351 replies to this topic

[Mike Jones]

Hi all, we have been considering holding a competition for the PG community designers to create an awesome 18 hole par 3 course. I created a small 6 hole test course for Trackman soon after we joined forces with them and it was a big hit with both the guys in the Trackman office who played it in PG and the sim users alike. As such we're going to create some more and I was wondering what the interest would be in a CourseForge competition to find the very best CF community designs.

There would be some very cool prizes for the best designs and I'm hoping that as well as giving people the opportunity to challenge themselves and have fun with their designs that it will also in part help create a stronger bond between Trackman and the PC gamers which can only be a good thing for everyone.

Below are the details of the design competition:

TrackMan Par 3 Design Challenge

TrackMan is pleased to announce a CourseForge design competition, providing all community members with an opportunity to design and create a challenging and fun par 3 course for TrackMan Indoor Golf and the PerfectGolf game.

Contestants are asked to create a unique par 3 course with the CourseForge design software. The course should provide a fun challenge to players of various skill levels from beginners to experts, and in addition it should be as aesthetically pleasing as possible. All course styles are welcomed such as Oceanside, Parkland, Forrest, Links, Fantasy etc.

There are prizes for the best courses submitted.

Prizes are as follows:

1st EUR 1,000
2nd EUR 700
3rd EUR 400
4th EUR 250
5th EUR 150

Course requirements

• 
  Any submission must contain minimum 9 holes but preferably 18 holes

• 
  Hole designs cannot be replicas of existing holes or courses but inspiration may be taken from the world's best par 3 holes

• 
  The length of each hole can be anywhere from 50 to 250 yards, but for every hole at least 3 different tee lengths are required (easy, medium, difficult)

• 
  For every hole, 3 different pin positions are required (easy, medium, difficult)

• 
  Courses should have environmental sounds

• 
  Courses must be able to be loaded and played in TrackMan Indoor Golf and PerfectGolf (as bug free as possible)

• 
  The author(s) of the course will be credited on the loading screen and as part of the course description, if desired.

• 
  Not all courses need to be suitable for all skills levels of golfers ie: ‘Beginners’ courses or courses suitable for medium to advanced players are all welcome. However, courses that are designed well enough to cater to a wide variety of players will be preferred by the judging panel. This can be accomplished by the clever use of tee lengths and angles to the green.

Entry requirements

All contestants must acknowledge and agree to the requirements outlined below.

• 
  Entries can only be submitted by email to mjo@trackman.com

• 
  The mail should include:

• 
  Designer’s real name and address

• 
  Course description
• 
  Link to the course download location (e.g. Dropbox)

• 
  If a course is considered to have sufficient quality, but does not receive one of the main prizes, TrackMan may at their discretion award further prizes of EUR 150 for each course chosen in addition to the main prizefund.

 

• 
  In the event of a prize winning entry the contestant grants TrackMan all legal rights to the playable course (including but not limited to the digital course file and name rights) 
• 
  Multiple entries and joint entries are allowed but if a prize is won by a joint entry it will be split evenly among contestants so all names must be included on the entry information.

• 
  TrackMan may have to adjust the prize winning courses slightly. These changes are meant to improve the design in relation to the design requirements. Trackman will also fix any bugs found on the courses. 

• 
  The winning courses are planned to be released for TrackMan Indoor Golf – and will also be made available to the PG community to play in PerfectGolf. 
• The course entries  should not be released to the public anywhere until the final decision on the winners has been announced.
•  

*All identified winners of the competition are responsible for any and all applicable taxes and other government levies that arise from the prizes awarded to each winner

 

* To create a unity package of the project make sure nothing in the scene or project is selected and choose export package from the assets menu in unity. This will gather everything in the project and save it to a package which we can import to make tee alterations etc to better suit sim players. Send us a dropbox or other file hosting service link to it so we can download.

[Buck]

How about one called "Grassy Holes Par 3 Course" that uses Nvidia Turf Effects?

 

[Dazmaniac]

Would be a good competition for folks to have a crack with a BETA of CF2 don't you think? 

[Mike Jones]

Would be a good competition for folks to have a crack with a BETA of CF2 don't you think? 

All the courses we build are currently being built as normal in 5.2.3 and as the PG2 engine is still being worked on, CF gets constant rewrites as the the engine architecture is developed. We recently made the decision to move the PG engine to Unity 2018 to give us the best possible performance and visuals available but for the time being the current CF is the one that would be used in the competition.

[Stingreye]

Mike would these be required to be Fictional courses?  I would assume so.

[M Rose]

You had me at "competition"

[Dazmaniac]

Just an aside....

 

I created a small 6 hole test course for Trackman soon after we joined forces with them and it was a big hit with both the guys in the Trackman office who played it in PG and the sim users alike

 

What chance this 6 holer might be made available (if it hasn't been already) for the non-Trackman staff and non-sim users?

