2551 replies to this topic

[hyperrodik]

a bit sad as I do the presentation of the golf open championship 2015 in St. Andrews. Hope will use CF to create beautiful course and presentation next year 

[Kablammo11]

Posting Sunday on the old S&T...

 

Today, a bit of design forensics. The following three images are doubles, showing the same hole from the same view, as it was about 4 months ago (top half) and as it is today (lower half). For a general impression, lets look at the par 5 4th. What changed?

 

 

Well, a lot did change. As a matter of fact, nothing did not change. New grass; trees thinned and/or replaced; new textures and new schmutzy child textures; improved or rather altered contours (hopefully a bit more subtle).

Making the mesh seems blend more and getting the transition from CF rough to terrain rough just right (and color-coordinating the grass to match it more precisely) helped a tremendous lot to give the entire course a much more organic look.

 

Another area change is best explained here, at the 8th:

 

 

Less trees, less bunkers and more open spaces! The temptation to solve design problems with many trees is always alluring. It is so facile and cowardly to drop a few hundred clone trees in front of a bit background you want to hide. Open spaces, both in vegetation and on the playing surface, has become my new doctrine over time. Same on the 15th:

 

 

It is, of course the visual manifestion of the old adage "non multa sed multum" - a.k.a "Less is more" to those unfamiliar with ancient tongues. Great golf courses, and I do not claim for one second that this is one of them, all have this quality of doing just enough to drive home the point behind their designs - and of never going over the top.

 

Here's a few more images just because. Try to catch whatever theme these might have in common...

The 1st hole fairway as a stark reminder that POT BUNKERS would be so cool to have instead of these flat bits of depressing depressions.

 

 

2nd hole green. The former bunker front left has been replaced by a more punishing catchment (and roll away from the green) area because I couldn't make it a POT BUNKER. The bunker at the back of the green, front of frame, should be about 3feet deeper and have almost vertical walls consisting of compressed layers of peat. If only there were some kind of way to get that effect...?

 

 

And finally  the tee shot at the par 4 11th, Tara's Tantrum. Aim for the pointless obelisk or a bit to the right of it. Anything straying left of the obelisk will run out of fairway, due to the slope on it, and end up in the bunkers short of the pointless obelisk. Even though these bunkers are not POT BUNKERS, there is no chance to reach the green from there, which is 220+ yards further away and 50ft further up.

 

 

Well I'm off for today. There's a nice POT BUNKER study shown on the telly, something from Hoylake. They do have a nice collection of POT BUNKERS on display and I enjoy looking at them. To bad there's a lot of blokes blocking the view at times...

[Modman1]

Beautiful!!!!

[shimonko]

The changes are fantastic. Given you've barely touched course design before, I'm sure you're making PP very excited about the future of community courses.

[axe360]

So K11, can't you make a shape, then make another shape around that shape, then select both shapes and only lower the inside shape?  That would give you the ability to make your pot bunkers... This method has been available in the TW's CA since 06 and seems like it should be pretty standard? You make a shape inside a shape and you can raise, lower or flatten that inside shape. It's called the 2 shape method..

 

If interested here is a link to a short tutorial of what I mean...  Just scroll down to bottom of page "Download Straight Faced Bunkers".. If not that's fine, I will find out for myself when it comes out...

http://www.coursedow...ails.asp?id=682

[Kablammo11]

Thanks for the link, axe. I'm afraid to report that all your tried and tested TW CA methods are of no help in the Unity ecosystem. CF/Unity has an altogether different approach to doing things, of assigning attributes and features to shapes etc - one that seems to make a simple, vertical extrusion a lot harder to achieve. 

Not impossible, just harder (...I presume. What do I know anyway?) And since our sweet overlords of course design have so many items to deal with on their to-do-list, they are in danger of not fully grasping the utter and desperate urgency with which this potty pot problem needs to be adressed and resolved by the end of yesterday at the latest. So it's up to me to remind them of it. 

[axe360]

I hear ya K11, thank ya for the reply...

[Kablammo11]

Earlier this week I received a letter from a Mr. Riley Nigglington of Nagfuss upon Whine (in Irkshire County) which went like this..

 

 

Dear Mr. so-called Kablammo11 

You call yourself a so-called course designer, then? But casually glancing over your so-called creation, pray tell me, kind Sir, this: What of the riparian situation? Eh? What of it? Too tough for a so-called man of your limited skills and mediocre ambition, I'd wager...

