Dev Update 02.28.2021
Hello! Progress on the key parts of Circle1 continues! Early feedback from Quest 2 testers has been very positive. Thank you for your support!
With that - Let’s dive into the updates.
New Discs: The Aries and Norma
Circle1 has two new discs: the Aries and the Norma! You will find both discs to be very useful in your long approaches and on holes with skinny routes. Each disc has its own custom dye that has been inspired by techniques found on r/discdyeing.
Here is a bit more about each disc:
Aries: An understable mid-range that is great for smooth turnover shots. The Aries has a good amount of glide and really shines for shots between 200 and 300 feet.
Norma: An overstable approach disc that can handle a lot of force without turning over. You can use the Norma for flat shots that require a hard fade at the end of the flight.
Testers will be able to find both of these discs in their bag after the next Oculus Quest update.
All the discs in Circle1 (so far)
The Putt Line
Getting your release right in VR is hard. Not only do the nuances of VR controller tracking create some difficulties in hyper-accurate tracking of release position and velocities, but releasing button pressure at a very specific threshold while in the motions of a throw is extremely difficult to do consistently.
For harder throws, Cirlce1’s Throw Line allows you to pre-set your release point. For putting, however, you need more control. Not only are there many different styles of putting, but often the disc orientation does not match the release velocity (e.g. releasing with “nose up” relative to your line). The Putt Line allows you to independently set your release direction and the orientation of the disc at release.
To use the Putt Line, you just need to do a single practice putting motion while holding the Putt Line activation button. Circle1 will use this practice motion to create a line for you that matches your release direction and orientation.
This Putt Line design works for many putting styles, and short “normal” throws as well.
The Putt Line in action. This putt demonstrates the ability to independently set the disc release direction and orientation.
Score Zones in Training Dome
As mentioned in the last update, the Training Dome has been released to Oculus Quest testers. The feedback from testers was great, and there were quite a few requests for “something to aim at.”
The Training Dome now includes multiple “Score Zones” that players can aim at when practicing. If a player lands their disc inside the zone, they will get rewarded with a pleasant celebratory sound and some score simple effects.
Sneak Peek: Canyon Lands DG Course
Work has begun on the first course in Circle1: Canyon Lands! There is not too much to show just yet, but I did want to give you a bit of a preview of how these courses are being developed.
Before any work is done on the visual elements of the course, each hole is “blocked-out” using basic polygons. This allows the routes of each hole to be tested and tweaked before any time is spent on making the hole “look good”. Once all of the holes have been blocked-out, the course is ready to be handed off to a concept-artist to add visual elements around the obstacles and hole-layouts.
Below, you can see the blocked out version of Hole 1 in Canyon Lands. In a future updates, I will refer back to this image to do a fun before/after comparison to the finished result.
Additional Changes
For transparency, I’ll include a full list of changes made since the last update here:
Added the ability to play music in the Training Dome.
Lowered the threshold for displaying wind effects based on current wind speed to 1 mph.
Lowered the volume of score sound.
Changed the behavior of the turbulence option to create variations of wind direction and speed, not just direction.
Added new score FX for score zone.
Corrected rotational offset for forehand throwline direction by 10 degrees.
Removed Unity Analytics, added Firebase Analytics, then removed Firebase Analytics, re-added Unity Analytics (net-net: no change).
As always, please share your thoughts or questions at hello@hitlabs.co.
That’s all for now!
