Super Video Golf News

Howdy Golfers! I hope this post finds you well.

Another month has rolled around again, so here we are with fresh look at what's coming in the next update to Super Video Golf.


Cosmetics
First up some cosmetic changes are in order - currently only balls feature shiny materials, but soon no longer so! I've added a second material slot to headwear items which will apply a shiny material in the same way as ball models do right now. This one is for all you Workshop modders beavering away on custom content - hopefully this will provide new opportunities for inspiration for your creations!

The workshop tools have also been updated to reflect (groan) this new feature.


Menus
The update brings some changes to the UI - thanks to a suggestion on the discussions I've added the option to toggle the larger size power meter if you prefer. Hitherto it has only been enabled by default in Big Picture mode or on the Steam Deck. Once 1.18 arrives you'll be able to toggle it as you please, including being able to set it to small when playing on the Deck.

In Career Mode I've added a Nemesis icon to the score board. This appears if one of your CPU rivals is tied with you or one point away from you in the League at your current standing. That way you can see who you biggest competition is mid-round 😁



With the new Timeline feature of Steam now available in beta, I've taken the opportunity to update the Steam SDK version used by Super Video Golf so that the next release will be fully integrated with the Timeline. By which I mean important events such as holing out, scoring a hole in one or moving to the next hole are all indicated on the Timeline with custom event icons. This makes it quick and easy to see where that super-shot was last game so you can clip it and share it with your friends.




Game Play Features
There are a couple of new game play features coming in the next update too. In Career Mode you'll be able to take one Mulligan (a do-over) per hole - just in case you don't get that all import shot right first time! I've also refined the performance of the clubs. Foremost they no longer loft a ridiculous height when driving, preferring a lower, more realistic arc. The range indicator on the minimap has now also been tightened up so at shorter ranges it's much more accurate when paired with the range marks on the power bar. For anyone used to the game's existing controls these changes might feel a little odd at first - but it only takes a couple of rounds to get to grips with and you'll soon be finding yourself hitting the ball with pinpoint accuracy 😁

I've also added the ability to take punch shots with irons, which are much lower and shorter than regular shots, but dramatically increases the overall range of types of shot which can be made, especially when you're still using the lower-spec clubsets. You can also make flop shots with wedges, which loft the ball very high for a much shorter overall distance, but will reduce the bounce and spin when the ball lands. Much fun has been had in testing by trying to lob the ball from the fringe into the hole 😅


(Edit: I've just noticed this looks like a scary clown face... this may change 🤦‍♀️)



Performance Updates
Under the hood I've worked on the game engine itself to improve overall performance. Specifically I've multi-threaded systems where possible to improve the pre-render queues, by processing particle systems, frustum culling and depth sorting in parallel. Skeletal animation systems are also now multi-threaded for better performance on holes with a lot of spectators. These performance gains are particularly welcome on the Steam Deck.

Speaking of the Deck, after much confusion about just what needed setting in the depths of the Steam back-end (and some conversation which some friendly Valve devs) the Steam Deck now uses the native build of the game instead of Proton. You may have to disable any 'force compatibility' settings you have, however this should just update automatically, and is already live on the 1.17 version of Super Video Golf.

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There are a couple more features in the works although they're not quite baked yet, however, so I'll post about them as soon as there's something to share. If you're curious, or want to offer some feedback on the upcoming update, please do! The beta is currently public and can be switched to via the game's properties in Steam, under the Beta tab. Please note that there will very likely be bugs, and features such as the leaderboards are disabled while in beta. If you do have any comments, please share them over on the discussions, or hop into the group chat (or just drop by to say hello! We're a friendly bunch 😁).


Thanks as always go to my lovely community who are so good at not just helping me but also helping each other, as well as providing creative content via the Workshop, Screenshots or Discussions - the game wouldn't be what it is without you! That's it for this update though, I hope to see you out on the fairway!

Happy Golfing! 🏌️‍♀️⛳🏆

Every calendar month a new challenge runs, starting and ending at midnight UTC.

This month it's time once again to take to the course - and make sure to enable those gimmies! With gimmies set to either Under The Putter or Under The Leather score a hole with a near miss - pass the cup within 10cm or so, and let the gimme take over! The challenge is available in solo mode, online and with CPU players.

Rounds can be played at any time throughout the month, and completing the challenge awards 1000XP! Track your progress from the menu in the Clubhouse on the 19th hole, and look out for the notification in the top right corner of the screen.

