P3 ProGolf Software Update 7.0

[BaDvs3viL]

Hello Everyone,

I would like to announce that P3 ProSwing has released a new software update as of today. The software has went through many changes with this release and as such, the name has been changed. Its no longer VC but P3 ProGolf 7.0.

There has been a ton of changes to the software with some of the biggest being that now Launch Angle now works in all premium courses!

Once I have a full list of all of the new features, I will get it posted here as well.

I helped in the beta of this software and been having a blast testing it out.

You can get the new update from here - http://www.p3proswing.com/

[BaDvs3viL]

ProGolf 7.000 (Public Release 10/20/2014):
- Software Name changed to ‘ProGolf’ instead of ‘P3ProSwing Virtual Golf Software’
- Totally new ball flight model
- Launch Angle compatible
- Miniature Golf compatible
- Calculated Spin values displayed (additional purchase needed)
- No interface needed (so only 1 software running)
- Ability to edit club information
- Choice of adjustable Smash Factor or having it calculated
- Ability to change penalty values for lies
- Newly streamlined Menu System
- Enhanced Player Profile
- including ability to save default game settings for future use
- individualized tee heights
- and many more…
- New Graphical Display for swing data (with old textual display available in options)
- NOTE: Old Saved Games will not work in the new version.

7.001 (Public Release 10/23/2014):
- Smash Factor default changes to 8I, 9I & PW
- Fix for Help icon on graphical display not working after license install for Ball Spin
- Fixes to Online Play that should resolve freezes in game play

7.002 (Public Release 10/24/2014):
- Fixes for Online Play
- Still a bug where landing in the water provides inappropriate drop positions (Workaround: Use Mulligan
or Re-hit)

7.003 (Public Release 10/28/2014):
- Fixes for Online Play
- Daily Competitions are now limited to only the player who creates them. You can only join your own
daily competition
- Games are posted 30 minutes prior to the start time and displayed for 30 minutes after their start time (or until the game is actually started)
- Club Defaults updated
- Fixes to club default Smash Factors
- Drop ball is now fixed
- Drops now move backward toward from where the ball was hit to provide accurate drop positions.
Except if hit into water beyond the green. Then first land is used.

7.005 (Public Release 11/13/2014):
- Changed Ball Flight Physics
- Increases distance on some clubs
- Reduces slice/hook on all clubs
- Fix to license files that were causing issues with licensing the Ball Spin Trial and permanent licenses.
- Set Tournament limitations for even playing field
- Fixes to Auto Club select. Game will no longer provide Driver when not in bag (which would cause game to
crash if a swing was taken with an invalid club)
- Fixes to Auto Club Selection process
- Woods will no longer be selected when in Rough or Bunkers (unless only clubs in bag)
- Changed so swings taken when not within a game are not stored and used when entering game.
- Added Online Lobby Chat
- Added ability to create & join online games from within the software.
- Games joined from within the software now display on P3 Live. (Previously if you joined a game within the software and did not join on P3 Live, the scorecard would not be available).

[golfun]

That's awesome!!

Can I ask why it has been so much fun to work on??? What has made it so much better??

P3 really needed this.

[BaDvs3viL]

Well, what made it fun for me was that if I had a request or found an issue, P3's team would crank out a new beta to test that same day.

Some of the other cool stuff that has been fixed is like the ball flight. It looks like my real life ball flights now.

There is a new spin feature as well. You can now adjust every aspect of a club from the club head mass to the spin and launch angle and so on.

Also the new ProGolf software does not use the old swing software anymore. Its stand alone. Along with that, you wont have the two windows that popped up when you play. You get a new graphical interface that is built right in.

I will post some screen shots tonight and will also live stream so that everyone can see.

[BaDvs3viL]

Spin_Screenshot1.png



Spin_Screenshot2.png

[bubba22]

]Well, what made it fun for me was that if I had a request or found an issue, P3's team would crank out a new beta to test that same day[/B].

Some of the other cool stuff that has been fixed is like the ball flight. It looks like my real life ball flights now.

There is a new spin feature as well. You can now adjust every aspect of a club from the club head mass to the spin and launch angle and so on.

Also the new ProGolf software does not use the old swing software anymore. Its stand alone. Along with that, you wont have the two windows that popped up when you play. You get a new graphical interface that is built right in.

I will post some screen shots tonight and will also live stream so that everyone can see.

This is absolutely not the experience I have had with the P3pro. Good luck with the new software. It looks improved.

[BaDvs3viL]

This is absolutely not the experience I have had with the P3pro. Good luck with the new software. It looks improved.

Yeah I know, I have had mine for 3 years. The issue before was that they had to send off changes to someone else and wait for them to do it. Now they have a full in house dev team working on it.

[bubba22]

I pointed these points out to them (lack of in house computer folks, not using the launch cam for the new courses etc) 3 years ago. Only took 3 years to get it right. Like I said, good luck. With all the competition and future potentials it will be a hard market for simulation. The improvements seem good so hopefully all the existing P3pro users, including my brother in law who has my old unit, will enjoy.

