Memory Optimization and New Levels

      The biggest thing we have been working on is improving the memory usage. This allows for a further view distance without running out of memory. Previously a view distance of 1000 was guaranteed to cause a memory crash on some maps, especially voxel dense maps such as the town map. This meant players were forced to play with a view distance of 600-800 on dense maps, and around 900 on smaller, less dense maps. With the optimizations that we have made it is now possible to play even the dense town maps with a view distance of 1000. It should be noted though that this does require a relatively good computer if you have shadows turned on. This is because a view distance of 1000 requires a large number of draw calls to be made. However, with shadows turned off, a fairly average computer should be able to maintain high view distances without too big a hit to frame rate.   

      These photos show the difference between the previous draw distance, and the new distance that had previously resulted in a memory crash. The image on the left is a draw distance of 600, and the image on the right is 1000.

      We have also been working on developing more levels, as the more levels we can have ready for launch, the better! The two maps are a backyard course and a floating island course. The backyard course is similar to the town map, but takes place entirely in a residential area, with a focus on holes located in yards. The floating island course is a relatively challenging course, as it leaves little room for error. A miss calculation of wind can quickly put you in the water, resulting in a penalty stroke. Each hole requires you to carefully place each shot in order to make sure you take advantage of the landscape to maintain control of your shot.