|
Post by sandsaver01 on Jan 24, 2020 12:29:06 GMT -5
Sand Hills Golf Club is a private club near Mullen Nebraska, pretty much in the middle of the state. It was designed by the Coore/Crenshaw team in 1995, and has consistently been rated in the top 10 modern courses by most of the golf course rating guides. The par 71 7089 yard course is only open for play four months out of the year, and the wind blows hard! I have finished the basic course in terms of playability, keeping as close as I can to the available images and Google Earth views. The course has basically no plant material besides native grasses, but there are plenty of those! I have done no planting yet, and mostly due to the rolling terrain I have just under 50% left on the plant meter, so I certainly will not be able to replicate those grass-covered hills off to the horizon. I will do my best to put the grass in places where the video golfer will see it, like the tees, landing areas and green complexes, and hope I do not max out the meter. Below are four views of the course as it is in the game and IRL. The elvation data from Lidar is quite good as you will see comparing the two views. I hope these whet your appetite!
|
|
|
Post by jeffreyb on Jan 24, 2020 12:31:18 GMT -5
Wow, looks great. I was wondering when someone would tackle this project.
|
|
|
Post by sandsaver01 on Jan 24, 2020 13:23:59 GMT -5
Wow, looks great. I was wondering when someone would tackle this project. Thanks jeffrey! I also forgot to apologize in the original post for all the trees in the backdrop. Countryside was really the only theme I could use; Highlands has the nice bare hills, but it also has an ocean, and this is Nebraska lol, also the hills in Highland are too steep - so trees it is.
|
|
|
Post by lessthanbread on Jan 24, 2020 14:21:19 GMT -5
This looks killer Mike. Love the designer pictures with the real pictures lined up together. Looks great
|
|
|
Post by jeffreyb on Jan 24, 2020 14:53:12 GMT -5
Wow, looks great. I was wondering when someone would tackle this project. Thanks jeffrey! I also forgot to apologize in the original post for all the trees in the backdrop. Countryside was really the only theme I could use; Highlands has the nice bare hills, but it also has an ocean, and this is Nebraska lol, also the hills in Highland are too steep - so trees it is. I know, the game has its limitations,....I’m sure it will be great regardless
|
|
|
Post by mjhamilton113 on Jan 24, 2020 15:06:12 GMT -5
Looks incredible, can't wait to play this
|
|
|
Post by gamesdecent on Jan 24, 2020 16:13:06 GMT -5
Oh, hell yeah!
Only two recommendations - the textures look like they are from different number sets? Looks a little weird IMO with the greens being darker than the fairways, especially in the comparison pic of #1 green. I would also recommend a wider light rough band around the fairways, especially where it runs into bunkers. Like in the last pic of #18 fairway, I would make that whole strip between fairway and the native grass to be light rough texture up to the bunker lip. I'm assuming they are all done with the second surface feature and not by hand?
|
|
|
Post by hoosierhoops24 on Jan 24, 2020 20:44:38 GMT -5
Looks great, Mike! Keep up the good work. Definitely looking forward to playing this.
|
|
|
Post by sandsaver01 on Jan 25, 2020 8:05:47 GMT -5
Oh, hell yeah! Only two recommendations - the textures look like they are from different number sets? Looks a little weird IMO with the greens being darker than the fairways, especially in the comparison pic of #1 green. I would also recommend a wider light rough band around the fairways, especially where it runs into bunkers. Like in the last pic of #18 fairway, I would make that whole strip between fairway and the native grass to be light rough texture up to the bunker lip. I'm assuming they are all done with the second surface feature and not by hand? Thanks for the input Brian. On your two points: the textures are by no means set in stone at this point. If you look at other pictures of the course from different sources the colors look different from the ones I chose. On the second point; yes the lt. rough is the second surface feature. If you look at a lot of pictures you can see that the light rough on the course is very narrow or non-existent. I compromised on the width here. In the #18 picture you mention, the strip between fairway and bunker is in fact heavy rough as you can see looking at the mow pattern continuing on past the bunker. Who knows - I may remove the light rough altogether. we shall see.
