2551 replies to this topic

[olazaboll]

Monkeys ... you got to have monkeys ,,,,

[Kablammo11]

No I don't. 

 

 

 

"Here’s an easy way to remember what, on land, is a native creature and which is not. If it’s got 4 legs, or no legs, we humans carted it over here. When those weary and joyous Polynesians clambered out of their voyaging canoes about two thousand years ago, the only animals in this archipelago were birds (2 legs), insects (6) and spiders (8). Those settlers carted dogs and pigs here (and chickens) and probably brought geckos along in the canoes. Debate rages over whether rats were along for the ride or not. They also brought over 30 plants for food, medicine and fiber. One thing you can say about this first biological boatload: everything was meant to be useful. On 50-foot ocean voyaging canoes there’s generally not a lot of room for pretty plants that smell good, or animals you’ll never eat, or monkeys. Imagine how annoying the monkeys would have been, had there been monkeys in Polynesia to bring along in the first place."

 

 

Quoted from: http://www.maui.net/maui-people/blog/61/

[olazaboll]

No of course don´t ... Got a bit overexcited and forgot who was driving the bus ,,,,, or maybe the boat in this case

[Kablammo11]

CF will be out... soonish... couple weeks, they announced, so make that a month. I'm looking forward to sitting in the back of the bus and shouting directions at the driver in front myself for a change. Ola, I will pelt you with screaming demandsI for baby elephants, manatees, mockingbirds, unicorns, yetis, bacteria, stegosaurs, black orchids, black widows and Daffy Duck robotronics incessantly quacking "You realive thiff meanff War!" at you from all angles.

 

Naah, kidding, of course. Or am I?

 

Good news, Easter Island is an outlier of the Polynesian region and distantly related with the Maori tribes further west. So there will be a few Moai as well.

[olazaboll]

Edit .... See Below .. 

[olazaboll]

no seriously K11 ... If you can only make me understand and keep down my  "High Poly Dreams" I´ll be happy ... the courses I have in my head will hardly be playable ... at least not on my computer

 https://www.assetsto...#!/content/3467

[DoGgs]

T'was the acacias (and the lack of any Speedtree support when in dire need) what drove me away from the Lodge. Palm trees are frightfully easy to make (branches & leaves = frondes) and I'm very optimistic that this will not be a major problem. 

But that's for later. This next week I will draw the meshes first, then adorn and enrich them with my own textures, shaders and normals. Then I will need to decide if I am masochistic enough to add a "wet beach" mesh where the sand touches the gently lapping ocean waves - right now I don't believe I will be, but I may have to, and be it just to reduce the poly count of what will be quite huge sand meshes. Then I will have to come up with a cunning way of hiding the seams where all my beach meshes are stretching across the shoreline - I'm thinking tiki huts, but will need to explore other options.

 

 

And while all this is going on, I will also have to research the arts and crafts of polynesia and perhaps start working on a few typical totems to add some local flavour to the place. 

 

 

Not sure if I also should include "Easter Island" type Moais. I'd like to, but they are probably a bit too localised and not, methinks, related to Maori culture.

Aroha to you all.

haha i placed a few of these around the holes at buzzards, apparently they help keep old smokie at bay! or legend has it.

[Kablammo11]

Haha, I haven't played your buzzard yet, DoGgz, sorry. So many courses to check out and me being all engulfed in my own work... not enough hours in a day. But that means I will scrap the totems, wouldn't do to copy others.

 

Meanwhile, back on the islet of joy, the layout work has begun. Hole 1, 425y, par 4:

 

 

For those of you not familier with CF yet, this is as good or bad a moment as any others to dwell on bunkers - or sandy beaches - and their mechanics. You see, when I draw and render the CF meshes in Unity, here is what I usually get as a result:

 

 

The bunkers and beaches, being lower than the rest of the course, are not showing, because their lower bits are being hidden by the Unity terrain. In the game, the terrain below these bunkers is procedurally lowered, so that the bunkers will appear in full splendor again.

There is a button in CF to simulate that effect. If I press on it, this is the game preview including the lowered sub-bunker terrain that I use a the official feedback:

 

 

More like it. There is, however, a problem. In the bottom left corner you see the edge of the beach mesh and the surrounding rough mesh disappear below the waterline. This is unsatisfactory and looks wrong. So I will have to hide this spot somehow... later.

[mcthommo]

Good start K

I'm sure that the inventiveness and deep financial resources of Blammo Corp will find a suitable solution to this problem

[DPRoberts]

Shaping into another masterpiece. You are such a show off. Love your willingness to share the process and take on something that you can learn from as well. Are you doing basic terrain heightmap shaping in photoshop and then refining/modifying in unity? Or all shaping in unity? You seem to waste little time pushing all those mounds up and beautifully smoothing the hell out of it all.

[JoeF]

If you're going to drop using totems perhaps Tara and friends in grass skirts might be a replacement option.  

[Kablammo11]

Shaping into another masterpiece. You are such a show off. Love your willingness to share the process and take on something that you can learn from as well. Are you doing basic terrain heightmap shaping in photoshop and then refining/modifying in unity? Or all shaping in unity? You seem to waste little time pushing all those mounds up and beautifully smoothing the hell out of it all.

 

 

Sorry for not replying sooner, Mpags. 

