2551 replies to this topic

[highfade]

I really like your tee areas, especially the shapes as well as the brighter green blend between the tee and the semi-rough.

[garynorman]

With each new set of pictures, your course comes together a little more.  I think that it looks really good, and love the little touches like the yardage markers.  The trees match the terrain colours nicely too...

[Kablammo11]

Thanks. Next up...

 

[Kablammo11]

Yes! It's a rain shelter/starters hut, coming with additional low walls (to create "wally bits" adjoining it), and with a waste bucket and a ball washer colored in traditional British Racing Green.

 

 

 

I tried planting grass near to this structure, see above, but dismissed this notion again and resolved that clear and simple horizontals and verticals are cleaner and more impressive-looking if uncluttered by natural shapes.

 

 

 

The 1st tee is right ahead, the front nine loop through the hills behind. Millards Fence and Dave's bench are right where that single small tree sticks up on top of the first mound. I love it how the grass makes the hills look fluffy... The par 5 9th leads the players back to Willow Manor.

Wish you were there.

[Davefevs]

This is gonna be a course that so many of us are gonna wanna play. It's already got a little bit of history and feels like it's been a course for ever.

[Kablammo11]

Yeah, Dave, it has been going on for too long, imo. Looks like I'm the only one minding the shop and being coerced into posting material to somehow compensate for the absence of ANYTHING ELSE. I should get a medal for all the time I have been buying for the gents at PP.

Oh well, t'is the Masters weekend... and I had to post something else just to place this thread ahead of the latest attack of spam threads I found this morning.

Please, all of you, report spam threads immediately. (Edited in: AJ poked his head in an deleted the spam threads)

 

So, to create a bit of artificial controvery around a Masters-related debate, allow me to maintain that Augusta looks weirdly supernatural, like a Botox treatment on a golf course gone horribly wrong, to the extent of the place being visually displeasing to me. Nothing wrong with the competition, the players and the drama (they are great), I just find the visuals to be off-putting - like staring at a naturally beautiful young woman who has gone for a botox carpet-bombing of her face, a nose job, a laserbeam freckles removal, a massive boob job and buttocks implants - without there being any need for it and ending up less beautiful as a result. Trying too hard, thus failing.

 

Augusta, the porn star of golf courses.... Discuss!

[shimonko]

Have to agree about Augusta being the porn star of golf courses, heck, the course even got lengthened.

 

And didn't McCord get banned from the place for saying the greens had been Brazilianed?

 

I don't feel it's failing though, even though I don't like the manicured look - the history behind the tournament and the nostalgia saves it.

[FixAmer1st]

I watched about an hour of yesterday's rounds. I have to agree. My biggest complaint is that the greens do NOT look like grass but a green colored smooth rug or somethng like that. No depth at all the the texture.

Many of the guests have left so I may get to watch most of it today.

Jerry

 

PS. K11, please keep it going even though it seems you are the only one. I love to watrch the developement of your course and look forward to playing it once PC & PG are released.

[Keith]

I liked Augusta better before the multiple trees and light rough were added.  Course used to be wide open and the ball went everywhere creating crazy angles and forcing players to invent shots.  I understand the reasons for lengthening the course, but the rest should have been left alone.

The course is so dollied up nowadays that it does look a bit otherworldly.  The membership there wants it to shine, especially in this age of HDTV.  WAY back in the day the bunkers had native soil and I wish they would go back to it.  Our soil here in GA is reddish brown.  Still, I enjoy the heck out of watching the tourney and this one is shaping up for a Sunday free for all.

[Davefevs]

I watched about an hour of yesterday's rounds. I have to agree. My biggest complaint is that the greens do NOT look like grass but a green colored smooth rug or somethng like that. No depth at all the the texture.
Many of the guests have left so I may get to watch most of it today.
Jerry
 
PS. K11, please keep it going even though it seems you are the only one. I love to watrch the developement of your course and look forward to playing it once PC & PG are released.

On my HDTV I could see so many spike marks around the hole....I was a bit shocked. I can see why some of those lightning downhillers wander off.

I love the look of Augusta.....can't wait to see on PG!

[Kablammo11]

Jerry, I will keep it going - I just wish this wasn't just me being so exposed out here. I don't mind the work - this work is pure fun - I feel there should be more than just one guy. 

 

And Dave, you've got HDTV? Wow! Fancy that... State-of-the-art, eh?   

 

But since the Masters is the theme of this weekend, why not focus, for my next little number, on the greens of my little project? How does the short stuff of Willow Heath compare to the almighty Augusta? Favorably, I hope.

To make my greens visible and readable for you, esteemed watchers, I had to enlist some help. I sent Tara down to the next Pub to conjure up a few guys that would not mind standing around and striking poses on the green for you to better see the dimensions. She came back with the Whos. Their collective name is not a reference to Dr. Seuss (A mighty fine writer!), but due to the fact that their first names are Walter, Humbert and Osgood and that I never was able to remember what guy goes with which name. Hence I acronymed them into the Whos... Here they are, say hello.

 

 

And as my 1 meter reference plane, extended to 2 meters for the occasion, shows, the Whos are all around 6ft tall. So off we went to the 2nd green. To show you the humps and slopes a bit better, I brought the famous garynorman flag along and also let a bit of the lightmap shine through: Those checkerboard squares are not real, I have added them for you to better read the green.

