This update introduces a complete replay system with full support for playback of 16 player matches. It also overhauls replication, and brings many other quality of live improvements.

Session Replay

The goal for this replay system was to develop something of not only high quality, but to actually make something functionally relevant. My intentions here are to use this system for producing trailers and other marketing materials, so it has to be good and not instead some after feature thrown in for the sake of it. If any of you make videos and can suggest additions or improvements to this system I'm happy to hear them. Besides making videos, internally there is another use to which makes this system incredibly valuable; debugging, especially for things like replication. If while playing the game something seems visibly off or I have a hunch something isn't quite right I can bring the replay file to the editor and essentially recreate the game state as it was when playing. Essentially it reduces the time needed to recreate a bug if I have pretty decent record of how the match played out.
So the menu where you access all this, is what was previously called the session history menu, found under the stats menu. It is now renamed session replay. You'll also find improvements to the menu in general in that it now displays eight entries rather than the previous six. To achieve this, I just ditched the WIN or LOSS text and coloured the placement instead. No changes to font sizes were required. In the picture above the yellow entries marked as "-" relate to incomplete sessions where you disconnected part way through. I have a lot of these in my menu from testing, and mere fact I don't have to play a complete 9 hole game to create a replay file is a huge time saving.

Compression

To keep file sizes small Ive implemented a compression algorithm for storing ghosts which reduces file size by about a third. Previously a 35 second ghost would have been about 25 KB, but this has been reduced to <15KB. This may sound small, but this change adds up when you factor in full session replays over 9 holes with 16 players. A replay file for 16 player game with 9 levels is down from 3.6 MB to 2.16 MB. If you were to store 40 of these, thats a difference of 144 MB vs 86.4 MB, or a saving of 57.6 MB.
Session replays will be updated per hole. Essentially the save file is created as you start a game, and its filled out at the end of each hole. This means if you join on hole 2 and disconnect or quit on lets say hole 7, youll have a partial session replay for the duration of the session you were present. From a performance standpoint this helps spread the load rather than handling all 9 holes worth of session replay data on the final scoreboard. Average XP and Hole in One % will be saved to your stats at the end of each hole, and win-rate is factored at the end of the session. An session you left mid-way through will be marked in yellow as incomplete.

Replication Improvements

For replays to work well I had to improve the replication and timing. A significant change is youll see all obstacles synchronised, including being reset in practice mode as you reset. This means new leaderboard ghosts will be synchronised, meaning that windmill blade or mover will be in the exact position each time you start.
Other changes to replication involve the balls, which now have a much better rotating appearance, this is because the replicated balls are now simulated with interpolated angular velocity. All variables such as for impacts, power accuracy, and various states are also replicated.

Last Chance To Play The Demo

The availability of the demo will end on the 31st, next Wednesday. My entire focus then will be on the launch build to come in September. I may do a closed playtest or something during next month before release once various systems are in place and the primary application running okay. There is improvements to leaderboards, saved-games and a few other things I have to do first though. As always, please let me know if you find any issues in this update as I can quickly hotfix them. I would love to hear any feedback you have from playing the game over these last couple months, also don't forget to add the game to your wishlist as this really helps with how the game is ordered in the store and will help expose it to other players as-well :) https://store.steampowered.com/app/1914980/Golfing_In_Aether/

