Vive Golf Club Controller Mod

[PsychoChem]

Hey guys got sick of holding a Vive wand so I went out in the garage and through some trial and error came up with this:

http://imgur.com/a/nZica

Made the game MUCH more immersive and improved my swing/play by a bunch! Really makes me cannot wait for custom controller mods from other HW manufacturers!

[Ravens]

That is awesome! Since our first VR prototype (a 20x20 patch of grass, a driver, and a ball) we talked about how great a peripheral would be. We tossed around a couple different approaches, but just as a "Wouldn't it be great if?" sorta thing. It's never actually been in the cards for us to have something manufactured.

Your creation is pretty awesome, especially if it works for you! Thanks for sharing. I'm sure this will inspire a number of other creations!

Did you have to choose a smaller club size now that the wand is a bit further away from your hand?

[PsychoChem]

Hey I actually was just testing more with it. Yes, I ended up using a shorter club size so it doesn't appear too far away but I probably should play some more with it and see if it affects my shots. To be honest I just built this thing and posted it and just spent the last hour playing the game with it, not really testing since it was so much fun :). It's like I mentioned where the angle might not be right in reality, but once I am in the headset I just use my eyes and adjust and I don't think about it.

But I'll definitely do some fine tuning/different tests and let you know what's going on and how that ends up working...just had to play a round with it though cause it was just cool and it cost me only 7 dollars in clubs at a 2nd hand store.

Greens are still fast it seems but I see you are working on that....BUT I have a putter I got as well...going to strap a vive controller onto that and see how realistic we can get it. Then I can use this controller for driving/irons, and then just pick up the putter in the corner when I am on the greens? Only thing I use the second controller for now is hang it on the neck of a beer bottle so I know where that is without taking off the headset.

Thanks for the game by the way and keep up the good work!!! I gotta take this to work and show all the golf nuts....

[HeadlessHamster]

haha thats great!! So im guessing you now have to select the shortest club; looks like its attached to an iron , how far are you hitting on pro mode? on pro or any mode for that matter ive never managed to reach/hit the island from the training scene and on the moderate difficulty 18 hole course ive not managed to finish even on casual mode due to frustration mostly.
Being able to stand on the edge of the green to read it is a delight even tho the screen door effect sucks and the vive head set never gets any comfier hurry up sony and bring this out on psvr but make headsets first
Im a bit suspicious about how accurate the vive system can be at measuring these fast swings
looking at the blue green/red line i thinks only 4-5 measurements are ebing taken

[PsychoChem]

Have hit the island on pro mode messing around with this...I will say it took a lot of shots though mainly due to slicing....BUT when I used to play golf as a teen I never hit it straight so I guess its GIT GUD right? Need to get an actual golfer to try. I just am happy to play a game I have not played in like 12 years (mainly due to other interests/cost/etc.).

[JohnRC]

Very creative and noticed you found a club with a Golf Pride grip... nice touch! I don't have a Vive, but I am curious about this. Do you find that you're hitting the ball greater distances and perhaps with higher trajectories, now that you're able to (conceivably) get more wrist snap in the swing? Every shot I've seen in TGC VR videos so far reflects properties of a mostly wrist locked swing.

[JohnRC]

Originally posted by PsychoChem:

But I'll definitely do some fine tuning/different tests and let you know what's going on and how that ends up working...just had to play a round with it though cause it was just cool and it cost me only 7 dollars in clubs at a 2nd hand store.

PsychoChem, do keep us posted as to how you're progressing with your tweaking and tuning using your club mod. I use a SimStix club adapter for my Move and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 on the PS3, and I even added some lead tape to the body of the frame that held the Move to give if close to the feel of the mass of a real club... it helped out tons for me! Good luck with it though; I'm sure a lot of people will be interested in reading your experience with this!

[Buck]

Originally posted by JohnRC:

Originally posted by PsychoChem:

But I'll definitely do some fine tuning/different tests and let you know what's going on and how that ends up working...just had to play a round with it though cause it was just cool and it cost me only 7 dollars in clubs at a 2nd hand store.

PsychoChem, do keep us posted as to how you're progressing with your tweaking and tuning using your club mod. I use a SimStix club adapter for my Move and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 on the PS3, and I even added some lead tape to the body of the frame that held the Move to give if close to the feel of the mass of a real club... it helped out tons for me! Good luck with it though; I'm sure a lot of people will be interested in reading your experience with this!

John - Do you use a screen on the floor + in front of you with an HDMI splitter or something to use First Person view on TW + Move?

[JohnRC]

Originally posted by Buck:

John - Do you use a screen on the floor + in front of you with an HDMI splitter or something to use First Person view on TW + Move?

No, I found that it isn't necessary. I do place a golf ball in the floor, where it would be in my stance. This gives me a focal point and I do much better with it. When I swing the SimStix/Move, I keep my eyes on the ball until after I've made 'contact'. When I look up at the screen during my follow through, the flight of the ball looks pretty authentic.

[Buck]

Originally posted by JohnRC:

Originally posted by Buck:

John - Do you use a screen on the floor + in front of you with an HDMI splitter or something to use First Person view on TW + Move?

