74 replies to this topic

[shimonko]

I've been writing some helper tools for TerrainForge/CourseForge/PerfectGolf as I see fit. Feel welcome to use.
 
Contents 

• ShimonShot - a hires screen capture tool, capturing many times the resolution of your monitor.
• TerrainStarter - two-click creation of a terrain of reasonable starting specs for PG, ready for you to sculpt. (superseded by CF tutorial) 
• TF2UnityAutomater - Automates the importing of the terrain data files produced by TerrainForge. (no longer of use as PP's TerrainForge wasn't released.)
• MoveTheRoof -  Change the maximum terrain height without stretching/compressing your current terrain.
• MoveTheGround -  Raise the entire terrain to allow bunkers, creeks etc to be dug out, in case it was forgotten at the start.
• ResizeSplatmaps - Change the quality of terrain painting (splatmap or "Control Texture Resolution") without losing any painting already done.
• Measuring Sticks - 50 m measuring sticks for Google Earth and Unity to allow estimation of real world tree heights, building heights,...
• ResizeDetailmaps - Change the maximum density of grass/tree/rock/... planting ("detail resolution") without losing any planting already done. 
• SlopeHeatmap Shader (new) - Shows flat spots on greens suitable for pins and other slope blemishes around the course.

Download links
 

ShimonTools 1.10 (everything except the Measuring Sticks)
Measuring sticks (see post)

ShimonTools Installation
 

Drag downloaded file into your assets area in Unity and you may as well import all as they're really small. You will then see a new "Shimontools" menu in Unity alongside your Perfect Parallel menu. If it doesn't show, click on the menubar somewhere and Unity will refresh.

Permanent installation (there for all new projects automatically)
 

Place downloaded file in the Editor/Standard Packages ​directory inside your Unity installation (Typically c:/program files/Unity for 32-bit Windows). This will put ShimonTools in the "Import Package" list in the Assets menu, allowing you to import the tools from within Unity rather than dragging it over from Windows Explorer/Finder every project.

[shimonko]

ShimonShot

Description:  High resolution screen snapshot tool, at game window resolution or higher.

 

Usage:  In game mode (either pressing the Play button in the Editor or from a Ctrl-B build), press either the 1, 2, 3 or 4 key and a snapshot will be taken.

 

What's the number do? The number pressed controls the resolution of the screenshot, being a multiplier of the game window resolution.  E.g. If your monitor is set to 1920x1080, pressing '4' will take a 4x screenshot (7680 x 4320).

 

Location of screenshots:  They're in the project root directory (parent directory of Assets) if taken in the Editor game play mode, or in the data directory of Ctrl-B builds.

 

Notes:

• Very large screenshots can take a while to do depending on the complexity what's in front of the camera. A 7680x4320 snapshot on my system, a 40MB image, took about 90 seconds. 2x  screenshots are however just about instant on a decent machine.
• The screenshot is actually rendered at high-resolution, not just scaled up like you might do in a photo editing program.  However textures (e.g. leaves, grass,...) on courses are typically kept at a sufficiently low resolution for performance reasons and will show blurriness if rendered at high resolutions.

[shimonko]

TerrainStarter (This tool is now outdated and not recommended for use)

Description:  Two click creation of a terrain of reasonable specs for building a Perfect Golf course.

 

Usage:  1st click: Click on ShimonTools menu.    2nd click: Choose "Create course ready terrain".

 

Terrain specs:   A terrain of the following specs is set up:
 

Width:                  2000m
Length:                 2000m
Maximum terrain height:   50m (40m above ground level)
Ground level:             10m (to allow water basins and bunkers to be dug out)
Heightmap resolution:   2049
Detail resolution:      1024
Detail res / patch:      128
Base texture res:       1024
Control texture res:    2048

 

Any of these specs can be changed after the terrain is created if desired (recommend doing so before sculpting takes place however).

 

If you can't see the terrain created, click on "Terrain" in your hierarchy window and press "F" to center it in the main window.

[AlanR54NC]

Well done Shimonko.  Its always nice to see ease of use / Efficiency tweaks outside of the base product. Makes that first leap into the pool easier for the rest of us.

Thanks

[Mike Jones]

Superb thx. The only thing I would suggest is that the terrain height be raised by another 5 metres to 10m

[shimonko]

Done.

[WayneH]

Super awesome (or is that Lego Awesome!) tools there mate. Great stuff.

 

I am about to restart the Crooked Creek conversion. After working on a small project over the last couple of weeks, I have learnt a lot more about Unity itself, so wanted to start fresh. With these tools just being released, I think its a perfect time to give them a shot.

 

they will be invaluable to those just starting out. 

[shimonko]

Thanks Wayne. Let me know how it goes.
 
