A New Opfer Design?

The course architect, design theory, and current projects.
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seopfer
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Re: A New Opfer Design?

Post by seopfer »

Hi Steve!! I don't know if you remember me from back in the Copyright Club days, but I was there.
Yes, I do remember! It was a long time ago. :nod:

I kind of figured that out about Wagers; that was a real tragedy. He seemed quite young.

Thanks for the tips on the courses! I've roamed through that thread, but thanks anyway for pointing it out. :)
Course Design Consultant for PGA Championship Golf 2000 by Sierra Sports and Headgate Studios
http://www.steveopfer.com
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BrianZ111
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Re: A New Opfer Design?

Post by BrianZ111 »

seopfer wrote:
Yes WGC has a designer. A lot of the courses have been designed by the guys Joe listed from our Friday night group. If you want to check it out I can send you a code for free to download it.
Sure Brian! Send me the code and I'll check it out! :bg:
I've sent you a PM.
ZONA
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Re: A New Opfer Design?

Post by ZONA »

Hey Steve,

Been a long time since I've heard your name, good to see you poking around again. I think you'll fall in love with the WGC game after you've downloaded some of the better courses and have given yourself a few rounds to get used to the feel. It's got the best ball and surface physics of any golf game. And yes, you should definitely try and hook up with us a few times on a Friday night here and there. I warn you though, we can be a rowdy group sometimes, but we always have a ton of fun. As for the WGC editor, it's really a pretty decent editor. A few of the WGC guys have converted some PGA 2000 courses so if you're looking to do that, that's always an option.

FYI - we also have many many upgrades for the WGC game and editor as well, that we can give you that don't come with the game. We have updated golfer and club skins, custom sounds and sky's. For the editor we have a million textures, tree packages, grass packages, houses, buildings, just a ton of stuff if you ever want to design with this editor.
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seopfer
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Re: A New Opfer Design?

Post by seopfer »

ZONA wrote:Hey Steve,

Been a long time since I've heard your name, good to see you poking around again. I think you'll fall in love with the WGC game after you've downloaded some of the better courses and have given yourself a few rounds to get used to the feel. It's got the best ball and surface physics of any golf game. And yes, you should definitely try and hook up with us a few times on a Friday night here and there. I warn you though, we can be a rowdy group sometimes, but we always have a ton of fun. As for the WGC editor, it's really a pretty decent editor. A few of the WGC guys have converted some PGA 2000 courses so if you're looking to do that, that's always an option.

FYI - we also have many many upgrades for the WGC game and editor as well, that we can give you that don't come with the game. We have updated golfer and club skins, custom sounds and sky's. For the editor we have a million textures, tree packages, grass packages, houses, buildings, just a ton of stuff if you ever want to design with this editor.
I've tried it a few times and can not putt. I lowered the mouse sensitivity as far as it would go, but--visually speaking--I only take the club back a VERY small bit and follow through slowly, yet the ball launches off the club head like it was a cannon. I'll keep trying, though, since a lot of my old friends are using the game. There's obviously a way to get it to work right; I just haven't found it yet.
Course Design Consultant for PGA Championship Golf 2000 by Sierra Sports and Headgate Studios
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http://sola.nsu.edu/seopfer
BrianZ111
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Re: A New Opfer Design?

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If you didn't know, a higher number is less sensitive on the in game setting for mouse sensitivity so you want to push that higher. You may also be able to adjust it in your mouse properties in windows. I'm not the best person to ask about adjusting it though because I got used to it set pretty low and I do take pretty short back swings with the mouse for putting. I guess the very short putter swing makes sense to me in the context that a larger swing represents a full back swing, which you wouldn't be doing with a putter. The great thing about the swing is both size of back swing and speed of downswing affect how hard you hit it and it really has the same feel of playing those shots in real golf for me. That's true in PGA 2000 too for chipping and putting but in WGC you can even play full shots like 75% power pitch shots that way.
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seopfer
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Re: A New Opfer Design?

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BrianZ111 wrote:If you didn't know, a higher number is less sensitive on the in game setting for mouse sensitivity so you want to push that higher. You may also be able to adjust it in your mouse properties in windows. I'm not the best person to ask about adjusting it though because I got used to it set pretty low and I do take pretty short back swings with the mouse for putting. I guess the very short putter swing makes sense to me in the context that a larger swing represents a full back swing, which you wouldn't be doing with a putter. The great thing about the swing is both size of back swing and speed of downswing affect how hard you hit it and it really has the same feel of playing those shots in real golf for me. That's true in PGA 2000 too for chipping and putting but in WGC you can even play full shots like 75% power pitch shots that way.
Thanks! I'll give that a shot. Yes, it does seem counter-intuitive, but I get the thinking. I still haven't been able to play any downloaded custom courses; they keep crashing the game...specifically Barren Valley (yes, I followed Brian's readme instructions) and Chambers Bay.

