do pool apps ever give you a skid?

[Bob Jewett]

I've never used it for aiming practice - does it get throw right?

pj
chgo

Yes, both throw and squirt so far as I can tell. It uses backhand english when you apply spin, but additional correction is usually required for some shots, as expected. The double spot shot can be played as a combo bank.

VP also allows you to adjust equipment parameters for cloth and rails ("table skid" and "rail grab" as they call it), but not for balls it seems.

 

[Patrick Johnson]

I've never used it for aiming practice - does it get throw right?

Yes, both throw and squirt so far as I can tell.

Doh! I remembered I answered my own question some time ago when I set up this half ball spot shot - it's a centerball rolling half ball hit that geometrically overcuts the shot by almost 3 degrees yet goes center pocket with collision throw.

pj <- and an example of the usefulness of the tracking and ghostball features
chgo

 

[straightline]

FWIW I practiced mostly billiards. Gold there.

 

[hang-the-9]

i almost never play electronic pool,
but they try to be very realistic,

can they recreate what the snooker
players call kicks?

and can you create some kind of
bad conditions such as a table
that’s not level somewhere or
make one rail dead?

Sure it's possible, but I don't think they will do that. It just needs to randomly say your aiming is off by so and so range to simulate a skid, and for an uneven table, even easier since it's just a 3D model and the physics are programmed into it. I mean anything that is pretty possible in the real world they can simulate by faking things, just very simply.