2551 replies to this topic

[Kablammo11]

If you are working with the free version of Unity, chances are that transparency and/or reflections will not work at all - or that you will need some very clever shaders to introduce any of them - which is an advanced form of script alchemy which utterly flabbergasts me as it is beyond my limited comprehension. Shimonko may know more about this...

Bump maps, aka normal maps in Unity, are no problem at all.

You are at the beginning of a very long and hard road, young grasshopper (and I'm only one or two corners ahead of you and by no means a seasoned traveller) - the destination will elude you again and again, but the journey will be all that matters.   

[Kablammo11]

Meanwhile, back at International Resarch Center for Advanced Languishing and Ennui, IRCALE...

 

The weary patrol has reached the driveable par 4 8th. Trees were removed on the left side of the fairway (right as we look at the picture) and pushed back some 10 yds to the left side of it. The old front-left bunker was covered up by a much wider fairway landing area and it's former indentation in the terrain used to create a bit of a Valley of Sin effect. The hourglass shaped green was enlarged in the back and its slim waist narrowed by 3 yds. Overall, the hole has become a bit easier to play, though with no effin' game in sight that is rather difficult to state with any sort of competence.

 

 

Oh, and Dave, Tara says hi, she's currently scouting Achill Island, Couty Mayo, Republic of Ireland, for a suitable location for my next project... See MY TO-DO LIST for more details, Layout is 4th picture in the gallery.

 

Last of the front loop, 9th, par 5. No spectacular changes here, but I did add 50 yards of primary fairway and widen it to create a reasonably safe lay-up area. Also, a big willow that was planted smack in the center of that new area, was removed. Hard to see, but the hills in the background were all lowered a bit and look less steep now. This effect will be mostly felt on the 2nd green and 3rd hole, giving away more of the pano beyond the terrain and creating a more panoramic vista.

 

 

Talking about willows, with the front nine loop complete, I returned to the clubhouse zone: The area with the ponds, that is, with tees 1 and 10 and greens 9 and 18 and where all the lovely willows reside. I had no choice... I had to make it better. So I first removed all the willows from it.

 

 

Then, while prevaricating a bit, I built a few hundred yards of fences. Credit for the fence goes to garynorman. I did not give up on the willows, just taking a step back with them, but I find that building fences does the same for me as building a boat does for Mr. Leroy Jethro Gibbs in NCIS. And that's the end of anything we have in common, btw, he certainly won't get a fantasy job in one of my projects. Not sure about Abby Sciutto... hm... maybe... but only if her tatoos are fake.

Where were we? Ah yes: Bulding fences, formulating new willow strategy.

 

 

The strategy went thusly: half as much willows, of a more autumnal hue, mixed with a healthy implement of other (green foliage) trees. Plan B, if this turns up to annoy me with time, will be to revert the willows to their original color of green, to let them stand out from the rest even less. But Plan A is still in effect at the moment. Behold the new 1st tee.

 

 

Now the willow hot spot as seen from the 17th fairway. Remains willowy, looks less intrusive. I'm sure axe360 will still not like it, but the general willowiness is less overpowering, yet still noticeable to justify the name of the place.

 

 

Remember this? We just jumped back in time, a week or so. That's how the old willow population looked back then: A slightly unseemly flock of sheepish tree in urine yellow. Bit of an eyesore, I have to concede...

 

 

Now the new willow strategy, today, viewed from a slightly similar angle. Better.

 

 

Most of these pictures are larger than displayed. To view them in original size, right-click on them and choose "open image in new window". At least that's how my Safari browser on my Mac does it, I'm sure you Windows people have a similar MO to achieve this. The newly opened window will land you in my Photobucket account and from there you can see the full size by clicing on the Lupe symbol in the bottom right corner of the image.

 

Toodles!

[Keith]

These changes are really inspired K11.  Definite improvements on an already great looking layout.  I will be SO glad when we can play that baby. 

[FixAmer1st]

Great pictures. Just a question though K11.

Why does the Clubhouse seem to lean/tilt to the right in both pictures?

Jerry

[Kablammo11]

It seems, but it doesn't, Jerry. And shouldn't. I'll check next time I'm out there, to make extra sure. Until then I blame the perspective of the scene viewer, which has a rather hefty wide angle by default, causing some perspective distortion. The Clubhouse is far enough to the side of the image in both cases to have its verticals appear as if they lean towards the picture center.

Observe the rain shelter to the right of the 4th to last picture of the 1st tee, it also seems out of whack, but when seen together with other vertical lines like the tree trunks, it appears okay.

[FixAmer1st]

OK, I'll buy that K11. 

 

I hope that perspective does not work that way in the game play.

 

Jerry

[shimonko]

This looks more to be Unity's default behavior of not tilting the billboarded trees as perspective would dictate, making the clubhouse look wrong.

 

The plugin below for instance does tilt the billboarded trees and everything looks good.

 

[KenR]

Course looks great K.... still waiting for game and CF....

[TimBoch]

Sure makes me miss designing. Keep up the great work!

[Kablammo11]

Thanks a lot  Tim and Ken. Shimonko, that watchamacallit you showed us indeed looks great and I appreciate your suggestion.

