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Post by Heisenberg on Jun 26, 2020 9:09:38 GMT -5
Welcome to The Victoria Golf Club in Melbourne’s sandbelt. This was my home away from home for about 10 years and I’ve had some of my best RL golf rounds on this course. I’ve since moved interstate so playing it will have to be via this RCR version for a while. Unfortunately lidar was not available for any Melbourne courses.
About The Victoria Golf Club:
A private members club as most of the best sandbelt courses are, VGC has been rated a top 10 course in Australia and a top 100 course in the world for as long as I can remember. It is the home club to 5 x British Open winner, Peter Thomson and the home club to US Open & 3 x World Matchplay winner, Geoff Ogilvy. Both played pennant for VGC in their early years.
Founded in 1903, it was designed by Billy Meader and Oscar Damman but it was the influence of architect Alister MacKenzie who was commissioned by the club in 1926 for which it is most famous. MacKenzie’s design suggestions were in fact incorporated into at least 9 holes on the new course. His plans also dramatically created all the strategic bunkering lining the course, giving it the aesthetically distinctive character that is so stunning today. It has hosted a number of Australian majors over the years including multiple Australian Opens and Australian Masters which has been attended by players including Tiger Woods & Jack Nicklaus over the years. It is also the host of the upcoming 2022 Australian Open.
As an RCR with OSM, it was a little tricky and there’s only 6 meters of elevation across the entire layout. Given it’s age and suburban location, it is also a very tight course and pockets of neighboring land had to be purchased over the years to extend the length to what it is today (6892 yards from the tips). Despite this, it’s still a truly beautiful course and it’s difficulty comes from the often lightning fast greens and well over 100 bunkers. As a bayside course, I’d recommend to play it in medium to high winds as this is very typical of the area.
Disclaimer: The greens on the sandbelt courses don’t look great in this game as it’s near impossible to do a sharp edge cut into the greens and fairways like they are in real life. My hope (although unlikely) is that when I port this over to 2k21, I might be able to make them look a little more realistic. Not holding my breath though. Anything else that’s poorly done is on me 😉
Anyway, hope you enjoy it as much as I always have and I’m grateful the design software in this game is so great that I was able to recreate it (to the best of my ability anyway :/ ) …..
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Post by ezzinomilonga on Jun 26, 2020 10:02:19 GMT -5
This is SO nice looking from the video...and is also a great addiction to our RCRs portfolio I'm sure it will be super appreciated and i really hope to find the time to play it tonight!! Thank you for your hard work!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2020 10:12:38 GMT -5
I am always impressed by people that can pull off RCR that actually look good in game. This is one of those courses! I know nothing about the real life course, but I can say this is a solid publish for TGC. The highlight for me was the bunkers. I know you said they weren't up to the standard of the real course, and after watching the video, I see what you are talking about. However, they was well done and offer a challenge and occasional headache. I really felt like it forced me to plan my approaches much more thoroughly that just glancing at yardage, wind, and elevation. Seriously well done Heisenberg ! I feel this is an awesome addition to your portfolio, and you are truly making big steps in quality with each release.
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Post by hoosier404 on Jun 26, 2020 11:40:13 GMT -5
Agree 100% with Baby Bull, great new course. Felt like a RCR should with great bunkering and greens that trail off into the bunkers and the fringe. Also liked that the greens had a fair amount of tiering from front to back and than back down again making you think that you are better off short than long. Thanks for this effort. Will be playing again with a buddy online soon as we both appreciate really good RCR's of which this is one although I cannot comment on the authenticity having never seen it. Keep them coming. Thanks !
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scoll3
Amateur Golfer
Posts: 180
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Post by scoll3 on Jun 26, 2020 11:51:52 GMT -5
Thought you did a really nice job here... the bunkers were fantastic! This is one of I think the first RCRs for a Sandbelt course, so really this is unprecedented!
I loved the way the greens seamlessly blended with the bunkers- one thing I would note is that you didn’t include any runoff on the back of the greens. Looking at aerial images, almost every hole has fairway behind the green bleeding into the next tee box/fairway. If you added run off it would only improve the aesthetics and replicate the playing conditions even more.
I also thought that the light rough texture off of the fairways didn’t look right- on the real course it’s only fairway straight into the heavy rough or sandy areas. Getting rid of the light rough and also refraining from using the dark heavy rough brush would make the course look more natural. I loved the holes where you didn’t use any heavy rough and just kept the natural heavy rough in game... it gave it a nice dry and rugged look that I wanted to see every hole throughout the course.
This is all constructive criticism... I really like the course and you did an amazing job, especially given how hard it is to replicate a sandbelt course in the tgc designer. Great job!!
