andyson: YankeeJim: andyson: It appears they have taken TightRope's suggestion from way back and changed the gradient colored meter to a solid color.
What do you think about it?
I think its smoother! My prelim testing showed much less CPU being used on the downswing with the solid color.
Still getting periodic 60sec friend updates and still seeing 60 FPS on the meter.
I agree, my meter is much smoother but I have had some stutters too. I also agree that the remaining stutters are apparently due to activity of the Friends module.
WGT, could we have the Friends and Invites modules removed or disabled during play? In multiplayer, this would only be necessary during our own turns, but for ease of coding, eliminating them entirely would be fine with me. Of course, to make the most players the happiest, it should be a Menu item option, with the default setting being for the modules to behave exactly as they do now, and the optional setting for them to be disabled during a player's own turns, perhaps only during the actual swing. Come to think of it, disabling Friends and Invites modules' activity only during the actual swing would be ideal and nearly transparent - no Menu setting needed.
UPDATE: It turns out that my newly-much-smoother swing meter lasted for exactly one 18-hole round yesterday. Luckily for me, I used that round in the Michelin Challenge to post my lowest 18-hole score ever (62), and tie with 11 others for 12th place in the Tour Pro tier for the July edition. Then after posting the message above, in a half-dozen attempts to better my score, the meter gradually got worse and worse until it was exactly as bad as I remember it to have been before the update. Looking up the portion of the purse for my tier, the payout rules, and a few minutes of calculations revealed that if no one scoring lower than me is disqualified, I should eventually be awarded the whopping sum of 199 credits. That will almost cover the cost of the balls I used in July playing the Michelin Challenge. Whoop-de-do.