2551 replies to this topic

[Kablammo11]

Hehe, I could hear Scarlet O'Hara shouting: "As God is my witness, I'll never go hungry again!"

But yes, Mike, I must admit, yours is very nice. So, we've got that covered, eh? Then how about me slacking off on skyboxes? I'll just slap a close-up of one of my butt-pimples up there, that okay?

+15?

[Mike Jones]

It's nice that players will have the option to play the courses with both static and dynamic lighting conditions. I will have to get you a mac build which has the improved misty weather included.

[Volker]

Hey Mike, can you send it to me, too?   Just kidding.

[Kablammo11]

Nah, you're dead serious, Volker, aren't you? And why shouldn't you?

Still, in the interest and showing and telling, t'is an interesting complex of possibilities and options, this sky and panorama affair. My previous solution was to have a skybox with the scenic landscape baked into one image, thusly:

 

 

That was effective, straightforward, simple, easy on performance. But nooo-hoooo, now they had to introduce dynamic weather, meaning that not only could they put in any sky they wanted, but also that the dynamic weather would obscure the artificial horizon I had made. No more scenery of surrounding landscapes in dynamic weather!

So I had to go and build me some additional scenery. Deleting Mount Tara was a mistake! I needed it back and it had to bring a few friends. So I created a new basic terrain of 800m sides with a terrain resolution of 257 (very low, 66 K pixels small)

 

 

...and raised a few medium sized hills on it, then added a few textures. This gave me a nice little bit of added landscape:

 

 

Observing from a ground position I could then plant my hills where they would fit in best with the course. Those gizmo arrows are very neat, very easy to use and fast to operate.

 

 

I duplicated the 1st scenery terrain 3 more times, rotated it a bit and planted the 3 new ones at selected spots around the golf course. Mostly, in the final product, they will be distant, looming silhouettes adding a bit of contour to the otherwise too low horizon. You won't noticed them much while playing.

 

 

But there would be something missing if they weren't there! And these babies are utterly immune to dynamic weather, they will keep looming and being there come rain or sunshine or fog, whether you can see them or not.

Willow Heath Mark III is now almost finished. Just a bit of audio left to do.

[AlanR54NC]

Super nice visuals K11 (even if I don't follow a think from the techie side)

[Volker]

This is so great, K11. Thank you a lot for the informations and the pics.

[Kablammo11]

Autumn descends over Willow Heath. And with that, finishing touches...

 

The small cameo image that will show up in the course selection menu has been added...

 

 

The large splash screen image (which is currently disfigured by a hideous blur effect), has been designed in the same vein. Both these images are NOT pure screen capture, there's a bit of Photoshop in them.

 

 

And finally, the Tara King easter egg has been imported and tucked away. It will require free roaming mode to find, it will NOT be hidden insiden the castle and it will NOT be underwater. If you get to within 10m of it, it should play a short part of the Avengers Theme.

 

 

For my next project, I'm thinking coastal, rugged, double greens, double and triple fairways and... basalt. Lots of dark wet basalt organ pipes....

Of course, Willow Heath will be supported some more, if necessary. But right now I'm a-gonna start creating new textures. 

[Richard]

Autumn descends over Willow Heath. And with that, finishing touches...

 

CLIPPED AND EDITED:

 

 

 

Ah, now the willow trees take on the right color. Hopefully next spring, they will come back a nice bright green. Water, water, water, fertilize, fertilize, fertilize and hire that 'damn' arborist.

[Kablammo11]

Getting on my nerves, that guy, what with his pettyfogging quibbles on irrelevant minutiae and with his darn, silly, copy-pasted, over-sized, massively annoying, decidedly unfunny and truly headache-inducing, craptstically uncool emoticons! 

 

[Volker]

K11, I hope we can play and enjoy your course when PG will be in Early Access. You have put a lot of work in it and the pics are very impressive.

[Richard]

K-11, a little sensitive today, are we!!

[yesrushdt]

K11, I hope we can play and enjoy your course when PG will be in Early Access. You have put a lot of work in it and the pics are very impressive.

Very impressive indeed.  The level of realism is off the charts.  Really hope the early access version comes out in a couple months (my patience is close to running out ).

[axe360]

This is not a course review as I wasn't tasked with testing the course but had I found anything wrong over the 11 holes I played I would have reported it to you K11 for future help.

I was only going to look at one hole because of time constraints but liked it so much I made it to 11...I will finish as soon as time allows..

 

So nice to see someone pay so much attention to smoothing, it really paid off.... This is one thing that some designers don't due. SMOOTH. That really stands out...Plus the many mixtures of different types of holes.. Gotta say, the greens work was pretty darn good K11.  Thanks

 

Even though you have no pano, I was glad to see the hills in the backgrounds which makes a huge difference..

Very nicely done, you have done an Excellent job!!!!!

 

Thanks for the course and the very fine work...

[Jimbo63]

Great work K11. This course will be in the early release of PG I hope. Could you guestimate how many hours you have spent designing the course?

[Kablammo11]

Thanks a lot, axe. Coming from a fellow course designer, this indeed is a very inspiring accolade. Don't get too familiar with the place, WH Mark 3 is being baked in the PP oven as we speak. It will have many alterations, the course should be a bit tougher from tee to green, while the greens will be a little bit kinder, some of the nastier pin positions a bit less nasty...

 

Which nicely ties in to your questions, Jimbo63. I have been told that Willow Heath will be in the early release. As for the time spent: A lot! I have no exact figure, but two factors increased the total time considerably: The first being "learning the ropes", as in getting to grips with the Unity environment and the CF features, slowly building up the required skills to manipulate the tools. That is a one-off time investment that will not be a factor in my next project. The second reason for added time is called alpha and beta: I was working with unfinished tools. There was the famed yardage bug, causing my course to play 10% shorter than intended, so I had to redo most of it.

If we substract these two time wasters, there are still 100s of hours of fun and joy left. Sorry, I meant "work". Textures and objects alone, which I all produced myself, did not happen overnight. There also where months of inactivity, considering the slow march to fruition of the game causing waiting periods. The key, I believe, is "iteration", to re-visit your work again and again, go after all the little things that bug you, then pause, then come back and re-do the little things that bugged you, go over the place dozens of times and allowing it to grow. In short, whatever the total time is that I used on this project, that number should not amount  to a relevant yardstick for anything or anybody. 

[Kablammo11]

I realize just now that the new version is already available (didn't get a personal notice). So I was able to go out and play - axe, I understand you meant the new version, not the older one. Well, a new dawn rises over the Heath indeed.

 

 

Which was nice!

 

 

 

These images are from my second round. Those who want to see the new non-dynamic skybox in action are cordially invited to watch the gameplay video I plan to create this next weekend...

 

[axe360]

Might of helped had I mentioned that..

[Kablammo11]

AAARK! Might HAVE!

Terribly sorry, axe, my sweet man, do not be angry, but this recently expanding pandemic of could of/should of/might of misspellings is deeply hurtful to my soul. T'is truly the ebola of language - and it simply must be opposed.

[axe360]

Lol, why would I be angry....

[Ted_Ball]

let's nip this in the butt

 

Greens easier?  The rule is to have the hole location on a relatively flat part of the green - not necessarily a large area. The rest of the surface can be as undulating as my moods.

 

Who remembers that abomination of a hole location on some course on TWO where the hole was halfway up a severe slope and putting to it was like a carnival game.

 

Looking good