Super Video Golf News

Just a small update this time which applies a couple of fixes to the menu. The most notable addition is the new monthly leaderboards for the official courses. The existing 'champions' leaderboards remain but, thanks to a suggestion from yourjaguarlover, new monthly leaderboards record each month's best scores, before resetting at the beginning of the next month. Old leaderboards are archived and, in a future update, will be browsable in the clubhouse 'hall of fame' 😁

Here's the change list:

• Fixed crash in profile editor when clicking off of name edit without first applying it
  
• Fixed remote player avatars occasionally appearing black
  
• Added monthly leaderboards to official courses
  

As always do leave any comments in the discussion below, or join the official Steam chat to meet up with other golfers! See you next time...

It's the first of the month, so let's see what's going on in the world of Super Video Golf!

First and foremost, if you hadn't guess by the title, update 1.12.2 is now live! The update corrects a couple of bugs, but the biggest feature is the updated workshop tools. It is now possible to create your own player models to import into the game and optionally upload to the workshop. There's a full guide here - however, briefly, the tools allow importing rigged player models, and will automatically bake textures, apply animations and allow tweaking of attachment points used for headwear and club models.



And to round out the avatar theme of the 1.12 update I've also updated the in-game UI to display the new avatar images, both on the scoreboard, and on the bottom of the UI.



Here's the full (albeit short) list of changes:

• Fixed scores not always entering on the leaderboard when playing online games
  
• Fixed crash caused by network players leaving mid-game on the green
  
• Increased time before AFK timeout
  
• Updated readability of keybinds menu
  
• Prevent drone from rendering on mini-map
  
• Avatar icon is displayed next to current player’s name
  
• Avatar icon is displayed on scoreboard
  
• Added avatar support to workshop tools
  

[hr][/hr]

Looking Forward
So the next major update, as mentioned in the last post, will be aimed at increasing the variety in game modes. I've yet to fully decide which will make it in to the next update, however the open beta will continue to run - so you'll be able to try out new features as they appear and offer any feedback on their development.

I'm also planning a series of challenges, possibly monthly, to add to the variety of gameplay. If you have any ideas or suggestions, do feel free to join the Steam chat group and get in touch!

To add to the challenge of the game I've also been experimenting with weather effects, which will most likely become an optional selection when starting a new round. Here's a quick look:





While these effects will change the gameplay due to the decreased visibility, some other effects are purely aesthetic:



Unfortunately that's all I have to share for now though - apologies if it seems a little light on content, but please bear in mind it has been only a week since the last update! Hopefully this will still whet your whistle, and maybe inspire some new player-avatar based workshop content!

Happy golfing!

Fixes occasional crash when creating new profiles with the profile editor.

Greetings golfers! Welcome to another update.

As mentioned in the progress update at the beginning of the month this update is centred on player profiles and avatar customisation.

Avatar customisation has now been reorganised, so that it is possible to create up to 64 unique profiles, from which up to 8 can be added to the game's roster. Each profile allows for its own model, head wear, ball and set of colours (from an increased colour palette) and can even have a custom mugshot image added to it.



Mugshot images are client-side only (they are not replicated in network games) which allow you to choose a custom image to display above your ball when putting or on the round summary screen. Typically this would be an image representing your avatar, however you can add any image you like. There is a modding guide available here, which explains how to add your own custom images.




However this is not all the update brings, as many quality of life improvements have been added. Graphical enhancements include updated ball trail rendering, and a coarse terrain grid on the green on approach.



The stroke indicator on the mini-map has been refined, and now reflects changes in distance caused by the current spin settings and terrain. For example it will display a shortened distance when playing from a sand trap or the rough.

Putting Assist has been re-balanced so that playing without it is a greater challenge and awards more XP, however with it enabled there is now also a stroke indicator on the mini-green map.



The menus and UI have been given some attention too. Under the hood improvements have been made to increase performance of the menus, as well as new information such as course stats and leaderboards are visible, both in the lobby and on the driving range.



And, when playing golf, it is now possible to skip the current turn to the end, if you are a local player to the client.


The full change list:

• Vertex snapping is applied to 3D clouds
  
• Vertex snapping is applied to flag model
  
• Reverted minimap background to transparent
  
• Minimap stroke indicator now adjusts distance for current terrain and spin setting
  
• Minimap now rescales to fit the active club on approach
  
• Putting mini-view now has its own stroke indicator when putt assist is enabled
  
• Mini-flag when putting is now only shown when putt assist is enabled.
  
• Green topology is highlighted on approach
  
• XP message now includes reason for award
  
• Updated ball trail rendering
  
• Side spin now reduces distance
  
• Added option for local player to skip forward when ball is in flight
  
• Added workshop template files to assets directory
  
• Added audio to on-screen keyboard
  
• Added streak logging for playing multiple days in a row, with XP rewards
  
• Player roster is shuffled when round starts
  
• Player roster now allows up to 8 local players
  
• Overhauled player avatar customisation with improved menus and increased colour palette
  
• Player profiles can have custom avatar images
  
• Player avatar images are shown above name labels when putting
  
• Added two new player avatar models
  
• Fixed full house achievement not being awarded
  
• Fixed billiards games not launching
  
• Fixed edge case where skins/match play scores could display trophies in the incorrect order
  
• Fixed returning to lobby menu if quitting to main menu with rules tab open
  
• Selected course stats are displayed on lobby window if they are available
  
• Improved state caching for more responsive user interface
  
• Driving range top five players are now displayed on the menu.
  
