I don't think so either. The problem is that you'll get too much ambient light outside. The shadows of the clubs have to be very dark and defined. You get that with a single focused light source directly over the sensor mat.
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ZMAX are you still going to post pictures of your stance mat today? I like to see your setups, as I am in the designing stages.
Thanks
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My mat setup is very simple. I had 2 P3pro mats from my P3pro simulator, so I use one on each side. They're both cut to 47"X48". I use two 48"x48" 3/4" MDF boards underneath the P3pro mats. As you can see in the pictures, these boards aren't exactly 48"x48".:-)
The MDF boards are heavy and they also have about 10 or so anti-slip pads underneath them. I used velcro to secure the mats to the MDF boards. The PX2 and the extra grass panels just sits snuggly in between the left and right mats/MDF boards. There is also a heavy golf mat in the front that keeps the PX2 from sliding forward. Not much of a setup really. Just using what I already had.
Looks awesome. Does that 2nd square of grass have any sensors in it?
Cool deal, I really like your setup. Hopefully I can get there soon :)
Looks great, Mine won't be near as neat but I will post some picts when I get there. Still be a little while yet. Thanks for posting the pictures.
zmax,
what tweaking did you made
Both the GSA and protee are not plug and play. Tweaking will be probably needed. Looks nice ZMax. Much better than the P3pro.
I totally hear you ZMax.
Quote:
originally posted by blackfire http://forum.ottawagolf.com/images/buttons/viewpost.gif
what do you mean exactly by "with everyone of them so far, the ball flight was not accurate and needed to be tweaked" what tweaking are you talking about?
Diastance, do you think that launch angle measument there would be less tweaking to do?
What I am talking about is the path that the ball takes at the start, the amount of side spin to make the ball curve a certain distance, and where the ball lands in relationship to the target line. Of course, it also has to look right.
The DD, looked a little too cartoonish where the ball had too much side to side movement.
The P3pro was too forgiving. Good players who hits it straight all the time probably didn't see any problems. Hookers and slicers didn't really existed. Most shots just turned out to be pushes or pulls.
The GGS/GSA had too much side spin. It was difficult keep the ball in the fairways. But after some tweaking and the latest updates from Martin, it's all good now. Although, I'm still waiting for a sidespincurve factor within the Red Chain software itself just to have more flexibility.
ZMax,
I like your set-up a lot! What are you using on the walls/ceiling -- it looks like black curtains of some kind? If so, what material did you use and how did you hang/attach the stuff?
I need to cut down on light and reflections in my sim area, and I'm looking for good ideas.
Thanks.
SDL
The ceilings don't have anything yet. The walls are lined with burgundy, tall curtains/drapes from Ikea. They're are very good at blocking out light. The curtains are hung from the ceiling by cheap screw-in small hooks from Home Depot. Depending on the type of curtains you have, you can use rods or hooks. Hooks were fast and cheap. It's a tempory setup until I have time to build the walls. Once the walls are done, I'll put in the ceiling and build a platform for my 4 theaters seats.
The curtains will then go back in front of the new walls. I'm not taping the drywall or painting it.:-) The curtains will also help with the sound for home theater use.
mmlincon,
Any updates on the cameras and the new lens? Is the new lens supplied my Martin or can it be purchased locally?
Thanks,
I did get the new lens installed and it has nearly zero distortion. Martin was out of stock on them so I got it from www.naturalpoint.com. It's a very small fixed lens and requires an adapter to the cs mount on the camera. It was only $60 with the adapter. I got the 3.5 mm model. I couldn't get it in sharp focus, but it really isn't needed. The new lens obviously changes the view of everything so I'm back to getting everything tuned again.
I'm still using the usb cameras. For me the real appeal of the firewire cameras would be that they don't need a trigger. Martin basically said they haven't tested these yet, so it maybe a while before they are available. There really isn't anything wrong with the usb camera, but if you can get the firewire ones and not need a trigger that would be ideal.
Regarding your settings: Are you using the shot boost in GSA at all? I've found the most consistent way to get correct distances(throughout clubs) was by increasing the ball speed that was measured by the camera. The only issue with this is the unrealistic smash factor calculations ( 1.65 etc ). There is supposed to be a carry adjust feature in the control panel, but I must be accessing it wrong. I'm hoping to get the numbers to match up better (correct spash factors) and still provide correct club distances. Do you have something measuring ball speed at this point?
The other issue is the chipping ball roll. I'm thinking of tweaking the ball friction to bring that down and bumping up the putting ball speed to compensate for the friction setting. I'm just not sure how that is going to effect the other shots in the game. I'm planning on spending most of the day tomorrow getting everything dialled in.
The new lens is just for LA or would it benefit the other cameras too?