No, I found that it isn't necessary. I do place a golf ball in the floor, where it would be in my stance. This gives me a focal point and I do much better with it. When I swing the SimStix/Move, I keep my eyes on the ball until after I've made 'contact'. When I look up at the screen during my follow through, the flight of the ball looks pretty authentic.

Do you still play TW?

I just fired up the Move + TW14 and it immediately reminded me how much I prefer it to the newer Rory offering. They made a big step in the wrong direction IMO (beside Frostbite graphics I guess)

[PsychoChem]

Originally posted by JohnRC:

Originally posted by PsychoChem:

But I'll definitely do some fine tuning/different tests and let you know what's going on and how that ends up working...just had to play a round with it though cause it was just cool and it cost me only 7 dollars in clubs at a 2nd hand store.

PsychoChem, do keep us posted as to how you're progressing with your tweaking and tuning using your club mod. I use a SimStix club adapter for my Move and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 on the PS3, and I even added some lead tape to the body of the frame that held the Move to give if close to the feel of the mass of a real club... it helped out tons for me! Good luck with it though; I'm sure a lot of people will be interested in reading your experience with this!

Hey John! I'll definitely post more information. I have been swamped the past 2 days and have not had time to put out some more information on this. I might actually end up making a video showing some tests of the controller later this week after I can record it!

[hb_CraigC]

Originally posted by PsychoChem:

Hey guys got sick of holding a Vive wand so I went out in the garage and through some trial and error came up with this:

http://imgur.com/a/nZica

Made the game MUCH more immersive and improved my swing/play by a bunch! Really makes me cannot wait for custom controller mods from other HW manufacturers!

Hey Psychochem, there was a link shared the other day by Nate278 with someone on Etsy selling something like this. Is this you? We're hoping it's you! ;)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/480609656/htc-vive-golf-club-controller-holder?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=vr%20golf&ref=sr_gallery_1

[Wirenut48]

i used my spare CTA Digital Move attachment with slight modification. Used cable tie in place of the buckle strap to hold it in place, the tie will pry over the wings to remove easily. Since the vive controller is almost identical in size the trigger mechanism even works. Got it attached to a putter with some of back side cut off to lighten it a bit. With this attachment ahead of your hands could really use a even shorter club than what's available in game.

http://i.imgur.com/HlheAau.jpg

Unfortunately Amazon shows it currently unavailable, so hope they didn't quit production.

https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Virtual-Golf-PlayStation-Move-Nintendo/dp/B0057ETTZG/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1481311204&sr=8-14&keywords=cta+digital+golf

[PsychoChem]

Originally posted by CraigC:

Originally posted by PsychoChem:

Hey guys got sick of holding a Vive wand so I went out in the garage and through some trial and error came up with this:

http://imgur.com/a/nZica

Made the game MUCH more immersive and improved my swing/play by a bunch! Really makes me cannot wait for custom controller mods from other HW manufacturers!

Hey Psychochem, there was a link shared the other day by Nate278 with someone on Etsy selling something like this. Is this you? We're hoping it's you! ;)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/480609656/htc-vive-golf-club-controller-holder?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=vr%20golf&ref=sr_gallery_1

Hey guys, nope that is not me but I am ecstatic someone is out there making stuff like this! I had no desire to spring up any sort of business at the moment (too much work for now :) love my job and my free time hobbies!) and was just hoping my posting my ideas would just drive some innovation. If they saw it and did, good for them I hope they make some extra scratch and you guys ship a lot more copies of the Golf Club VR! And then we get some more awesome VR games I can buy...it's win win all around :).

[Kam]

Originally posted by CraigC:

Originally posted by PsychoChem:

Hey guys got sick of holding a Vive wand so I went out in the garage and through some trial and error came up with this:

http://imgur.com/a/nZica

Made the game MUCH more immersive and improved my swing/play by a bunch! Really makes me cannot wait for custom controller mods from other HW manufacturers!

Hey Psychochem, there was a link shared the other day by Nate278 with someone on Etsy selling something like this. Is this you? We're hoping it's you! ;)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/480609656/htc-vive-golf-club-controller-holder?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=vr%20golf&ref=sr_gallery_1

Hi Craig! Big fan of the game you guys have made! This is actually my little startup I've been working on! (VRMerch) I have google analytics tied to my etsy store so I saw a lot of hits from this steam post. My younger brother really loves golf and VR so he asked if I could look into making a mount for him. I'm more about tennis but I've tested these mounts in the Golf Club VR and they DEFINITELY make it a better experience. Being able to hold the handle like a real golf club gave me so much more accuracy. I initially offered these mounts in 12-24 inch handles but looking back now I'll probably change the handles to 8inch and 12 inch because it seems the shorter the handle the better. Plus I was knocking a lot of stuff over in my room with the 12 inch, I can't imagine the damage I could do with a 24! If you guys have any questions feel free to ask. Also the mounts are cheaper on our website :D

[Ravens]

Hey Kam,

CraigC here (personal account) we did order one from your website to give it a go in the studio. We appreciate you making an exception and shipping to Canada for us. We'll be sure to let you know our thoughts once we've been able to play a few rounds with it.