Forums

This idiot swing meter ...

• donsprintr 2,063 Posts

  Sat, Oct 31 2009 2:59 PM

      The swing meter problems have been increasing it seems like daily .... all symptoms previously reported such as sticking in the backswing, sticking , fluttering, speed changes, surging in the downswing ... meter freezing just as you're clicking the mouse sending your ball MILES off into nowhere ... particularly troublesome is the surging in the putter meter ... extremely difficult to make a putt anymore of ANY distance except 2 or 3 feet...

• Johniedino 786 Posts

  Sat, Oct 31 2009 3:19 PM

  I agree with you Don. Example today 3rd hole different rd. I had a 1 ft. putt and the friggn meter went flying on by and pushed my putt way wide. Happens every rd. and any shot.

  But what can you say its "a computer problem"

  J

• naughty1 104 Posts

  Sat, Oct 31 2009 3:34 PM

  So let me tell you about my experience

  Yesterday I played 6 times, and had 0 problems. I thought "oh boy, the gremlin went home"

  Today, first game. Bug lost the game for me. Every hole something else. Missed a 2 ft putt when the meter went sailing by.

  All of you who think their is a fix, or a fix has been published on this forum---Think again.

  It cannot be good one day, bad the next. I HAVE EVERY FIX THAT HAS BEEN PUBLISHED

  Sure glad I have not purchased clubs. It is not bad for me, I am in for free, but I feel sorry for those who have purchased clubs, ball etc, and have this meter problem

• Faterson 2,902 Posts

  Sat, Oct 31 2009 4:34 PM

  Johniedino:

  Happens every rd. and any shot.

  But what can you say its "a computer problem"

  Yeah, it very well could be. I happen to be currently testing the Avast! Home anti-virus software. This software installs a nice little icon, a small blue ball with the letter a inscribed on it, in your Windows tray area. The interesting thing about this icon, this little a is, that it starts spinning whenever the anti-virus software is doing something on the PC.

  Johniedino, you'd be shocked to see how frequently the anti-virus software becomes active. At seemingly illogical moments! I see the small a spinning approximately once a minute, at irregular intervals. Most antivirus software packages monitor all your HTTP traffic by default (i.e. what happens in your browsers).

  I kept watching the little anti-virus icon while I was my playing my last few WGT golf games. Yep, that's exactly what was happening: during the game, the icon was sometimes spinning, and sometimes it wasn't. It was probably spinning whenever WGT's game was downloading, in background, more components necessary to display the course I was playing.

  Now, Avast seems to be good-quality anti-virus software, and I didn't think it was disturbing my swing meter. (And I happen to be currently playing on an old notebook with only 512MB of RAM, yet the game on this site is performing fine for me; in contrast, I couldn't make a single shot over on TWO when I tried it earlier today – the shot meter kept freezing all the time.)

  What I mean to say by all this: there is a lot more happening on your computer, at any moment, than readily meets the eye. Every time your shot meter stutters, this can actually be caused by a background process running or being launched on your computer, without you realizing it, such as anti-virus software starting to check something (for example, WGT courses components being downloaded in the background). Not all anti-virus software is so delicate as not to disturb your swing meter; some anti-virus software might be pretty heavy-handed and aggressive.

  My best advice therefore: just let the meter pass all the way to the right without clicking the mouse, then take another swing. I find that the meter rarely stutters on several successive repeated swings. Also, make sure always to close the original browser window from which you launched the game pop-up window; an aggressive ad being loaded in the background, or your Friends panel being updated in the background, could very well cause meter stutter.

• tibbets 1,043 Posts

  Sat, Oct 31 2009 5:11 PM

  Don't worry, it's not your computer, despite the myriad number of excuses otherwise.

  I've officially tested this game on 20 different machines, all with different configurations and internet connection speeds, processor speeds, RAM, etc.  Some had anti-virus, others did not.  Some had Windows XP, some had Vista.

  Here's the proof in the pudding, so listen carefully folks:

  Each machine experienced some sort of hesitation in the swing meter at some point.

  Go ahead and do a fresh rebuild on your PC like i just did 1 week ago, and test the game with every conceivable service turned off and no anti-virus or any other program loaded.  You'll see.

