46 replies to this topic

[NoPutt]

Great work DP, and a wonderful community contribution.

Would you mind meshing me out a course, adding pins

and flags, brush in some planting, and beta test? I think

I can handle the upload myself.

[johnmeyer]

I do think there is scope for some more cooperative based workflow on some courses. 

 

We have a couple of guys at OGT who are making fantastic LIDAR based terrains

 

 

For me personally I dont mind the "donkey" work, ie the meshing out, the pins, tees, terrain sculpting, water hazards etc. 

 

I normally struggle with the texturing and planting elements of the course, as I think thats where they true brilliance of a designer shows through, and there a plenty of people far far more gifted than me in this department

 

We also now have a few guys who a very gifted in the 3d object departments. 

 

I believe thats sort of how PP do some of their courses, sharing the workflow between designers using some kind of code repository sharing etc

[olazaboll]

Ola,

Your photos prompted a few block additions. A bay window and a stackable first and second floor. The concept is right. The execution will improve. Row, row, row your houses...

Looking absolutely great ..... 

[DPRoberts]

All blocks done. About 25 total. The odd looking ones below are without roofs. They look normal with a second story stacked. It has to do with texture on a single side plane. Texture generator is 85% done. Sleep now. Finalize generator in am, record a small demo, hopefully release.

 

Will be beta phase on release.

Hoping you guys can do a few things for me.

#1 - identify any issues with blocks

#2 - identify any missing but necessary blocks

#3 - verify no FPS issues with multiple houses

#4 - verify texture generator opens in most Photoshop versions (I am running 2017 CC but have saved in Max compatibility and did not use any real bells and whistles over my previous Photoshop 7.0)

 

All the blocks for now.

 

One of the Mediterranean Mansions that will come prebuilt along with a few other "demo houses". I expect you guys to be more creative and show me some youthful Lego skills.

[M Rose]

I'm planning to put a huge number of these into Pebble Beach, so I'll obviously be paying close attention to FPS issues.

[uvmnick]

Really incredible gift to the community, DPR.

[Snax]

Amazing work. I'm just getting started with course forge and I love all the community help. If this continues the sky is the limit for what can be done.

[DPRoberts]

Beta is available for download. https://www.dropbox....itypackage?dl=0

I would like to see a week or two of testing to figure out snags and any new blocks needed. Kids off school today due to snow so no video tutorial yet but I figured you guys would like to start playing on your own anyhow.

If you are concerned about messing up your CF project, please open this in a new testing project. Anything you make can always be exported and imported into your new project. My asset package contains no scripts. It is only Meshes, Textures, Normal Maps, Materials, Prefabs, and 1 Golden Photoshop file (texturegenerator.psd). It is 176MB. It should not be responsible for any user error tom-foolery in your CF project.

On import, you will see the following


The only thing I want you to be careful of is NOT grabbing any blocks from the Prefab folder. All of the blocks need to be pulled from the Building Blocks folder.


Building Blocks Tip #1
For easy stacking, hold down the "V" key and you can select a vertex of the object and while holding, Left Mouse Click and drag to the point you would like to match up with. Zooming in is necessary as sometimes it will snap a pixel or two off.
Building Blocks Tip #2
You should just drag out all of the prefabs from the "DPR House Builder>Building Blocks" folder. Then, with all blocks dump out into the scene, pick a shape you want and "CTRL-D" to duplicate it and use. I do it this way so I can see all the blocks and they are in the playing field in front of me.
Building Blocks Tip #3
If you want to select MULTIPLE objects at once, such as a section of a house that you have stacked, you can Left mouse and Drag Select. This works best from a bird's eye view so as not to select other entities.
Creating a Prefab of your Masterpiece
After constructing a masterpiece, I create an Empty Game Object in the Hierarchy and rename it whatever you want to call it. Then, I Drag Select the object in the scene and this selects all the pieces. I then go to the Hierarchy and drag all those selected instances with Left mouse and place into the Empty Game Object folder. I then Create a Prefab in the Project panel and drag the Empty Game Object folder into the empty Prefab just created. There are probably other ways to do this.
Changing the Material of your object
This is the most enjoyable part to me for whatever reason. Just head to the "DPR House Builder>>Meshes>Material" folder and you can drag and drop any material onto any object and replace the material. I like to use all stone or all brick for facing type panels and offset something like a brick-siding main Material.