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Post by Heisenberg on Jun 26, 2020 16:58:23 GMT -5
Thanks ezzinomilonga I hope you enjoy it. It’s not the most difficult course so stick the wind up a bit for a more authentic experience @babybull thanks as always for your support and playthrough. I think this kind of course design suits me better tbh as I can just concentrate on learning the tools, planting, sculpting, etc. I’m doing another Aussie course with Lidar next and then might do my current home club which is also in the sandbelt (Peninsula Kingswood). This designer is a blast isn’t it hoosier404 Really appreciate the kind words and I’m stoked u enjoyed playing it. It’s a fairly short and easy course in game so pin placement using the contours was pretty important. scoll3 Great feedback. With regards to the runoffs, I experimented with a number of different ways of dealing with the surfaces around the greens. My preference would have been to do a wide fringe into light rough but doing that creates a fringe where the bunkers meet the green and I couldn’t avoid it. You can’t do fringe on one part of the green and not others. So I settled with the wide band of light rough into heavy rough wherever possible for the runoffs. With regards to the light rough on the fairways, I think I agree and might change that when I port it if it doesn’t look too extreme. That in turn would mean I could remove all the painted heavy rough which I 100% agree looks better without it. Again, great feedback and thanks for taking the time to share it.
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Post by rhino4life on Jun 27, 2020 23:08:31 GMT -5
HOLY sh%$.... This was really a nice re-creation. I was a little skeptical of the bunkers cutting into the greens at first so I went back and watched the video and second and third time and that is just how they are. The planting work and overall feel of the environment was really good. This may not everyone's cup of tea but I really enjoyed this. I will use this on a Friday Night here in a few weeks for Xbox Alt Shot. This course seems to lend itself to be a good challenge for this mode of play. I will be in touch.
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Post by LKeet6 on Jun 28, 2020 4:26:38 GMT -5
Ooh this looks interesting! Defo going to try this out in my little use society 👍
Check out this video by my new favourite YouTuber. First time I'd come across this greens cut into bunkers thing.
(The video is of Victoria, not Melbourne.)
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Post by Heisenberg on Jun 28, 2020 16:55:02 GMT -5
rhino4life Thanks very much for the feedback. I can see why it would appear odd for most players of the game as it certainly doesn't meet the 'normal' expectations for surfacing however after you play on it and see what's trying to be achieved, it grows on you pretty quickly imo. golfwolfuk had the same issues when he created Franktson Heath and that course looked brilliant and played just as well also. Great to hear it might get some use in your society as well so thanks again. LKeet6 Yeah I think you'll enjoy it when you give it a try. I had seen Erik's videos before and it looks like they played in the middle of summer as the rough is very dry. Thanks for sharing it and I hope you enjoy the course.
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Post by Energ1ser on Jun 29, 2020 1:08:27 GMT -5
Really nice job with this course. I'm a little curious about the use of boreal, but aside from that your attention to detail was very good and the course was fun to play. The more sandbelt courses (RCR or fictional) in this game the better imo.
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Post by Avakrac on Jun 29, 2020 1:37:14 GMT -5
Wow dude, absolutely wow. Loved it and had a crack round on it to. Great detail and really good to play for me since i have never been to victoria.
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Post by Heisenberg on Jun 29, 2020 4:57:02 GMT -5
@energ1zer Thanks for giving it a play and for the feedback. With regards to using boreal - I'm very much still learning and haven't used that many themes so if there were other better ones, I might learn that down the track?. I used it because even though the sand in the bunkers do extend all the way to the greens, there is still a small band of turf at the top of each bunker and boreal helped give me that look (albeit a larger band of turf). The other themes made it look like the sand met the green with nothing in between which I felt was a bit too harsh a transition. Boreal also helped make the waste bunkers and natural paths look decent but again I'm not sure which themes can also do that (?). Happy to take some advice on which themes you thought may work better though as I'm starting another RCR sandbelt course. Thanks again for the feedback. Avakrac Wow mate - thanks for taking the time to do that. You played great and everything looks sweet in ultra on your new rig. You mentioned in the video that you wanted to try some more Aussie RCR's out. I've played a few of varying quality but from memory Barnbougle Dunes was done well using lidar. I've played both courses there in RL and they are amazing so give Barnbougle a try at some stage. Apart from that there is a Royal Melbourne and a Kingston Heath in the game but I'm not sure how accurately they're done. Someone else might know better. There's also Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand which I think was done with lidar that's done well so that should get you started Thanks again for the vid and hopefully we'll catch you in a stream again soon. Oh and try Frankston Heath if you haven't already which is a fantasy course by Golfwolfuk. He really captured the sandbelt feel brilliantly.
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Post by LKeet6 on Jun 29, 2020 5:04:07 GMT -5
My natural instinct would suggest that delta would look the best, certainly for textures, colours and trees, but your explanation of why you went for boreal is solid.
I've played mount compass, the glades and colonial (pretty sure it was the Australian one) in my society recently. All were great 👍
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Post by lessthanbread on Jun 29, 2020 9:18:38 GMT -5
Just watched Avakrac's video on this. Holy crap you did a fantastic job on this course.
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Post by rhino4life on Jun 29, 2020 10:25:17 GMT -5
rhino4life Thanks very much for the feedback. I can see why it would appear odd for most players of the game as it certainly doesn't meet the 'normal' expectations for surfacing however after you play on it and see what's trying to be achieved, it grows on you pretty quickly imo. golfwolfuk had the same issues when he created Franktson Heath and that course looked brilliant and played just as well also. Great to hear it might get some use in your society as well so thanks again. LKeet6 Yeah I think you'll enjoy it when you give it a try. I had seen Erik's videos before and it looks like they played in the middle of summer as the rough is very dry. Thanks for sharing it and I hope you enjoy the course. Frankston Heath course got jobbed IMO. I really enjoyed that course too.
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