Jack Nicklaus Perfect Golf (Windows 10/XBox One) Q1 - 2017

[JCat04]

Perfect Parallel, the creators of Jack Nicklaus Perfect Golf (PC/Steam), have announced their plans to release a new Windows 10/XBox One, cross-playable version of the game in the first quarter of 2017. I own the PC/Steam version of the current Perfect Golf game, but it's built to be reliant on DirectX 9. While it's a fun to play, fairly realistic golf game, it looks a bit dated because of its subservience to DirectX 9.

 

The Windows 10/XBox One version is being upgraded to DirectX 11/12 standards, and will utilize Unity 5.5's SpeedTree GPU instancing technology to attain frame rates that double those of the current version. It will also utilize NVIDIA's new Turf Effects technology to render 3-D rough grasses in multi-shaded textures. The Windows 10/XBox One version of JNPG will also be the first version to offer an offline career mode.

 

Perfect Golf also currently works in conjunction with virtually every golf simulator in business, but I don't know how the move to Windows 10 and DirectX 11, and later DirectX 12, is going to impact the simulator market initially. I can't imagine it would be long before that market would be clamoring for 3-D grass and the responsiveness of DirectX 11.

[PapaJohick]

Interesting.

 

Looking forward to it

[JCat04]

Interesting.

 

Looking forward to it

 

I'll throw out a caution here that the quarter one, 2017 release window might be a bit ambitious. Perfect Parallel has to get motion capture animations incorporated, multi-shaded 3-D rough grasses added (the multi-shaded part is going to require some minor code changes from NVIDIA for their proprietary "Turf Effects" technology, but they're working with PP to accomplish this), career mode, plus the upgrading to Windows 10/XBox One. They've made their last upgrade to the current Steam version, and will only be fixing minor bugs in it going forward, so they're full tilt on the Windows 10/XB1 version now.

 

I think it's going to be a groundbreaking game with its cross-play ability between XBox One and Windows 10 PCs. Perfect Parallel already has a highly functional multiplayer lobby system with the Steam version of JNPG. XBox Live will open even more doors for live competitive play options.

[Golfingfanatic]

Any competition for EA is great for us consumers. So they might release a game someday that is not as crappy as RM15

[JCat04]

Any competition for EA is great for us consumers. So they might release a game someday that is not as crappy as RM15

 

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour was a major disappointment, even though it had its moments with some pretty good graphics. I thought the swing interface was too twitch reliant. EA Sports has now abandoned the current version, and the way they divorced themselves from it less than a year into its "Non-Annualized" life suggests to me that they don't have any plans for a newer version. The current Steam version of Perfect Golf is vastly superior to RMPGAT in every category but graphics... I think that edge will be erased when the Windows 10/XBox One version is released.

[JCat04]

Perfect Parallel haven't said much about the career mode in the Windows 10 version of Jack Nicklaus Perfect Golf, but I'm picking up signals that it might use a dynamic player base, as opposed to the 'bell curve spreadseet' treatment such features usually get. I get the feeling that you'll be able to actually play tournament rounds while paired with AI players, if desired, and that the rest of the 'offscreen' field will actually be something like Forza 6 Motorsports' "Driveatars", playing their rounds out, hole-by-hole. They may even give you the option to play your career mode against "Golfatars" (for lack of a better word) who are built to model the play of people on your friends list.

 

I'm not saying that's going to be it, but it's going to be something pretty dynamic based on hints I'm picking up. This could add a lot of appeal to those who prefer a career mode option. I know I've tied career modes in other golf games throughout the years and found them to be too formulaic and impersonal. PGA Championship Golf 2000 had the best one by far, and it allowed players to build their on attribute based models to make up the AI field in it.

[JCat04]

Here are a couple of screens from the forthcoming Windows 10 version that Perfect Parallel has just posted, showing the updating of the lighting and shaders to work better at different and lower sun angles. These two images are showing the same view angle from two sun positions almost in opposite directions so you can see the lighting on the sky, grass, trees, and terrain.

 

 

 

Could someone let me know if these images aren't displaying properly? I'll change from image to link if they aren't. I saw them last night at home, but I'm posting this from work, and that image source is blocked my server filter.

[dan360]

Images show up fine. Looks great, amazing how far we've come with computer graphics.

[JCat04]

Images show up fine. Looks great, amazing how far we've come with computer graphics.

 

Thanks Dan, I was able to confirm that they came out fine this morning from home. It is amazing how far they've come with computer graphics, and more importantly, have they can fluidly animate these higher res graphics. What these images aren't telling you is that with a new technology called SpeedTree instancing in Unity 5.5, the frame rates have doubled in the Windows 10 version of the game. There's a reported minor hit in the frame rate (2 FPS) associated with the use of NIVIDIA's Turf Effects, which renders the 3-D rough grasses, but the doubled performance due to SpeedTree instancing more than offsets that.

[JCat04]

Perfect Parallel showed a screen today from the forthcoming JNPG Windows 10 version, showing the Turf Effects, 3-D fairway grass. We also see glimpses of the new hi-res golfer models that will be used in the game in this shot, although from the postures shown in the image, they're not doing anything that would suggest that they are tied into mo-capped data just yet. I do find the level of detail impressive though!