[hiltonwelford]

would there be a time limit to this?

[Thinman]

if I spent a ton of time creating a course for this and luckbox the win (LOL), there is no chance that it gets 'fine print' owned by trackman and only available in their simulator software correct?

[zmax - sim]

if I spent a ton of time creating a course for this and luckbox the win (LOL), there is no chance that it gets 'fine print' owned by trackman and only available in their simulator software correct?

 

You''ll be able to release it on OGT using a different name if that happens. 

[zmax - sim]

https://simulation.o...iew.html?id=272

[Armand]

Hmmm .... maybe the winner gets a Trackman!      I might have to revisit the tutorials thread and CF forum for quite a while.

 

Actually, I have little or no artistic ability, so I'm probably just going to have to cheer for someone.  

[Mike Jones]

Hmmm .... maybe the winner gets a Trackman!      I might have to revisit the tutorials thread and CF forum for quite a while.

 

Actually, I have little or no artistic ability, so I'm probably just going to have to cheer for someone.  

 

Actually thinking about this there is absolutely no reason why someone with great ideas could not team up with someone with CF skills to enter a competition like this. Joint entries would be a good idea I think and also there is also no good reason I can think of that someone could not submit more than one entry.

[DPRoberts]

I think the idea sounds fun and a way to quickly add some content to the course carousel. Would it be problematic to only be 9 hole courses?

I think 18 holes of par 3s tends to induce a bit of boredom - as a designer and a player.

[Stingreye]

I think the idea sounds fun and a way to quickly add some content to the course carousel. Would it be problematic to only be 9 hole courses?

I think 18 holes of par 3s tends to induce a bit of boredom - as a designer and a player.

Good question especially since the original course Mike designed was only 6 holes.   

[bortimus]

Yeah the thought of building/playing 18 par 3’s doesn’t sound very appealing.

Why not 6 or 9 holes courses with a variety of pars?

Something to consider for the future perhaps.

[Drgnslyr221]

There's an executive course near my house with 8 par 3's 9 par 4's and 1 par 5 and I love playing it.

[Mike Jones]

I think the idea sounds fun and a way to quickly add some content to the course carousel. Would it be problematic to only be 9 hole courses?

I think 18 holes of par 3s tends to induce a bit of boredom - as a designer and a player.

 

I think most people tend to play courses in nine hole loops but as people can either cherry pick which holes they like at the start or just simply play one nine or the other I think it just adds more options of holes to play without having to reload another course. There is nothing to stop people creating 2 nines of completely different styles from one nine to the next in fact I think that would be a good idea to inject some nice variety into the holes.

 

There really are no limits on what could be produced, I'm thinking of the different types of terrain for example -

 

Links - which might be designed to be played under firm fast conditions

Target style with a bunch of shortish island type greens surrounded by sand or water

Parkland courses such as a typical American course with Trees bushes decorative flowers

Coastal - 9 holes inland with the back 9 running along coastal cliffs or a mixture of coastal holes front and back

Fantasy type courses which run around mountains or waterfalls or islands in the sea etc

 

There is also nothing wrong with designing courses which are inspired by some of the great par 3's in the world without of course being direct copies.

 

While the final details of the competition are yet to be fully decided upon, I will be part of the judging panel which will also include Andrew, Trackman themselves and hopefully a couple of Trackman using tour pros. The courses produced will be not only be for Trackman sim users and will be released freely for PerfectGolf players too. The designers of the courses will get full credit via either the splash screen and the course information etc.

 

Trackman as many know is used by around 90% of the worlds top 100 players so there is every chance that if you make one of the winning courses, a Tiger or a Dustin or a Rory will be loading it up to test their iron skills which I think is a pretty cool thing!

 

There will be a first prize of approx Euro 1000 for first place with prizes going down to at least 5th place and perhaps further depending on the quality of the courses. These details are still to be finalized so I'll add more info when I have it.

[M Rose]

I'm trying to teach my sons to play; one nearby muni has an AWESOME nine-holer where the holes are literally around 60-70-80 yards (with one being about 150).... for me it is also really fun because I get wedge practice. Being able to hit some half shots and some full 60 degree wedges has made me a better player. And it only costs me 5 bucks. Always in great shape too because it is adjacent to the main course on the property and the maintenance is identical.

 

The sad thing is that the 18 hole course actually kind of sucks.... it has some of the worst designed holes in Denver. Oh well...

[Mike Jones]

I'm trying to teach my sons to play; one nearby muni has an AWESOME nine-holer where the holes are literally around 60-70-80 yards (with one being about 150).... for me it is also really fun because I get wedge practice. Being able to hit some half shots and some full 60 degree wedges has made me a better player. 

 

Yeah there is no reason why all the holes on a nice par 3 course have to be tough and long. We're looking for variety, imagination and fun no matter if the holes are 50 yds long or 150.