2551 replies to this topic

[Kablammo11]

A few visuals…

 

 

 

 

 

[highfade]

Wow! Looking fantastic K11. I like the textures a lot. I really hope I can play this some day soon.  

[Blackadar]

Beautiful...

[Acrilix]

Don't think you'll find many spots on those greens for pins!!   

[nyt1976]

Very nice K11 - you certainly have a mean streak in you with those holes.

Small, heavily undulating greens.  Rear bunkers and water, massive drop-offs, willows (shudders) and a penchant for steep fronted run-ups!!!

It certainly won't pay to be short or long on your courses!!

The last pic though with the sunset looks divine...... just don't go in the left bunker :-)

Impressive.

[axe360]

Hard to really know from just pics, what the dimensions of these greens are but in my experience with Real Course design, a lot of courses greens are approx. 25yds by 30 yds.. Of course they can and do vary, just look at St. Andrews, huge greens.

But when ever I design a fictional course, I use the 25yd by 30yd as a basis... Of course, none of this is hard and fast.. When you do a Real course, it pretty much takes care of itself, you just trace the greens and they are what they are.

But if you do your own fictional course, IMO, you can only go wrong, if your greens are way to small, people probably won't like that..

Not saying K11's greens are to small, in fact from what I see, they look good..

 

Just my philosophy, probably won't be the same as others... When someone does a fictional course it is all about what they think works, what fits into their idea of their course. You can make the craziest course in the world as long as it's playable, it will most likely be well received..

I have found that if the community gives good constructive feedback once they have had a chance to play someones course, it is very valuable in the learning process.. No matter how many courses someone has designed, you learn after every one...

 

I'm not telling anyone what to do, just sharing some of my thoughts...

 

I think your doing gr8 K11, keep it up..

[Keith]

REALLY nice..love the last pic. 

[Kablammo11]

nyt: Usually this is where (in a perfect world) I would start a gameplay dialogue with the course, see how it plays, return to the Forge, mend and tweak, optimize. Not having the game at my disposal, I can't do that. Yet. 

The left bunker in the last picture is not that bad, the shadow from the deep sun just makes it look mean. I don't litter my courses with ornamental bunkers, I want my sand hazards to be in play.

 

axe: Most of my greens are in 25 to 30 yd size. My inofficial rule is about 40 to 45yds in diagonal. The Willow green (at the end of a downhill, downwind 530yd par 5) is a bit smaller, because the hole is reachable in 2 and I don't want to give away cheap eagles.

On every green, there is not more than a 1m elevation difference between highest and lowest point, which is not really much. But the edges of most greens slope down or come with runoff areas, giving them the elefant graveyard feeling and making them look intimidating.

[Davefevs]

I like your design thoughts / principles.....and they show up well in your screenies. KUTGW K11

[IanD]

Indeed, echoing the comments above, i think you've worked well with the terrain and the textures appear to work too. Very nice.

 

Certainly would like to see how you're going to continue planting the course, as that could seriously enhance the visuals.

 

And that mean looking bunker with the shadows, I'd appreciate some more visuals on how that looks close up and a few other angles too.

 

Keep posting..!

[Joe Habiger]

very nice indeed..

[SJude]

Well done sir.

[Kablammo11]

Certainly would like to see how you're going to continue planting the course, as that could seriously enhance the visuals.

And that mean looking bunker with the shadows, I'd appreciate some more visuals on how that looks close up and a few other angles too.

 

IanD, you certainly are a fastidious taskmaster! I like that. I need your strong hand to guide me.

So, early this morning, I rang up my cutout caddy Tara and took her out on the course to snap a few pictures. The images will follow a bit later, but first let me explain to you why I won't do any planting or any more work on this course.

 

We were warned that due to the protection on my CF pirvate beta package we could not export or conserve any of the work done on our current project. MJ hinted that maybe, possibly, we maybe could… The sort of "we'll see about that…" hint that is more a declaration of intent than a bankable assurance.

So I'm not really willing to sink more hours into this project at this time. And even if I wanted to, the default grass we get from Unity is painfully sub-standard and I would have to go download 50 grass billboards from the internet, mask off the background, and generally toil away for quite a long time to get something half decent. Also, there are a few things I still don't know about grass, like:

 

- billboards (cutouts) only or arrangements of billboards (a few cutouts arranged into a cluster)?

- Unity displays grass only to a distance of 250 meters. Will the game do that too? Is there a workaround?

