Golfing In Aether News

For this update I targeted more performance improvements for low end devices with new foliage quality levels offering noticeable gains when playing at medium settings.


A new foliage quality setting has been added to graphics settings. This setting will control the method and quality of meshes that will be used. Specifically, a lower poly set of models has been made for trees and similar assets. Depending on the quality level of this foliage setting will determine what meshes get used. The screenshot above compares lowest and highest settings for just the foliage setting, it may be hard to notice major changes at a glance as it was always the intention to not sacrifice too much visual quality.

The goal of this setting is to increase the frame rate of very low end hardware, any computer with a dedicated GPU is probably not going to see that much of a meaningful change here, but APU’s such as early gen Ryzen and anything that happens to offer lower graphical performance will see a small bump.

To accomplish this two things were done. The first was to remove a subdivision level or reduce the number of poly by half for the trunks and branches. To avoid it looking blocky/low-poly it was then shrinkwrapped with various smoothing to fit the higher poly models. A few additional tweaks such as to make the chopped off branch bits still look round were done so overall you'd have to look close to notice. The second is petals and leaves which are normally fully 3D (most levels only have maybe 3-5 trees) are replaced with an older 2D masked plane method. This means they are essentially 2D looking but there are some tricks such as offsetting the center of the face to still allow for side on appearance at a glance.

As a result of these two changes the triangles of tree's can be reduced by anywhere between a third to a fifth of the original which does help specifically very low end hardware. For actual performance numbers I was able to get the following in medium settings on my AMD 3200G test pc which is similar ball park to the steam deck (though steam deck is bit faster having that RDNA2 not Vega graphics).

[h3]Small Levels[/h3]
Gentle Swing - 113 fps to 127 fps, 14 fps gained
Around the pond - 104 fps to 117 fps, 13 fps gained.
Tee Time - 117 fps to 125 fps, 8 fps gained.

[h3]Large Levels[/h3]
Waterhole 89 fps to 100 fps, 11 fps gained.
Go For it - 103 fps to 111 fps, 8 fps gained.
See you on the other side - 99 fps to 106 fps, 7 fps gained.

The fps gains do vary, but if just looking at the lowest fps in a level, then around 100fps is now obtainable at 1080p, this is up from the around 90 fps of previous. Benchmarking when nine random levels are present is much harder to be consistent with, but in previous updates this was already above 60 fps and you can expect some gains here as well.


I've fixed a couple issues found and updated a few of the engine plugins used, such as for Steam, and AMD FSR2 (DLSS is up-to-date). If you encounter any issues please let me know so I can quickly hotfix them. You can find full patch notes below.

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

[h2]General[/h2]

• Fixed an instance where a ball would be visible during the waiting for players state.
  
• Fixed an issue where sending an invite to a single friend wouldn’t work in some session types.

[h2]Engine[/h2]

• Added update to AMD FSR 2 plugin by applying FSR 2.2.1 hotfix.
  
• Added update to various online subsystems plugins including Steam.

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Added improved performance from snow found on walls by tweaking how shadows are cast (only low end devices will notice any performance benefit and there should be no visible difference).
  
• Added new tree models as part of new foliage setting that will offer better performance at lower setting levels. Difference ranges from maybe a 1/3rd to a 1/8th the triangles.
  
• Added alternate whale bone models for lower foliage settings. These are lower poly but shrink wrapped to fit the normal models. These use about 1/5th the triangles of the originals.
  
• Added additional far tree LOD level.
  
• Added improved LOD models for the Whale Bones.
  
• Added improved LOD models for the Snowman.
  
• Fixed a 0.3 mm offset issue relating to the ramp mesh used on ‘Leviathan’ which could cause a flicker at extreme angles.
  
• Fixed some very minor track placement in one hill over.
  
• Fixed the sequence path being very slightly crooked in waterhole when entering the cup.
  
• Added improved LOD for level 'deja vu'.

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

A small hotfix to yesterday’s update to fix a partial loading issue with one of the levels. All other levels have been checked and there are no outstanding known issues with anything else that I’m aware of.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1914980/announcements/detail/3673295266813011241
You can read about yesterdays update via the link above.


I've also started work on some new tree models for low settings and ES3.1 rendering mode, the spring blossoms for ES3.1 are in this update as they were done at the time of me discovering this level load issue but the rest will come in next weeks update as they get completed.


