38 replies to this topic

[Mike Jones]

Introduction

 

CourseForge is an extensive golf course design software suite plugin for the Unity editor.

 

'CF' will enable you to create your own playable courses for Jack Nicklaus PerfectGolf which you will be able to share with anyone who plays the game. CF is our software that Nicklaus design utilize in their real course design business. They build and playtest their courses in game before any real construction work has begun.

 

You will need the Unity editor in order to use it so a basic understanding of Unity is an advantage when it comes to using the software although pretty much all the unity functions you will need to use will be explained here in the tutorials section of the forum.

 

In this forum you will find a series of video tutorials guiding you through the course creation process. We will keep adding these based on Community feedback and also as we move on to more advanced techniques which we want to share with you.

[Mike Jones]

IMPORTANT * Downloading Unity 5.2.3 * IMPORTANT 

 

This is the first public beta version of CF and is for use with the Unity editor 5.2.3 version (any other version of Unity will be unsupported and probably will not work) You can download Unity 5.2.3 here:

 

https://unity3d.com/...ownload/archive

 

You can use either the installer package or the executable to install the Unity editor ion your PC/Mac so make sure you download the correct version for your OS. The other addons for Unity you will see there such as shader packs etc are not necessary at this point.

 

Once you have downloaded Unity you can go ahead and install it on your computer.

[Mike Jones]

Downloading the CourseForge package

 

 

Key Points

 

*The CourseForge package will be downloaded via the DLC section of PerfectGolf in your Steam library

*Make sure that CourseForge is ticked in the DLC area and restart Steam

*CourseForge will be downloaded by default to Your Steam directory \Steam\steamapps\common\Perfect Golf\Course Forge

[Mike Jones]

Installing CourseForge into Unity

 

 

Key Points

 

*Open Unity 5.2.3

*Go to Assets/Import Package/Custom package and navigate to the CF package in your steam directory

*Open it and now wait for the installation process to continue

*Once package has decompressed, import it

[Mike Jones]

Setting up your unity interface
 

 

Key points

 

*Use 'wide' Unity interface

*Use 'one column' in Project window

*Hierarchy window contains everything in your scene/course file

*Project window contains everything in your actual project folder on your hard drive

*Double clicking on objects in the hierarchy centers them on screen

[Mike Jones]

Navigating in the 3d window

 

 

 

Key Points

 

*Hold right mouse button down and move mouse to use mouselook

*Hold right mouse button and use WASD keys to move around

*Hold down shift to move faster

*Practice a lot!

[Mike Jones]

Saving the scene and terrain

 

 

Key Points

 

*Save your scene file often using 'save as'

*Save your Terrain file via the PerfectParallel menu often in case you need to roll back

*Terrain file is always 'live' and is not part of the scene save

*CTRL-Z is your friend in Unity

[Mike Jones]

CourseForge Tape measure tools

 

 

Key points

 

*Tape measure tool is located in the CourseForge planting UI

*Left click/drag mouse to use the tape measure

*Human height object can be used for easy reference

*Be careful when deleting the tape measures and make 100% sure they are selected before hitting the delete key. 

[Mike Jones]

Drawing the course shapes

 

 

Key Points

 

*Draw course shapes using the spline tool

*Select your shape type from the UI drop down menu

*Pencil icon draws hole shapes such as fairway, bunkers, green etc

*Brush icon draws OOB and water hazard boundaries

*Hold down left mouse button and freehand draw shapes with mouse

*Double click control point to add an extra control point

*Shift double click to delete a control point

*Select a control point and hit the delete key to delete the entire spline (make 100% sure the control point is select by giving it a quick mode before using the delete key)

*Point to point tool enables the shape to be drawn one point at a time, double click to close loop

*Once you have drawn some shapes use the calculate mesh icon to 'fill them in' with the textures

[Mike Jones]

Adding pins and tees

 

 

Key Points

 

*Plant tee, shot point and pin icons under the CourseForge plant tool UI

*PerfectGolf needs a minimum of 3 pins per hole, 1 easy, 1 medium, 1 difficult

*You can choose up to 6 tees and a challenge mode tee per hole

*You need to have the same type of tees on each hole

[Mike Jones]

Planting trees and grasses

 

 

Key Points:

 

*Terrain tab icon

*The tree and grass selection tabs

*Change size of paintbrush and tree size in the inspector

*When in tree and grass planting mode left click plants the selected vegetation and shift/left click deletes

*Painting and blending textures on the terrain

[Mike Jones]

Common mistakes

 

 

Key Points

 

*Shapes drawn to close to each other or overlapping can cause mesh issues

*Angular splines with sharp edges can cause mesh issues

*Drawing to large a mesh can exceed the allowed mesh density

[Mike Jones]

Terrain tools - Raise and lower

 

[Mike Jones]

Terrain tools - flatten and check height

 

[Mike Jones]

Terrain tools - Smooth

 

[Mike Jones]

Show/Hide the CourseForge mesh

 

 

Key points:

 

*Hide the CF mesh when sculpting the terrain

*Recalculate the shapes after sculpting is complete

[Mike Jones]

Advanced terrain sculpting

 

 

Key Points:

 

*Learn to combine flatten, raise/lower and smooth functions to sculp the terrain

*It's helpful to show the texture and wireframe option when sculpting

*Hiding the CF mesh while sculpting

*Refresh the splines after working on the terrain to better see how the sculpting affects the course shapes

*Practice a lot!

[Mike Jones]

Creating flythroughs

 

 

*Drawing a camera path using the flythrough icon

*Select the control points on the flythrough spline and move them around using the unity 'move' function

*Shift and move, moves the entire flythrough spline

*Use the preview window

*Set the speed of the flythrough (ideally start at '0' and end at '0' speed.

[Mike Jones]

Compiling the course to play in PerfectGolf

 

[Mike Jones]

Playing the course in PerfectGolf