96 replies to this topic

[Kablammo11]

The designer doesn't like suggestions's about his designs, or at least that's what he told DoGgz, lol.

 

Nor does he like provocative chit-chat to no beneficial avail. Armand's question was legit.

[axe360]

[Armand]

The designer doesn't like suggestions's about his designs, or at least that's what he told DoGgz, lol.

 

What suggestion?  It was a question .....   

 

 

 

 

Dazmaniac, on 05 Aug 2017 - 08:59 AM, said:

 

The designer doesn't like suggestions's about his designs, or at least that's what he told DoGgz, lol.

Nor does he like provocative chit-chat to no beneficial avail. Armand's question was legit.

 

 

That'll teach me for responding off topic .... DOH!! 

Edited by Armand, 05 August 2017 - 06:58 PM.

[GoldenBear]

I think K11 would rather that course forge be ripped from the hands of the great unwashed and set aside for a select few or even one only.  I can see him as The Kurgan in highlander decapitating anyone who dare draw one spline, whilst declaring "There can be only one"  Or maybe a master painter who's students are selling their water colours before attaining greatness, this annoys the master greatly, so much so that at night he prowls the streets of victorian London murdering prostitutes...Walter Sickert anyone?  Would these personas be elitist? who knows, more importantly...who cares!  carry on.

Carry On Gang  

[Ted_Ball]

Now cut that out Rochester.

 

Anzuru yori umu ga yasushi Kablammo san 

[Kablammo11]

Domo arigato, Ted-san (I think... google translate gave me no definitive results for your quote) Moving on, after a relaxed weekend...

 

 

All the meshes having been laid out (barring massive rearrangement after repeated play-testing), now dawns the time of getting really pedantic about meshes and their delicious little potentials by turning to the layers library. To wit: Below is a "Before" picture. It shows one of many waste bunkers (bunkers, this will play as sand) making life unnecessarily difficult for players. Unlike the small and perfidious pot bunkers, these huge sand areas serve the dual purpose of buggering golfers and adding empty space to a golf hole. We have touched on the values of negative space in another thread a few weeks ago. Right now, this sandy area looks a bit... normal:

 

 

Not much wrong with, perhaps a bit uniform. But this is the ideal opportunity, at this stage in the construction, to be curious and try out a few things. For example, what if I removed the traditional rake line normal map and replaced it with this, a zen garden-style pattern?

 

 

Crazy? Perhaps. If ever there is a time to experiment, it is now. Just try it on for size, see what happens:

 

 

You probably will have to click on the image to enlarge it in order to see the effect. And it looks, hm, interesting... So let's keep experimenting. I the next image, I added a similar, but more sandy inside mesh to the sand mesh, just to break up the pattern.

 

 

The whole thing comes across as a bit more sandy. This is the "After" picture.  The effect is really quite modest. Seen from a distance, you can't tell it's there (This is the 9th par 3 hole, btw, playing towards the central, sacred mound of the 7 kami. On the tee you would be hard pressed to tell there is something there at all.

 

 

Yet just one poor tee shot later, you might find yourself up close with the reality of the Shogun's negative spaces.

 

 

So, am I going to go with this? I don't know yet: I'm going to look at it inside the game and above all: subject it to the passage of time. If in a couple weeks time I don't hate it, I will allow it into the final design. We'll see. And there are still the green, fairway, tee and semi-rough meshes to look into. No rush.

[NoPutt]

After a bit of Sake I may be able to rake my way out.

The more I look at the sand, the more I like it, but

yea, the greenery will need some not so Normal

touches as well.

[Kablammo11]

Greenery as in trees and bushes? Yup, that'll be something else... I will basically ignore all botanic precedent and just do as I damn please. But the mere thought of going through Speedtree hell is enough to make me retch in disgust. Ewww...

 

Big, big tree question already now: Will I have to courage to ignore THE tree and THE flower that absolutely must be featured: The Sakura, the cherry blossom of the Japanese cherry tree? It belongs in here, deservedly so, due to its very strong symbolism (transience of life) - yet at the same time, including it would be exactly what "they" expect me to do. I'm not quite clear who "they" are, but I sense they would want Sakura from me. They must not have it their way. Sod them.

