Version 1.8 is out now

Let's start with the usual change list:

• Fix banding in noise shader for drone camera
• Fix crowd being unnecessarily disappointed
• Fix being able to accidentally activate the connect button multiple times
• New Achievement: Big Putts
• New Achievement: Golfin’ Dolphin
• New Achievement: Grand Tour
• New Achievement: Grand Designs
• New stat, number of sand traps hit
• New stat, number of water traps hit
• New Course - Dackel’s Run, Beneslavia
• Increased aim angle on putting courses
• Flag is now raised based on ball proximity as well as camera proximity
• All new tree rendering and updated tree artwork
• Tree quality selectable from options menu, including ‘classic’ trees
• Options menu attempts to deduce connected PS controllers and updates graphics accordingly
• Shadow quality has been added to options menu
• Improved menu performance on macOS
• Lobby now asks to confirm when quitting as host
• Selecting the number of holes to play is now a lobby game rule
• Guests now automatically unready themselves if a host selects an unavailable course in the lobby
• Guests are prevented from readying up in the lobby if the selected course isn’t available
• Updated main menu layout for better access to clubhouse
• New unlockable course creator, available after achieving Grand Tour
• Added console command to enable logging of benchmarks
• Mod Kit:Tree editor now available from console by typing tree_ed
• Mod Kit: Wind colour palette has been added

Hello again, and welcome to a new update! As well as the usual bunch of fixes and improvements this update boasts two new pieces of content: Firstly there's a new course named Dackel's Run, which is a full sized 18 hole course for your club swinging pleasure. Secondly, as well as the new course, there's a new course editor, which is unlockable once you have completed the 'Grand Tour' achievement. The course editor allows you to take the existing holes from any course which comes with the game and arrange up to 18 of them in a new 'playlist' which is saved as a custom course. Once a course is exported it will appear in the lobby when hosting a new game as 'Custom Course'. Please note that, currently, these courses are not available to play in network games. If a host selects a custom course then the guest computer will not be able to 'ready up', as they will not have the course details available locally. Also note that this is not the hole editor/designer which has been mentioned in the past, that feature is still on hold for now. The course editor is purely a tool to remix existing holes and themes (think skyboxes and foliage) into a new course layout.

Also new in this update is the modified tree rendering system. Previously the trees were (poorly drawn, by me) billboards - 2D images placed in the 3D golf world. Now the game is capable of rendering full 3D tree and bush geometry, with dynamic shadows and wind affected leaves and branches. This comes with a slight performance cost, however, and to aid rendering on lower end computers it is now possible to select low or high quality tree and shadow rendering from the options menu. In the options menu it is also possible to select 'classic' trees - as some people prefer the original artwork. So if the old trees are more your thing, then they are available here too. Check out the trailer to see all the new features in action:

This update also brings some performance improvements on macOS, particularly in the menus, so if you were having problems before then this might solve some of those issues. I've also had some feedback from people who have been playing the Windows version on Valve's Steamdeck, which is very good to hear (thank you to those who let me know!). The linux binary is still targeted towards Arch distros - I've done some work on creating an AppImage for the game, however linux is what it is and progress has been stymied by a shower of esoteric spew from the console. Be sure that if I ever get it working the AppImages will appear on this site though!

Thanks again to everyone who has supported the game and given feedback - it helps make it what it is. Make sure to leave any comments you may have on the project page, and follow @TrederiaGames on Twitter for development updates. See you in the next one!