And, don't forget, new monthly leaderboards and Global League are now live too! 😁

Happy golfing! ⛳

Welcome once again Golfers, to another update announcement! I'm pleased to say version 1.17 is now live, so let's dive in to what's new 😁

New Views
First up I've been refining the in-game camera system when playing on the course. Previously it was possible to switch your view to the drone camera when lining up a shot (although this may not have been entirely obvious, see below...) and I've enhanced this feature with the option to also switch to a freecam view.



Now pressing Up on the D-Pad (previously right stick button) or 1 on the keyboard will switch to and from the drone view, and pressing Down on the D-Pad or 2 on the keyboard toggles freecam. Freecam works like an enhanced drone view - where, while in drone view, you can rotate the camera, in freecam you have complete first-person style control over the camera. The freecam view can be completely controlled by either the keyboard and mouse or the active game controller.



Not only is it useful for assessing the terrain when lining up your shot, the freecam can be used as a rudimentary photo mode too. A simple Depth of Field effect is available, which can be combined with the existing Post Process effects (available in the Options menu), and pressing the A/X button on the gamepad (or F5 on the keyboard) will take a screenshot of the view. Steam will also even tag the screenshot with the current course and hole number, so if you decide to share your pictures on Steam everyone can see where you were when the screenshot was taken 😁

The above screenshots were both taken using the photo mode on a Steam Deck.


Refined Layout
I mentioned above that the drone camera switch was previously the right controller stick, though it may have not been all that obvious due to lack of documentation. To that end the control layout has, along with a few other bindings, been refined slightly, to try and make it a little more intuitive. Options such as zooming the minimap are now bound to the right stick button, and the camera rotate keys on the keyboard have been moved to 3&4.

I apologise to anyone who finds this a little jarring at first, particularly if you were used to the old layout, however it's all part of a bigger change, which includes fully documenting all the keyboard and controller inputs in the Options menu, as well as a much better key-rebinding layout that's easier to read.



You may also notice that the controller images (based on the currently active controller) are more succinct and hopefully less cluttered. It shouldn't take too long to use the new Options layout to familiarise yourself with the updated controls.


The update also adds a much asked-for feature in being able to switch manually to the putter once you reach the fringe of the green. If your ball is with 11m (approx 36yds) of the pin you'll be able to switch to the putter by cycling through your clubset. In testing we've found that this can add an interesting (albeit risky) alternative to trying to make the chip-in.



On the Steam Deck I've fixed the controller type detection so that it correctly displays PS controller icons should you be using a PS3, PS4 or PS5 controller, in line with the desktop version of the game.

I've also updated the PS5 controller support on the desktop version to support the haptic triggers - a variety of effects are now enabled in game, so if you have a DualSense controller, give it a try! 😁

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New Game Modes
The update also brings not one but three new game modes to freeplay. These game modes are all intended as new ways to have fun with your friends, either in local play or online, however they're fully compatible with CPU players too.

First up we have Elimination mode. Each player is assigned between 2 and 4 lives (depending on how many players are in the round - more players mean fewer lives) and scoring par or worse on a hole is penalised by losing a life. On the other hand scoring an eagle will award you one new life. Scoring is as regular Stroke Play, however a round is usually much shorter as players are eliminated and the game ends when only one player remains. This means Elimination is a great casual mode to play with a few friends, and you can expect the game to not last much more than 6 or 7 holes.

The second mode, Clubset Shuffle, mixes things up, particularly with CPU players, by randomly rearranging your clubset each hole. Every player has a putter, and then one wedge, iron and wood is selected at random and added to your bag. This can be a real leveler of the field for novice and experienced players alike, as you need to adapt your shot to whichever clubs are available rather than picking whichever you think is best. Hopefully this mode won't be the cause of too many arguments between friends! 😅 Scoring is also done as Stroke Play.

Finally we have Nearest The Pin. In this mode scores are based on whoever gets their ball closest to the pin as possible without actually holing out. Every player gets only two strokes to get their ball on the green, so don't lose your second stroke by going out of bounds! If you do happen to get your ball in the cup the hole is forfeit, and you get a 10 metre penalty added to your score. Otherwise the final distance between your ball and the pin is added to your score each hole, and the player with the lowest total distance wins.


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Career Updates
Since 1.16 was released many of you have offered welcome feedback on the new Career mode via the discussions and Steam Chat and I've been working to act on it.