As mentioned in the previous update the demo now uses shared depots of the release game directly, keeping it in sync with the purchased game and allowing features like multiplayer between the two. It also means when upgrading to a purchased copy of the game no new files will need to be downloaded.

If you have any issues relating to a prior installation of the demo or are not receiving the latest update as a result of these depot changes on the steam backend then you will need to uninstall the demo and then install it again. It will do a fresh 800 MB download and I apologise for any inconvience. However it will be a one time thing and be in sync going forwards with the full game.

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

[h2]General[/h2]

• Fixed a loading issue with Rock Bottom.

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Added some new tree models for ES3.1 to better help with performance. The specific change vs the ones previous are when in this low end render mode an older method of masked planes are used for the blossoms rather than mesh. Other seasonal tree versions will get updated in the next update.

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

This update tackles various updates to the multiplayer backend as well as bring a new invite menu and various additional feedback elements across various other menus. Support for demo players being able to join sessions hosted by players from the full/release game has also been added.


On the waiting for players lobby menu or the game menu (when in a multiplayer session) you can now open an in-game invite players menu instead of just a button to open the overlay. This will make it much easier on gamepad users especially. You can of course still open the overlay as normal and invite players in any typical way in Steam like you did before.

The way this menu works is you will click the tickbox for all your friends you wish to send an invite, and then when you press accept it will prompt you if you really wish to invite however many players you selected.


Other changes you can in this update are feedback prompts for joining or getting disconnected from sessions. This is just giving more foward facing information even if its as simple as saying its currently trying to connect or perhaps your connection timedout. Especially for the connecting stage there would of previously just been a second delay without any visual cue after clicking join so this will help tell you whats actually happening.


The session list will now show the progress as part of the sate on list itself. This could be what hole the session is at or if is still at the lobby stage. Full information as before including the new state to indicate session is still at the lobby stage can be found on the session info menu when when you pick a session.


Next up is a pretty big thing and that’s the ability for both demo and regular players to play together, seeing and joining the same sessions. This means if you’ve bought the game, but perhaps some of your friends haven’t, you can tell them to just grab the free demo and they will then be able to join your multiplayer session.

Golfing in Aether has a really uphill battle to get visibility on Steam, so I’m hoping making this change will encourage more players to try the game. The demo is available for both Windows and Linux (natively).

When playing this way the same demo limitations apply, demo players won’t get achievements, and customization is locked to level 3 at most. Plus, if demo player were to create a session they’ll only have levels randomly picked from those in the demo (the demo only has access to 18 levels when creating sessions).

Also, you won’t be able to invite players between demo and regular with the steam client itself because steam considers the demo and release game different apps/games. But you can join just fine via the in-game session list where you'll find friend’s sessions grouped nicely at the top. If you don’t want your session public, then create a custom session and set permissions to friends only.


See the full update notes below for several other fixes and improvements made, some stand-out mentions are improving the behavior of late joining sessions or when as a spectator. I did a lot of testing for this and worked out any issues or odd behaviour. If you encouter any issues please let me know.

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

[h2]General[/h2]

• Added improvements to way lobby updates are handled.
  
• Added reworked backend behaviour to the intro screen to simplify timing execution in relation to following join session info.
  
• Added clean-up of some un-used states and functions.
  
• Added change to level balance by moving ‘learning curve’ from early to mid game random selection pool. This is because of the water hazard which from perspective of absolutely new players could be pretty challenging. With this change no gameplay is affected this level will simply show up randomly in mid game instead of early.
  
• Added improved batching for save-game updates with scoreboard.
  
• Fixed appearance of other players not being correct while spectating.
  
• Added some additional behaviour checks for hotseat mode for when you go out of bounds on the tee so you enter a hidden state. This has checks for both entering e.g. water or flying off the level. The point of this is so as the next player takes their turn they don’t see your name and ball in the way.
  
• Fixed some behaviour issues relating to the power arrow projection, the head will no longer separate from the line.
  
• Added additional checks to prevent the cosmetic issue of the power meter becoming visible while moving (and unable to take launch the ball).
  
• Fixed a potential level loading issue in networked sessions for ‘Up the stairs’ and ‘hill climb’. All levels have been checked and preventative measures added.
  
• Added a behaviour change for late joining a hotseat session so that the player is hidden while spectating for their initial join round.
  