[golfun]

This unit and other club units win on one major point factor: You Don't have to use a real ball! That is huge in a decision. I'm not risking it so I use foam ones. I could use a Skytrak outside.

I want to know:
Is the Launch Angle improvement speed wise? Meaning does it still delay like a second from hitting the shot to appearing on screen?

Can you upload some larger screenshots? Thanks

[bubba22]

Launch angle camera is $199. They are charging $199 to display the ball spin data! That's idiotic!

[wbond]

What ball spin data is going to be displayed, the calculation? This isn't even measured is it? I have a P3pro but haven't installed the update yet. Also, I don't use a launch angle camera.

[SFR]

Just a bit more info on what I think is better.

First issues with ball flight used to be that you could not get a ball to start (for a righty) left of target and fade back right. It used to always start center and fade. They have adjusted the ball flight so you can see a better ball path and flight. Still not matching the GC2 ball flight but a lot closer.

The ball spin numbers are showing a calculated spin for side and back. If you adjust your LA settings you can see different spin numbers. Hitting down or up on the ball does change ball flight, however I am not sure this is in the correct way. They may still be looking at that as I found that when testing and setting a downward angle of attack, the ball would carry a bit further but had less spin on greens and an upward attack launched higher and more spin and less carry and the ball stopped quicker. Also when hitting with an actual club it was hard to get a down attack and seemed like most all were an up angle. There were tee height issues that they are looking into so this may change.

One major change is the ball speed number being a lot more accurate. They need to adjust the smash factor on the PW and the 9 and 8 iron tweak a bit. When those are done you will see very much the right ball speed compared to the swing speed. A bad hit shot will still not see the ball so those number will look more as if you hit it clean. Also the shorter partial swing shots match a lot closer. So now a 8 iron chip from 30 yds out will feel a lot better.

The LA cam for $199 is what I think their kit sells for. I don't think you need to buy that feature to get it to work if you alreay have a cam that will work. I hope I am not wrong here. The data for spin sounds like they want to charge. When I did have the LA cam set up along with the GC2 I was able to move the cam up and down to get the right angle to then match what the GC2 showed for LA within 1 deg and for those test hits the cam showed within that same 1 deg of what the GC2 would so once set up right it was accurate. When you don't have a launch monitor to compare to you will need to set up by feel. Moving the cam up or down did change the LA so this may need to be played with. You also may need to adjust it when hitting a Driver compared to a iron off the turf due to the ball height.

They addded some mini golf which may be some fun for the kids.

There will be some more updates with things they are working on so keep watching for them as they will help.

One thing I think guys will notice is that it is going to be a lot harder to score low like you could before or like you can on DD due to it being more real. You should still be lower than your real HC once used to the game but I think better for your real game with the improvements.

[BaDvs3viL]

Just a bit more info on what I think is better.

First issues with ball flight used to be that you could not get a ball to start (for a righty) left of target and fade back right. It used to always start center and fade. They have adjusted the ball flight so you can see a better ball path and flight. Still not matching the GC2 ball flight but a lot closer.

The ball spin numbers are showing a calculated spin for side and back. If you adjust your LA settings you can see different spin numbers. Hitting down or up on the ball does change ball flight, however I am not sure this is in the correct way. They may still be looking at that as I found that when testing and setting a downward angle of attack, the ball would carry a bit further but had less spin on greens and an upward attack launched higher and more spin and less carry and the ball stopped quicker. Also when hitting with an actual club it was hard to get a down attack and seemed like most all were an up angle. There were tee height issues that they are looking into so this may change.

One major change is the ball speed number being a lot more accurate. They need to adjust the smash factor on the PW and the 9 and 8 iron tweak a bit. When those are done you will see very much the right ball speed compared to the swing speed. A bad hit shot will still not see the ball so those number will look more as if you hit it clean. Also the shorter partial swing shots match a lot closer. So now a 8 iron chip from 30 yds out will feel a lot better.

The LA cam for $199 is what I think their kit sells for. I don't think you need to buy that feature to get it to work if you alreay have a cam that will work. I hope I am not wrong here. The data for spin sounds like they want to charge. When I did have the LA cam set up along with the GC2 I was able to move the cam up and down to get the right angle to then match what the GC2 showed for LA within 1 deg and for those test hits the cam showed within that same 1 deg of what the GC2 would so once set up right it was accurate. When you don't have a launch monitor to compare to you will need to set up by feel. Moving the cam up or down did change the LA so this may need to be played with. You also may need to adjust it when hitting a Driver compared to a iron off the turf due to the ball height.

They addded some mini golf which may be some fun for the kids.

There will be some more updates with things they are working on so keep watching for them as they will help.

One thing I think guys will notice is that it is going to be a lot harder to score low like you could before or like you can on DD due to it being more real. You should still be lower than your real HC once used to the game but I think better for your real game with the improvements.

I agree with SFR 100%.

As far as the Launch Angle camera, you do not need to purchase this seperate and you can use your own USB camera. I have tested out 4 of them and they work.