Did he say what the prices are going to be for the firewire cameras? I might just go for the USB LA camera for now and use my PX2 mat to trigger the camera.Quote:
I'm still using the usb cameras. For me the real appeal of the firewire cameras would be that they don't need a trigger. Martin basically said they haven't tested these yet, so it maybe a while before they are available. There really isn't anything wrong with the usb camera, but if you can get the firewire ones and not need a trigger that would be ideal.
I'm not using the ball sensor at the moment, so no ball speed measuring. It requires too much light. I didn't know there was a shot boost in GSA. Is that a slider?Quote:
Regarding your settings: Are you using the shot boost in GSA at all? I've found the most consistent way to get correct distances(throughout clubs) was by increasing the ball speed that was measured by the camera. The only issue with this is the unrealistic smash factor calculations ( 1.65 etc ). There is supposed to be a carry adjust feature in the control panel, but I must be accessing it wrong. I'm hoping to get the numbers to match up better (correct spash factors) and still provide correct club distances. Do you have something measuring ball speed at this point?
For the carry adjust feature, make sure you have the de-activate carry adjust mode OFF. The carry adjust feature is just an adjustment for ball speed for each club, so that won't help with reducing the smash factor, unless you also adjust the swing speeds.
I did exactly that to help with the chipping ball roll, but I only went as far as 1.80 I think. Any more and it will not be realistic for fairways and the other terrains.Quote:
The other issue is the chipping ball roll. I'm thinking of tweaking the ball friction to bring that down and bumping up the putting ball speed to compensate for the friction setting. I'm just not sure how that is going to effect the other shots in the game. I'm planning on spending most of the day tomorrow getting everything dialled in.
Is this the lens and adapter you were referring to?
http://www.naturalpoint.com/optitrac...ransparent.gif
Lens M12 3.5mm F#1.6 $50
http://www.naturalpoint.com/optitrac...ransparent.gif
CS to M12 lens adapter $9
No idea on what the prices will be for the firewire cams.
I went home for lunch and found that the smash factor was high because of the carry adjustment (basically it increased the ball speed if it was over 100 ). I set all the clubs to 100 and then smash factors looked good. Distances in GSA looked good with the few clubs I hit. I'm encouraged. I'll try turning off the carry factor, that makes sense. Oh, there is a shot boost in the game option screen. I didn't find it to reliable. If I bumped it up for shorter clubs, longer ones would sail! Who doesn't like hitting 380yd drives though :not-worth
I still need to recalibrate the launch angles since I've changed the lens, but so far things are looking great. Once that is done I'll play around with the chipping issue.
If you are eager to get the V launch, I would be, then I'd go with the usb camera. You might ask Martin if you could upgrade to the firewire ones when they are available. One surprise I found out about is that is camera should have it's own pci card. This isn't an issue until you have more than one camera though.
Great info here guys. This is similair to the Protee. Some tweaking needed. The launch cam is a great idea. Is it a video that is taken or a series of still pics showing the ball? With no trigger how does it know when to capture? What is the fps rate of the cams?
ZMax,
Funny you should mention curtains from Ikea -- I was just looking through the curtains and black-out blinds on the Ikea website. Which model curtains did you end up using?
I also noticed that Ikea has a wire track set-up for hanging curtains that might work for me. Did you consider that option? It's pretty inexpensive and looks fairly sturdy. However, you may not have needed that since you aren't trying to open or close the curtains.
SDL
I got the Merete in burgundy. $20 for a pair. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00120979 They have metal rings in them at the top so these might not be what you're looking for. Take a look at these:http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00111989
I did see the wire track but I wanted to use hooks instead since I wanted a quick temporary setup for walls.
I'm not sure how the firewire camera will work without a trigger. Martin said they are live feed cameras so the images is always running. I suspect there will be a watch field and the speed and launch angle can be calculated by the length of the ball image over a number of frames.
But for the moment, with the USB cameras, it's one snapshot and the software is using the streak to measure LA or club path, right?
I wonder if it would be possible to use a firewire camera together with a USB camera. I'll shoot Martin an email as it's probably too late to call him.
How is your LA camera mounted? Are you using a tripod? Can you post some pictures of your cameras and how they're mounted?
Thanks.
Martin said you could use the firewire and usb cameras together. The only issue is each camera should have it's own pci card slot. My PC only as two available so with the built in usb I can only do 3 cameras. Which should be fine.
I can grab some photos tomorrow. My V cam is floor mounted in a security housing. I'm just using a small security camera mounting arm for the H cam.
That's great to hear. My golf sim pc has an ATX board and has about 4 extra pci slots so I'm good there. I'll be ordering the USB LA camera soon and when the firewire cameras are ready, I'll add one for H-cam. I think it's great that they don't require a trigger, but I hope the price is reasonable.
Looking forward to those pictures.