• Faterson 2,902 Posts

  Sat, Oct 31 2009 6:40 PM

  tibbets:

  Don't worry, it's not your computer

  It can be the player's computer. Just because it sometimes isn't the player's computer, doesn't mean it never is the player's computer. (A logical fallacy.)

  tibbets:

  Each machine experienced some sort of hesitation in the swing meter at some point.

  Yes, that's very much possible. The point is, a lot of the meter stutter can apparently be reduced by following "best practices" related to one's own computer (such as those listed in this thread), so that it seems possible, in this way, to reduce meter stutter to a tolerable level (= very occasional).

• 10 Posts

  Sat, Oct 31 2009 6:45 PM

  What are the system requirements to play this game?

  We recommend the following system requirements for an optimal experience:

  • Flash version 9 or newer, preferably Flash 10. You can download the Flash Player here.
  • DSL-speed internet connection or faster
  • 2GHz processor or faster
  • 1GB RAM or higher, preferably 2GB or higher
  • 1024x768 screen resolution or higher, preferably 1280 x 800 or higher.
  • Please check our forum post on how to optimize your system for the latest information.

  It seems to me that if you meet all of those requirements, follow the intructions on how to optimize your system and then still experience meter lag on a semi-frequent basis then guess what? It's not your machine!

  I've only been here a short time and have been getting some serious meter stuff happening. It doesn't happen all the time, but often enough to be a pain.  I've got a pretty good machine too.  Not sure what the deal is, but from what I read its affecting tons of people.  It happens to my brother in law all the time.  I can live with some jittery stuff on the playback of the shot, but the meter stuff doesn't make much sense to me.

  What is the official WGT position on this?  Is it getting fixed or what?

• Faterson 2,902 Posts

  Sat, Oct 31 2009 7:12 PM

  rogerdade:

  It seems to me that if you meet all of those requirements, follow the intructions on how to optimize your system and then still experience meter lag on a semi-frequent basis then guess what? It's not your machine!

  Yeah, but the point is that many (or even most) folks don't scrupulously follow all those recommendations as listed. They say they do, but in fact they don't. That's a phenomenon that all tech support personnel is familiar with. People just hate following long bulleted sets of instructions. It's not so easy, or convenient, to shut down all other programs running on the computer, except for the golf game. (I myself don't do this either, but I can live with the occasional meter stutter.)

  And, how many players close the original browser window after they launch the game pop-up window? I'd be willing to bet that only a minority of WGT players close that original browser window. But, my experience is confirming that leaving the original browser window open may cause some serious meter stutter. In this sense, the arrangement of having the game launch in a pop-up window isn't a fortunate one; yes, the window is then automatically the right size, but the price for that probably are, for one thing, all the troubles with pop-up blockers, and for another thing, increased meter stutter due to the original browser window having remained open in the background, then intermittently loading ads (some of which can be quite aggressive and taxing on computer resources) and constantly updating the Friends panel in the background in the course of the game.

• GITrDONE 701 Posts

  Sat, Oct 31 2009 8:01 PM

  The swing meter got me too.I'm not upset but this guy didn't take it to well~!~! 

                                                                       
  
  
  
  
  
  

• donsprintr 2,063 Posts

  Sun, Nov 1 2009 1:05 AM

     Let me add to my original comments and see if this sheds any light ...

     I've been on this site since may the 2nd and i've had some MINOR meter problems that occured on an infrequent basis ....

     Those minor problems were mostly solved by running my flash quality at a medium level instead of the default "high" setting ...

      When i have had some problems they were shot deviation problems ...

     I've tried all the so called "fixes" such as closing the original browser window that i launched the game from and they are still no help ...

     My computer is adequately equipped to play this game ... and always has been ...

     I use McAfee anti-virus/anti-malware and i know instantly if McAfee is running anything from their icon in my system tray ...

     I have nothing set to run in the background except the machines regular processes and services and they are no strain on the system ...

     Windows updating does not and never has interrupted anything i've ever done online and i've watched it downloading and installing updates as i play ...

     The problems became frequent when WGT added Pinehurst CTTH , the new lines of balls and started changing green speeds ...

     Until then, my meter was usually as smooth as silk and problem free ...

     Conclusion: I would be a little bit of an idiot if i did not attribute the recent game problems to the recent changes made in the coding would i not ... ?