|
|
|
Post by sandsaver01 on Jan 25, 2020 10:51:55 GMT -5
Just a WIP progress update. I have started to plant grasses on the first two holes, and already I am realizing that I cannot achieve anything like the real look of the course. Two problems: the plant meter limitations; and the draw distance for grasses. I had decided before I began planting that I was going to have to plant only around greens, traps and some tees, and that is still true. Even with that however things only look like IRL when you are within 25-40 yards, otherwise the grasses (except for bullrushes which are water grasses, and one other type which is visible for about 60 yards) just disappear. I guess it will have to be what CAN be achieved, not what I would like it to look like .
|
|
scoll3
Amateur Golfer
Posts: 180
|
Post by scoll3 on Jan 25, 2020 11:00:24 GMT -5
Super pumped you chose to do this course sandsaver01- try your best to work around the limitations of the designer, but with your skill I wouldn’t fret too much over it. This is looking great already!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2020 11:09:29 GMT -5
Just a WIP progress update. I have started to plant grasses on the first two holes, and already I am realizing that I cannot achieve anything like the real look of the course. Two problems: the plant meter limitations; and the draw distance for grasses. I had decided before I began planting that I was going to have to plant only around greens, traps and some tees, and that is still true. Even with that however things only look like IRL when you are within 25-40 yards, otherwise the grasses (except for bullrushes which are water grasses, and one other type which is visible for about 60 yards) just disappear. I guess it will have to be what CAN be achieved, not what I would like it to look like . You want to rely more on the higher draw distance grasses. I'm pretty sure countryside has that same one that boreal does, and it's really useful.
Plant meter limitations: the only way to subvert this with grass is to spam plant all of it. There will be areas far enough away from the golf holes that you just can't plant up thanks to meter limitations, even with spam planting.
|
|
|
Post by LKeet6 on Jan 25, 2020 11:09:35 GMT -5
Just a WIP progress update. I have started to plant grasses on the first two holes, and already I am realizing that I cannot achieve anything like the real look of the course. Two problems: the plant meter limitations; and the draw distance for grasses. I had decided before I began planting that I was going to have to plant only around greens, traps and some tees, and that is still true. Even with that however things only look like IRL when you are within 25-40 yards, otherwise the grasses (except for bullrushes which are water grasses, and one other type which is visible for about 60 yards) just disappear. I guess it will have to be what CAN be achieved, not what I would like it to look like . From the real to tgc comparison pics, could you achieve a decent look by making the heavy rough dark brown? Again, it's a huge compromise (if it can even work,) because you lose the height of the grass, but in my mind's eye, you get the coverage of the course and the look from further away... Or would look rubbish?
|
|
|
Post by sandsaver01 on Jan 25, 2020 14:34:43 GMT -5
From the real to tgc comparison pics, could you achieve a decent look by making the heavy rough dark brown? Again, it's a huge compromise (if it can even work,) because you lose the height of the grass, but in my mind's eye, you get the coverage of the course and the look from further away... Or would look rubbish? I don't know Leon, what do you all think. Just for some background, the hills IRL are not always or usually brown, often are green. I used those comparison pix because I could get the shots I wanted. In answer to Adam's point, the grasses seen in this comparison are the highest draw distance ones - a lot of the others disappear at 20 meters. Actually Highlands has a few grasses good to 100 meters or so, but I couldn't handle backdrop as I said before.
|
|
|
Post by LKeet6 on Jan 25, 2020 15:24:31 GMT -5
From the real to tgc comparison pics, could you achieve a decent look by making the heavy rough dark brown? Again, it's a huge compromise (if it can even work,) because you lose the height of the grass, but in my mind's eye, you get the coverage of the course and the look from further away... Or would look rubbish? I don't know Leon, what do you all think. Just for some background, the hills IRL are not always or usually brown, often are green. I used those comparison pix because I could get the shots I wanted. In answer to Adam's point, the grasses seen in this comparison are the highest draw distance ones - a lot of the others disappear at 20 meters. Actually Highlands has a few grasses good to 100 meters or so, but I couldn't handle backdrop as I said before. I like the 3rd (bottom) pic the best. What I was getting at though, is what it would look like from further away, when the grass starts disappearing. Have you got a zoom out pic?
|
|