrect item unlocks. This was a visual issue only.

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