While it definitely looks like it's still worth playing around with, I get the feeling I'm beta-testing software again. :( Haven't gotten into the designer, though. I figure why tease myself when I've yet to get a feel for the game itself.
Course Design Consultant for PGA Championship Golf 2000 by Sierra Sports and Headgate Studios
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http://sola.nsu.edu/seopfer
BrianZ111
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Re: A New Opfer Design?

Post by BrianZ111 »

There is an occasional crashing bug but you should be able to complete rounds most of the time. I had trouble with Barren Valley as well though. It would get stuck and crash when I holed out on a hole. Not sure why because nobody else did when we played it online.
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seopfer
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Re: A New Opfer Design?

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BrianZ111 wrote:There is an occasional crashing bug but you should be able to complete rounds most of the time. I had trouble with Barren Valley as well though. It would get stuck and crash when I holed out on a hole. Not sure why because nobody else did when we played it online.
It looks like a great game, but I get the distinct feeling I had when alpha testing PGA and TW....that I'm "fixing" someone else's problem. That was cool in PGA and the first issue of TW 'cause I was getting paid. I put up with it for free for a while in TW (3 years) simply 'cause of my positive experience with Headgate and PGA. Eventually, I tired of trying to "put the puzzle together" because it's a time-eater and not very rewarding in the long run.

Granted, I did do it trying to re-install PGA in a Win8 environment just over the past few days....AND that did teach me a lot. (Brought up good/bad memories of alpha/beta testing.) But I only did that with PGA 'cause of my "investment" in it. Wouldn't have done that with any other game or software; would've just shook my head and said screw it.

I will, however, keep giving WGC a try. Since all my old buds seem to like it, that says something really important to me; I learned over the years to trust their judgment because we went through some real thick/thin times trying to overcome software limitations in order to realize the treasure at the end of the journey. I "get" that.
Last edited by seopfer on June 30th, 2015, 11:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Course Design Consultant for PGA Championship Golf 2000 by Sierra Sports and Headgate Studios
http://www.steveopfer.com
http://sola.nsu.edu/seopfer
BrianZ111
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Re: A New Opfer Design?

Post by BrianZ111 »

That’s cool. It would have been great to be a part of the beta for PGA 99/00 but I was still in high school back in the late 90’s/early 00’s :laugh: I probably took it for granted that there would always be a great golf game being developed then but by 2005 it didn’t look good and I joined the CPG beta (predecessor to WGC) from the beginning when I heard about it at The Course Depot. It would have been nice to get paid and I probably would have spent more time with it if I was but I didn’t mind helping them out when I had some time because I basically saw no future for TW or any other game. I basically just wanted PGA 2000 with better graphics and TW never lived up to that for me.

It wasn’t until 5 years later in 2010 that I actually made the switch from playing PGA 2000. They changed the mouse swing to make it more like PGA 2000’s in 2009 and after some practice with it I finally felt it made it as good as or better than PGA 2000. There are still issues for sure but there are issues in PGA 2000 as well. At this point WGC is no longer being developed so we are really at another dead end. There is no beta testing anymore and the game is now free. I’ve been fortunate to be able to use the course designer to make some money so the investment in time did pay in the long term. I am now attempting to make a career out of creating video visualizations and playable courses for clients such as golf courses and simulator companies.

I played PGA 2000 for 10 years, and CPG/WGC for 5 years so far. I hope the next thing that lives up to my standards isn’t another 5 years away yet but I think I’ll manage even if it is. :)
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seopfer
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Re: A New Opfer Design?

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Actually, if I'm not mistaken, Vance Cook owns the copyright to the X-Y-Z axis mouse swing. Sierra let Headgate go away with Vance retaining that copyright. That's why TW was developed by Headgate. I wouldn't doubt, that somewhere in the mix, Vance Cook is not involved with the development of the rest of the golf sims that came after TW, at least in the copyright dept. Yes, it was more than fantastic to actually get paid to design courses and work with people who were developing golf games. It was amazing to watch them! We'd tell them we want something in the game and they'd calculate stuff on their calculators, look at each other, then nod, and say "OK", we can do that. In other words, they were writing algorithms right in front of us. LOL I will NEVER forget that! It introduced me to what gaming is all about...writing good code after listening to your consumers. THAT is good software production!! They never did use my marketing suggestion, however, to call course designing "mouse sculpting." I guess I still retain the copyright on that term. ;)
Course Design Consultant for PGA Championship Golf 2000 by Sierra Sports and Headgate Studios
http://www.steveopfer.com
http://sola.nsu.edu/seopfer
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