• Added behaviour so when late joining active sessions you’ll correctly see other players visibility state as early as the sequence.
  
• Added some rate limiting for applying customization to help reduce calls at the start of a session.
  
• Added ability to play online multiplayer in the demo with the release version of the game. There only limiting factor here is that you cannot invite demo players to a release game via the steam overlay as it is considered a different app. But you can look up your friend’s session be it invite only or public via the session list. When demo players create a session they’ll only be able to call on the levels available to them in the demo, but when joining a release game session they’ll see all the levels just fine, same for any ball customization they don’t have.
  
• Fixed a network timing issue relating to the replication of race positions and times. A request to the server is now sent to begin the holeout animation which in some extreme cases may lead to a few ms delay but ensures the time reported particually for race mode is acccurate.
  
• Fixed an issue where a spectating player joining may still spawn a visible ball.

[h2]Customization[/h2]

• Added two new hats. a bowler hat and a floppy/dog ears version of the bell hat.

[h2]Engine[/h2]

• Added update to various plugins including steam implementation.
  
• Added more streamlined network back-end utilizing standard engine functions where available to make engine version migrations easier.

[h2]Platform[/h2]

• Added changes to demo steam depots to make them shared with the release game version. The installation folder will also be the same as the release game. This change means when you purchase the game you will not have to then redownload files used in the demo. If you have any issues with playing the demo or getting updates you may need to uninstall it and reinstall it to get the latest shared build.
  
• Added missing library capsule and updated images for the demo version of the game.
  

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Fixed a wall gap on ‘see you on the other side’.
  
• Added improvements to shadow bias and slope bias. This will remove gaps between start of shadow and e.g. walls that could be more noticeable at very low end graphics settings.
  
• Added a slight blue tint increase to the faked skylight as part of ES3.1 rendering. This is to help bring rendering appearance closer to the default renderer.
  
• Fixed shadow appearence on the LOD level for 'Hill Climb'.
  
• Fixed some bamboo clipping a wall on 'Getting Tee'd Off'.
  
• Fixed LOD level of 'HIll Climb' not having its rotator visibly move.
  
• Added improved LOD model for smaller top wall pieces used which will help remove a gap that can sometimes appear.
  
• FIxed a small wall alignment issue on 'Behind the Tee'.
  
• Fixed a small wall gap on 'Little Gap'.
  
• Fixed a very small alignment issue with the cup on 'Speed Bump'.

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Fixed an incorrect string on the Sessions List.
  
• Added various prompts and information when joining sessions via the session browser so you get feedback for when you cannot connect or a session is no longer available.
  
• Added a status to the session info that indicates session is still ‘waiting for players’ vs previously indicating hole 1. The string will be ‘in lobby’ in order to fit space. The status will also be displayed on the server browser too.
  
• Added built in invite friends to session menu which can be found on both the ‘waiting for players’ lobby screen and the game/pause menu via the y button. This will replace the standard button to open the overlay via the lobby which wasn’t always gamepad friendly. You can of course still invite this way or any other method via the steam overlay from your standard shortcut trigger if you so wish (e.g. shift tab).
  
• Added prompt background when selecting ‘spectating’ from the session info menu.
  
• Fixed shared input button visible at bottom of the select players menu while playing as a spectator.
  
• Fixed appearance of the choose players menu when playing as a spectator so other boxes are present that say not available while spectating.
  
• Fixed various description strings.
  
• Fixed instances where a name and score widget would display on the HUD when joining as spectator.
  
• Fixed an issue where a duplicate free camera timer could remain on screen. Both an initial check to clear previous widget has been added as well as an active timer check to clear the widget if it isn’t used.
  
• Added a block to empty system messages that could appear as a result of connection timeout.
  
• Fixed inconsistent behaviour when clicking glyphs on prompts.
  
• Fixed width of achievement menu progress bars not being consistent as a result of longer text strings.
  
• Fixed achivements menu scroll bar not following the dark theme.
  
• Fixed appearence inconsistency with scroll bar on the waiting for players lobby.
  
• Fixed an instance where a custom session would be indicated as a race session from the session list.

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

For this update I've implemented an in-game help menu with a few basic information topics. I've also published two steam guides covering the basics of the achivements and one with specifics on how the XP works for S-Ranks.


