Tomorrow we will be saying goodbye to Early Access and officially launch The Golf Club VR. It’s been an amazing run, and we’ve had a blast engaging with our community and watching our game take shape with all of your help! We’re extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished, and we owe much of what this game is to all of you who supported us over the past 4.5 months with feedback, feature suggestions, and bug reports.

Thank You!

Now that we are leaving Early Access, we’ve closed the Beta Branch and released the most performant version of TGCVR to date with this update.

Official Release Update:
•Performance has been significantly improved – High End rigs should now be able to max out TGCVR with little to no hitching at all.
•The leaderboards and ghost ball servers have been wiped. Now’s the time to try to get to the top of the leaderboards!
•Swing speed spikes caused by tracking and framerate issues should now be significantly reduced.
•Fixed all of the text issues on Scoreboards, in the Settings, and in the ProTee Simulator that were present on the Beta Branch.

Known Issues
•Oculus – Steering the golf cart with two active controllers requires both thumbsticks to be rotated at the same time. (investigating a fix)
•Oculus – Reverse in the golf cart rarely works. (investigating a fix)

We will continue to provide some support for critical fixes and minor performance changes over the next couple weeks. However, this will mark the end of feature development though and we look forward to seeing what the future brings.

Many long awaited changes are making their way into our builds with this update, that’s right, I said builds. First off, we have finally got our hands on Oculus Touch and addressed many of the issues plaguing the Oculus Community in TGCVR. We have also reworked the tutorial for any new Touch users who make their way to the game moving forward.

In other notable news, we also have a Beta branch available for you to test out. This includes a version of TGCVR on par with the new update with an engine upgrade to Unity 5.5. The reason we are putting this out as a Beta for now is to get it in your hands a little early. There are still some bugs due to the upgrade and optimizations to take place in order to get the full affect. However we feel that it’s in a good spot now to let you experience what we have been working on.

Testing the Beta
To install the beta you will need to use the following steps:
• Select The Golf Club VR in your Steam Library and right click on the name.
• In the popup menu you will want to select Properties.
• In the Properties window you will want to select the Betas tab along the top menu.
• There will be a dropdown menu to select the beta “tgcvr-beta”.
• The update will proceed automatically.
We encourage everyone to try out the beta build and share your experience with us on the forums whether you see improvements or have issues with the build.

New and Updated Features:
Oculus Touch
Many of this issues reported on the forums have been addressed. We have also gone the step further to update the tutorial for new and existing Touch users.

Ball Locators
We have added a ball locator while driving the golf cart to help you find it along your travels.

Putting Weights
Due to issues with green speeds we have added and option for those who are having issues putting. You can now select the weight of your putter to help with your control on the green. The heavier your putter, more force will be required to get you to the hole.

Final Club Tunings
Craig has completed a final pass at our clubs and has addressed a handful of issues that have been reported. Playing onto the green is much more manageable now and you should see a more realistic result to punch and flop shots.

Miscellaneous
• Hex Buttons now display tooltips while pointing at them.
• Shot grade contact % bug has been addressed.
• Golf cart seat orientation has been fixed.
• We have added a seatbelt button to the golf cart that prevents you from being ejected.
• Golf cart physics tunings. The bouncing/rocking/tipping has been severely reduced.

Lots of changes this week with the new TGCVR patch. We have added two new features that we’re excited to start getting feedback on. In this update you will now be able to use the Pro Tee Simulator to take various shots from one location with ease. We are also welcoming the addition of drivable golf carts! In addition to these two new features we have also added a couple small things to improve the quality of your experience.

New and Updated Features:
Pro Tee
In the lighthouse on Tutorial Island, there is now a Pro Tee Simulators open for use. With this addition you can now take shots from various driving, chipping and putting locations to hone your golf skills all while staying put.

Golf Carts
If you find a golf cart on a course, chances are you can now get in it and burn around. By teleporting to the driver seat of the cart you are locked in and ready to go. Using the touch pad to steer and trigger to gas, you now have the freedom to explore each course like never before.

Controller Callouts
To help out with new users and keep the games controls fresh in everyone’s minds. We have added UI callouts to the controller labeling each buttons action. These can be turned off at any time through the gameplay settings.

Club Offset for Custom Peripherals
In gameplay setting you now have a slider available to you that will allow you to adjust how the clubs line up with the controller. This addition allows you to reposition the club to fit the offset of various peripherals that we have seen the community present to us.

Situational Club Suggestions
Before each shot you will notice a club in your golf bag with a green highlight. This is the club suggestion based on the current lie and your performance with each individual club. The more you play the better the club suggestions will be. This feature can be disabled in the gameplay settings.