Here's the link to the asset store for those who want to learn more. Price is 20$, reduced to 10$ for a few more hours.

There's also a more detailled describtion to be had.

 

I must say it does sound dreamy, but I won't go for right now. And it's not about the money; I fully support what it does and wish it would do it for me, but getting it to work inside my project seems to be yet another nerdfest of weird language in specalist lingo - and sentences like "Easily setup your models following the step by step instructions" make me shudder: They were written by a young guy who knows what he's talking about for other young guys who understand what he says. And I'm quite an old guy who has no clue and who insist on these things being self-installing, running in the background and never bothering me.

So there, you dang juvenile shadermakers, quit doing young stuff that is crazy weird. That's dirty ageism, you puerile miscreants, hmpf! Now where did I leave my prune juice...?

[IanD]

Got some here me old mucker... have a seat in this rocker next to me..

[shimonko]

My biggest dislike with the Unity engine is its lack of cut-out anti-aliasing - which is the reason why tall grasses and leaves look so jagged when they're at a distance.

 

Apparently Unity 2 had soft vegetation but it was dropped, and Unity 5 doesn't bring it in still. I came across the foliage shader looking for a plugin that did it, but with no success. 

 

I see Winning Putt's engine - CryEngine which is used in the Crysis and Far Cry games - looks to have it: (assuming these are not cheat renders)

 

 

Also I note their distant trees obey perspective:

 

[IanD]

Humph..... * want it *

[Dazmaniac]

Nice eye candy.

 

From clips I've seen on the Tube of You, it looks like Winning Putt is some sort of next generation Shot Online Golf (which is no surprise as I believe it is the same developer).

 

If so, I expect there will be the usual raft of folks your player character can visit, to get super juice, power tees, mega balls, stamina specs and all the other nonsense.

[Kablammo11]

Probably yes - but the pictures and the vegetation look gorgeous, ain't no denyin'...

 

Nice point by highfade, btw, and I, too, find this very annoying: A 3D tree seen from close-by, in Unity, looks acceptable. The further away it is, the more the foliage starts thinning and looking jagged. Go away further still, until the 3D tree becomes a billboard, and it starts looking lush and nice again. There is an intermediate distance, from about 100 meters to the billboard treshhold, where trees look not very nice. Somebody remind me to snap a few screenies of that on my next outing.

Which is today. 10th hole is on the menu.

[Kablammo11]

So, I was out and here's what I brought back from my trip.

 

First off: unfinished business Nr. 1 - the suspiciously un-perpendicular Clubhouse. I took the following picture with the Game Camera at a long lense and feel comfortable to state that the verticals of my Clubhouse are in order and that some optical weirding is taking place to make them look tilted.

Forgive the earthworks around the bulwarks below, they are a provisional, protective measure to guard the green from accidental mis-handlings by me. 

 

 

Unfinished business Nr 2 - the middle distance ugly tree trouble, brought up by higfade.

3 times the same group of trees. The closest one is a 3D model and looks okay. The middle one is further away, and as Unity refuses to anti-alias it the foliage is frittering out and it looks ugly. The one in the back is beyond the billboard threshold and is a 2D image that is being anti-aliased. Oh well... that's how it is.

 

 

And so, hole number 10 at Willow Heath, a 445yds par 4. Here's what it looked like before the patrol went past:

 

 

And here it's about an hour later. Try to figure out what has changed....

 

 

I'll tell you:

• The entire landscape to the right of the hole has been flattened, including the hill in the back.
• The 3 fairway bunkers have been redesigned and repositioned to trap tee shots from all the 4 tees 
• The bank of the pond has been reworked, retextured, made a bit less uniform
• The single willow has moved from the left of the green to the right
• The fairway and semi has been tightened towards the green
• The mound to the front right of the green has been bulldozed away.

 

The character of the hole remains the same: Take a long iron off the tee to keep your drive save and flying over dry land, short of the bunkers and leaving you some 200yds for your second. Use fairway woods or driver at your own peril, having to fly over the pond and finding sand if you err too far to the right.

 

 

Problem if you're playing it safe off the tee: Your medium/long iron second will be difficult to control on the elevated plateau green, whereas a short iron and wedge will be much more easier to get close.

 

 

Don't bother too much about the bunkers, btw. Each and every one of them will be re-done during future patrols, but only after CF has been upgraded to include pottbunkerability.

[Brucey Mc]

Looks fab, K11.  To quote John Lennon I really am a Jealous Guy!  

I'm taking a sabbatical from spending time on Unity until Course Forge gets released, I have too many decisions to make on a few things and without the right tools I don't want to make the wrong one.  I wonder what will come first, Course Forge or my first child in November? 

[KenR]

Once again, nice work K! Am enjoying following your progress....

[Richard]

K11

I'm enjoying following the progress in the course design threads. You and others will undoubtedly bring us some "excellent" courses when the game is finally released.

 

One question though, Why do all your willow trees look like they're dead? They look out of place relative to most of the other trees in your screenshots?

[yesrushdt]

Looking superb K11!  Can't wait to play your designs and others once PG is released.

Post number 420 woo hoo!