Today update is just a small one following on from yesterdays. I've added in the ability to join servers as spectators via an all-new session info menu as well as tidied up graphics settings a bit by adding in automated hardware benchmarking for your first launch of the game.

Join As Spectator

Something I saw requested a lot on the suggestion forums for other games is players wish to join sessions as a spectator. This can especially make sense if you are having a mini tournament or something and you want others to perhaps stream it in real time with more camera angles than just the ones you would have from a players perspective. In case you are wondering why you cant just have more players on your server instead of added spectators, the answer is simply spectators are not the same resource load as players. When you join as a spectator you are mostly only listening for data sent from the server and not sending very much back. Your camera isnt visible, your position isnt replicated, you arent scoring or part of the gameplay logic in any way, you wont even show up on the scoreboard etc. Features spectators do have is they will be able to save a session replay like any regular player would. They can also make use of the quick chat and communicate with the active players.
Spectating will be enabled by default when you quick create a session. The default value will be 2 spectators. You can pick on the custom session menu between 0 and 4 spectators. The process of joining as a spectator is picking from the new session info menu that you wish to be a spectator. This menu also has frequent updates to current session information, including current progress.

Hardware Benchmark

The ideal minimum framerate for this game is 60 fps, and when I state requirements on the store page, Ive specified too at these frame rates. This game is exceptionally well optimized for performance and doesnt even need a dedicated GPU to run it. For machines without a dedicated GPU, such as the AMD 3200G Vega APU I play Split Screen on the TV with, you will need to have the graphics settings set to medium. With this update these settings will be applied automatically on first time you load up the game. A value is saved to your system save-game file that the benchmark has been run once. Note that if you play in four player splitscreen this will cost slightly more performance than it would just for singleplayer. If you have a regular Desktop from within the last few years with any common dedicated GPU then youll very easily max out the quality settings for this game. I havent yet got my hands on a Steam Deck or an equivalent RDNA APU but Id imagine High settings in most cases should work fine based on hardware alone. There are a few other changes in the full patch notes below so please check those out. Please note as previously announced this weekend is the last chance to play the demo as it will be disabled on Wednesday 31st. If you enjoy playing the game then please add to your wishlist :) https://store.steampowered.com/app/1914980/Golfing_In_Aether/

Patch Notes

General

• Added ability to join sessions as just a spectator via new session info menu.
• Added a primitive hardware benchmark to run one-time on game startup. It will save to your system save game that its been run once. You can re-run this benchmark via the Graphics Settings menu. It takes less than a second to complete so you may not even notice it being run. This is a feature of the engine and not something specifically Ive developed.
• Added a change to the level One Hill Over to make it not be one of the first levels in a session due to difficulty level.
• Added improvements to how some hotseat variables are replicated to reduce number of calls.
• Fixed an issue with gamepad camera deadzone values not being applied correctly.
• Added various backend improvements to the spectating system to especially make behavior more seamless.
• Added improvement to how player names are rendered, they are now more relative based on your current focus. This means for spectating the distances revolve around the player you are watching, not the position of your own ball.

Interface

• Added Benchmark button to Graphics Settings menu. This runs the built in Unreal Benchmark took, which may take a second to complete and then will pick recommended settings in the menu. You will have to press apply to store them.
• Added reset button to Graphics Settings menu which will reload setting so the state you had them when you entered the menu.
• Added extra validation to scoreboard stats construction.
• Added a quality-of-life change hotseat HUD by fading in the spectating player widget and removing any overlap with level intro title. The Its Players Turn text still loads as normal.
• Fixed an issue where inputs werent blocked in the spectator HUD during end of round.
• Fixed an instance where some variables were not reset during a new level in relation to spectator HUD.
• Added extension to activity messages to add in reporting of player is spectating when they join a server instead of a regular join message.
• Added additional row of characters to name sessions with when using gamepad keyboard.
• Added filter to session filter menu to narrow down if a server has spectators or not.
• Added custom session option to set number of spectators.

Discord Server

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