Does Ball type/condition matter in simulator?

[BDTWEET5]

I’ve started in a league at my local x-golf and often laugh and the inconsistency of distances (“good feeling” drives will go 230-300). One thing I’ve noticed is that the balls at the facility are nearly bald and feel hard as rocks. The manager told us from the start to use their balls as they have a transparent top coat with bold markings underneath to help the sim cameras best. 
That being the case, I’m tempted to get those Taylormade balls with repeated logos and try them there but curious if anyone else has info to weigh in on?

P.S. I haven’t tried hitting any of my own regular balls in there yet so I should also experiment with that too, probably.

[toehold57]

Although I cannot say with certainty it would make sense that the ball would have an enormous effect on the outcome of any shot.  If your ball is faster in real life then it should be faster on the sim as well.  Your ball is spinning more in real life, it would be spinning more on sim as well (assuming the camera can pick it up.

The sims I’ve played on provided ProV practice balls to use.

[DiscipleofPenick]

I believe it would. I went to a sim and the balls were beat. A club shorter on irons and a swing from the heels maxing out at 230. I'm going back next week and plan on using my balls. I want to compare the regular version to X versions of a couple balls,

Take Dead Aim

[skyryder]

I actually took a sleeve of about 4 different balls to practice session at GolfTec to see which ball to use going forward.  I hit shots with wedge, 8 iron, 7 wood, and driver.  There was substantial difference between the TP5's that particular facility uses for routine practice and my personal brands I brought along.  I know it may seem a little bit A-R  (never was sure if that word is hyphenated or not), but I have narrowed it down to two selections.  I am going to play a couple of rounds with each and try to make a decision on which one I "like" the best.  I was also told that using personal balls in the sim can get expensive in a hurry because the constant hitting them at speed into the net/screen and them striking the floor on the rebound with some force takes its toll pretty quickly on the "real" golf balls.

[juspoole]

It definitely makes a difference ball type even on SIM.  Hope you can narrow down to one you like that still gets read well on the Simulator. 

If you interested in the Taylormade Pix ball to get picked up easily.  Golf Discount has practice version of the ball for 19.99 a dozen.  These are the same quality as the normal ball but just have a logo misplaced or something like that.  https://www.golfdiscount.com/taylormade-2019-tp5x-pix-20-practice-bagged-golf-balls

[null]

What type of system is being used to read the ball?

[Chip Strokes]

my local sim makes you use their balls. they’re marked up in a way that lets the machine pick the ball up. when you hit a ball that’s faded a little bit, the shot doesn’t register. 

i’ve been considering borrowing a ball and using it as a template to mark half a dozen of my gamers and comparing them to the range balls, just to see if there’s a performance difference 

[BDTWEET5]

1 hour ago, jlukes said:

What type of system is being used to read the ball?

Not sure - x-golf makes it sound proprietary but might also be a bunch of marketing jargon 

Info: https://www.xgolfsimulator.com/technology/

[BDTWEET5]

58 minutes ago, Chip Strokes said:

my local sim makes you use their balls. they’re marked up in a way that lets the machine pick the ball up. when you hit a ball that’s faded a little bit, the shot doesn’t register. 

i’ve been considering borrowing a ball and using it as a template to mark half a dozen of my gamers and comparing them to the range balls, just to see if there’s a performance difference 

Not a bad idea! Only downside would be the annoying permanent marker “tattoos” that would be left to clean off your club face after most shots. 

[cnosil]

You are getting into the specifics of the simulator and the system it uses to read balls.   Some require the balls be marked up in a specific way and even placed on the ground in a specific way to get accurate results.   If you really want to know the answer, try calling or sending a question to the sim manufacturer and see if they will answer your question.   

[RollingGreens]

16 hours ago, BDTWEET5 said:

I’ve started in a league at my local x-golf and often laugh and the inconsistency of distances (“good feeling” drives will go 230-300). One thing I’ve noticed is that the balls at the facility are nearly bald and feel hard as rocks. The manager told us from the start to use their balls as they have a transparent top coat with bold markings underneath to help the sim cameras best. 
That being the case, I’m tempted to get those Taylormade balls with repeated logos and try them there but curious if anyone else has info to weigh in on?

P.S. I haven’t tried hitting any of my own regular balls in there yet so I should also experiment with that too, probably.

I have read in the manual it is not recommended to use balls that are not the plain white coloring or with any extra logos or patterns. Supposedly the the cameras aren't able to pick up the balls as well. I.E the memo plus likes balls to be marked with the metallic sticker.

[Pandaman]

Yes, different balls can absolutely make a difference.

Any sim/monitor that captures ball data will measure what the ball actually does.  So balls with different launch charactrristics will naturally give differrent results.  Depending on the monitor, appropriate markings and 'dots' etc can help the monitor see what the ball is doing, giving better readings, but shouldn't affect ball performance in themselves.

I tested this on SkyTrak a while ago, and different models can and do perform differently for launch angle and spin, and therefore flight too.  The biggest difference I noticed being eurethane covers compared to others.  Launch was lower and spin was higher for eurethane, at least with the models I tried.  I could actually see the launch angle difference visually too, so the monitor certainly seemed to register it properly.

[Bossfan]

I’ve played in a sim league the last couple of years and I agree different balls will read differently. When we first started playing we’d use whatever balls were there and distances were all over the place. I tried some lower compression balls  I use in early spring and fall ( DT Trusoft and Wilson 50/50) and my distances were more consistent and more in line with what I normally do outside. My accuracy also Improved quite a bit. Not sure that works for everyone but it helped me.