Rival Beacons
Locating and navigating to an opponents ball has been a challenge to date, especially when trying to play live-asynchronous multiplayer with a friend. Now simply holding telepointer button (right on the trackpad) for a moment will display a beacon above each of your Rival opponents balls. To teleport directly to an opponents ball, simply aim the telepointer at the beacon and release the trackpad. This will make playing a structured round of golf with your buddies a much smoother experience.

The past two weeks we have been putting a lot of focus on the gameplay physics and club tuning based on community feedback. With this update you’re going to see a big difference in the way the ball lands and rolls on the greens. We have addressed the issue of the ball shooting backwards with back spin and stopping abruptly, you should also see better bounces. We have also made individual tuning to each club for Casual and Amateur difficulties.

Bug Fixes:
•Addressed clipping issues with the range finder.
•Addressed crashes that were reported by users.
•Addressed issues progressing through the tutorial
•Replaced missing textures so there should be no more pink boxes.

Additional Courses
With this update we have started to bring all The Golf Club 1 courses over to The Golf Club VR. This is a long process and over the next several hours you will continue to see new courses be populated to the game. At the time of this update there should be at least a few thousand new ones to keep you busy for a while. Once this update is fully completed we will be setting up to pull any new courses from The Golf Club 1 in to The Golf Club VR. At that point, if you own the original game you will be able to create your own courses then play them in VR.

Happy New Year, we are planning to resume our build updates with new and improved features along with bug fixes in the next week or two. In the meantime we have addressed a couple issues that cropped up over the past couple weeks. We appreciate your patients while we were on Holiday and we're looking forward to the final stretch as we approach our full release.

With this update we have addressed the follow issues:
- Ball disappearing while on the putting tutorial.
- Shadows flickering on medium and high settings.

Patch 1.06 will be our will be our last update for 2016. Our team has been working very hard to bring some exciting new features to The Golf Club VR over the past couple months and it’s time for a break. In the New Year we will bring the patches back mid-January with a couple new and exciting features that we think everyone will be happy to get their hands on. We want to thank everyone for the amazing support and feedback that has been provided so far. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on the latest patch and with what’s to come in 2017.

Bug Fixes:
•Putt preview can no longer be sent from ghost balls.
•The contact for putting feedback has been fixed.
•Ghost ball name tags will no longer obstruct your view on the green.
•Fixed an issue with player score not showing up at the end of a round against ghost balls.
•Adjusted golf club lengths.

New and Updated Features:
Live Ghost Balls
Live Ghost Balls have been added with this patch! You are now able to join any of your Steam friends during their round on any of the available courses. When selecting a course and choosing Rivals there is now a Friends (Live) filter that allows you to join any in-progress rounds. We encourage everyone to reach out in the community and create some networks of folks to play with. There are a lot of active players out there that I’m sure would enjoy a round with you or a group.

Range Finder
We have added a range finder to the Vive controller that allows you to zoom in on the terrain around you. To use this feature simply lift the Vive controller to your eye and look through the top opening of the controller. This will magnify everything in this viewport. There is a reticule to help pick your target and you can lock the information displayed at any point by pulling the trigger. There is also an option to increase the magnification by pressing up on the touchpad while looking through the viewport. This feature can come in handy when trying to locate the pin from a distance or determine how far away you are from a hazard.

Gameplay Settings Overhaul
With the increased need for gameplay settings we have adjusted the UI to allow for more options to help you customize the way you play The Golf Club VR. In addition to the new look we have added options to play without a stroke limit and to turn on mulligans. When playing with mulligans you are able to retake shots from its original location as often as you like without penalty. If you take a shot and don’t like the result, simple gab a ball from your golf bag and drop it in the circle drop zone. Note that as soon as a mulligan is played your scorecard will be removed from the server but you can still play live with your friends.

Over the past two weeks we have put a lot of focus on improving Rivals and adding shot feedback to putting. With the Rivals improvement you can now see the ghost balls of the users you have selected to play against. Putt feedback can be seen after completing a practice putt or after your actual shot to breakdown the swing and give you a grade. We have also added 25 additional courses from the original TGC and enabled the option to favorite courses.

Bug Fixes:
•Adjusted the angles that the watch appears to improve visibility of it.
•Addressed issues with grabbing a new ball just as the stroke limit has been reached.
•Club faces will now switch properly when changing handedness.
•Selecting favorite during the rate course screen now has an indication to show the course has been favorited.
•Putt preview will no longer be sent if you swing overtop of your actual ball.
•Reduced hitching issues when golf bag and ball are in view of HMD.
•Dropping a ball onto your golf bag no longer flags your scorecard for cheating.

New and Updated Features:
Ghost Balls
While we continue to improve on Rivals for TGCVR we have added Ghost Balls with patch 1.05. Now when selecting to play against Rivals you will see each of the selected players shots with each stroke that you take throughout your round.

Putt Feedback
Similar to shot feedback leading up to the green, we have added specific grading feedback to the watch for putting. The watch feedback will breakdown the weight and tempo of your swing to give you an overall grade. To view your putt grade hold down on the trackpad after your shot and view your watch.