- How about processing power? A lot of spaces in my project scream out for expanded patches of deep grass (think Open at Muirfield or USPGA at Merion last year). Can I just plant as much grass as I want?

- What is recommended terrain detail resolution for planting lush fields of grass?

 

So, you see, I'm in no hurry to go there, at least not unprepared. I achieved what I set out to do and what the purpose of my beta testing was: Creating a golf course and embed it seamlessly into a terrain - as a bonus without suffering the fate of the many before me who succumbed to the dreaded "generic PP look." The rest is, at this stage, just icing on a cake.

 

Now to the pictures. I put a few Taras in (I love that girl!) Note how there is a K11 monogram on the golf bag she holds for me… The elevation between the lowest point of "that bunker" and the green above is 3 meters.

I also placed Taras on the green at the locations that stike me suitable for a pin. And yes, that's a massive downslope at the back, fiendishly covered in short fairway, for the long shots to trundle off a bit. And finally, as you look at the hole from the tees, the wind is supposed to blow from 45 degrees to the right. Upwind, right to left. 

Enough Tell, more Show! This time without the dramatic shadows and the cheesy Skybox:

 

 

 

 

 

[IanD]

K11, my thanks for the diligence you have shown through the beta so far.. and the answerable questions too.

 

It's a shame you are not able to be certain of conserving your work, I'm guessing once the CF is introduced, the terrain becomes tied to it? That's a whole new area I won't dwell upon, as Mike has obviously forewarned you regarding any work lost etc..

 

It's great to see the bunker on that hole, regarding the previous image with shadows, and how it now hugs the terrain. I'd be curious to see how deep you could take the bunker itself, creating a wall of sand, but as you stated the height was 3m to the green, it could become unplayable and surreal.

 

Love the hole design by the way... did you have a name for it...? Devil's Ledge seems about right.. more so if we were able to see improved CF bunkers.

[Davefevs]

K11....your course is very popular.....they're teeing off as 12-balls!

Thanks for the pics and words....you're doing a fine job.

[Kablammo11]

Thanks Ian and Dave.

I can export the heigh map (which I regularly do as a safety backup anyway), so I can certainly import the exact topography of this project into the next iteration of CF. I can of course keep and re-use the textures, but would have to re-paint them. 

And perhaps I can even save and re-use my own CF Layers Library file, where all the tiling values of my textures and shaders are being saved, all the fringes and bunker settings etc. This will be one handy little thing once CF takes off… the magic formula behind the specific look of a course, exchangable with others.

 

Willow Heath is certainly not doomed to fade into oblivion. But with every step I make from here, the hassles of resucitating it later are growing, too.

[Kablammo11]

And with the prospect of salvaging my Willow Heath™ project into the next phase of CF having increased a bit, I can cautiously proceed to add a few things more. Like a panorama, a new skybox and a clubhouse. Yeah, it's really nice to… eh? What? Pictures? What pictures? Where?… oh, you mean these pictures. okay...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Definiton of Heath (brit): "An area of open uncultivated land, typically on acid sandy soil, with characteristic vegetation of heather, gorse and coarse grasses."

 

The vegetation concept is to have a small population of willow trees around the clubhouse and the two central ponds, thinning quickly towards the edge. I chose willow trees because they happen to be the only, yes, the ONLY, decent looking tree for free download in the Unity terrain asset bonus pack.

Apart from a few more isolated islands of willows in some nearby areas, most of the course will be grasslands with heather and gorse bushes. Perhaps a few pine trees peaking over the outer edge.

[KenR]

K11,

 

Are you stuck with that water texture, or is that just what's currently available in the beta for now?

[Brucey Mc]

Inappropriate footwear and leaving your golf bag on the green, expect a letter from the club secretary!

[Keith]

The vegetation concept is to have a small population of willow trees around the clubhouse and the two central ponds, thinning quickly towards the edge. I chose willow trees because they happen to be the only, yes, the ONLY, decent looking tree for free download in the Unity terrain asset bonus pack.

Apart from a few more isolated islands of willows in some nearby areas, most of the course will be grasslands with heather and gorse bushes. Perhaps a few pine trees peaking over the outer edge.

Yeah, the free vegetation available from Unity is pretty weak.  Nice for practice but that's about it.  That green perched out on a peninsula looks devilish.  Course is looking good.  I like how the humps and slopes frame the holes.  When you add the grasses it is really going to take shape.