10 replies to this topic

[Acrilix]

Obviously, Unity is a very versatile engine and there are many assets available and features such as particles, scripting etc. possible. I am very interested to know how much of this, if any, I will we be able to incorporate into my courses. Will I be limited to just to plant libraries and skies, or will it be possible for instance, to add animated obstacles via scripting, to create say a crazy golf experience, or perhaps animated water fountains for the lakes, moving traffic on roads etc?

I don't want to waste my time, so before digging deeper into Unity I'd really like to know what, if anything, can be used in my courses, or will I be restricted to the assets shown in the tutorials that have been shown so far.

[Jimbo63]

The videos show a golfcart driving all over a course and a waterfall, so it is possible, but will us amateurs be capable of achieving such results . . . LOL ? ? ?

[TheLighterDark]

I'd consider anything animated to be slightly too optimistic at the moment, but I most definitely wouldn't limit the possibilities to what we've seen in the videos so far. 

[Kablammo11]

The way I see it, you will be able to use any of the Unity features that you desire in your course design - provided you learn how to use them. On the plus side, Unity is quite well tutorialized by it's users, posting hints and YouTube videos etc, so that you can quickly get to the point where you can progress all by yourself. On the minus side, Unity is a specialized and complex bit of software that requires a lot of practice by trial and error. So should you ever be tempted to wander off the trodden path of the CourseForge and out into Unityland, you will soon find yourself out in the wilderness.

 

It would be helpful if, over time, we would get some sort of Unity-related information exchange going over here, where members can post questions to and get answers about course design from the community. 

[Mike Jones]

We have hardly scratched the surface on what Unity can do in conjunction with CourseForge. Personally I can't wait to see what the community comes up with! Pretty much all the features that Unity has to offer are supported in PerfectGolf

[Kablammo11]

Having am blast painting fictional terrain in preparation for the first issue of the CourseForge (Oh by the way: WHEN - AND WHY NOT NOW???). Using the terrain tools is like trying to smooth out a crease in a tablecloth, transferring unwanted wrinkles everywhere. Took me 3 days to learn how to use the viewer camera without having to use it consciously. Still, pun intended, my first design is slowly taking shape...

So I'm slowly beginning to enjoy myself. Keeps me busy while the waiting here becomes unendurable and Dev comments are depressingly scarce.

 

For those who care (both of them, at most), I first design a course layout in photoshop (1st cut, fws, tees and greens), which I will paste on top of a Unity terrain later, then create the basic heightmap and export it as a Photoshop raw file in grayscale which I use to generate the 3D terrain. Took me a full day of reading to find out that my heightmap needs to be flipped vertically before exporting, to match the layout layer in Unity... Next I start finetuning the geography with the terrain tools in Unity, not too much, just to get my golf holes and all the intended slopes about okay, waiting for the Forge to hit. My biggest worry is that I got the terrain resolution too low and that a yard in my design fails to turn out as a yard in the Forge - as long as a Unity terrain unit is 1 meter and a yard is 90.25 cms I should be okay, though.

 

Even at this early stage it has become quite clear to me that this is a very useful way to design golf courses and that it easily should be more powerful and less complicated than the APCD. There's a bit of a learning curve, though. But oh, the potential...

 

Wishes: What I would need most, if I may be so bold, right about yesterday, are these two things:

 

1. A tape measure feature that tells me distances from A to B horizontally and vertically.

 

2. A Players POV: The ability to click (with a hotkey) on any point of the course and to be transported there six feet above ground, so that I can easily see what the players will see on the course. To go there manually once every 30 seconds is very tedious.

There's an asset "First Person Shooter Camera" available, that should allow that...maybe. I'll see if that could help tomorrow.

[Mike Jones]

There is a measurement tool in CourseForge and there is a first person camera prefab available in the free version of unity by default, just drag it onto your scene view where you want the camera to start and you can then walk around the scene in 'play' mode

[Mike Jones]

Unity distances are all measured in Meters by default so you should be fine

[Dazmaniac]

MJ,

 

Any updates on Course Forge? Last we were told was bugs were being ironed out. Is this still a WIP? Are we likely to see a release before the summer?

 

Also, any ideas when AJ may be making the 'first shot hit in Perfect Golf' video available?

 

[Mike Jones]

Daz, you've been around game software long enough to know that it's pretty hard to give definite deadlines on things in development, especially if the development is entirely self funded!

 

All I can say for now is that we're all working very hard to get things to the point where CourseForge is secure enough that we can let people start playing around with it publicly. Of course you've seen the videos and some of the end results of it in our videos and on TV so you know it works!

As soon as we can safely get a release out there, we'll do it and the same goes for PerfectGolf.

[Dazmaniac]

MJ,

 

Fully appreciate you can't give definite dates, but was just hoping for a 'ball park' date, so to speak, lol.

 

Also, as per the Project Update #4 email AJ sent out via Kickstarter on 4th Feb this year to all those who had pledged, it mentioned:-

 

You will be eligible to enter into the CourseForge Beta Testing Team

 

Is there still the intention to have a BETA test period and maybe include those who didn't get around, or have chance to pledge to the Kickstarter?