TF2UnityAutomater

Description: A tool to automate terrain creation in Unity from the files that TerrainForge outputs. This tool will automatically:

• Create a terrain of the appropriate size.
• Apply the TF height map file to it at the appropriate height and resolution, Endian format and dynamic range.
• Plonk the TF overlay image on the Terrain, appropriately scaled.
• Set all the other terrain resolution parameters to those recommended in CF's documentation.

Usage:

1. Choose "Create Terrain from TF files" from the ShimonTools menu.
2. Follow the prompts to select the three files that TF outputed.

[WayneH]

Just used the screenshot tool and its awesome.

 

Thanks again for these.

[shimonko]

My pleasure, thanks for doing Wagga on Links, allowing me to learn the course and whip my mates when we visited it for the first time.

[Davefevs]

I've posted several times on several forums that WW was my favourite L2003 course.

Please import it into PG when the time is right!!

[WayneH]

I will be once I get a good library of good old Aussie Gums

[shimonko]

New tool added, and bug fixed in TerrainStarter.
 
MoveTheRoof
 
Description: Allows you to change the maximum height allowed for your terrain without modifying your existing terrain.
 
Why? Because if you initially set your Terrain height too low, you will hit an invisible ceiling when building a mountain (like in the left pic below). Unless you have some good image editing skills, you're out of luck. Changing Unity's 'Terrain Height' setting after you've started sculpting will vertically scale your terrain, which is not what you want. 
 
Additionally, if your terrain height is initially set way too large (for instance you forgot to change Unity's default of 600m), you will be wasting resolution and even possibly getting a stepping pattern like Adam did here. This tool will allow you to lower the maximum terrain height so all resolution goodness is used for your terrain, not the air above.
 
I've made it so you can't lower the roof lower than the highest peak on your course, otherwise it would chop the top off your terrain like in the left pic.
 
 

[scottpussehl]

I can't wait to give these a try, maybe I will actually get into shaping some terrain today. Thank you thank you thank you

[shimonko]

New tool added:

MoveTheGround
 
Description:

Raises (or lowers) the entire terrain.

Why?

When you create a default terrain in Unity it will not allow bunkers and creeks to be dug out. What you need to do before sculpting is to use the 'flatten' button in the Unity's Paint Height section to lift your terrain up. This, as this the name suggests, also flattens your terrain. If you don't raise your terrain before you start sculpting, you will lose your sculpting.

So this tool allows you to lift your terrain without losing any terrain sculpting already performed.

You can also lower a terrain. This can come in handy if you have elevation data with sea-level at the zero point instead of the lowest point on your course. This can lead to terraced hills instead of smooth hills due to the wasting of heightmap resolution.

Limitations:

MoveTheGround will also raise or lower terrain objects attached to the terrain such as grasses or trees, but it will not move non-terrain objects such as imported meshes or CourseForge's fairways, greens etc. I might support that in the future, but generally a non-lifted terrain is discovered long before non-terrain objects are placed.

 

 

[dedBuNNy]

Nice job....

 

I'm especially curious to see the Shimonshot results as a photographer with a background in giclee printing and artwork shooting I'm curious as to the 'quality' of the output generated from a screen capture.  

[Kablammo11]

Sorry if I'm being stupid - known to happen - but why not just highlight the terrain in the hierarchy and move it up with the object move arrows? Or highlight it in assets and type in +20 in the z column in the inspector?

[shimonko]

Moving the position of the terrain in the way you suggest moves the heightmap range with it. Things will look the same and you still won't be able to dig lower.

[shimonko]

Nice job....

 

I'm especially curious to see the Shimonshot results as a photographer with a background in giclee printing and artwork shooting I'm curious as to the 'quality' of the output generated from a screen capture.

 

If you're talking about the quality of the screenshot, it will be just as if your monitor supported the resolution snapshot at. So if you have antialiasing on, it will be on in the screenshot.

 

If you're talking about a print from the screenshot, I suspect they will look pretty good at smaller formats because of the subdued look of the courses being pretty well covered by the gamut of printers. Agree?

[dedBuNNy]

114

 

If you're talking about the quality of the screenshot, it will be just as if your monitor supported the resolution snapshot at. So if you have antialiasing on, it will be on in the screenshot.

 

If you're talking about a print from the screenshot, I suspect they will look pretty good at smaller formats because of the subdued look of the courses being pretty well covered by the gamut of printers. Agree?

 

No no, not printing.. that would be awful.. nothing coming from any screen cap is printable, not at a high quality anyway, anything coming off there is gonna be a digital file, .jpg, .png or whatever.

 

I just wondeing about appearence on screen, ya nice monitor etc... purely screen.