29 replies to this topic

[Dazmaniac]

Good point Larry. I hope that PP have come up with a way to get decent dems for courses outside the USA.

 

The problem is, it isn't actually up to PP to make the DEM's available to us. Using DEM's is just one way of designing a virtual golf course. We shouldn't really be expecting PP to provide these.

 

Did the TW community designers ever go to EA and ask them to provide DEM's for courses they wanted to recreate?

[axe360]

The problem is, it isn't actually up to PP to make the DEM's available to us. Using DEM's is just one way of designing a virtual golf course. We shouldn't really be expecting PP to provide these.

 

Did the TW community designers ever go to EA and ask them to provide DEM's for courses they wanted to recreate?

 

Well, JIm and I weren't around in the early day's so I couldn't answer that. However, since the USGS site had changed the way we get dems and now the dems come out in several chunks we (the community) will indeed have to go to the folks at the USGS site and get help..

 

Now, when they first changed the site, I emailed someone at USGS and they explained to me, how you can get the dems in 1 chunk BUT, it was a little over my head.. Point I'm trying to make is, that there is hope, we just have to email them and write down the new method and put it into terms so the rest of us can learn it...

 

I do agree with you Daz, WE will be the ones to go to USGS and get it sorted....

[Jimbobh]

I have been experimenting with Google's Sketch-up for importing the terrain into unity.  It is possible to get a pretty good detailed terrain by zooming in and grabbing bits of terrain and putting them together, along with the images. But a little more difficult getting a single mesh to import into Unity and put all the jpg images together and align them to the terrain.  You can grab the entire course with one mesh, but the detail isn't as good. If anyone else has used Sketch-up, I could still use some help.

an example pic of a course

Example pic of the terrain in Meshlab

[Kablammo11]

Watch out with your meshes, Jimbobh. MJ recently posted that the CourseForge textures require a Unity terrain as a base. They can't be applied to any imported object. So your strategy probably will only work if you can translate your terrain mesh into a height map and then import this map to a Unity terrain...

(Of course, I would not be savvy enough with 3D wizardry to claim this with any authority)

 

Also, the OP probably just wanted to ask about a list of golf courses ready to play on at release. My apologies for participating in yet another thread hijacking - and might the two Devs who did post here perhaps indulge him?

[axe360]

Watch out with your meshes, Jimbobh. MJ recently posted that the CourseForge textures require a Unity terrain as a base. They can't be applied to any imported object. So your strategy probably will only work if you can translate your terrain mesh into a height map and then import this map to a Unity terrain...

(Of course, I would not be savvy enough with 3D wizardry to claim this with any authority)

 

Also, the OP probably just wanted to ask about a list of golf courses ready to play on at release. My apologies for participating in yet another thread hijacking - and might the two Devs who did post here perhaps indulge him?

 

True, we may have went a little off topic but in a good way.. I wouldn't call it "thread hijacking". Just evolving from the original topic.

I also think Daz answered Mick-S question pretty good.. Is always nice to hear from a Dev...Not always possible though...

[Kablammo11]

Okay, Axe. I do tend to err on the side of dramatic exaggeration for the sake of stronger effect sometimes. We do enjoy some leeway to stray off the beaten path in these unmoderated hallways of knowledge, provided our intent is well-meaning and our manners are civil (and yes, they were, across the board, as far as I can tell) - and I do appreciate the current regimen of laissez-faire. 

 

I simply wished to signal to the OP that I was in quasi-violation of Forum traffic rules - and well aware of that fact myself. So did Acrilix a bit earlier. Mick-S may not mind, others might, and I do not wish for anyone to take umbrage because of it. And with this latest exchange, this topic has well evolved into a new dimension utterly devoid of connection to the original post. Time for my meds, anyway, my head hurts.

[axe360]

Total agreement K11.. Small correction though.. It was myself who apologized to Mick-S for going off topic.. First page, my 3rd comment. No matter.

I know all to well what it feels like to have a topic hijacked and it is very good to see that others do take that seriously..

 

Take care my friend, K11.

L

 

Shoot, now going even further off topic..

[Andrew]

Couple of thoughts.  There is a mesh to terrain feature that someone has written but it is limited to around 80,000 verts no where near enough to import a golf course.  As a result you will need to convert your mesh to a heightmap.  You could do this using terrain importer, just export the sketchup pro mesh to ascii and then convert the ascii data to a heightmap using TI.  Then import the heightmap into unity.  Make sure you understand the scale of everything though.

On the Course Forge side of things it has moved along nicely.

[Kablammo11]

Now Big A is off topic…    - but thanks for confirming this possible snag, Andrew. That's what I wanted to warn Jimbobh about - would be a shame to sink so much time and effort only to end up in a cul-de-sac. 

 

To illustrate Andrew's vertex-point for those who may need a tad more infos (and to display how smart I think I am), consider this:

A 1029x1029 Unity terrain (rather low resolution with about 1 vertex point per yard at most), has 1.05 mio verts. Double the resolution to 2049x2049 (1 vertex point every 1.5 feet, for small courses), and your count goes up exponentially to 4.2 mio verts. 

So either way, 80K verts would be about the vert count of a couple big trees in Unity. 

(And Andrew:  the only way that I want the CourseForge side of things to move along nicely is not in a verbal, unspecified manner, but from your server to my hard drive.)

 

And yup, Axe, my bad, t'was you who said sorry first. 

[Mick-S]

don`t worry about hijacking the thread, it`s all good reading as far as I am concerned.