25 replies to this topic

[shimonko]

HI --

How do I download the attachment referenced in the second post above?

I too would like to start working on a layout of an actual course near where I live. I was planning to use Google Earth images as a starting point since I can measure things with Google Earth. Is there a standard scale to use in a Photoshop document (how many pixels per foot..) I like the idea of using Illustrator as referenced above although I'm not great with Illustrator at the moment.

Thanks

Rich

I'm not really sure there's any point in doing this with real courses as the Terrain Importer when released with bring in the terrain with a overhead view projected on it to locate the greens, trees, tees etc. I don't really see much measuring being needed at all, except maybe going out to the course to estimate tree heights. 

[Kablammo11]

It's the 30 day free trial of the pro version.

 

Ah, thanks… good to know. I will have to time my free trial days just right to get good water in sync with my first CF course publishing.

[Mike Jones]

There is a 'first person' controller prefab included in unity free and pro. You just drag it onto the scene and then you can walk around at ground level rather than flying. 

[Kablammo11]

There is a 'first person' controller prefab included in unity free and pro. You just drag it onto the scene and then you can walk around at ground level rather than flying. 

 

…You mean the one where you have to hit the play button first, only to watch from a FP perspective how you drop through the terrain and fall down forever? I'm sure it's only a matter of clicking on a single button to stop it from doing that, but which one? Yes, that would be one of those darn, confounding, utterly despondency-inducing stupid little things that will gobsmack amateurs like me. 

 

The advantage of tarafication is that I can populate areas with lots of them, up to 50 if I want, giving me a good idea of how contours and elevations will feel. Remember that we're talking about fictional golf courses that are created from scratch, not about imported real golf courses where scales and distances, like fairway width, green dimensions, elevation difference etc have all been addressed and are basically set in stone. Here, in fictional course land, a lot of spontaneous terraforming improv is happening, and Mrs Tara King is a very helpful, albeit indosyncratic little gimmick that works well for me for the stage of general earth works.

 

Perhaps that with the (imminent) CourseForge and more detailled work, the need for the FP controller will increase.

 

THIS JUST IN: UPDATE ALERT. Unity 4.3.1 is out now.

[shimonko]

First person controller - no button to press, it's a physical object that will fall until it collides with the terrain so you have to ensure it entirely starts above it.

[Kablammo11]

... so you have to ensure it entirely starts above it.

 

Haha! Thanks, shinmonko. That helped - it's always those stupid little details in the very fine print. Never occured to me that this could be a problem. Unity is such a pedantic nitpicker of an app at times - no customer-friendly generosity whatsoever!

Anyway, I updated to 4.3.1 today to watch the real-time shadows and since I must pursue all avenues of mastery anyway, I decided to take the First Person Controller for a spin, after setting its speed and jump distance up. The result of my utterly non-captivating adventures can be seen here:

 

Don't crank up the audio, there's none.

 

About half way through I ran accross the course to the last few fairways which I had tarifyed. It's probably just me but it does help me getting a better spacial impression of the design when there are human-sized cutouts in the picture, even in the first person perspective. Not looking for converts here, just sayin' that Tara stays on team K11 as far as I'm concerned