It seems side spin is not all that effective when played with most shots.

My friend, who is good at snooker :) deemed putting any side on totally pointless. I argued it had some affect but am starting to see what he means...

Any advice or opinions?

It helps

Certainly has affect when playing carom.

Not a great deal in the other table games though I must admit. Pretty pointless to an extent.

Its doesnt do a great deal tbh, but deffo some. The thing is, the same thing can be done applying backspin and topspin which also affect pace, or maybe i am talking a bit advanced here lmao....i dunno really, i hardly even notice what spin i use...its usually just for pace

If you want to be good at the game, you don't need side. If you want to master the game, you need to know how to use it to get the ball inch perfect. If you want to know what i mean, watch damee play original and see how he uses side to hit cannons in the right place. But if you are playing for fun, side is not necessary .

I think the side does work and I also think it's a very important part of the game.

I only play orig so can't comment on the other games.

As I've played real league snooker for over 40yrs I think I have a fair understanding of side and screw, hasn't helped me be very good at funky though.

As examples, if you play a half ball green into the green pocket there is a real possibility of in-off in the middle bag. Check or running side will stop this. Also top spin does widen the angle quite a lot.

I also found playing potting blue in the centre, up the table, you can regularly hit the brown and either pot it or go in-off.
Again you can avoid this with side.

As mentioned above the really good players use side/screw a lot round the black to great effect.

The biggest difference from the real game is that the side doesn't throw the white off line.

Well yeh I know I'm not going to MASTER this game or anything, but it'd be nice to improve and know what's happening to the white. I keep 'getting it' then it lets me down for the important shots! That's my play more than anything I know, but like I said, my friend reckons straight side does nowt.

I can see the effect more when top or back is added to the side. And fragmented, yeh there's no chance of a funky snooker swerve for sure!

In real life putting side on the white is extremely useful (but you usually only need it when out of position) but in my opinion using side on this website does not have much affect on the white (compared to real life) because the physics aren't perfect, so yeah I agree it doesn't do much but that is just my opinion...

yeah it doesn't do much but sometimes i prefer to use side for my original smash break, carom shots, round back of black

goes to my idea on this thread:

http://www.funkysnooker.com/thread/8759/trickshots-achievements-and-other-ideas

In real life, the side spin tends to stay on the white a bit after hitting 1 cushion. Oh here it doesn't. Side spin most definitely works when hitting the ball and the white coming off the first cushion. I use it all the time for the delicate cannons, works a treat.

In real life, not only does side do what Damien has said above, it throws the object ball off line, too. If you put right hand side on the cue ball you aim slightly to the left of the pocket to pot the object ball, and vice versa.

true, i experienced this on WSC on the PS2, i put right hand side on a ball put the aiming aid over the pocket and i missed by a good centimetre, this must be why. but at the same time it would make funky even more challenging, i remember the swerve being talked about for easily getting out of snookers but only if you know what your doing.

not sure if the swerve requires a 3D engine, if it does maybe a swerve button will counter that?

Sort of forgot to mention that

Arthur Job