Since the goal has always been low impact on the CPU/GPU, I try not to use more than 1 material for my creation and typically 2 max. However, since Unity can batch materials it may not be too harmful. It just depends how carried away you get on each building(s) viewable by the player.
.PSD Texturer Generator
​​This is where the "magic" happens. If you have any photoshop know how, you will be able to get in today and start churning out textures. You can quickly get lost as the file tree in Photoshop is a bit smallish to navigate. If you get lost and start hyperventilating, just start collapsing folders and get back to the beginning and you'll be ok.

The file is found in the package and will be imported into your Unity project. I would recommend resaving it somewhere to your harddrive so you have a backup in a safe place.


I created this with Photoshop CC 2017. I hope there will not be any backward compatibility issues. It was time for me to contribute to Adobe and their auto alignment and guide system is great for my obsessiveness. I can always recreate it in 7.0 or CS2 but would prefer not if it works.

When you open it, you will see that I have created everything in what Photoshop calls "Groups", basically file folders. I had to do this to allow proper navigation and my goal is easy swapping of textures, colors and the like. I will make a video on how to create a Pattern and use Pattern fill to rapidly change things. However, none if this is entirely necessary. You can simply click the "Eye" to turn things on and off and double click on things like "Color Adjust" to create unique textures.
Example below

In the above, just Click on the down arrow for Roof>Metal and double click the color swatch on the left in the "Color Adjust" layer. If you are not seeing your result, you may have other layers "visible" blocking what you are shooting for.


After creating your new texture, I choose "Save As" and save as a ".PNG". I then head to Unity and import into the "DPR House Builder>Meshes>Textures" folder. I also create my normal map online via http://www.smart-page.net/smartnormal/

and import this into the project in "DPR House Builder>Meshes>Textures>Normal Map" folder. Don't forget to inspect and Change to a Normal Map. It will initially import as a Texture. I then duplicate and rename one of the already made materials and replace the Albedo and Normal Map channels with the new files.

The .PSD texture generator is so robust there are sure to be mistakes. I also got a bit gassed and will improve some layering options as it goes. The goal for the texture generator would be that anyone could click desired textures on off and also modify their colors. More experienced folks will generate better ideas than I have laid out.

I have also built a few "demo" houses to show you some general ideas. It is after all not much different than Legos so I'm sure you guys will produce some unique ideas. Those houses are found as below and you can simply drag them in the scene. Once a prefab is in the scene, it can be altered as well. Pieces can be moved, rotated, deleted, duplicated, stacked, submerged, you get the idea.



Good luck and Enjoy! When time allows, I will be posting some videos. I know that's easier to follow sometimes than words for a few of you. Please come back and share your creations. I know there will be plenty of things to correct so constructive criticism is encouraged.

[DPRoberts]

One more thing. I do not often scale pieces but you can do whatever you like. If you have a piece that seems too large for your needs there may be a smaller piece that fits your need.

The larger pieces go together for the mansion type builds.

One piece I have scaled and used about is the pillar block. The only issues with scaling would be if a window or roof texture looks odd when it's stretched but it probably won't be an issue from a distance.

I also did not use Colliders on import of meshes. I think any ball hitting a house should be OB. The only exception might be the road hole at St. Andrews. From what I read, I think it is less GPU stress to not have the collider.

[Joe Habiger]

Pebble can wait a couple more days. I need a break from it anyway. These additions will be worth having.

 

Matt, 

 

Sometimes taking a break will help you out, Doing it right the first time is the best way to go. Never hurry as people can wait and if they can't then to bad make it yourself. I am living proof that nothing should even get in the way. I lost my sister today and just have no desire to work in the designer, things may change but you can't worry about OOH these people just have to play this. Do it right the first time!

[Dazmaniac]

Sorry to hear of your loss Joe.

[rmoor13]

My condolences Joe.  I'm so sorry.

[mcthommo]

this is just a piece of software so not in the least important. So sorry to hear of your loss Joe- may the Lord give you peace and strength at this tough time and make sure you take enough time to heal.

 

McT

[DPRoberts]

Joe, sorry to hear about your loss. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

 

Out of respect for you and your family, I would ask the community to post condolences here and I will move this thread discussion.

[axe360]

Very Very sorry for your loss Joe. My thoughts and Prayers are with you and your family. Very sad.

[olazaboll]

Very sorry to hear about your sister , Joe.  My condolences to you and your family

 

/Ola

[NoPutt]

Prayers for you and your family Joe.

[cajuncapgun]

Joe,

My thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family, I lost my baby sister two years ago at only 46 years old  to cancer, its

never easy

Cajun

[StoneComet]

Mr. Habiger,

 

Please accept my condolences for you and your family.

 

Sincerely,

 

SC

[Armand]

I missed this post regarding your sister, Joe.   All I can do is echo the thoughts and prayers for you and your family.