[NoPutt]

Just expressing about the greenery I was seeing at this early stage, and that

the zen sand texture would need some yin and yang and a feng shui, possibly

without the woody context. Please forgive my redneck yapanese, my only

comparison is Hop Sing..

[Ted_Ball]

Anzuru yori umu ga yasushi Kablammo san 

 

"Giving birth to a baby is easier than worrying about it"  Just a little lesson for you amazing course builders. Carry on.

 

"A new course from K11 is as much anticipated as was a new Beatles album"

(Translation: A new course from K11 is as much anticipated as was a new Beatles album)

[GoldenBear]

Now cut that out Rochester.

 

Anzuru yori umu ga yasushi Kablammo san 

LOL

[Kablammo11]

"Giving birth to a baby is easier than worrying about it"  Just a little lesson for you amazing course builders. Carry on.

 

"A new course from K11 is as much anticipated as was a new Beatles album"

(Translation: A new course from K11 is as much anticipated as was a new Beatles album)

 

Thanks for the translation, Ted. That's what Google spat out, yet the meaning still eludes me, as it probably should. And any mother having experienced 36 hours of labour without an epidural might feel annoyed about this saying. 

Your second proverb is much more easier to grasp, but rather embarassing to read. That is a comparison I can't possible live up to. At least I shall endeavour to fail at it beautifully.

[Kablammo11]

Furthermore... while I'm being put under massive pressure to exceed myself, here's my latest little gimmick. It's not yin and yang or feng shui, btw, Mr. Neal, which are Chinese traditions connected to Taoism, therefore not Japanese at all and not inherent to Shinto and Zen. No, my latest gimmick is...

 

 

Well yes, it's a tree. It's actually a cheapo, execrable and not-at-all-inspiring Speedtree standing in for a future tree. I hate it so much, I really do! I need this arboreal stand-in to see and test the feasibility of introducing "Spirit Trees" into my ancient Japanese venue. 

Spirit Trees on The Shogun are particular in as much as they always rise up from the fairway. Think of them as standing watch over each golf hole. They are just there, standing, watching. Spirit trees are the residence of the newly born kami that inhabit each of the 18 holes. Every thing gets its own kami, new things acquire new kami and are imbued with a natural spirit. That is why my Spirit Trees just stand there, watching, thinking, watching, watching silently, watching... Spirit trees are an old tradition which is rooted in... Oh heck, you go invent a back story for yourselves!

 

 

Every hole now has a Spirit Tree, except of course the 7th, left of image above, which gets 2. Why? Because 7 is a lucky number, that's why. And that's also why the altitude of The Shogun is set to 77 ft above sea level. (GEEZE LOUISE, did you see what the LOD does to those poor buggers? It's so vile, this Speedtree atrocity. Yuck!) The Spirit trees are not meant to interfere with game play. There is always room to drive over them or past them.

 

 

But not too much room. They are always there, awkwardly close to your line of play. Like a stranger that stands a bit too close to you and awkwardly intrudes just a little bit into your personal space (I hate these guys, btw. 10 feet or more, that's near enough, thank you!)

 

 

Sometimes they do not interfere at all. They are just there, staring at you, reminding you of the spirit world and watching. Watching. Watching incessantly. Bastards!

 

 

Of course, this is me trying to add trees into the mix. I want them to stop being passive spectators during your rounds of computer golf or to act as convenient vegetal walls to cover up inconvenient backgrounds, but to become participants instead, knocking away your bad shots and providing a constant presence. You are not alone. They are watching, so you better watch them.

One of them, here on the 17th, driveable par 4, even stands smack in the middle of 3 small greens. And is watching you. 

 

[NoPutt]

Now wait just a ying yang second, three greens for one hole?

You've lost your Fung Shwaying mind, I rike it !