Most notably the in-game scoreboard, when playing a Career round, now shows all of the other league players, along with their current score. Not only does this offer much more interactive feedback as you play the round, it actually revealed a few, uh, wrinkles in the CPU score generation, which have since been ironed out. It's now also possible to rename the players in the league, including your own profile name, by clicking on the player's name in the league browser. Thanks to everyone who suggested this 😁



Along with the ironing of wrinkles I took the opportunity to rebalance the Career slightly. CPU players now alter their behaviour based on your selected clubset, so that entry level players have less resistance when starting out, and more advanced players can increase the challenge as they level up their clubs. The barrier for unlocking the next league has also been lowered to placing in the top 5 of the previous league. You'll still need to place top 3 to gain access to those cosmetics though!

Oh, and resetting your Career no longer removes any unlocked items from your inventory - these are now persistent between resets!

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Updated Online Interaction
For those of you who play Super Video Golf online I've taken the opportunity to update the text chat interface. Previously the text chat floated in a window on desktop versions, and used the overlay input on Steam Deck. Now the chat window is docked to the bottom of the screen and can be toggled with F4 or the L4 paddle on the Steam Deck. On the Deck text input is still done with the overlay, however the chat window now acts a conversation history which wasn't previously available.




Quality Improvements
As always there are a variety of improvements which can be made here and there, just to sand off the rough edges. I've updated the Workshop tools for users on Linux/SteamOS - particularly for users with no or custom DEs, where the native dialogue boxes wouldn't work correctly. There's probably still room for improvement here, so if Linux is your thing and you have any feedback do let me know!



On the Steam Deck I've managed to find a colour emoji font with both a compatible format for rendering as well a publishable license - the upshot being Deck users now have colour emojis! 😁

And, on the desktop, if you bought the soundtrack on Steam (thank you!) the game will automatically play that version of the music, as it's higher quality and has extended mixes, during game instead of the default music.




Here's the full change list since 1.16:

• Fix disconnecting an audio device (eg bluetooth headphones) now reconnects to any available audio output
  
• Fix ball thumbnails being invisible when vertex snap is enabled
  
• Fix possible crash when resetting your career progress
  
• Fix colour emojis on SteamOS/Steam Deck
  
• Fix depth sorting of text items in Course Editor
  
• Fix selecting correct wave/depth map when resuming a career game mid-course
  
• Fix flat stone surfaces are no longer out of bounds
  
• Fix low ball velocity cancelling any top or back spin
  
• Fix using thumbsticks on secondary controllers in single player
  
• Fix playing hot-seat on Steam Deck when using an external controller
  
• Fix Match Play scoring now only allows 2 players
  
• Fix Skins Play now requires minimum 2 players
  
• Fix chat box scaling on high DPI displays
  
• Added automatic frame limiting when disabling v-sync
  
• Added scrolling active monthly challenge to news page
  
• Added option to use left click as Action button
  
• Added option to change the name of the Career profile player
  
• Added option to edit career player names from the league browser
  
• Added on screen notification when taking screenshots
  
• Added ability to switch to putter when on the fringe of the green
  
• Added ability to speed up hole transition by holding the Action button
  
• Added freecam mode by pressing Down on the directional pad
  
• Moved Drone cam to Up on the directional pad
  
• Moved minimap zoom to R3/Right stick on controller
  
• Updated Chat window to scale with game resolution
  
• Updated Options menu with refined keybinds
  
• Updated Career reset preserves any existing item unlocks
  
• Updated Career mode now displays CPU league players on the scoreboard mid-round
  
• Updated Career mode with difficulty balances for entry-level players
  
• Updated workshop tools with UI improvements, particularly on SteamOS/Linux
  
• Game now plays the Steam soundtrack if it is installed, instead of the default one
  
• New Game Mode: Elimination
  
• New Game Mode: Clubset Shuffle
  
• New Game Mode: Nearest the Pin
  
• New Achievement: Top Of The Pile
  
• New Achievement: Survivor
  
• New Achievement: Like, Totally Random
  
• New Achievement: Pin King
  
• New Achievement: Short Distance Clara
  
• New Achievement: Snug As A Bug
  
• New Achievement: Happy Snapper
  
• New Achievement: Starting Out
  
• New Achievement: Getting The Hang Of It
  
• New Achievement: Pro Show
  

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Thanks as always goes to everyone who got involved, especially if you posted bugs or suggestions on the discussions, joined in on the live chat and HUGE respect to everyone who tested the beta relentlessly over the last couple of months - I couldn't do it without you! 😁

If you want to get involved please do! I mostly monitor the discussions and the group chat, but there is now also a Discord server here if you prefer. Let me know what you think of the update and about any other ideas you might have for the game!