Additional Courses
With this update we have pulled in 25 additional courses from The Golf Club. These courses can be selected by going to the course select screen and selecting all courses, the hex button with three lines in it. With this addition we have also added the ability to favorite course as well. Courses can be favorited by selecting the option at the end of your round, or you can select the star on the course details screen of each course. To view the courses that you have chosen as favorites you can select the hex button with the star icon on the course select screen.

Over the past five months, The Golf Club VR team has been hard at work in the effort to provide the best golfing experience on the HTC Vive. We are currently on track with our original goals of the project and believe we have delivered a great experience, as supported by all the positive reviews we’ve been receiving for which we are very much appreciative. Throughout development and Early Access on Steam, we have received a lot of positive and constructive feedback from our community to help us get to the point we are now. This also helped us realize that there is still more we can do with The Golf Club VR to continue improving that experience. With that in mind, we have decided to move the full release date of The Golf Club VR from December 2016 to early February 2017. We will use this additional time to continue to fine tune our gameplay mechanics, improve optimizations as well as add a couple of highly requested features from the community. We will of course in the meantime continue to provide updates for all those who are supporting us during this exciting phase.

Let the competition begin! Phase one of asynchronous gameplay has been implemented. Each course now has a Rival select flow which allows you to browse your friends and other community members completed rounds. Select who you would like to play against or alongside before starting your round. Rival scores update on the scoreboard along with you as you complete each hole. In addition to Rivals we have also added stat tracking per difficulty which is displayed on the back of the yardage book. After each round is completed you can see your individual stats based on the difficulty you’re currently playing on. To try and keep the game fair for everyone we have added some anti-cheating checks to keep the Rivals list honest. If you are caught cheating during your round the hole will be marked on your scoreboard and the round will not be posted once it’s been completed.

Bug Fixes:
•Clearing local save data and then resuming saved course leaves watch/pointer/menu disabled
•If user switches controllers without restarting the game, the new controller will not display shot grades.
•Add the green speeds to the putter info pop up instead of surface penalty, when on the green.
•The practice putt on Pro flashes in when putting beside the ball.
•Interactions between golf balls and clubs and the bag cause the bag to fall over.
•The ball can bounce off of the users pocket after being hit.
•The watch breaks after losing tracking with the headset.

New and Updated Features:
Rivals
With the addition of Rivals you will now be able to compete against scores posted by your friends and other community members. With the option to select up to 3 Rivals per-round you will see their scores update alongside yours after each hole. A few things that you need to know about Rivals:
•All available courses now have a Rivals button that you can select before beginning your round.
•When viewing Rivals the difficulty of each submitted scorecard is displayed with the users name and score.
•You are free to compete against any scorecard regardless of the difficulty you have chosen.
•Only completed scorecards will be posted to the Rival list.
•Scorecards that have been caught cheating will not be posted to the Rival lists. You are free to play how you enjoy the game however we want to keep a fair balance to the posted scores.

Stat Tracking
In-game stats can now be viewed on the back of the yardage book. The stats that are displayed are based off the set difficulty that you have chosen through the settings. You can switch between difficulties freely do view your stats with each one. Only completed rounds will add to the accumulation of your in-game stats.

For this patch we have focused mainly on bug fixing and adding the ability to save and resume rounds. You are now able to post scorecards to the server if you have an internet connection. A round can be saved for each course available and the latest round posted will always be available through the course select flow.

Bug Fixes:
•The first putt on the putt preview slide of the tutorial will show up now.
•Yards on the watch will now reset properly.
•Yards on the watch will now update with each shot.
•Should no long see feet displayed as units when off the green.
•Returning to the tutorial island all objects are now placed properly.
•TGC VR should no longer crash when adjusting the visual settings.
•Club flexibility descriptions have been added to help select the correct setting.

New and Updated Features:
Club Tunings for all Difficulties
Casual and Beginner are on par when it comes to boost and assists. We have reduced the amount of boost received at the higher end of the swing speed. Pro has also been tuned/fixed, there was a bug stopping clubs from achieving their proper distance based on the club speed. You should be seeing more realistic distances than before when playing on Pro. Amateur has found a middle ground between Casual and Pro.

Saving and Resuming
If you have a network connection you can now save and resume your rounds. In progress scorecards for each available course will be available to be resumed. Upon starting the game your latest round will be accessible directly from the course details screen when selecting a course. Upon selecting to play a new course any previous save data will be removed from the server and your new round will begin to save.

Reordered Tutorial
The tutorial has been re-ordered to flow better with the new additions from the previous patch. We have also added more of a breakdown to the watch tutorial to help better identify its functionality.

Unlocked Two Additional Courses
We have added two new nine hole courses and updated the Casuals Country Club, it's now a tropical island.