 

 

I sighed and put the letter down. The riparian situation! The man was so damn right! Something had to be done about the riparian situation...

 

 

It was utter tristesse, to be honest! An unnatural straight line where two irreconcible textures meet, destined to never be friends and determined to undermine, sap, annihilate any chance of immersion of any onlooker. The riparian situation, the biggest and most smelly skeleton in my designers closet. What to do with these repulsive banks where fake water meets fake land? How to deal with the ribbons of disgraces, 5 yards wide or so, that were the shores of my ponds?

I turned to my Photoshop for help and slaved away for hours: An old strategy deserved to be re-tried, failing any other means of intervention. So, for better or worse, it had to be reeds - and lots of them.

 

 

I consecrated a small patch at the start of the 10th fairway to act as test parcel. With no little relief I discovered that my latest efforts did not suck entirely. I had aborted my first attemps at planting reeds after I learned that they do not reflect in the water. Well, sure, they could, if I were a Pro and all that. If I had proper means... But I'm just a guy on a Mac, I'm not bloddy Pixar frigging Studios with legions of young, exuberant idiots wasting their soul force on stupidly realistic stuff. So reflections are tricky and that is that...

Still, the reeds at least almost hid the line of shame, the eternal battle line of design where the outermost drop of water transits into the outermost grain of earth. My new reeds covered the line of contention with a thick blanket of fuzzy growth.

I decided that the 10th hole, still in need of a name, would henceforth be called "Niggler", in recognition of the abominable so-called gentleman who had reminded me of the riparian situation and niggled me into action.

I moved back to the 10th tee to spot my reeds in the distance...

 

 

There they were, right in front of the single dogleg willow. Vegetal fuzz... So far, so good. But not enough yet.

There is a problem with Unity grass, and that problem is called "Draw distance". That distance has a maximum of 250 meters (about a driver length) or shorter - beyond that, grass turns invisible, will not be drawn. And that problem is accentuated by something called a "Ball Cam": As a ball propelled into the air covers distance, new grass entering the draw range pops into view. This can mostly be dealt with by planting the grass onto a texture with a very similar color. But you can't cover a line separating a blue-white water from a green-brown land with a texture. 

Long story short: I can only afford to plant my reeds within 200 meters from majore shot points like tees, landing areas and greens. I must place them wisely so that they will not screw the pooch under the unforgiving stare of the Ball Cam in motion. (Not to mention the most dreadful foe of all, the hole fly-by cam)

 

 

The first skirmish went my way, but the battle is not won yet. I will have to attack the riparian situation tomorrow, set out on a sustained campaign, armed with an additional ground texture, with a few duplicated rocks from my mesh inventory. And perhaps even with a few transparent cutouts with patchworks of round water lily leaves floating in the water (Or rather; hovering a few centimeters above it...).

Tomorrow...  I'm a bit scared. And excited. Wish me luck... 

[shimonko]

The reeds look great - I thought the second picture was a reference photograph at first glance.
 
But what's with these pissy 1024 wide images? My phone did more than that 2 years ago. 
 
You could also try lifting and dropping the terrain at the water's edge with a small brush to break the straightness up.

[Kablammo11]

I don't have an iPhone, shimonko. Or any other smart or mobile phone for that matter. I really hate Big Data to know where I'm going and what I'm doing all the time. To view my full size pictures, right-click on them, then select "view image in new window". This will transport you to my Photobucket account. There, click on the little lupe on the bottom right of the image twice to get the full size.

You somehow managed to make your pictures, in your excellent Shimonkourse thread, load at full size right away. I'm very envious of you. If you can help me get a smiliar effect going, I would appreciate it very much.

 

I will try mashing up the terrain at the waterline. That might help deal with the straightness, yes. We'll see... Hostilities will commence tomorrow at dawn...

[axe360]

Same problem in TW's 08,  if you had short grass running right up to the water or a dirt texture, you sometimes could see that line.. A few well grouped together bushes would/can hide those areas that are in view of the players...

[Kablammo11]

Thank you, axe - so you're saying it'll have to be the full gamut of time-honored design concealment methods. Some things, alas, never change...

 

I really hope that... What's that? Uh-oh... this just in

 

 

Dear Mr. Kerplunko something-something

 

I confess to no little pleased satisfaction while just learning that you have heeded my intervention re. the riparian situation, even though the name you chose for christening that particular so-called golf hole strikes me as quite offensive. You really can't stop alienating other people, can you?

