2 replies to this topic

[grumpter]

I went through some of the tutorials for LIDAR data both for Course Forge and just unity in general. Unfortunately getting both the LIDAR data and the overlay image were hard to find. The LIDAR data I was able to find also did not seem to be of high enough quality to actually sculpt a course from.

 

So I decided to manually create the courses. At first I tried to use a map program and just draw out the course by hand. I quickly realized that was going to take a very long time and would be very hard to accomplish. Just when I thought I had a few holes just right I realized how the holes I created would not allow adjacent holes to be placed in the right locations.

 

My next attempt was more successful using the following procedure:

 

1) Get overhead image (screen shot) of course from a map program online.

 

2) Measure distance in meters of objects on the outside edge of the course to crop image. Say from a particular house on the outside edge to another building on the opposite side of the course but not on the course. Do this for both the horizontal and vertical limits of the course.

 

3) Crop the image in Gimp at those outer limits

 

4) resize image to measurements from the outer edge landmarks (1 pixel for every meter of distance)

 

5) resize the canvas to 2000 x 2000 pixels with the image of the course centered. This resulted in a graphic that matches the size of a new terrain in course forge those I suppose you can start with any size terrain in course forge.

 

6) Back to the over head image online and get a general idea of the average height around the course so I can flatten the course to that mid-point and then erase all the trees. At some point I will need to save at this point to create a template for future courses.

 

7) Next I import the course image as a texture (20000 x 2000 pixels) and paint it onto my flat terrain.

 

8) Usually need to revisit steps 3, 4, 5 and 7 to get Course Forge ruler measurements to match up with map program measured distances.

 

Now I have a flat landscape of the course where I can easily see where to draw my course elements (tees, fairways, greens, vegetation etc). That is all the easy part. The hard part is then sculpting the course elevation by hand. Anyone have some tips on how to sculpt the elevations or get the data? I am using Google Earth but the data is a bit spotty in places and takes a long time to get the holes just right.

 

TLDR - without LIDAR data does anyone have tips on how to create the elevations for existing courses?

 

Edit: edited to add proper spacing. Is this board built for Macs? I arrange the post with proper spacing between paragraphs but then need to go back and put in an extra carriage return between each paragraph to have an empty line between each paragraph.

[Armand]

I went through some of the tutorials for LIDAR data both for Course Forge and just unity in general. Unfortunately getting both the LIDAR data and the overlay image were hard to find. The LIDAR data I was able to find also did not seem to be of high enough quality to actually sculpt a course from.

 

So I decided to manually create the courses. At first I tried to use a map program and just draw out the course by hand. I quickly realized that was going to take a very long time and would be very hard to accomplish. Just when I thought I had a few holes just right I realized how the holes I created would not allow adjacent holes to be placed in the right locations.

 

My next attempt was more successful using the following procedure:

 

1) Get overhead image (screen shot) of course from a map program online.

 

2) Measure distance in meters of objects on the outside edge of the course to crop image. Say from a particular house on the outside edge to another building on the opposite side of the course but not on the course. Do this for both the horizontal and vertical limits of the course.

 

3) Crop the image in Gimp at those outer limits

 

4) resize image to measurements from the outer edge landmarks (1 pixel for every meter of distance)

 

5) resize the canvas to 2000 x 2000 pixels with the image of the course centered. This resulted in a graphic that matches the size of a new terrain in course forge those I suppose you can start with any size terrain in course forge.

 

6) Back to the over head image online and get a general idea of the average height around the course so I can flatten the course to that mid-point and then erase all the trees. At some point I will need to save at this point to create a template for future courses.

 

7) Next I import the course image as a texture (20000 x 2000 pixels) and paint it onto my flat terrain.

 

8) Usually need to revisit steps 3, 4, 5 and 7 to get Course Forge ruler measurements to match up with map program measured distances.

 

Now I have a flat landscape of the course where I can easily see where to draw my course elements (tees, fairways, greens, vegetation etc). That is all the easy part. The hard part is then sculpting the course elevation by hand. Anyone have some tips on how to sculpt the elevations or get the data? I am using Google Earth but the data is a bit spotty in places and takes a long time to get the holes just right.

 

TLDR - without LIDAR data does anyone have tips on how to create the elevations for existing courses?

 

Edit: edited to add proper spacing. Is this board built for Macs? I arrange the post with proper spacing between paragraphs but then need to go back and put in an extra carriage return between each paragraph to have an empty line between each paragraph.

 

I have no advice for you, since I don't really design.  The one hole I did took a very long time, and I can't imagine trying to sculpt the terrain for all 18 holes by hand.

 

As for the formatting in the forum posts, I hear you ... I also am "old school" and prefer two spaces between sentences.  I've just learned to add the 2nd carriage return after each paragraph - like a typewriter, I suppose, so that works for me too.  I always put two spaces between sentences, but the forum auto-changes it to one ...  It's not that much of an issue for me.

[DoGgs]

Just practice with the tools in unity before embarking on a project, don't be afraid to go wild with the tools as they let you understand what each one does, using them sparingly only shows you so much.  Once it comes to actually starting your first course, keep it simple, something like a flat parkland course that may have minor elevation changes.  Keeping your first course simple should help with the technical bits too, if you had a course with high elevations and cliffs or drop offs you would then have to pay more attention to marking hazards and OOB's etc.  The same if you had a course with plenty of water with island greens etc,  just keep it simple early doors and gradually build up to more ambitious projects.