36 replies to this topic

[sirputterman]

Hey guys I am totally lost in actually how to get started with Unity in preparation of using the CF. I have used the ca in tw before so I have a basic grasp of the concept of needing a dem and an overhead image but beyond that I'm left scratching my head.

 

I have unity installed and started to watch mikes vid on starting a project. First brick wall about 2 mins in is the course data you need to get. He mentions using the terrain importer to convert all the info and he has a neat little folder with all the data. That's all fine and dandy except ah we don't have the terrain importer yet. So how the heck do you get started?  I see there's a video on importing images from Bing maps, I start to watch the video  but  oops another brick wall once again no terrain importer software available yet. Some guys have figured out the work around of getting the image and the terrain data but for me I work 10 hour days quite often 6 days a week and honestly  I have tried reading the posts in the forums to try and get it sorted out however I just start to make some  progress then I run out of time and it may be 4 or 5 days before I get back to it. By that time I have  forgotten where I was and  I'm back at square one. I imagine its like the 3dem thing where you go to usgs and get the info there but what format do you need to down load the info in? is it geotiff or something else? Your overhead image what file format does that need to be saved in, Jpeg targa ? I understand you have to convert something to " grey scale" is it the image or the terrain data? I feel like im a dog chasing his tale around and around but just not getting anywhere.  If anyone would be so gracious enough to put up a " tutorial for dummies"  I would be ever so grateful. As I mentioned I have designed before and do catch on pretty quick even a bullet type  reply of the exact steps for getting an image and terrain data in to Unity would be great. From there I can muck around  figuring out what everything does   I want to get a good grasp on this in Unity in order for when the CF is available so I can get started. As it is right now  I feel like smacking my head  on my keyboard.

[axe360]

Gr8 questions and I concur, we need a tutorial for some of these things... Doesn't have to be every single thing, just the meat and potatoes...

[Jimbobh]

Since there is no terrain importer available to most of us, I have been messing with Google Sketch Up and have been able to import terrains from there and able to attach the jpg to the terrain and edit it. You will need a couple extra plugins for Sketch Up and and the object2terrain feature in Unity. (Sketch Up has a free version). I can try to make a short tutorial of how I am doing it, if anyone is interested. This procedure may not work with CF but it is something to play with.

[Mick-S]

I eventually got it by watching the 1st getting started vid ( pity you can`t drag a slider back like a youtube vid so you can watch certain bits again) with Unity open and followed along, not easy but you get there in the end.

started with a google earth screenshot and made a 2048 x 2048 tga, then dragged that into the project window in unity, didn`t bother with heightmap as I just wanted to have a play with raising and lowering the terrain, after all it`s unity that handles that and not CF afaik. 

[Dazmaniac]

You can find a Unity 3D manual here. Should help with things like starting projects, setting terrains and the tools used for sculpting your landscape, all things which can be done without the need for Course Forge.

 

http://docs.unity3d....nual/index.html

 

[Lukas]

( pity you can`t drag a slider back like a youtube vid so you can watch certain bits again)

Watch the tutorials on Vimeo where they're originally uploaded. There is a slider on their site.

[IanD]

Good pointer Daz...

 

However, I do believe Sirputterman is right in how the help required, needs better explanation. Personally, i think we're going to see several levels of people trying this, and for the purpose of getting momentum, it may mean several types of instructions are available.

 

There are those who are familiar with previous course designer programs, and those familiar with current modelling programs. There is a strong link between the two still, in terminology and concepts, but the words can be confusing to anyone unfamiliar with either background.

 

In time, it's an area I'd like to focus on.

 

The meat and potatoes though, needs to aid in covering actual specifics of what will help get you started. Where is the actual starting point, recommended, simple and straightforward, to get you some kind of result. Like many, I believe if we see a result, it helps increase the learning. Too many problems met at the start become stumbling blocks for which many, will never return and try again. They simply find it too difficult or they find another program easier. I've seen it before..

 

Hopefully in time, and once on release, we can gather instructions to suitably teach more wannabe's and increase the popularity of this whole Perfect world the guys at PP envisage. It's far more important for them this succeeds, but alot more fun for us if it does too.

[Davefevs]

IanD - that was me with APCD. I did give it a try (in fact on three separate occasions), but it beat me. Then again, some of the stuff you can source these days, like maps and terrain detail mean you can start from a much better position.

I recall trying to just plot the holes from a photocopy with grid lines and found myself running out of room for some holes!

[IanD]

Good times ehh Dave...?!

 

No, the fun part of this, is it looks easy. It's been made to, but we're glossing over many things without actually having the Course Forge to help us begin.

 

There are probably more than the two starting positions I'm going to mention, but we're likely to start with some actual heightmap or go for the fictional course where we simpoly raise and lower what we want. It's not easy to obtain the data for the first type, not in the UK anyway, but we're likely missing information where we can obtain better references. As for fictional, well, the basic designer without the CF may not even know how long the first hole will be without having some form of measurement visible. So where does he raise and lower the terrain to begin...?

 

There are likely several other types of issues that will hinder many of us when trying to begin a design.. as for understanding Unity.. we're not in any need to understand it. We only need to know the basics of what it's capable of.. or more to the point, the specifics of what we need. Once we understand those and can detail them for anyone to follow, more indepth stuff will likely follow as we all take that learning curve higher.

