Need the 2019 version of the game to create Lidar courses?

[itsnaarwhal]

Do i need to buy the 2019 version of the game to create Lidar courses?

[obmar]

yes

[mvpmanatee]

Why do we need TGC 19 to create Lidar courses? I was just working on my first one on 2K and I can't seem to get the file into the game. This must be the issue.

[pobee10]

Hey Everyone,

For whatever reason the LIDAR Course file MUST be opened and saved within TGC 2019 before being copied into the 2K21 course folder.

For whatever reason again, the saving function within TGC2019 must modify the file in some way to make it work in 2K21.

What I do is run the tool, export the course into TGC2019, open it, save it, leave the game, copy the course file into 2k21 folder, open in 2K. Done.

You could send your course file to someone with TGC2019 so they can open it and save it, then send the course file back to you and you can place into 2K and it will work. Would be happy to do it for you.

[mvpmanatee]

Thank you. I think I am going to have to ask to get the 2K file done for me. I need a course created in 19, and then imported back into 19, and then moved into the 2K folder and it will work?

[pobee10]

The tool will create a course file. Send that course file and I will put into Tgc2019 and then save. Then I will send back to you this file and it will work in 2K.

[pobee10]

I can’t remember if you need to start with a blank course file from 2019 first. I hope not. PM me and we can give it a shot

[dante]

Hi all!

Pobee - if I send you a file can you work your magic in 2019 and then send back to me? I was just going to buy the 2019 version but it's $49.99, that's more than I paid for 2K21.

PS - nice pic of Ty Webb!

[stubby3596]

Dante, have a look at my post here, it will help you be in control of using the tools with 2K21 only. tgctours.proboards.com/thread/26070/quick-lidar-tools-native-designer

[sandsaver01]

Dec 6, 2020 17:58:30 GMT -5 stubby3596 said:

Dante, have a look at my post here, it will help you be in control of using the tools with 2K21 only. tgctours.proboards.com/thread/26070/quick-lidar-tools-native-designer

Stubby, I think we all appreciate the effort you have put into this, but I am afraid that 90% of the people who have this problem will not be able or understand how to use what you have created. We all hope Chad can incorporate what you have done directly into a new version of his tool.

[stubby3596]

Dec 6, 2020 18:32:25 GMT -5 sandsaver01 said:

Dec 6, 2020 17:58:30 GMT -5 stubby3596 said:

Dante, have a look at my post here, it will help you be in control of using the tools with 2K21 only. tgctours.proboards.com/thread/26070/quick-lidar-tools-native-designer

Stubby, I think we all appreciate the effort you have put into this, but I am afraid that 90% of the people who have this problem will not be able or understand how to use what you have created. We all hope Chad can incorporate what you have done directly into a new version of his tool.

I can understand that. I am willing to help anyone get this setup and running as well. Once you have it once you just run it again every time you run Chad's tool. 

[mal]

Since you need a 2019 sourced course template and the 2019 Steam version can be purchased for about $3.00 US, it may be best for people to buy TGC2019. Plus they get access to all the awesome courses that haven't and will likely never be updated to 2k21.

Having said that, the python script is simple to use, but once you convert the course file and have made changes to the course in 2k21, you cannot again use chadtools to update any of the OSM or lidar data without it corrupting the course file so it will not playtest properly. So it is always best to keep your course in 2019 until you are 100% certain that all OSM and lidar elements are exactly as they need to be before you begin working with the course in 2k21. This is just my opinion, but having just learned the hard way by converting the course with the python script and done extensive editing and building in 2k21, only to eventually lose all these hours spent due to a simple oversight of a single missing spline in OSM data on a 36 hole project. So the moral of the story is keep using tgc2019 to prep and proof, and then finally use 2k21 for the actual design, building and publishing of the course.

[mal]

Dec 6, 2020 12:13:33 GMT -5 dante said:

Hi all!

Pobee - if I send you a file can you work your magic in 2019 and then send back to me? I was just going to buy the 2019 version but it's $49.99, that's more than I paid for 2K21.