Patch Notes

General

• Added complete replay system with full support for playback of 16 player matches.
• Added further improvements to replication and replay playback, now factoring in power accuracy. A change to the rotation rate has also been added to better interpolate angular velocity.
• Added compression algorithm for storing ghosts which reduces file size. Previously a 35 second ghost would have been about 25 KB, but this has been reduced to <15KB. This may sound small, but this change adds up when you factor in full session replays over 9 holes with 16 players. A replay file for 16 player game with 9 levels is down from 3.6 MB to 2.16 MB. If you were to store 40 of these, thats a difference of 144 MB vs 86.4 MB, or a saving of 57.6 MB.
• Added better time handling to various obstacles including rotators and movers.
• Added improvements to practice reset behaviour by also resetting obstacles. This will mean newly recorded ghosts and replays will be in the same world conditions you are seeing.
• Added improved return to menu state handling with additional context for being in a replay or specific modes. If you return to main menu while in practice, you will return to the practice menu. If watching a standard game replay, you will return to the scoreboard for the session replay.
• Added a up to one second rotation function when your ball comes to a stop to remove pitch and roll. The purpose of this is to have your ball is visibly the right way up so you can see your customization. This behaviour will be replicated and featured in replays.
• Added mouse controls for replay playback. Thumb buttons will let you skip time back and forwards. Mouse wheel will adjust playback rate.
• Added various improvements to scoreboard background processes. Construction of initial stats and scoreboard will begin 3 seconds before changing page to help spread the load out a bit. This allows the construction of the second half of the session replay to complete during the podium page.
• Fixed an issue where there was a rare chance of getting stopped leaving the hole in one path on Gentle Swing due to incorrect surface type.
• Fixed a potential latency-based timing issue with player names during hotseat mode in an online session.
• Fixed an issue in hotseat mode where the active player wasnt correctly visible at the start of the sequence on some clients.
• Added improvement to time tracking in hotseat mode.
• Added various improvements to functions behind undo in practice mode in relation to handling of replay file.
• Added additional rich presence for watching replays.
• Added an additional level of fallback for when even if rarely, something potentially goes wrong with entering a hole. For your next stroke it will reset the camera if by some rare chance you are treated as being in a hole.
• Added improvement to how ghosts are spawned and watched when in replays. Now only the active focus ghost will be visible on the tee mimicking the behaviour you would have if these were players.
• Added improvement to the return to main menu state when you are playing in split screen. Previously it would snap return to single immediately, however this has been pushed back until after the fade-to-white happens.
• Added replication of various hit, stroke and enter hole sounds. Each category is network rate capped to 0.05 seconds so some very high frequency events (such as with hits bouncing off a very narrow space) might not be 1:1 but very close.

Engine

• Updated various engine plugins.

Environment

• Fixed a tree placement on Drop to the left.
• Fixed various minor collision issues on "Gentle Swing".
• Fixed an issue with fence shadows.
• Added tweaks to physical materials on bamboo wood pieces.
• Added improvements to the blending with ground on trees in relation to the proximity dithering.
• Fixed an issue where some tree's lacked shadows.
• Fixed a graphical quality issue relating to water reflections in high graphics settings appearing white in the distance.

Interface

• Added improvements to the session replay menu so 8 items fit on a page instead of the previous 6. Some redundant information such as WIN was removed and instead just the placement is put in same colors.
• Added various performance improvements to the session replay menus opening.
• Fixed an issue where you couldnt always select previous in the spectating menu for players to spectate.
• Fixed an instance where the main menu music wouldnt play. This could occur when returning to the main menu from an atypical state.
• Added return to main menu description to end the replay on game menu.
• Added ability to hide the HUD watching a replay with the H key or B Button.
• Added changes to active HUDs during session replays, the hole info menu at the top of the screen is no longer present. Information such as current time in the round is displayed in the replay timeline anyway.
• Added background work for future localization with string tables about half-way constructed.
• Added improvement to spectating HUD so that when you are in free camera specifically it will state 'Free Camera' instead of just hide the focus player widget.
• Added improvements to various text padding on the spectating text widget.
• Fixed an issue where the text 'Spectating' wouldn't appear during casual mode.
• Fixed a potential scoreboard scrollbox clipping issue.
• Added change to Score breakdown text to instead be shortened to just Details.
• Added change to the keyboard input for Gamepad Button Y, typically used for Inspect / Leaderboard etc. The key has been changed from TAB to F to resolve a confliction.
• Added improvements to scrollbox behavior for scoreboard.
• Added ability to 'Inspect' players and bring up their steam profile page in the session replay scoreboad menu.

Discord Server

Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.