14 replies to this topic

[worrybirdie]

I posted something in another thread, then realized it was in the wrong area, so I'll repost here.

Can you make a spline transparent so the textures underneath are unobscured, yet the physics properties still work? (and how?) This would be used primarily to create lighter and heavier rough patches in the native rough. Sure would be nice to be able to make the pretty textures and grasses actually have an effect on the ball.

[DoGgs]

Yes its the cut out tool when you set your spline options prior to laying it, just click it and it turns darker indicating the texture will be cut, scissors icon.

[NoPutt]

If all you're looking for is to have the terrain show through

a spline then yes, if I understand your motive.

You must add the Terrain Overlay Texture..

Then in the LL, the first box that contains the texture must be set to 0, this allows

you to draw a spline that will not have a mesh, but retain the properties of the texture.

Great you say, but wait, more than likely your terrain will not match the color of the other meshes.

This is where some photoshop to Unity magic comes in to really get the desired effect.

See DP show and tell for the lowdown.

[DoGgs]

Nice on Neal, did not know he meant that method, thats a new one for me too...interesting.

[M Rose]

What do you use for the terrain overlay texture - the overhead image?

 

I need to figure this out as it might work really well for Australian sandbelt courses where the bunkers may touch as many as four different grasses.

[worrybirdie]

Yeah, I was hoping you could just make a translucent layer, that retained the physics properties. I would do a translucent heavy and light rough (to start with), and put these in native areas that look like they deserve it. Not the terrain overlay, but what ever you've put down as a texture (though it could be the terrain overlay). Thanks for the help in advance...you guys are great!

[Kablammo11]

Tiny problem with that: Although invisible, the mesh would still retain it's physics properties and stop the ball. As a result you will find that your ball is bouncing, rolling and hovering 15cm above the terrain, and your avatar floating in the air as well, because the default distance from the terrain is 15cm. And  that will look rather weird, as in: not realistic at all, like a bug.

Dr. Rob has an advanced technique to address this issue, but it's quite time-consuming. 

[NoPutt]

K11 is correct, this involves a Unity tool called "obj. exporter",

that allows copying the mesh and exporting into Blender

where it is manipulated to get the desired effect and importing

back into Unity. It's quite a process, but the results are amazing

if you have the patience, and have been diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

[worrybirdie]

Oh well...that's a shame. Would have been nice. Maybe in a future CF.

[Drrobmiller]

K man is correct,..I played around with transparent splines but the player was floating...too buggy.

[slewin]

We use a heavily edited overhead image as the overlay. Most of the work is in editing this OH image and using back and white detail textures so all the colour information is in the overlay image and not the detail textures. It always helps to have the highest rez image you can find and import it in the unity setting the resolution to 8192.
It’s great for given courses a very natural look.

[DoGgs]

So using the cutout method with a deep rough gives the appearance of floating if you are playing from it, is that right?  i guess it matters not if the cut out area is hidden in long grass, therefore hiding the float effect.  I say this because i put many deep rough cutouts in the long grasses at muirfield.  I just wanted a higher percentage loss if you are playing from the thick stuff.

[bortimus]

So using the cutout method with a deep rough gives the appearance of floating if you are playing from it, is that right?  i guess it matters not if the cut out area is hidden in long grass, therefore hiding the float effect.  I say this because i put many deep rough cutouts in the long grasses at muirfield.  I just wanted a higher percentage loss if you are playing from the thick stuff.

Correct.   

We tend to say cutout because of the CF scissors icon but really that's a misnomer.  It's actually a transparency tool. 

The mesh is still there with the physics material and mesh height etc... hence the floating effect.

  

Calling it a cutout implies the mesh is gone.  I believe this is why Rae's Creek doesn't play correctly on Hole 13 at Georgia Pines. 

The water hazard is "cutout" within a larger surrounding mesh, but really the transparent mesh remains and covers the water plane.  Balls can't fall into the water because they are laying on the transparent rough mesh.    

[jspirate]

Thanks for the info in the thread.  It really helps me understand.

 

Question... I want to be able to paint part of a semi rough area, so I used the cutout tool to allow this. The problem is that when the ball lands close to the spline's edge you can see the semi-rough layer floating above the ground.  It looks bad, even if it does play correctly.

 

Is my only choice to to live with the floating semi rough spline, or maybe there is another way to skin this cat?

[Dropzone73]

We use a heavily edited overhead image as the overlay. Most of the work is in editing this OH image and using back and white detail textures so all the colour information is in the overlay image and not the detail textures. It always helps to have the highest rez image you can find and import it in the unity setting the resolution to 8192.
It’s great for given courses a very natural look.

I don't understand why they just don't put -0.15 depth to this invisible mesh??? Nothing shouldn't float anymore if your mesh height is that default 15 cm. You can set any spline's depth up to -1m if you want to, so any spline could be invisible without being invisible, because it's under groud/terrain. So what's so weird in this?? Nothing extra work is required.

 

But I wanted to ask few questions from you Slewin. I have used the same method as you in my WIP projects and it works fine. It's really the only way to make those spline meshes look real. Just few questions.

Question 1.

- Is 8192 resolution supported in splines? I'm asking because terrain can only handle 4096 resolution. You can set texture's resolution to 8192, but when the course is built, the terrain's OH-image's resolution is only 4096.

 

Question 2.

- Have you notised weird double image of that overlay/overhead texture in the mesh? It's mostly seen in very steep areas. The spline mesh generates some weird rotated double ghost image of the OH image or any other overlay texture. Mostly it can't be seen because there isn't so much details in the often used overlay textures, but when you have roads and buildings in the image, the double image is easily seen in some areas. Or is there something wrong in my textures or in my Unity/CF-settings?

I have tried to change or zero all the spline's normal map values in LL, but it doesn't have any affect. I have also tried different picture formats in OH image (I use .jpg) but nothing changes. All help is appreciated?