As you described in your question, I start with a course layout and a matching first height map in Photoshop. That starting height map is very haphazard, though, just a doodle, containing the main terrain features and major slopes... for the entire plot, that is, not for the individual holes. As I draw the meshes I go on sculpting the holes in detail and quite often radically changing the initial terrain if the spur of the moment dictates it.

As for the speed of progress, it really helps if you did that sort of work half a dozen times before. 

 

On an unrelated tangent, Xaxnax Borealis is now officially out. Get it over here:

 

http://onlinegolftour.net/course-review.html?id=57

 

...or don't, up to you. Aroha y'all!

[DPRoberts]

Awesome. In regard to your tangent, my GC2 is in repair at the moment so I won't get to fully experience Xaxnax but will try it out with mouse swing. I think it will be a great departure from the traditionalist stuff my Thursday Garage League plays when my launch monitor returns. Mix in a little beer and should be quite trippy. As an aside, I actually play your Pommeroy more than anything as my son (8 years old) and I play closest to the pin challenges and it suits for good competition with me from Championship and him from Forward or Ladies. I think what most people have yet to discover is how well simulator golf can aid real life improvement. I would much rather navigate Xaxnax than rifle 50-100 balls haphazardly into a range. I actually find Pommeroy to be more productive for real life improvement than a round at Winged Foot as the golfer is forced to learn to place the ball into small targets from short range. After all, golf is a point A to point B game and what terrain lies underneath during the flight does not really concern the golf ball. My son is more likely to want to play as well with the visual enjoyment of something like Xaxnax. Thanks again for your work. I am eagerly awaiting Course Forge for us plebs!

[Kablammo11]

I'm glad to learn that little, underrated Pommeroy did find a small public - all the more in its intended way, as training facility for the short game. Greetings to your son, he might find the challenge tees at Xaxnax to all be quite short and manageable. 

You plebs? I'm plebs, too.

[DPRoberts]

...

You plebs? I'm plebs, too.

As much as you maintain a down to earth mentality (with occasional delusions) and unselfishly share wisdom, you are the designer of 3 courses provided within JNPG official release and have possessed the keys to the kingdom (course forge) for about 2-3 years it appears. Unfortunately, that disallows you from being a pleb. You can try and wear a burlap sack and eat gruel to blend in with us from time to time but we know better. That gold digger Tara would never be caught with a pleb as well!

[DPRoberts]

Not sure if newbie material is allowed here. I can surely move if this is for Course Forge productions only. As all young golf course design padawan's do, I have spent a few weeks messing around with the toys in the unity chest. Having zero 3D building experience prior to 3 weeks ago, I can say if you have the proper "enthusiasm" (as Mike Jones once said), you can surely figure things out to get started. Many hours on youtube and reading the forums here have allowed me to create textures, build simple objects (using blender), attempt trees, build materials and normal maps (crazy bump), insert water and create landscaping heather/flowers. I am posting a few shots of my beginning steps on the rendition of Kiawah Ocean Course, hole #1. I only wish I could get my hands on a program that would allow me to lay down the course and divide off tees, greens, rough, and sand traps in a much simpler manner...

Ocean Course - Hole #1 - above view

Attempt at the Cypress (?) trees that are scattered throughout course

View from back of Hole #1 green - attempting to build that Pete Dye green runoff

First object - steps - I have built a 3 step version and 6 step version. Stackable to create varying heights of 3,6,9,12,etc..

Also created the yellow hay like grass shown here, Dilate many times!

Messed around with Skybox mood lighting as well. Guessing not applicable to the game but it matched the one picture online I get of Kiawah #1 that I'm using for inspiration/ideas. (Those were my first attempt at the cypress trees, the image a few above is a slightly improved variant.)

[Kablammo11]

Of course you are allowed to post your stuff here. And it's good-looking stuff, too... if only there were a place to show it around and then tell about it. Oh wait... there is. This one.

Congrats on your work so far. Guys like you who come up with ideas such as stackable steps absolutely deserve to have a go at CF.

[Kablammo11]

Ah... there is very little to show and nothing to tell, but leaving S&T untouched for a week will not do. So let me spring into inaction with testimony of some of my forestation chores...

 

 

 

Same as the trees for my previous courses, these quasi-plants are grown in my exclusive Unity tree project, called "Nursery", where I go about clumsily assembling mock natural props. And I know these trees suck, yeah they do, not fishing for compliments, but the universe until now has withheld the proper tools from me so that awesomeness in tree creation must elude me forever. Did I mention that if Speedtree were an Unicorn I would rip out its horn and cram it elbow-deep into its... think of a suitable orifice yourselves. 

[DPRoberts]

K11, slight off topic but picking up on your choice of words "project." Are your courses individually saved as "projects?" I started with the thought of each course as a "project save." However, with sharing of assets, thought maybe making a "Perfect Parallel Project" with my courses as "Scenes" would make sense but can easily see a bazillion file folders down the road. Basically, looking for a little insight into your organization given that you have multiple courses.

[Kablammo11]

One project = one scene with one course.

 

CF only works on one (1) terrain, with all the tees, shot points, pin locations, mesh splines and hazard lines firmly attached to it. That gives you a maximum of one (1) course design that is possible to accomplish for every project.