In these menus you'll find various information ranging from launching your ball, and the power indicator behavior, to how earning XP works such as for when chasing S-Ranks. It is available to all local players in addition to player 1. A noteworthy feature is that it will pull data from the specific player so anything like controls or how HUD elements look will be mimiced to reflect that.


This section can be found in the game menu such as when pausing the game. Over time the topics covered can be expanded up-on, to start with I just wanted to provide answers to commonly asked questions and anything I think might be especially helpful to know.

I welcome any feedback you may have and suggestions to topics to cover, also nothing is too 'basic' to cover if you can think of something.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2902748855
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2980309900

I've posted two guides, the first giving a bit of additional information relating to each of the achivements, and the second a break down of how scoring works for S-Ranks.

You are free to take any information, images, and so-on from these two guides i've specifically made to write your own guides if you feel you can do a better job, or to post on other websites. I just wanted to get the information kind-of out there and felt this was a good medium to do so.

Where it will differer to what I've included in the game is that I can go into a little more in-depth and you will be able to ask questions in the comments if you feel I've missed something.


See the full update notes below for other fixes and small improvements made, if you are aware of any issues not fixed by this update please let me know so I may address them.

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

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Added tweak to hide the HUD when using the game menu with no local players. This free’s up room for other UI elements in some menus.
  
• Added ‘How-To Play’ menu from game menu. From this menu are various information topics such as how to launch your ball, how the scoring works, and what various scoring terms mean.
  
• Fixed various scaling issues on some menus.

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

This update comprises of various fixes and quality of life improvements following on from the recent major update which introduced the ability to customize your golf ball with hats.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1914980/announcements/detail/3707070361895144099
You can read about that previous annoucement via the link above.


This is new for sessions and will function similar to how the existing practice mode skip behaves, in that the timer will be reduced down to at most three seconds, leaving enough time to update leaderboards and prepare any data for the scoreboard. Once you press skip in this case you will only be taken to the scoreboard on the next page, where you may skip again if you wish.

Skipping this menu will only be available during local or singleplayer sessions. This is because online multiplayer sessions may have players take varying times to sync with leaderboards and for any data required for later menus.


A handful of changes have been made to specifically help with smaller screens or when the screen is divided for split screen. First the quick chat menu has been raised sligthly to help with overlap with the lower spectating widget. The spacers for all widgets are a little more consistent now too.


Another change is when playing in two player split screen the hole out animation will be cropped slightly to show the text more prominently on the screen.


See the full update notes below for other fixes and small improvements made, if you are aware of any issues not fixed by this update please let me know so I may address them.

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

[h2]General[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where the ball or hat could draw in front of the flag when in the cup.
  
• Added small improvement to fixed rotation behaviour for ball or hat when resetting. It will now have the correct rotation instantaneously rather than require aligning.
  
• Added improvements to pixel depth masking in relation to new hats. They should closer match the ball appearance when seen through walls (become semi-transparent).
  
• Fixed various miss-matches in transparency relating to hats and non-collision states from alternate perspectives.
  
• Fixed a potentially incorrect opacity issue due to a miss-match in ownership when watching a replay for hats.
  
• Added some backend applying of hat optimizations. Specifically removing some redundant functions and tidying up.
  
• Fixed a potential transparency issue with the knight helmet.
  
• Fixed a potential crash with ES3.1 relating to material velocity.
  
• Fixed knight helmet lacking metallic properties on low quality material levels.
  
• Added some improvements to hat rotation for other players and replays.

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Fixed a rock on “all tee’d up” that could cause problems with resetting once entering the water.
  
• Fixed shadows on ramps of a handful of LOD levels.
  
• Fixed a normal issue with a half height wall piece.
  
• Fixed a weird looking wall gap material on “Boneyard”.
  
• Fixed a small wall gap on “Speed Bump”.
  
• Fixed a quality issue with a pipe exit on “Now Where Do I Go”.
  
• Fixed a tiny pipe gap on “See you on the other side”.
  

[h2]Interface[/h2]

• Added ability to skip the XP / Leaderboard page of scoreboard in a regular session while playing in single-player or local multiplayer. This will just take you to the next page.
  
• Added scaling change to holeout animations when playing two player local. The animation is zoomed and cropped a little so text is more prominent.
  
• Added improvements to various HUD element scalings. As part of this the quick chat prompt has been raised and anchored more vertically centered. This prevents overlap with the 'specating' widget that can appear in the lower center.

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