 

I can't put it any plainer than gimmie gimmie gimmie lol..

[Acrilix]

I have some experience designing courses for Links, but, after reading through the copious posts (admittedly most trying to find ways around Unity without CF) it seems much more complicated than the original impression was given us to believe of a course designer that anyone could just sit down to and knock up their own course. Maybe if I sat down for a few nights I could get my head around it, but to the novice designer it must look very daunting indeed if they have been following this forum.

Even with my experience I am very tempted to just leave it for a year or two, see how the game shapes up, play other people's courses, and wait for the tutorials to appear before starting work on my own projects.

[IanD]

Acrilix, thanks for your post. I think that can sum up a few people too.

 

I realise I'm kind of harping on in this thread, but what I'd like to see here, isn't a kind of hardcore designer element. If this becomes something like that, we may see fewer designers than this game deserves. It also has competition with TGC, and we can see many simply idling off in that direction because it's easier. I'd rather have both options available, with the right educating tools for both available too. 

 

At Links Corner we had tutorials available for the APCD, by the actual guys who made it and many from those who had designed courses too. Primarily, I believe they spurred a few more people on to become designers and keep the game alive as it is today. Hopefully we can see this being achieved here too... I'm sure we will but I guess  the proof is in the pudding..

[Davefevs]

"Some" experience Lez?

That is the biggest understatement I've read on here! Had I heard of your tutorials back in the day, I may have got something off the ground.

[axe360]

Good words Ian. just like over at coursedownloads, if it wasn't for some of the guys that wrote tutorials I too would have probably given up before I got going, they really help...

 

In fact, after  a while they designed a Terrain Assist Program, so all you had to do was go to google earth, set your coordinates, go to USGS and enter those coordinates, then fire up the Terrain Assist program and in a few easy steps you could import your plot, rough elevations and a way to trace every hole, lake, bunker etc. all in one simple package, right onto a base plot in the CA..

 

I believe that will happen here too, given time..

[MERACE]

Acrilix and Ian D made some very good points about the ease of use of the CF for newbies like me.  I've always wanted to try my hand at course creation with other virtual golf games (PGA Championship Golf 2000, JNE, Links 2003, TW PC) but found them too difficult even with the manuals and tutorials.

 

Reading through the threads here on the CF and I feel like you need to be a rocket scientist to understand what is being posted.   

 

I believe that ease of use will be the strength of the course creator in TGC.  I really hope that PP will strive to make the CF easy for the novice as well as deep for the veteran designers.

 

 

-MERACE

[sirputterman]

i agree axe but I would have never gotten anywhere with real courses if it wasn't for Homeboys tutorial on the steps in proper order of what you need to do to start a real course design. He did a great outline of what data, software, etc and how to make them all come together in order for success. Sure there were still spots of  filling in the blanks and still lots of experimenting but with the info he gave you had the foundation on which to build. That to me is very key especially as mentioned by some there may be some people with out any design experience at all. If they are to get a taste for it they must have the keys in the proper order to open the door. Without it more then likely after quite a bit of frustration they will think they are to "dumb" or it is beyond their capabilities. That would be a shame especially if all it took was a guiding hand to get them on the right path. 

 I have helped many other designers with issues and questions and never minded it a bit. It in fact it made me feel good if I could get someone over a stumbling block  and see them go on to design some terrific courses. This is what a community is for in my opinion. To give help, guidence, suggestions to those in need. I don't think anyone wants the course foundation or  layout  just given to them and then they add a few touches and say they designed a course. Instead they are asking for the proper steps to follow in order to create that foundation themselves and to build on it from there. That is only my opinion of course. 

[shimonko]

I don't get the concern. Terrain Importer was purely written to make importing real world terrains easy. From the videos the only way it could be feasibly easier is if TI was a Unity plugin to save even the importing of two files. But maybe that wasn't possible.

 

So until TI is released, unless you're cluey with this stuff or have a lot of patience, it's best to create a fictional terrain. I tend to recall kablammo detailed some steps once to do this. There may be terrain generator programs that can grab real world data, but all will have their stumbling blocks.

[highfade]

"Some" experience Lez?

That is the biggest understatement I've read on here! Had I heard of your tutorials back in the day, I may have got something off the ground.

Agree, some of my favorite courses I still play in Links, tough but a blast on Firm/Fast.

[LasseThid]

It's been quite a while since I fiddled with Unity, but as far as I remember you need an overhead photo (jpg imported as a texture) and a heightmap (a greyscale image of the elevations, RAW-format) to get started.
Create a plot in Unity, import the heightmap and map the texture to your terrain.

Also I suppose once we get closer to the release of Course Forge there will be more (and better) tutorials written on how to get started.

[shimonko]

You don't need an overhead photo or a heightmap to get started. Just create a terrain and start sculpting. I haven't done the the Udemy course I posted about a few weeks ago but looking at the outline, the first two sections cover 90% of what you'll need to know. The course is still free. Skip lectures 9, 10, 16 and 18 as they're not important and it's about an hour's worth of video.

[LasseThid]

Sorry, my bad. I should have said what you need if you want to started with an elevated plot.

Of course you can start with a flat plot and sculpt the terrain to your liking.