14 replies to this topic

[DPRoberts]

This is a followup to a recent excellent post by BrianZ - http://www.perfectpa...shaping-greens/

I will say that the thought into the development of the slope gradient indicator with splatmap generation is super cool. However, my general feeling is that if it's not easy, folks probably won't do it. So, I searched for a simpler solution that might suffice or come close to the original goal. Your wonderful post made me experiment a bit and come upon something that I think others may want to try. Best of all, it's free.

I will show you how to produce this result in Editor without much fuss


1. I generated two textures
A green square (you can download this by clicking the image below and choose Save)


and a Green and white checker pattern
(you can download this by clicking the image below and choose Save)


2. I duplicated my Green layer in the Layers Library and renamed Green (slope)
I added the green square to the first diffuse texture spot and the green and white checker pattern to the second diffuse texture spot

Here are my settings in the Layers Library


3. Changed my Green spline to Green (slope) and recalculated the mesh


Now, had I known this last week, haha, I would have placed that Difficult 2 pin more to the right. You can see that it's probably too close to the edge of the slope.

For this to work correctly, you have to follow my settings above. It is taking advantage of the moire illusion and creating terrain lines. If you make your checker too large (such as 2 and not 0.2), you will not see the Slopes. Image below is incorrect application of layer and slopes will not show.



Anyhow, hopefully, one person out there will find this useful. Keep the CF energy coming!

[DPRoberts]

Quick video to show BLI with slope in relation to moire pattern on the green.
Looks better in Editor than in my pics or video. Not sure why my Bandicam recording to YouTube conversion looks so poor but you get the idea. 

[DPRoberts]

A grey-white alternative - same Layers Library settings as above


White texture to download


White-grey texture

[Skunky]

great stuff dp,the gray one showes up very well.

[Larrykuh]

Matt, you have out done your best efforts with this and the grass modifications. As quadet63 mentioned, the grey textures really show up nicely. Hope you can get the grass mod to work.

 

Larry

[NoPutt]

Far out Man

[Kablammo11]

Very, very clever! 

[BrianZ111]

I'm glad I inspired some more thought in this area.  This is similar to having a grid to turn on in the designer like we have when putting on the greens in the game, although better because you can make the squares smaller.  It's crazy to think something like that hasn't been built into a course designer yet.  A great option if your terrain is already painted and you don't want to risk messing it up or if you don't want to spend any money on an asset package.

[Justin9926]

[highfade]

So cool and clever, thanks man.

[DoGgs]

Excellent DPR, very clever indeed...love the grey version, thats great.

[M Rose]

Wow, the ones with the terrain lines are especially cool (and helpful). You are the man.

[DPRoberts]

Thanks guys. It's kinda neat to go back and look at some greens you've done in the past. Easier to see why some get grumpy about a few pins.

I have one more treat in the works. I am currently learning (at a cursory level) Substance Designer on a 1 month free trial. I am about 70 percent complete on a Unique Texture set generator.

It will allow me to expose options to you that I will create such as color, mow lines, surface dirt, sand, etc, and allow you to create a unique Texture set that matches from a color and topography stand point.

In under 30 seconds of tweaking, it will spit out all 12+ unique textures, from Green to Deep Rough, including levels from perfect to unkempt or burnout. Or, if you are really lazy, there is a "randomize" button that will handle it all for you. I think I will be able to share my material to you for this kind of tweaking with free Substance Player.

Needless to say, it's what I always wanted to do with Photoshop but the technology wasn't there. With Substance, it makes it possible.

Watch the "rim generator" by Daniel Thiger at the 39th minute on this video. Watch to the part when he gets to Substance Player and starts tweaking exposed parameters.
https://youtu.be/WNwtc-OeGQ0

Mine will be a diffuse texture generator for Slot 1 in the Layers Library.

[NoPutt]

Wow! , Hacker Harry best get a make-over, with

the realism you're creating, he's gonna stand out

like Roger Rabbit.

[DPRoberts]

Here's an example of 3 diffuse colors that automatically spit out after your varying tweaks...(yes, I will include additional rotations of the mow lines beyond what I'm showing you. You will also be able to control the level of opacity of the mow lines, water spots, etc..)

Fairway (Perfect)

 

I think for each Layer (Green, Green Fringe, Fairway, Fairway Fringe, Semi-Rough, etc), I will have it generate 3 levels of grass survival. There will also be additional textures with diffuse divot color for tees and fairways. It'll all make more sense when I'm done of course and I'll obviously make a lengthy and boring video for it.