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Wind

• ApexPC 3,164 Posts

  Mon, Mar 31 2014 11:46 AM

  I was just sitting and watching a US flag blowing in the wind out in front of the local Post Office.

  It's pretty windy today and I noticed a couple of things:

  1. The wind does not blow at a constant speed. Most of the time the flag was blown straight out by the wind, but often the wind slacked off and the flag drooped a lot because it was barely affected by a slower wind speed. I've seen this on televised golf tournaments too where they show a wind speed display and the speed is constantly changing, often by a large % of the fastest wind speed displayed.

  2. The wind direction also changed somewhat over short time spans. The direction of the wind was changing through as much as 90° - 120°.

  Even though WGT shows us a constant wind speed, the wind direction arrow is often moving slightly indicating the wind direction is not constant.

  I think it would be safe to also assume the WGT wind speed, as far as the game physics package goes, also changes somewhat while our shots are in the air.

   

• gr8flbob 592 Posts

  Mon, Mar 31 2014 12:58 PM

  GMTA, Apex, lol. Here's a post I made 6 months ago in a thread called 'Wind Effects': http://66.70.125.43/forums/t/196321.aspx?PageIndex=2,

   

  More recently, after thinking on the use of pin-stick flag motion to obtain info on likely wind conditions at the green, whilst playing real life golf on a 'RSG high wind' equivalent day, and (through observing my home weather monitor) wind rarely flows at constant speed.

  Like you, I had an 'aha' moment a month ago or so, and turned on 'Flag animation'  in my game settings. Long ago when getting reasonable meter was a chore, I had disabled every non-essential option. 

  I believe observing  the flag in a convenient green view (Zoom in if necessary) will give you a better sense of which way the wind above the green surface is blowing - AND - show a cyclic variation in strength, as well over a period of maybe 5 - 10 second intervals. NOTE: Both the speed and the direction vary over time!

  A real life parallel would  be like a 'gust' 20% - 50% stronger than displayed 'average' mph appearing sharply, then decaying off to a 'lull' that might be 20% - %50 less than 'average' speed. As an engineer, it resembles a 'sawtooth' waveform if plotted over time.

  It's WGT's best effort to mimic real-life variation, executed as a few lines of code in their physics engine. 

  p.s.:

  ApexPC:

  I think it would be safe to also assume the WGT wind speed, as far as the game physics package goes, also changes somewhat while our shots are in the air.

   

  I think it's been established elsewhere that the end-result of your shot is determined at the instant you 'pull the trigger' on contact at or near the Ding line. Proof? You get the CTTH/Blitz 'heart-beat' as soon as you've hit - long before the ball gets to its target.

• ScottHope 10,410 Posts

  Mon, Mar 31 2014 3:00 PM

  

• ApexPC 3,164 Posts

  Mon, Mar 31 2014 5:13 PM

  gr8flbob:

  I think it's been established elsewhere that the end-result of your shot is determined at the instant you 'pull the trigger' on contact at or near the Ding line. Proof? You get the CTTH/Blitz 'heart-beat' as soon as you've hit - long before the ball gets to its target.

  Yes, I'm aware.

  It only takes an instant for the program/computer to do the math calculations.

  So 'shots are in the air' is the math/computer time, not what is displayed on our screens.

   

• gr8flbob 592 Posts

  Mon, Mar 31 2014 7:02 PM

  ApexPC:

  gr8flbob:

  I think it's been established elsewhere that the end-result of your shot is determined at the instant you 'pull the trigger' on contact at or near the Ding line. Proof? You get the CTTH/Blitz 'heart-beat' as soon as you've hit - long before the ball gets to its target.

  Yes, I'm aware.

  It only takes an instant for the program/computer to do the math calculations.

  So 'shots are in the air' is the math/computer time, not what is displayed on our screens.

   

  The result is determined at 'instant of contact' (instant determined by available CPU power); the flight and resultant lie depend on how a large set of variable factors 'lined up' at the moment you hit the ball. 

  The flight/landing/roll you see is the WGT physics engine's 're-creation' of the result from your chosen club/ball/spin adjustment/power, and actual contact point (relative to ding line) would look like, given your aiming point, the precise wind direction and speed at impact, and topography of the terrain in the landing area.

  In other words, there are two sets of variables at play:

  1.Yours (equipment set, shot type selection, spin applied, aiming point chosen, power determined, and actual shot 'execution').

  2. WGT's (wind deviations, designed-in equipment deviations, variations in green speed day-day or week-week, ad infinitum).

• BubbaSauce 260 Posts

  Tue, Apr 1 2014 6:11 AM

  I have been saying this in a number of recent threads.

  Unfortunately, the game client doesn't show us the variations in wind speed while we're setting up our shot. But, as has been said, when you hit the shot, the software will decide the exact wind speed and direction that will impact your ball's flight. It's not a WTF shot, it's just the software trying it's best to mimic real life.

  Whether or not the game does, you also have to consider the wind speed and direction at various points along your ball's flight path. Wind comes in waves. Air rises and then falls at different intervals in different locations. The wind where you are isn't going to be the same on the green or 50 ft in the air where your ball is traveling.

  Another factor to consider with the so-called WTF shots, is the club face at impact. We don't get to control that. The best control we have over that is dinging the shot and shot type, but that doesn't mean everything will be perfect at impact. Even in real golf, you can execute the perfect swing, or at least think you did, but the club face could have been one degree off at impact. That means your shot isn't going to go exactly where you aimed.

  Having said all that, there's still the possibility that the software will incorporate these deviations based on your current situation, e.g. score, tier, trends, etc. I would think from a business standpoint, you'd want to. Certainly not to a ridiculously unfair level, but enough to cause an extra shot or two per round, which obviously affects ball life. Personally, I don't have a problem with that. I'm free to use the free ball or just not play the game.