Walkabout Mini Golf FAQs and Troubleshooting

[markiezz]

Welcome Walkabout Mini Golf players! We aim to help you have the best experience possible across platforms, modes, courses, and skill levels. Please understand we’re a small (but mighty) team and that we work to respond to all questions as quickly as possible, but we live in various parts of the world, sleep occasionally, and the most common issues often come from the VR platforms themselves.

For one-off questions not answered below, the fastest way to get answers is through our Discord[discord.com]. It’s also a great place to organize tournaments, find games to join, and see new features/courses we’re working on. Here are a few of the most common questions we get asked and the status of where we are on known issues:

GUEST PASS

This is a new feature introduced in v2.91, which allows people who haven't unlocked a course (either through gameplay, or purchasing a DLC) to play as long as one person in a private room owns the course. However, people in Guest Pass mode can't collect lost balls or complete foxhunts. While this is a partial workaround for the Oculus DLC issue, it is a feature we plan to keep even after Oculus implements DLC sharing.

PLAYING WHILE SEATED

Some people play the game seated, but you’ll need to have your guardian turned on. This is necessary for the game to set the floor correctly. You’ll also want to turn on the LOCK BALL POSITION option. In a match, press A/X to bring up the scorecard, and click Settings in the top right to find it. Once this is on, press the trigger to align to your ball and move your chair so you’re in a comfortable spot. After that, pressing the trigger should place the ball in the exact same spot every time.

LOST SAVE DATA

In November of 2021, we added cloud save functionality, so all your devices should have access to all your progress. If you lose progress, please reach out to [e-mail], and we can unlock all balls and clubs for you.
UPDATE: Due to the ongoing Oculus server issue, we expect some people to see this behavior, but it should correct itself once the server issues are resolved. It’s also possible that your data was duplicated, and your save data was just moved to a different profile. In the main menu, click your player name in the bottom left, and see if there's a duplicate profile anywhere on the list that contains the missing save data. If there is you should be able to play on the other profile without issue. If not please give us a couple of days before reaching out, as we expect it to reappear automatically.

If you’d prefer to re-find everything on your own, or with a little help, please check out these guides on YouTube:

• Lost Ball: VIDEO
  
• Foxhunts: VIDEO

PUTTING TIPS

The game is designed to be played using a single controller. Using either the right or left controller will place you on the appropriate side of the ball. Most people use their second hand to grab their wrist or steady the controller, just like you would holding a real putter. If you find it difficult to control the speed, make sure you’re swinging from the shoulders like a real golf swing, not flicking your wrists. You can also adjust the putter strength in the SCORECARD > SETTINGS menu.

CLUB ISSUES

The length of the putter will automatically adjust to the correct length. Just stand in whatever position is most comfortable to you and the putter will take care of it when you get close enough to your ball. We also highly recommend turning on “Grip To Putt” in Scorecard > Settings which uses the grip button to manually activate the club.

TRACKING ISSUES

If you experience hand tracking issues, this is usually because the headset cameras can’t see the ring around the controller. That’s where the trackers are. Here are a few common causes for this:

• Grabbing the controller ring with your free hand. It’s usually best to hold your wrist with your free hand to help steady your hand.
  
• Long hair/loose clothing can obstruct the headset’s view when looking down.
  
• Holding it too low. Some people hold the club so low or off to the side so that part of their body actually blocks it. This isn’t an issue in most games where the controllers are up, but the putter position is lower and further away from your headset.
  
• Not enough light in your environment. Also, some lights, particularly Christmas/holiday lights have been known to cause problems in certain situations.
  
• Using two controllers. One of the reasons we recommend 1 controller is that the 2nd controller can actually block the view of the 1st controller if you hold them overlapping.
  
• Reflective surfaces like mirrors or large windows at night.

MAIN MENU BUTTONS NOT WORKING

This is an issue we’ve seen with several first-time VR users due to the way they’re holding the controller. Most interactions in VR use the TRIGGER button, which is located higher up on the front of the controller. Some people new to VR often hold the controller so their index finger actually pushes the GRIP button which is on the side of the controller. Just move your fingers further up on the controller to make sure you’re pressing that trigger button on the front of the controller. The entire game can be played with nothing but that trigger button if you are on default settings, so you won’t need any of the other buttons until you want to access some of the more advanced features.

CROSSPLAY / CROSSBUY

The game supports up to 5 players in a private room and can be played together with any device, even if they’re on the same Oculus account. Just type in the same room name to connect.

We do not currently support cross-buy across other platforms (such as Steam VR).

PASS & PLAY (LOCAL MULTIPLAYER)

We’re working on some very cool things around this, but for now, it works great to just use “practice mode” which lets you play any hole and then hand it off to the next person. The only thing missing is automatic scoring, but the flexibility it allows is much better than a fixed order/scoring system. Stay tuned for another feature to be revealed soon!

FOXHUNTS

To start a “foxhunt” (aka treasure hunt) look near the first hole on each of the hard courses and pick up the item it’s pointing to, just like a lost ball. You can see the current clue on your wristwatch, and completing each foxhunt will unlock a special putter.

TOURNAMENTS

For existing leagues and events, including our own weekly tournament, visit our Discord[discord.com]. If you’d like to host your own tournament, here are some best practices:
Assign room names when you create your brackets. Since that is the only thing people need to join a multiplayer game, make sure the name is unique, perhaps with a number to make it easy to add as many rooms as you need.

While the game can support 5 players, that can make the game slower. Consider having 4 or even 3 per room to help speed up gameplay.

Allow time to recharge between headsets. 4-player games typically last around an hour, so playing two of those back to back can easily drain the battery and cause fatigue. Spacing out multiple matches can help greatly.

Have players submit screenshots of the scoreboard at the end of a match as “proof of scores.” On Quest, you can do this through the dash, or by holding the Oculus button and clicking the trigger before the re-center circle completes.

In addition to having the winner of a match advance to the next bracket, another popular format is to just take the top scores. This can reduce a very large number of players down quickly if you don’t want to play more than a couple of matches.

Set the rules in advance, decide how people will sign up and track scores (often a simple Google sheet), and choose a hub where people can ask questions and communicate between rounds and outside of the game. Discord or Slack work great for this. If you’d like to stream video, an observer can join the game by entering after everyone goes into a course, and serve as a cameraman. Try to keep fairly still as your head is essentially the camera. Streaming is much easier from a PC but can be done with Quest. If the observer is also adding color commentary they might want to turn off their mic in-game with the toggle on the scorecard so the players don’t hear it.

For one-off questions not answered above, the fastest way to get answers is through our Discord[discord.com]. It’s also a great place to organize tournaments, find games to join, and see new features/courses we’re working on.