50 replies to this topic

[Volker]

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So jealous of Trackman players. München Eichenried was one of my favorites in Links 2003, designed by Gunter Kujat.

[Arsam]

Wow, same here.  I loved all of Gunter's courses in LINKS, but Munchen Nord was my all time favorite.  I would love to see one of our very talented designers recreate those German courses including; Gut Laerchenhof, and the Gut Kaden A,B & C courses.

[Charles]

Same here. Munchen Nord is a great course and one of Europe's top courses. Same with Wentworth West* in England. Hopefully somebody is going to take a crack at these beauties for JNPG! (* 'Westhaven' doesn't do it justice). Another one is Valderrama in Spain {PS: all courses were classics in LINKS.} ..

[Parboy]

Isn't there a way to convert the old Links courses in PG? Thought I remember something along those lines being mentioned back in the beginning.

[Goran JoeMen]

Isn't there a way to convert the old Links courses in PG? 

The problem is it must be the designers course version, and it was so long ago that most designers have moved on. Even if they would probably share the files if one asked, most are lost by now I guess.  And I don´t know how much work it means, I think Matthew Rose converted some.

[Buck]

I know this is a dead horse – really dead – but I just don’t understand why they won’t offer these to us for sale like the other first party courses in the past.

Isn’t it just extra revenue sitting there waiting to be had?

They’ve already paid the licensing fees and employees to make the courses.

This is supposed to be the beauty of digital distribution and zero marginal cost for revenue from customers that are just sitting here waiting to click “buy” and already have the game installed.

Such a bummer.
I think I would’ve purchased nearly every one they’ve released.

[M Rose]

PP does have a course conversion tool, but it has not been updated or supported for a long time. It still works though, and although there is no active product key, I can still use it as a "trial". It's actually still available from the beta forum here but I don't know who has access to it, who doesn't, and whether or not I should openly advertise it (especially since it seems to have been abandoned by the developers).

 

The results vary; it doesn't always seem to be exactly 100 percent to scale and the elevation often comes out in a terraced sort of effect (blocky, not smooth) but with some work you can get it fairly close. I've put out a couple of originals that were conversions so far and I have a couple more I'm working on.

 

Here are some comparative screenshots:

 

 

 

[zmax - sim]

That looks pretty good.  Do you have Banff Springs on Links?  Would be a great course to convert since LIDAR is not available.

[Joe Habiger]

I know this is a dead horse – really dead – but I just don’t understand why they won’t offer these to us for sale like the other first party courses in the past.

 

I think I would’ve purchased nearly every one they’ve released.

 

Anything that comes out of our mouths is dead air to trackman sorry.

 

2nd, I agree I would have everyone as well and there is probably about $100 to be made by them from each person with the amount of courses they have that we don't!

[Parboy]

How much do they charge Trackman players for the courses?

[Buck]

How much do they charge Trackman players for the courses?

To my knowledge nothing extra.
It’s just included in their subscription

[Buck]

PP does have a course conversion tool, but it has not been updated or supported for a long time. It still works though, and although there is no active product key, I can still use it as a "trial". It's actually still available from the beta forum here but I don't know who has access to it, who doesn't, and whether or not I should openly advertise it (especially since it seems to have been abandoned by the developers).
 
The results vary; it doesn't always seem to be exactly 100 percent to scale and the elevation often comes out in a terraced sort of effect (blocky, not smooth) but with some work you can get it fairly close. I've put out a couple of originals that were conversions so far and I have a couple more I'm working on.
 
Here are some comparative screenshots:
 

 

 

So do you end up having to redo the planting?
That second comparison set… The trees behind the green seem very different in terms of layout and density

[M Rose]

Correct - it all has to be replanted. Links uses 2D trees. But these are fictional courses so I'm not really trying to recreate the planting exactly as it is anyway (and neither one of these is really close to a finished product, either).

 

The program (Terrain Forge) spits out a .raw file. Then you go into the APCD, open the course in the top view, and take a screenshot, which you then have to paste into a square image and that's your overhead texture.

 

Assuming you've done it right, the elevations and overhead will line up perfectly, but that never quite happens for me. But I find it is usually close enough to work.

 

Unfortunately I'm not able to convert any of the stock courses because they are locked. You have to have the unlocked .CRZ. I think for real courses working from lidar is better anyway, although that's not always possible.

[Wirenut48]

I would imagine any licencing fees that were paid by Trackman don't include distribution for this game.

[DoGgs]

A kick in the teeth for us to see the trackman train rolling on down the line, while we hit the buffers a long time ago.

[maxie]

Why dont you guys create a new forum call it PERFECT GOLF BASHING  , give it a break if you know its not happening just go eleswhere and find a new forum to visit 20 times daily..

[M Rose]

Very true, and for those of us eager to share our design talents with them, it was also disappointing that there didn't seem to be much interest there going forward.

[Buck]

Here's a link right to the video:

 

https://scontent.cdn...dninstagram.com

 

I do want to say though that what our third party designers have done here really is amazing, especially in contrast.

 

The course in the video is very nice, but to be fair, it's pretty bog standard stuff.

 

There still isn't any reflective water, no 3D grass, fairly basic bunker work, and no hints of overlay usage, which done tastefully and selectively I think adds a TON...

 

The 1st party design techniques all seem to have evolved very little from the very first PP courses, or at least to my naked layman eye anyhow.

Maybe you designers see some stuff that's gotten better from the very early PP courses?

[DPRoberts]

I have played a few of the Trackman renditions and can verify you aren't missing much. Shelter Harbor is well done. They must've tweaked the stock textures for it because it isn't the oversaturated set. Planting/vegetation is solid. Like a RobC rendition.

Montecito provided me a good laugh. Billboards all have the "jaggies". This was a problem I discussed years ago and suggested a solution. http://www.perfectpa...s/?fromsearch=1

Point is when they don't have a community to provide some ability to proofread their work, I think their quality will suffer. However, I promise you that their user base doesn't really know better so it'll work out for them.

We've got plenty they don't have. Classic Renditions Royal Melbourne will be another leap forward with bunkering technique.

Not sure why their newly hired doesn't try and push anything new but maybe they don't want something that feels better or different or they'd have to go back and redo old courses.

Save it all for the Trackman VG2...

[M Rose]

PP's courses are all pretty well executed and are clean and tidy - for one they never seem to have issues with invisible colliders or bad drops or anything like that, as far as I can tell. I know those things continue to pop up in my work no matter how hard I try to get rid of them.

 

But like DP says - they use the same stock textures for literally everything. It all feels a little bit paint by numbers, using the same 8 colors. I get the idea that they never go beyond the standard default library.