PS - nice pic of Ty Webb!

You can get it for waaaaaaaaay cheaper. Check Allkeyshop/Cheapdigitaldownload and pick your vendor. You should be able to buy it for less than $5.00

[stubby3596]

I have never used 2019 so I can't really say but here is what I did using 2K21.

- Mapped a bit of the course using OSM
- Imported lidar and OSM to .course file
- Converted that file for use in 2K21
- Open and tested a few things, realized my OSM mapping and things needed a bit of fine tuning
- Made changes in OSM
- Imported lidar and OSM data from scratch to the same blank template course
- Converted that file for use in 2K21
- Lather, rinse, repeat until I was happy with the base import
- At this point I stay in the designer, anything I missed in OSM I just built manually with the design tools based on viewing the course in google earth, bing maps etc.

My python script really doesn't do anything other than make the file ready for 2K21. I think the big thing to remember is that any .course file that has been touched by 2K21 will have issues trying to re-apply anything from Chad's tool. There are some underlying changes in the way the course data is changed that his tool doesn't account for.

[mal]

I only use 2k21 for the actual course editing since the designer now works so much better with mouse/keyboard than the tgc2019 version ever did. Anyway, the issue isn't your script. It is the fact that chadtools doesn't play nice with the 2k21 format. And after spending a few hundred hours of building dozens of courses I feel I have finally landed on a workflow that doesn't waste much time or effort.

1. Decide on course
2. Grab lidar data and process 1 tile to determine EPSG if not already known
3. OSM everything
4. Set splines.json to match course details (I use matching widths on my fairways and greens and a little OSM/designer trick to get perfect transitions on every green if the course calls for it)
5. Run chadtools 0.3.2 to build complete heightmap and do initial OSM build
6. Check course in tgc2019
7. Make any changes necessary in OSM and begin to finetune coordinate adjustments
8. Rinse and Repeat OSM alignment and re-running chadtools 0.3.2 until everything is 100% accurate
9. Run chadtools 0.3.5 to determine lidar tree mixture (btw, using OSM trees is not time effective since tree height is not properly accounted for during import) 
10. Rinse and repeat running 0.3.5 until tree mixture and height matches as close as possible (keep OSM import turned off since this version causes issues with repeated OSM queries)
11. Finally save course file in tgc2019 and open in 2k21 to begin the actual course design work

At this point steps 1 through 11 take about 30 minutes to 2 hours (not including the OSM spline tracing work as this usually takes anywhere from 2 to 8 hours or more based on course details) depending on how many x/y coordinate iterations are needed.

12. Smooth all cart paths and fairways. The design work in 2k21 varies wildly based on the availability and quality of source reference material, but you need to determine the point of diminishing returns pretty early on in the design process. Find a few "landmark" spots on the course and detail those out, do NOT use the multi-placement tool until in the final steps so you can keep your items levels low and hopefully the design tool response times stay reasonable.
13. Set your time of day so you can see deep shadows and adjust spline points in bunkers, fairways and greens that are not adhering to obvious topography slopes and other elevation changes.
14. Set green speed to 7-8 (about 162) and set 4 legal and useable pins. You may not always be able to get 4 pins per green to be in a legal position on your first pass. Personally, I try to never mess with the green contours, but sometimes it is necessary to massage a pesky green to behave properly, plus some lidar data can produce more aggressive than in reality slopes when the surface is near drastic elevation transitions.
15. Place at least 3 tee sets and match them (game yardage is not accurate to real life yardage and even more so on par 5 holes) to the course scorecard.
16. Use an oval soft edge blue shape to flatten all tee boxes
17. Playtest each tee set and pin position fixing any issues you come across
18. If you used any auto-generated grass/plants, remove these elements from where they shouldn't be.
19. Playtest from back tee set with highest wind setting
20. Finetune weather and time of day
21. Take photos
22. Final playtest and adjustments to all surface firmness and speeds
23. Submit course to TGCTours
24. Go to step 1