22 replies to this topic

[schmidt61059]

Hi all,

I'm just trying to get into CF by making my "home" course (Wolf Hollow, Lena, IL). I used Joe H's tutorials to get the lidar data and the layout. Those were great (thanks!), but I have a few questions.

1. Most important, I've got lots of areas of jagged points where the lidar interpreted trees as high points. What's the best way to deal with that without destroying the adjacent terrain? I've tried smoothing and flattening with various brush sizes and opacities. The results are not ideal, and it takes forever. That is, it works fine for isolated trees but not for large areas, especially ones bordering areas with splines.

2. Related to this: The course runs diagonally across the square in CF. Hence lots of these lidar "trees" along with lots of lidar houses (and barns!) are well off the actual course. Do those areas need to be smoothed or flattened, too? I ask because I tried compiling the course after laying out the front nine, and it still wasn't done after about 45 minutes. Is that normal? I thought maybe all the crazy meshes caused by the lidar artifacts might be causing that.

3. Once I get done with the texture that shows the course layout, what do I do with it? Do I just replace it with a normal grass texture? Sorry if the answer is obvious.

4. A central feature of Wolf Hollow is large waste areas where grass, weeds, etc. are allowed to grow knee high. If you hit it in there, 95% of the time it's a lost ball. What would be the best way to simulate that? I saw some discussion about calling something like that a water hazard. That's not ideal. Is there any other way?

Thanks in advance.

Jim S.

 

[rmoor13]

I hope it's not too late, but when you get your lidar, choose bare earth terrain right when you order it.  For question 4, the area of the terrain you paint on is all designated as rough, so painted on grass or dirt will play as rough.  For question 3, if I understand your question, you draw in splines for your fairway and green and bunkers.  Each hole must, however, be entirely within a rough spline, to be playable in PG.  Is that what you mean?

[schmidt61059]

Thanks for the reply. I don't think I had the option to choose bare earth. I got these from the Illinois Heightmap Modernization Program:

https://clearinghous...hmp-lidar-data 

I chose LAS files only. So think I got what there is. I suppose I could start over with different lidar data, such as the National Map. The IHMP stuff seems quite accurate, tho'. And it's fine overall since the course is fairly open. But any advice on technique for smoothing or flattening large areas would be appreciated.

No. 3: I mean: I have the image file, and I'm drawing splines on top of that so they match the actual features of the course. I have enclosed the holes I've completed in rough (and the front nine in OB). But what do I do with the image file once I'm done with it? Just delete it? Not a big deal.

No. 4: I'm looking for a way to make these areas a hazard without making them a water hazard, if that makes any sense. Again, no biggie.

j

[Justin9926]

When you load your  lidar  in global mapper,, you'll get a  pop-up box  that looks like this. Lidar load options

go to the  lidar point classifications to input, clear all of them. Then just check  ground and  water. Then just do everything else the same, you did. If you watched  Joe's tutorial I believe he showed that. You may have just overlooked it.  That way when it  reads the lidar it's not going to  read the height of the  trees, buildings underbrush and everything else.

[schmidt61059]

Thanks. That's awesome and, yeah, I probably missed that in Joe's tutorial. It means back to the drawing board, but ideally with better results!

[RBarley]

I think Justin has your answer for the Lidar data question. Depending the accuracy of the lidar data imported into your project. You should have very little smoothing to do. My current project I left the course overlay present and painted textures over it for the outlining areas.

[DPRoberts]

I think there's value in a vegetation map as well. Will show where trees and bushes should be and how tall. You can change out the heightmap but should save your changes by exporting your heightmap. It's around the same location on the menu panel as the import heightmap.

If you plant trees using the paint brush tool, they will automatically adjust to the terrain as you swap out maps. If you plant with drag and drop, I don't think they'll adjust.

I say hang on to that map with all the extra bumps and use both. Just be sure to save before swapping maps.

[schmidt61059]

Thanks much for the additional info. I was wondering if I could just switch out the heightmaps. So thanks for that. I'm going to give that a shot once I get a new one created.

[Larrykuh]

The site you used for the lidar files has very good resolution. I have used it for all Illinois courses I have done.

 

Hopefully, you saved the Global Mapper workspace when you created your initial heightmap. If so, in the Overlay Control Center,  remove the check marks from the Triangulated Elevation Grid (1), the overlay image and the User Defined Features. Do not delete them. Then open your las files as you did initially and make your point selections as shown in Justin's image above. Once loaded, create the second "Triangulated Elevation Grid", and using the arrow keys along the right side of the Control Center move it upward so it is above the overlay image, so the overlay is displayed.

 

Now, check mark the original "User Defined Features" in the Control Center. Right-click on it and choose "Select All Features in Selected Layer(s) with Digitizer Tool". That will restore the selection grid you used for your initial heightmap. Export the grid and follow the steps to create the new .raw file. You should now have two .raw files that you can use to swap the terrain in Unity.

 

To answer your question about what to do with the overlay image in Unity, If your image is the first paint texture, then once you are done with all of your splines, tree planting and texture painting, you can replace it with the default first texture used in Mike's CF tutorial. The image is "PebDeep2048.tga" and the X: and Y: tiling values are both 8. This will then replace all areas with no splines that haven't been painted with the default terrain texture. This is an easy way to hide the areas of the overlay image that were not hidden by painting. Plant some trees, to break the monotony, and you will be done.

