Getting started with the PerfectGolf mouse 'Motion swing'

This tutorial will guide you through the way the PerfectGolf mouse 'motion swing' works and help you get started with this realistic way of playing the game.

Some basics

We have based our motion swing in PerfectGolf around real world ball flight laws.

In the motion swing we have basically 4 things that will dictate how far and where the ball goes.

Power

When you left click inside the swing meter to start your swing, pulling the mouse back towards you will start to increase the power in the power bar of the swingmeter (this will eventually be tied into the golfer animation) normal 100% power is achieved when the pointer is at the 12 o'o clock position and swinging past this point will continue to add power and spin but any mistakes later in the swing will be magnified.





Timing

This is the most difficult area to master in the motion swing. By watching real life pro golfers we determined that the ideal timing of the downswing in our motion swing should be 4 times that of the backswing. So for example if it takes you a second to swing to the top of your backswing, it should take you a quarter of a second to swing down and through the ball. If you time the swing correctly the clubface will be delivered on target. If you swing down too fast, the clubface will be pointed left and the ball will tend to start in that direction and vice versa if your downswing is too slow in relation to your backswing the ball will start right of target.

Swing path

The swing path is determined as you would expect by the vertical movement of your mouse as you swing back and through. if your swing path and clubface are perfectly aligned your ball will fly straight in the direction of your clubface. So in the case or a perfect golf shot, the clubface will be on target (because your timing was good) and you swing path was perfectly vertical causing the ball to fly dead straight. This perfect shot is a rare beast.

If your swing path is 'in to out' a golfing term which means in our game that the mouse swung back and through on a slightly tilted left to right axis, it will result in a negative spin axis. This means the ball will tend to curve to the left from where it started (draw or hook)

The opposite is true if you move the mouse on an 'out to in' right to left path compared to the clubface. This will result in a positive spin axis and make the ball curve to the right from it's starting line (fade or slice)

Mis-hits

A mishit is caused by the mouse swinging through in a different position than it started ie: slightly to one side or the other. This will result in a shot that is hit either towards the heal of the club or the toe and subsequently lose power because of this and we refer to this in game as the swing 'offset'



All the above is as true to life in real golf as it is in our game and although it is not easy to master, with time and effort spent on the practice ground you will start to see that playing PerfectGolf this way can be both challenging and fun in equal measure. It's probably the closest you will get on a home PC to getting a feel for the expertise displayed on the pro golf tours week in and week out.

Taking it to the range

So you made it this far - your curiosity piqued? Great!

Welcome aboard and lets dive in a bit deeper.

So you're on the range with the motion swing and you might have noticed that you have a little bit of equipment you don't have on the course. It's the swing monitor inside the swing meter and on the post shot screen giving you detailed information on the swing and shot you just played.



Let's take a look at the information in more detail:

Power

This is pretty much self explanatory, 100% power sits at 12 'o' clock on the meter so overswing and you start to get more power and speed into your shot but at the expense of accuracy.

Ratio

This one is a biggy! This shows the ratio of backswing to downswing which dictates where the clubface points. As explained in the previous section the ideal ratio for the downswing versus the backswing is 4 times as fast so in other words we display this is a ratio 0.25. If you swing down only twice as fast as your backswing it would be displayed as 0.5 and the ball would fly miles right of target as the clubface would be 'open'

If your ratio is smaller than 0.25 for example 0.2 then the ball would start left because the downswing would have been too fast in comparison to the backswing and the clubface was 'closed'. This is the trickiest part of the motion swing but once mastered you will never want to go back to another way of playing.

Offset

This number shows the sideways offset from where the mouse started compared to where it was when you were swinging through. Move it off to the side slightly will result in a higher offset and a loss of distance on the shot. 'T' indicates you hit the ball sightly off the toe of the club and 'H' the heel.

Swing path

This is the direction you moved the mouse back and forth, drag it back to the left and swing through to the right will result in an 'in to out swing' path and vice versa. When you nail the swing path you will simply see an 'on plane' message

Notes* Most people when using the mouse swing for the first time hit it LEFT a lot. This is because they are swinging down much too fast compared to their backswing. They see the 1:4 ratio and think they must swing down very fast but this is in fact, incorrect.

If you find your balls heading into the woods on the left, swing back slightly faster and swing through slower and the balls will start to straighten themselves up and you will start to get closer to the 'magic' 0.25 ratio. Good luck!

[NeilBigDeal]

Just fixed it I had set my player as Computer!

[NeilBigDeal]

Just got PG for my Mac...Looks all ok except no info or swing meter on screen, it plays in simulation what do I do?

[michael022457]

Are trackballs supported and if so, where might I find that information?

[cubbies645]

I would suggest going to 3 click its awsome....:)

[rixster1217]

When you use Real Motion Swing with a mouse you don't get any power bar at all, why is that? Also, the putting is way off. It seems the longer the putt the shorter you have to make the mouse swing which is exactly opposite of what it should be.

[Tiberius]

There are currently 13 courses and two practice areas with the early access version of the game.

[djmreed]

How many different courses/clubs does this game feature? I see no information on that?

[eric_henson]

The game doesn't work with a controller yet. I just got the game and emailed Andrew about the controller earlier today. He said they are planning to add controller support in the next release. In the mean time you have to use the mouse.

Because I'm so used to using a gamepad controller, it's taking me some getting used to using the mouse. Who knows..., by the time they come out with the controller support, I might be so used to the mouse that I may not want to switch. But, probably not, since I also play The Golf Club on the PC with a gamepad controller, and I know that players using a gamepad, instead of the mouse, do much better. I've read about the difficulties players using a mouse have had and those that switched and started using a gamepad said it made a world of difference.

[WileyDan]

thank you for this guide tiberius_pp

[Vernon520]

This method of swing control is definitely brilliant. Just started using it and I am totally hooked. No more 'click, click, click' for me.