• Console window can now be closed with back or B button on controller
  
• New Achievement - Dedicated
  
• New Achievement - Resident Golfer
  
• New Achievement - Month of Sundays
  
• New Achievement - Spin Class
  
• New Achievement - The Road To Success Is Always Under Construction
  
• New Achievement - Make No Mistake
  
• New Achievement - Never Gonna Give You Up
  
• New Achievement - Greens In Regulation
  
• New Achievement - Three’s A Crowd
  
• New Achievement - Consistency Is Key
  
• New Achievement for completing each course
  
• New Achievement for completing each course with par or better
  

Thank you as always to everyone who reached out with suggestions and feedback, particularly yourjaguarlover whose thorough testing of the beta and many suggestions helped make it what it is.

In other news we've also had some new Workshop submissions, which is great to see. You can check out and subscribe to those items here.

Looking to the next update the current plan is to expand on both the new profile system with more detailed stats and local leaderboards, as well as increase the number of gameplay modes and challenges. This is likely to be a significant amount of work so there is no estimation of how it will take... but you can always check back on the community pages at the beginning of every month for a progress update or join the Steam chat for Super Video Golf.

With the success of the public beta, it is likely that I will keep it available too.

For now though, I hope you enjoy this update - See you soon!

Greetings golfers, it's another month and another progress update!

What's New
Update 1.12 is all about player profiles, including avatar customisation, stats and progress tracking. To that end I've done a lot of under-the-hood work to facilitate much more customisable player profiles, and to enable a richer experience for players. Instead of the current system of creating four avatars, it is now possible to create up to 64 individual player profiles, comprised of an avatar with user definable names, assigned headwear and chosen ball. Avatar clothing is now more customisable too, with an increased colour palette, and individual colour selections, instead of light/dark pairs of colours.

With the new format it has been necessary to rework a significant amount of the game's menu, so whilst doing so I've taken the opportunity to add some more useful information when creating the player roster.



You'll notice now that there is increased detail regarding your current progress, with stats indicating which golf clubs have been unlocked, and a new multi-day streak feature. This feature rewards the player with XP for playing the game on consecutive days, with increasing XP bonuses given up to a seven day streak. Streaks are also logged in the leaderboards - so you'll also be able to see just how much stamina other players have 😁

Progress will also be resettable from this menu, meaning you'll be able to reset any progress you've made, returning your XP and Level to zero! Any unlocks such as balls and golf clubs will also become locked again - so use this option carefully.

Also the eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that the player roster now has 8 slots - with this update you'll now be able to have up to 8 local players. Online games are still limited to 16 players total, but it will now be possible to hold small tournaments on a single computer when playing hot seat.



On the lobby menu, I've added more stats relevant to the currently selected course - when choosing what to play you'll be able to see the names of the top 5 players scrolling across the bottom of the menu, if they are available.

[hr][/hr]

Aside from the new customisation options, a few user-reported bugs have reared their heads, so these will be fixed in the next update. Specifically these are the billiards games not being able to launch, and two achievements, 'Full House' and 'Skin of Your Teeth', not being awarded in certain edge cases.

I've also worked to rebalance putting slightly. When putting assist is enabled the power distance icon was broken by the last update after the putter was modified to rescale dynamically with distance. The power flag does a good job indicating stroke distance, however, although some players complained it made putting too easy. To kill two birds with one stone I've made the power flag only available when putting assist is enabled, replacing the old power indicator, and making it slightly more difficult to judge range for an increase in challenge when putting assist is disabled.

Based on user feedback I've added a stroke indicator to the mini-putt view, which appears in the top left when putting, to aid in aiming. However, as this makes it very easy to get a hole in one on the putting course, it's also only available when putting assist is activated. As before, activating the putting assist reduces the amount of XP awarded from putting, to make more challenging plays more valuable by disabling the putting assist.



Finally, other smaller improvements include adding the 'vertex snap' mode to the 3D clouds introduced in the previous update, and it is now possible to skip the ball flight animation when taking a shot - useful when playing with CPU opponents, or a lot of other players, to speed up the game.

[hr][/hr]

Public Beta
Because user feedback is invaluable to development, this update now has a public beta available. Anyone who wishes to try the work-in-progress features, or test if bugs have been fixed may now do so. The beta is opt-in and can be selected from Steam by right clicking Super Video Golf in the library, going to properties, and selecting the 'Betas' tab.



Note, this is an unfinished update! There will be new bugs, and not every feature is complete. For example the new avatar customisation menu is far from fully functional. There are also new stats and achievements available, although there may be cases where they don't trigger properly.

The beta will also attempt to load and convert any existing avatar profiles to the new format. However these are maintained separately, so if you decide to return to the last release (1.11) your old profiles will be restored. Any new profiles you create will not appear in 1.11.

Please do leave any feedback in the discussions forums!

[hr][/hr]

That wraps up this progress update - there is still a significant amount of work to do, particularly on the customisation menu, which means that the update's release is still a few weeks away but hopefully it will be worth the wait! As always thank you to everyone reaching out to discuss the game and offer feedback. Until the next time, happy golfing! ⛳🏌️‍♀️