They are charging for the Ball Spin addition.

I have been in talks with the team today and they are going to release another update today or tomorrow to fix some small issues which include an install issue and the default Launch Angle for the PW, 9 and 8 irons.

[BaDvs3viL]

I can also say that this update did make it a lot tougher to play as before the update I could shoot Par or better but now I am shooting in the 80's.

IRL I shoot mid to high 80's

I like it so far.

[bubba22]

Angle of attack is a difficult thing to measure. I dont believe that the angle of attack measured with the P3pro is accurate. Personally, I wouldnt use it in the ball flight calculation. Launch angle is a good thing to have. Is it still the video? If so its too slow. They need to sue pictures rather than videos to increase the speed of the shot to show.

[SFR]

The angle of attack on the P3pro is measured with 2 sensors in front of the ball and 2 sensors behind the ball as you know. So I guess you can tell if the club is comming down if the club height is 1 inch before the ball and 1/2 inch after and calculate a downward attack but if you hit the pad and bounce the club after the ball you get a false read due to the club comming back up. I think hind site would have both those sets of sensors before the ball and get a better idea on what the club did do before it hit the ball but that can't be changed now.

What they have done is about all you can with the placement of those sensors. The other issue in the past when using a turf top like pad, was that if those sensors got blocked by the fibers of the turf on that hit, they would not always read a height on the exit, so then it would default to the no read height. They do have a tab where it says assume pad impact but not sure what that really did as the tee heights were not working so you could not set a correct tee height and try it. I think it just made the after sensors read at 0 no matter what the club showed to assume an impact with the turf and thus should get a downward read every time. A tee shot might be more accurate with angle of attack and not use that tab feature for them.

As for the LA cam delay, yes it is still there and I would say that most people will not use that during their normal playing of a round. Also the need to adjust it for the height of the ball. I used to play with 2 pads all the time. One was for Driver with a tee and the other was always every other fairway shot. In that case you could have the cam set up on the fairway pad only and just use default LA when the driver is hit and thus no LA cam would be detected. I would think guys would use the cam more for driving range practice when using the same spot for the ball, however punch shots from under a tree were now possible in this release with the cam.

[BaDvs3viL]

New update released today which fixed the install issue some users seen and also a fix to the Smash Factors for the clubs we talked about.

[golfun]

How long is the delay using a webcam?
Is there a video online of using it?

[BaDvs3viL]

Golfun,

There is still a delay. From what I hear, its better then it was before. I never used it before now.

I will try and make a video of it when I can.

[BaDvs3viL]

There is a new update again today. 7.002. Fixes some issues with online play and a few others.

[BaDvs3viL]

Second post has been updated with all of the release information!

Second Post Link

[golfun]

It looks like they are updating a lot of requested features.
What else do we want updated?

[BaDvs3viL]

Live match online right now!

http://www.twitch.tv/badvs3vil

[DeaconBlooze]

I was an early adopter for this one, I bought a rubber top model a number of years ago. I haven't been able to use it for the last few years. Now, I plan on creating a simulator bay in my 3rd stall. I'm glad to see they're making improvements, but a little frustrated that I have to dish out an extra $200 for things like a course pack (although, they were trying to charge me $1k not all that long ago!).

I'm trying to make the most of my setup. I plan to get a seamless pad from virtual-golf-simulator.com. I want to use this primarily to keep the dust out during a long Wisconsin winter, but I'm hoping to use it for some subtle game improvements..

- Does the Launch Angle camera significantly increase accuracy?
- Does this help to calculate angle of attack in any way?
- Do you recommend a certain camera over P3's offering?
- Are there any other addons that work to help make the P3 more accurate? (would something like Skytrak work in the future?)

I guess I'm trying to decide whether I should try to beef up my P3 setup, or hold out for something better. I know that's subjective, but I appreciate any input! I've used the range previously, partially because of the horrendous graphics of the original courses. If I deem it worth it, I'll probably grab the big course pack and I expect to spend quite a bit of time using that for both practice/recreation.

[BaDvs3viL]

Closet To The Pin Using The New Software

[bubba22]

You have an interesting setup. What are you hitting into?

[BaDvs3viL]

Hey Bubba22,

Its an old out door hitting net that I cut down. Its just to stop me from chasing balls all around the room. Currently I am using foam golf balls. There is a towel over it right now as the netting was still causing them to bounce out and not catch.

[BaDvs3viL]

Live Streaming the daily Closet to the Pin, Longest Drive and a Par 3 9 hole round.

I might also compete in the tournament going on right now.

http://www.twitch.tv/badvs3vil

[BaDvs3viL]

Longest Drive Contest from today

http://www.twitch.tv/badvs3vil/c/5420983

Closet To The Pin as well.

http://www.twitch.tv/badvs3vil/c/5420966

[golfun]

Just tried the new update. The software seems really nice! Stuff just seems more responsive and definitely aesthetically better looking. I would like to see how the ball launch angle works now too.
I have an older unit and it runs the new software fine? Didn't think it would.