 

A tip to locate any tears in your splines. Replace the first paint texture image with a solid light blue image. Build your course, then use F5 to view each hole. Any place where the light blue shows through a spline there is a tear and the terrain is showing through. Go back to Unity, locate the spot and do some smoothing. You may have to build and smooth a few times to remove all tears. Once done, either restore the overlay image or the default paint texture explained above.

 

Any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

 

Larry

 

[schmidt61059]

Larry,

Thanks much. I do have the original workspace saved, and I figured there was some way to do what you are indicating. I just need to go back and follow your directions. And thanks for the others tips. Very helpful.

FWIW, a little background that will date me: I've been messing with course designers since Jack Nicklaus Signature Edition (and I was ca. 30 then, so do the math). When JNPG came out, I found the prospect of Unity pretty daunting, but now that I'm getting into it I can see how it could be quite enjoyable, if still challenging. 

jim

[NoPutt]

Not to worry, In another 30 years JNPG 3 should be out and 

you'll still wonder why rolling golf balls still do not collide with

3D objects.

[Crow357]

Not to worry, In another 30 years JNPG 3 should be out and 

you'll still wonder why rolling golf balls still do not collide with

3D objects.

Well.  Someone got their Wheaties pissed upon today.

[schmidt61059]

Yeah! Success. Now, I just have to figure out all the other parts of this process! Thanks again!

[schmidt61059]

I don't know if I should post a new thread about this, but as I mentioned in my initial post, I'm experiencing a problem where the course takes forever to compile (well, it doesn't really ever get done before I cancel it). I had the basic layout for the front nine and tried to compile it. A good 45 minutes in it was not even close. Is this normal? If not, any ideas why this might be happening?

I thought this could be because I could not set up the project in the way indicated in Joe H's tutorials. I never got the option to include the basic assets and stuff like that. So I just started with the default project in the CF package. 

Additionally, now when I try that approach (or a new project), it won't let me import the PNG file for the overlay texture. I can pull up the "Add Texture" dialog but the "Add" button stays grayed out.

[Larrykuh]

The long delay is probably a function of the Lighting settings. From the Unity menu, select "Window->Lighting" , then remove the check marks from "Precomputed Realtime GI", "Baked GI" and "Auto" as shown in this image.

 

[schmidt61059]

Thanks! I bet that is mostly it. While some other parts have been a little slow, now that you mention it, that's where it gets stuck. I'll check it when I get home.

[Big Al]

not sure where to start    i have downloaded many popular courses from either PGLS or OGT   and these courses  do NOT come up in my stash., nor can i play any of them when a certain course., that i already downloaded, won't let me play because it's the wrong version  etc....i cannot change my outfit    i cannot buy clubs    i am listed as player E  not my Big Al name that appears in the friends column.....i like the game   but in some , respects ., i feel that i have wasted  some $$$$  buying this game,  which to me has too many different windows to get into to play such a  simple golf game.,  i played wgt for 7 years..never had this many problems,, had  glitches & meter jumps., screen freeze ups, etc..if any one can give me a SIMPLE walkthrough as to how to download & play some of these other courses, i would appreciate the response...my e-mail., = alexcntst@rogers.com

                                                             THX......AL

[Armand]

not sure where to start    i have downloaded many popular courses from either PGLS or OGT   and these courses  do NOT come up in my stash., nor can i play any of them when a certain course., that i already downloaded, won't let me play because it's the wrong version  etc....i cannot change my outfit    i cannot buy clubs    i am listed as player E  not my Big Al name that appears in the friends column.....i like the game   but in some , respects ., i feel that i have wasted  some $$$$  buying this game,  which to me has too many different windows to get into to play such a  simple golf game.,  i played wgt for 7 years..never had this many problems,, had  glitches & meter jumps., screen freeze ups, etc..if any one can give me a SIMPLE walkthrough as to how to download & play some of these other courses, i would appreciate the response...my e-mail., = alexcntst@rogers.com

                                                             THX......AL

 

I've sent you a PM so that we don't completely derail this thread.

[schmidt61059]

Back again with some more questions.

1. Lighting issue: when I compile the course and load/play in JNPG, there is a persistent haze, fog, smoke, or whatever effect you want to call it in the distance. It partially grays out most of the tee/approach shots. I presume this is a lighting issue. FWIW, I've turned off dynamic sky, and I've turned off vignetting and bloom (since those were mentioned elsewhere on the forum). I also have the various lighting options de-selected as advised by Larry above. Fog is not selected. I thought maybe this was because there are no trees or anything else for depth of field, but I doubt it. Thoughts?

2. Water planes: are these just a plain pain in Unity? Wolf Hollow has a couple of small ponds. I'm having a very hard time getting the water to appear where it should and not appear where it should not. It seems like I can get the water plane close, then move it down a little more, and it all disappears. Go a little too high and it floods out of the pond. I think part of the issue is that both of these are created by dams. So they're more like a tank where the water sits a little above some of the surrounding areas. I've already lowered the elevation in the pond, but I'm almost down to 0, since these are already at a low point on the course.

jim

[schmidt61059]

Hi anyone,

Any ideas about my additional questions. Should I make a  new post?

jim