And don't forget that there are multiplayer games hosted every Super Video Sunday which are open to everyone of all skill levels - see the Steam Group here for details on how to join in.

That's it for this update though, have fun and Happy Golfing! 🏌️‍♀️⛳ 🏆

Every calendar month a new challenge runs, starting and ending at midnight UTC.

This month takes a break from the course, and sees us on the driving range! For each available target you need to score 99% accuracy or better. Targets can be met in any order, and at any time - the challenge does not need to be completed in a single session.

Rounds can be played at any time throughout the month, and completing the challenge awards 1000XP! Track your progress from the menu in the Clubhouse on the 19th hole, and look out for the notification in the top right corner of the screen.

And, don't forget, new monthly leaderboards and Global League are now live too! 😁

Happy golfing! ⛳

Greetings once again golfers!

It's a little off-schedule (but in a good way!) as the next update is imminent, but I thought I'd share with you what else will be arriving in the upcoming 1.17 update.



If you missed the last post, check it out here to see what I've been working on previously, including new camera modes, new game modes and updated control layouts coming to 1.17. Since then I've been wrangling further control changes as well as refining the Career mode which was added in 1.16.

Control Updates
With the controls I've tightened up compatibility with the Steam Deck, particularly when using an external controller. Previously, while it was possible to play single player or online multiplayer with the Deck docked and an external controller, playing hot-seat where multiple players shared a controller was unfortunately awry.



The problem lay in the fact that the Deck itself is also a controller, so the game would attempt to fall back to the Deck for any player other than player one - which is inconvenient to say the least! This has now been fixed and it is possible to use any external controller with the Steam Deck to play in hot-seat mode, as well as play with multiple external controllers at once. On top of this I've also fixed the controller type detection on the Steam Deck so that it correctly displays PS controller icons should you be using a PS3, PS4 or PS5 controller, in line with the desktop version of the game.

Along side this I've also updated the PS5 controller support on the desktop version to support the haptic triggers - a variety of effects are now enabled in game, so if you have a DualSense controller, give it a try! 😁

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Career Updates
Since 1.16 was released many of you have offered welcome feedback on the new Career mode via the discussions and Steam Chat and I've been working to act on it.

Most notably the in-game scoreboard, when playing a Career round, now shows all of the other league players, along with their current score. Not only does this offer much more interactive feedback as you play the round, it actually revealed a few, uh, wrinkles in the CPU score generation, which have since been ironed out. It's now also possible to rename the players in the league, including your own profile name, by clicking on the player's name in the league browser. Thanks to everyone who suggested this, it has been well received so far by the brave beta testers 😁



Along with the ironing of wrinkles I took the opportunity to rebalance the Career slightly. CPU players now alter their behaviour based on your selected clubset, so that entry level players have less resistance when starting out, and more advanced players can increase the challenge as they level up their clubs. The barrier for unlocking the next league has also been lowered to placing in the top 5 of the previous league. You'll still need to place top 3 to gain access to those cosmetics though!

Yourjaguarlover should get an honourable mention as he tirelessly played, reset and replayed the Career multiple times to make sure it's a great experience. I'm pretty sure by now he must mutter about it in his sleep...

Oh, and resetting your Career no longer removes any unlocked items from your inventory - these are now persistent between resets!

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Quality Improvements
As always there are a variety of improvements which can be made here and there, just to sand off the rough edges. I've updated the Workshop tools for users on Linux/SteamOS - particularly for users with no or custom DEs, where the native dialogue boxes wouldn't work correctly. There's probably still room for improvement here, so if Linux is your thing and you have any feedback do let me know!



On the Steam Deck I've managed to find a colour emoji font with both a compatible format for rendering as well a publishable license - the upshot being Deck users now have colour emojis! 😁

Also on the Steam Deck it seems that Valve have corrected the bug introduced by the May SteamOS update which was causing the game to crash when launching the Career. However if this is still not fixed for you, please check out this work-around for details on how to get the game up and running.

And, on the desktop, if you bought the soundtrack on Steam (thank you!) the game will automatically play that version of the music, as it's higher quality and has extended mixes, during game instead of the default music.



That's it for this update - it's not an exhaustive list (I haven't even begun to cover all the new achievements!) - however the full change list will be published once the update is released. As always thank you to everyone who plays the game, supports the development effort, and those of you who play on Super Video Sundays! (do join in if you haven't already 😁)

For now though, Happy Golfing! 🏌️‍♀️⛳