As a consequence, I do not all regret to inform you hereby that your so-called reeds are utterly unrealistic and hopelessly fantastic (in the deluded and imaginary sense of that word). As even the briefest of researches should have taught you, reeds grow in very shallow water or on extremely soggy wetlands only, their long and deep roots and the base of their stems having to be continually exposed to a constant flow of water. Therefore, planting them so far up the embankment as you did, on dry land as it is, constitutes a botanically absolutely impossible and utterly insane thing to do - a moronic brainfart which, frankly, comes as no surprise from an uneducated, despicable dunderhead such as you.

 

Yours truly

Riley Nigglington (OBE)

(Nagfuss upon Whine, Irkshire County)

 

 

[axe360]

Sad but maybe true... Now, I'm not knocking Shimonko's Pics but yours are just right IMO, his are just to large when clicked on...

[shimonko]

Right clicking and opening just gives me the 1024 wide version, without giving me the photobucket interface.
 
But I managed to get to your album where I could view it bigger.
 
Just investigating, I don't think you can link any bigger from Photobucket unless PP add .jpg~original to the allowed mime types on this board. I use imgur.

[shimonko]

Sad but maybe true... Now, I'm not knocking Shimonko's Pics but yours are just right IMO, his are just to large when clicked on...

I put the 1920x1080 for those who do run at that resolution, as that is what they and I will see during play. But also put links to 1280x720 as well, plus this BB gives some 700 wide odd thumbnail.

[axe360]

Maybe that's why K11's look like the right size to me, I'm in 1280x1024 mode....

Thanks Shimonko, your pics do look gr8, just to big for me when I click on them but it's nice to have choices..

[axe360]

I would be interested to see what a medium rough would look like next to the water?   I was looking back into 08 and man, the water you have pictured here, blows that water awayyyyyyyyyy!!!!!....

[axe360]

With this CF/Unity I guess you can blend textures together? Maybe since the water moves, you cannot do that? Would be cool though..

[axe360]

The rough does hide it mostly but I was curious, with the water in your pics can you see the bottom? Like in this pick? Also its funny how things are the same... In TW's 08 stock courses, you can see the bottom in the water, in the Custom courses, the water is not as good and you can't see the bottom...So although you could use the Stock water texture, it would never look this good on a custom course, only the stock ones....

 

[Kablammo11]

Okay, lots of input, thanks axe and shimonko. The following images are about 1400 pix wide, they come straight from my Unity viewer in "Good" quality (Good is Unity-speak for "barely adequate", but it's good enough for everyday work).

 

And you are exactly right shimonko: I changed my settings in Photobucket to display linked images in original size, but the Forum here just told me it can't handle the extension jpg-original. I will consider switching to imgur (Sorry if my next pictures should be too big, axe..)

 

So: Medium rough next to water was asked for. There you go:

 

 

Not really sexy... No, axe. Unity Free Version water is NOT transparent as in your example. It should be in a just and goodly world, but it isn't. The reason for that is money. Big bags of money I would have to pay to buy the Pro version. Given time PP/CF might come up with a special shader (or not), but as of now, there is no transparency to be had, not in water and not in windows on the Club Castle. Sorry.

 

Shimonko also proposed to rough up the terrain up and down to get rid of the straightness. Well, I tried, but I must say that I'm not convinced..

 

 

The line is not straight anymore, but still too clear-cut.

That may have been the reason for axe to ask about blending. Well, yes, I can blend two CF meshes into each other (like fairway to semi-rough). And I can combine and superimpose terrain textures into each other making really smooth transitions. But here, in a riparian context, the terrain and its textures are clashing with a different object, an Unity water plane (which has a rectangular shape that reaches quite far inland). As far as I know, there ain't no way in heaven or hell I can blend these two different object into each other.

> Which brings us back to transparency. If the water were transparent, then I could easily paint textures that would transition smoothly from solid ground to deep water, and the waterline would be a lot less of a hassle. But I'm still a big bag of cash away of being able to do that. Even then, Willow Heath must be finished at 0 cost, to prove to the world that CF comes with no added or hidden extra cost.

Do you all understand NOW the inhuman horrors and sorrows that lurk within the "riparian situation"? (thundering echo sound effect added here)

 

Taking about that, the posh niggler was right. Turns out reeds only grow within a foot up or down of the water level. I changed my test patch accordingly and freed the upper bank.