ANGLE DETECTIVE (Premium and Free Versions)

File downloads for the free and paid versions are at the bottom of this page.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the Angle Detective training game for snooker and pool! 

This game was originally developed to help snooker and pool players of all levels, but it is also great for lovers of geometry and challenging visual puzzle games. Friends and family who play-tested the game during development found it to be quite addictive.

I wanted to create a fun, realistic and geometrically accurate 3D video game that automatically trains pool and snooker players to better recognize and visualize shot angles while they play. They can then take that new talent to the real billiard table to become better players.

I also wanted a companion practice and testing tool for my recently released Angle Detective playing and training system. Being donation-based, the playing system is free for anyone to learn and can be found at my website CueAndMe.com. It will teach you methods of detecting angles that will allow you to achieve higher scores in the Angle Detective video game.

Whether or not snooker and pool players choose to apply Angle Detective System methods, I am confident that the Angle Detective video game will be a fun and invaluable training tool to help their games.

The Screenshots 

The screenshots that I provided on this page are not random but take you on a journey through many of the available features of Angle Detective. So please follow the images in the order that they are shown. I included the cursor in several images to indicate what features I am using or about to use. I hope to add a video at some point when I can find the time.

Game Description

Unlike all other billiard video games, Angle Detective is unique in that it is actually a puzzle game. The player has the option of choosing among 3 Modes: Professional Play Mode, Amateur Play Mode or Practice Mode. The player also has the choice of playing on Snooker or Pool equipment.

Play Modes

Each game is made up of 20 shots. For each shot, the player is presented with a randomized shot setup consisting of a cue ball, an object ball and the center of a pocket. The pocket's center is clearly represented by a small white sphere.

The goal is to guess the shot angle of each shot setup as accurately as possible. The closer the player's answer comes to the actual shot angle, the higher the player's score is for that shot. 

The highest single shot score is 110 points for a perfect matching angle, and therefore the highest score for a complete 20 shot game is 2200 points. The lowest single shot score is 0 which is given when the player's answer is 20° or further away from the actual angle. 

More detail about scoring is described in the Full Instructions inside the game.

Professional Play Mode

• Overhead camera is unavailable.
• Main camera is restricted to a maximum height of 1.78 meters (5' 10") from the floor.
• "Freeze and Draw" icon is unavailable.

Once the player enters an answer for the current shot angle, all of the above restrictions are removed, and the player can then replay and practice that shot as long as they wish before moving on to the next shot. The score is unaffected by replay.

Amateur Play Mode

In Amateur Play Mode, all tools and both cameras are available without any restrictions.

Practice Mode

Practice Mode is very special. It is for angle visualization and Angle Detective System shape and pattern drawing practice.  Simply use the angle slider to select any shot angle from 0° to 90° that you want to practice seeing over and over again to ingrain into your shot memory, and the computer continuously generates randomized shot setups at that exact chosen angle. 

Practice a shot setup as long as you want before moving on to the next randomly generated shot setup at that same angle. When you're ready to practice another shot angle, simply choose it with the angle slider and repeat the process as long as you wish.

All tools and both cameras are available and without restriction in Practice Mode.

Special Features

• Infinitely Random (but with carefully-weighted angle ranges) Play Mode Game Generation: No two games will ever be the same. Premium version only. Lite version has unlimited play but only 4 predetermined game sets.
• Practice Mode allows the player to choose any shot angle from 0° to 90° and in 0.1° increments. That adds up to 901 angle choices! Shot layouts are then randomly (and potentially infinitely) generated at the exact angle of the player's choosing. All tools and features available in Play Modes are available in Practice Mode. Premium version only. Lite version restricted to random 45° setups.
• Carefully developed to ensure accurate geometry
• Accurate ball-to-table proportions
• Replay any shot without restriction and with full tool access for practice before moving to next shot layout. No time restrictions.
• Selectable Guides: Ghost Ball with Center, Shaded Angle, and CueAndMe.com's Angle Detective System "Master Square" with embedded Shot Rectangle
• Sliding Angle Selector from 0° to 90° in 0.1° increments offering player's choice of using angle measurements, Angle Detective shot labels, or traditional theoretical ball fractions.
• Main camera simulates real-life rectangular movement around the table
• 135° player-adjustable Field of View (skew) plus regular Zoom In/Out
• Fully-adjustable overhead camera view with Zoom, Rotation and Drag
• "Freeze and Draw" allows player to temporarily freeze the current view and draw Angle Detective shapes and patterns or anything else atop the scene
• "Freeze" allows player to temporarily freeze the screen without drawing
• Icons for instant camera jump to Angle Detective Position 1 (behind object ball in line with pocket)  and Position 2 (behind cue ball in line with object ball) standing positions
• Table Cloth Color fully adjustable for both Snooker and Pool
• Offline play. No internet connection necessary. No ads.
• High scores saved for all play modes: Snooker Pro, Snooker Amateur, Pool Pro and Pool Amateur (40 scores in total). Premium version only. Lite version neither calculates nor retains game scores.
• 6 Graphics Quality options to accommodate all levels of computer hardware
• Playing Room Environment Graphics On/Off toggle
• Sound Effects Volume control slider with Off option
• Resume Most Recent Game  for all 4 play modes after Quit or Play Mode change
• Mouse as well as keyboard controls
• Full and Quick Start Instructions as well as an In-Game Help PopUp
• Player Preferences are saved and endure after close and restart 

Known Issue: This is very minor and has nothing to do with scoring or the main features of the Angle Detective game. In order to display what would have been the player's object ball release line if the shot were struck at the player's guessed shot angle, a fairly complex formula that takes into account ball distances and ball diameters is used to determine the angle of the black-colored player release line. During testing, this formula has been shown to be imperfect and off by a few degrees at times. So in this version 1.0 first release, the player's black object ball release line is very close to actual but should only be considered to be a close estimate. If the game does well enough to be able to afford updates, the next release should fix this issue.

Controls
Coming to Android and iOS

I still have a lot of work and testing to do, so I don't know for sure when the Android and iOS versions of Angle Detective will be released, but they are on the way!

Play Lite in Browser

If you have a Mac computer or if you have a Windows PC but would like to try out the Lite version before downloading, follow this link to play it in your web browser. I may be releasing a Mac version in the future if I receive enough interest.

Angle Detective Lite Browser Version

Minimum Requirements

Angle Detective was developed using the Unity engine. Generally, content developed with Unity can run pretty much everywhere. How well it runs is dependent on the complexity of the project. Angle Detective is a fairly lightweight program. 

The Settings Menu also offers 6 Quality Settings options as well as the option to turn off the room environment graphics. In addition, I am offering both 64 bit and 32 bit installers, so older machines should run it fine as long as their operating system is Windows 7 SP1+ or above. 

But to be safe, please download, install and run the free Lite version of Angle Detective to make sure that Angle Detective Premium will run on your system. There would be little to no difference between the Lite and Premium versions with respect to the necessary system requirements.

Credits

Game Concept and Design: Jeff Swain

Programming: Greg Johnson 
[email protected]
https://gregulargames.itch.io/

In-Game Framed Artwork: R.C. Nisnick
https://www.facebook.com/RCNisnick

Contact

If you have any questions or any suggestions for future updates, please contact me through the Contact page on the CueAndMe.com website.

Thank you, and enjoy Angle Detective!

Jeff Swain