The 2nd btw is a 200yds par 3 and the approach line to this green is from behind the camera.

 

 

I also had to let the directional light (the Sun) shine really low, elevation angle from 12 to 15 degrees, to work out the contours of the green. That means that sometimes the background is overexposed and that the grass looks bad. Please bare with this and rather focus on the green proper. This time the Whos are casually posing on the par 3 6th. The tee is some 220 yds to the bottom left of frame.

 

 

The 9th. Big and undulating. The Whos look very restless and insecure here. It's a par 5, with 2nd or 3rd shots coming from the background.

 

 

Next green, the 10th, you can see the fairway in the back of frame. The Who are of two minds about this one. Especially Humbert seems to disagree. I don't care and press on.

 

 

Open rebellion breaks out on the 12th green - the approach line coming in from left of frame. The Whos are so incensed they almost drop their carefully rehearsed poses! "How can you construct a 470yd par 4 like this?" they shout at me. "With a small green sloping away from the line of approach? This is unfair!"

I remain calm. "That's the way it's going to be, bitches!" I tell them. 

 

 

Finally, the 15th. The Whos have regained their composure. "This sucks!" one of them remarks. "Worst slopes yet", the second adds. "It's a drive and pitch hole, 340 yds", the third reminds them. Well defended contour design, but negotiable."

 

 

I call it a day, deeply pleased that the Whos have finally succumbed to Stockholm Syndrome. And you, dear readers, I leave with a second photo of the 15th green - and with the insight that Augusta greens are for wet wusses and Willow Heath greens have been made for real men.

Toodles!

 

 

Of course, I will make these greens fast, not slow. And only playtesting them with the game will reveal how tough they are. But with putting being too easy in comptuer golf (in general), I tend to be just a teensy bit mean on the greens, to protect the course from low scores.

 

For those wanting to watch the images in full size, here is once again my

Photobucket Library (click it)

[Unique]

Let's assume I like everything you post so I don't have to press "like this" every post

Thanks for feeding the crumbs while we wait for the main meal. The greens look awesome!!!

Peter

[Kablammo11]

Thanks Peter.

Rather than harvesting the anonymous likes of the "like and dash"-people, I find it more pleasing to read a reply. 

[IanD]

Oh the irony..

 

As for the Who's, here I was expecting a Tardis to materialise and hear that unerring groaning noise, to witness a phonebox appearing on a huge slant revealing the slope factor of hideous contortions. I simply got the contortions...! But boy, they are exactly what you wanted, and you're right.. real men will only be playing this course!

 

I actually like greens that have more to do.. nothing as mundane as reaching the green, and thinking the hole is over. Having the contours available in such depth as you have, means the thought process will continue from the tee to the approach. Indeed, as it should.

 

You may need a big bin between holes though, for those broken putters we're likely to destroy.. I think your sales shop will do a great trade in those..

[axe360]

The last 3 pics look so much better. Reason, I don't see those ugly willow trees... I know you have said you really like them but they really are ugly and detract from the looks... My advice is to leave them out as the other trees are 100% better looking..

Just sayen...  

[SouthStPaul]

There would be great "weeping"  by Tara and the rest of the staff were the willows to succumb to a disease such as cytospora canker.  I'm also fairly certain that a name like "Canker Acres" would not be a better draw for the "animated" locals.

[Kablammo11]

Duly noted, axe. The willows are a bit contentious. As for your suggestion, let me reply to you by reminding you of what I told the Whos on the 12th green earlier today... 

 

And Ian, not having been born in the UK, I am aware of the Doctor and his shenanigans, but I do find him utterly annoying and aggravating to watch. Exterminate!

[highfade]

Look like some serious over-critical dudes. I think the most fun for you is going to be play-testing those greens, looks really awesome!

 

I sure hope Perfect Golf will have the ability to set some hard and fast fairways and fringe areas. Playing some bump & run shots around these greens will be so much fun.

[Kablammo11]

axe360 is not being over-critical, imo. He has the right to not like my willows and to say so, which he did, in an outspoken and proper manner. Dissent is the fuel that drives improvement.

Still, I'm afraid there is no going back in the W matter: There is no way in heaven or hell that there shall not be willow trees looming above the grounds of Willow Manor on the Willow Heath estate at the bottom of Willow Vale near the burgh of Salixborough.

My designs are not a democracy, I'm afraid. They are a dictatorship. My dictatorship. 

I rule supreme. I am the law.

And the law says: Willows.

End of...

 

However: I do not insist on these willows. If anyone were to offer me some better and more charming willow models, I would gladly unroot the old cripples and plant the new ones. Dissent is the fuel that drives improvement, remember, and even dictatorships and their tyrants must embrace improvement, only that in this instance improvement must be sought through the modelling and UV-mapping of 3D willow objects. 

So, dearest community, any takers? Why don't some of you bust your hump for a change and get me some good-looking, free-to-use fbx-converted willow trees that will please axe360 as well? Just an idea... 

[axe360]

Lol. Was only a suggestion.

I'll keep them to myself in the future...

 

Peace