146 replies to this topic

[Kablammo11]

K11 - how long have you had the beta, and how many hours have you put in?

 

Yo, Rusty! Nice knowing you're keeping an eye on this place…See you on the links

 

Davefevs,

I dl'ed the CF on January 20th. From then on I spent about 2 to 4 hours a day on the Forge (my free time, I have to work for a living, though since I own the company I work for, I can often squeeze in half an hour of free time into a work day, check on the Forums etc.). And more on the week ends.

I already had a prepared course layout and terrain height map of Willow Heath ready - but both kept evolving and being adapted as I added new shapes. It's a constant dialogue: You start with a plan, implement it, see the result, get some new ideas, experiment, adapt, nudge control points etc. - rinse and repeat, iterate it a dozen times. I wasn't in a hurry to progress rapidly.

If you look closely, you can spot lots of tiny little bumps on my overview picture. I experimented a lot with making the terrain a bit more irregular, or rather, less mathematically perfectly rounded, then went and observed how this would alter the look and feel of the meshes and their textures. I also changed the angle and inclination of the directional light to examine what happens under different light conditions. That sort of stuff, not necessarily indispensable CF activity, yet part of the vital "learning by fooling around"-protocol.

More than half of my entire time I spent with textures, so that I could develop the sort of "look" that I wanted. That means a constant to and fro between CF and Photoshop, trial and error etc, but only now that I have the CF I can properly see what my textures will look like.

 

 

Actually learning how to use the CF (assuming you already know how to move about in Unity), takes less than a couple hours and is pretty self-explanatory. Adding shapes can be done really fast. Manipulation of the CF and its features really is easy and does not take up much time.

But getting it right, so that it works for me, does. And that is good news about CF. It will let me get it right, if I only am willing to put in the passion and the hours.

[Brucey Mc]

Kablammo, which version of Photoshop are you using to edit your Raw terrain file, I can't find anything on my Mac to open it.  Also, what resolution of terrain and splat map are you using?

Thanks

Bruce

[Kablammo11]

Kablammo, which version of Photoshop are you using to edit your Raw terrain file, I can't find anything on my Mac to open it.  Also, what resolution of terrain and splat map are you using?

Thanks

Bruce

 

 

Adobe Photoshop CS4, Bruce. If you want to export a RAW file from Photoshop you absolutely do need to set the Image Mode to "grayscale" - only this will unlock the RAW format option for exports - it's actually not a bone fide RAW format, but called "Photoshop RAW", but Unity accepts it.

I also make it 16bit, while I mostly work in 8bit.

If I want to import one into Photoshop, I just doubleclick on it and usually get a brief dialogue asking something-something, then I click okay. 

 

The recommended and PP-sanctioned terrain height map resolution is 2049. Best is to set this size in Photoshop before exporting it and Unity will recognize it and automatically import it in the correct size.

 

Not sure what you mean by "splat map". If by that you refer to an overhead view of the course, I usually go for double size than meters. Willow Heath is 1800x1800 meters large, my overhead jpg is 3600x3600. No rules here, you can go lower or higher, depending on how much detail you need or want for your work.

[Brucey Mc]

Thanks K, yeah I was talking about the course overhead map.

Cheers

Bruce

[highfade]

As being one of the fortunate 3, (that I know of) chosen to beta test CF, I can add that CF is quite easy to understand and use. The way your course will play as far as layout, strategy, risk reward, design of the green complexes, etc. is mostly CF.  How the course looks and feels and creating a sense of place is hugely what you'll have to do in Unity.

 

While you can change the texture sets you want to use in CF the real terrain painting and texture blending happen in the areas between your hole layouts.

 

I have not started on any course but just been mucking around trying different things. (At this stage anything created with the beta version won't be playable in PG)  Similar to APCD there is a lot of room for inventiveness and exploring new opportunities to get the right look.

 

I'll post some pics later

[highfade]

The plot is a Bing map import of a much larger area and then scaled to a 2000x2000 plot. I just wanted an interesting piece of land so the heightmap is also adjusted to give more undulations. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[nyt1976]

Highfade,

 

Your third photo down show some very impressive movement which looks really natural - very, very nice.

 

Out of interest, your imageshack shows an image that looks as though you have ball trace illustrating ball / water runoff.  Is this out of CF or some other design package?

[IanD]

Good to hear another user join in.. like Wonka's Golden Tickets being revealed... !

 

Q for either really, and love to see some work if you have the time to emulate..

 

- Bunkers

 

Wanted to know, since all we are seeing regarding the current TPC of Brian/Steve and those here.. are what can really be achieved..?

 

Bunkers, hazards as they are, can be quite deliberate in design regarding the style of course. So, with regards to some of the following images.. how flexible is the CF in recreating something similar ?

 

Currently, we're seeing alot of this type bunker..

 

However, how difficult is it to recreate these types..?

 

 

I'm sure there are more variations etc, but I'm curious to know if this is easily achieved, or whether it is simply "getting the right look" for the texture on the wall of the bunker?

[highfade]

Highfade,

 

Your third photo down show some very impressive movement which looks really natural - very, very nice.

 

Out of interest, your imageshack shows an image that looks as though you have ball trace illustrating ball / water runoff.  Is this out of CF or some other design package?

 

The photo you saw was from the physics editor a long time ago

[Kablammo11]

I'm sure there are more variations etc, but I'm curious to know if this is easily achieved, or whether it is simply "getting the right look" for the texture on the wall of the bunker?

 

Right on about the wall, IandD. That texture requires a cylindrical projection to show the horizontal layers of sod. And that's currently not possible. But MJ assured us it was on PP's wanted list, that they wanted that for the Forge and that it would happen. At a later date. Rome wasn't built in a day..

[highfade]

You can play around with die lip/wall depth but like K11 said it's the same depth all the way around. They are working on an option to tilt the bunker edge so that you have a low side.

 

[Brucey Mc]

Ian that first picture is the 12th at Abu Dhabi, made an easy par there when I played it a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately it was one of not many 

[axe360]

Changed my mind...

[IanD]

Right on about the wall, IandD. That texture requires a cylindrical projection to show the horizontal layers of sod. And that's currently not possible. But MJ assured us it was on PP's wanted list, that they wanted that for the Forge and that it would happen. At a later date. Rome wasn't built in a day..

 

 

You can play around with die lip/wall depth but like K11 said it's the same depth all the way around. They are working on an option to tilt the bunker edge so that you have a low side.

 

 

Thank you both for your replies, and for the image too. It is certainly helpful, although slightly unfortunate it isn't a feature that is possible at this moment in time.

[olazaboll]

Cant tell why ... But K11´s pic looks more Unity and Highfade´s look more APCD ... Just a reflection 

[highfade]

All I know as I'm getting to grips with the potential  of Unity and CF is that the likes of Mike Jones and some others are going to blow our socks off once they start designing their fictional courses

 

Looking forward to it!

 

Adriaan

[Davefevs]

Nice looking bunker Highfade

[axe360]

Agreed, very nice work highfade. 1 question, do you have a tool to flatten? In other words could you make some small mounds, then draw a shape onto it, then flatten that shape into those mounds?

 

Thanks..

[IanD]

I'll leave the answer to Axe360's question alone.. as I think I know where that's headed..

 

Curious to know the third person's feelings regarding the CF, and whether any different type of approach has resulted in anything worth knowing? Three different people would likely have three different approaches to course design, for example.. that would be interesting to know.

[IanD]

Man.. can't even get any CF fixes through the Vimeo Player due to an attack on their sites... bang goes my evening I guess...!