[Kablammo11]

It's driveable, 265 yds a bit uphill from the Championship tee to the front edge of the nearest green, the one furthest back in the image above. It contains an easy and medium pin. The second green (left of image) has 3 pins, one of each. And the one on the right just the one difficult one. Greens are separated by a narrow strip of semi rough and 3 pot bunkers.

 

There is a delicious little agony in store for those who drive the wrong of the three greens: as we all know, the almighty makers of this game have opted to NOT allow pitches, flops and chips to be played from the green  - they gave into the strong purist faction around here who will not stand for such things. Actually, they themselves always belonged to this purist faction to begin with. As a result, if your ball rolls onto the wrong green, your options will be:

1. To putt it off the green to obtain a short game shot that allows for a better approach.

2. Force it through the fairway, the strip of semi rough and past the pot bunkers to putt it onto the correct green

 

I intentionally put the tree in there to partially prevent the most obvious and easy approach shot: the flop. And I hope that all those purists out there who want to forbid a completely legal club selection and shot type on the green end up in all sorts of highly annoying trouble. The hole can yield anything from an albatross to a triple bogey, depending on the pin position, and on how greedy and stupid you want to be from the tee: Are you willing to craft yourself an probable birdie - or do you need eagle this late in the round? It's a bit of a goofy one, that hole, but I like to throw one of these into my designs.

[Kablammo11]

Wow, tough crowd! No replies in a day... excellent! So I can soliloquise without being disturbed. No dialogue needed, this will keep unfolding either way.

 

As in every project, we've reached the stage of mow lines. Here's the status quo ante:

 

 

You basic square grid... but can it be improved upon? I like mow lines: They add a bit of drama and ever so slightly add structure to what, otherwise, would be a uniform, blank green surface. Still, these are a bit too conventional. So let's try and make them a bit more topical:

 

 

What if we took a far-eastern pattern like this one: the japanese wave and/or fish scale pattern. Hm...?

 

 

On second thought: no. It's a great little pattern, but seen from the ground it either looks too nondescript and weak - if I were to make the pattern stick out more strongly, it would look like somebody has dropped shooting targets on the ground. And it does not provide the effect of a structure that I find so pleasing and that also reveals the ground elevations.

A clear case of trying to hard and changing too much. Always tone it down and keep it simple. Back to the drawing board.

 

 

I've finally settled on this, very similar to the original square pattern: Diamonds instead of right angles, a bit of an argyle theme.

 

 

It's still geometric, but comes across a bit more dynamic. Small difference, yes, but every little matters. 

 

 

I did not have to recalculate my meshes. I simply overwrote the existing texture with the new one in the library content. Same for the "dirty" child texture that I use to add a bit of variation to my fairways. On it, the diamond pattern is made almost imperceptible and gets completely lost on dirtier patches.

 

 

Fairway looks okay now, but of course the greens, relying on the same base texture, are all wrong. 

 

 

No rush. I'll think of something to improve them tomorrow. 

[Kablammo11]

Apologies for the humongous mouse cursor - I don't know how that happened.

 

[DPRoberts]

Love the depth you've created with the near and far terrain work. Very calming. (trying to stay away from peaceful, given previous work).

Maybe it's the singular tree per hole as well. No Speedtree angst.

[GoldenBear]

Apologies for the humongous mouse cursor - I don't know how that happened.

 

That cursor would be great for my old eyes.  

[Cello]

 Hopper Isles Test.jpg   147.61KB   0 downloadsMaybe 1 of those TW08 Japanies coureses was 1 of mine , I made several there  Hikihaki Gardens for 1  .... am right now crashing thro' Unity / Blender etc ...  I have constructed a few courses  1 of a Hopper Isle type style  .....  Hopper Isle was the only water course in TW08 for 18 months was an easier creation there for me ,,, I hit many issuses with the water hazard placment here & stopped  .  I am coming   !!!!!    I made over 100 fantasy courses for TW08   ...once I m confident of Unity & its periferals ... expect me about soon      Gr8 Stuff  K11   ,  cant wait to try a round there        Pic of Hopper Isle Test in Unity / JNPG