Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2014 10:30:04 GMT -5
Ok, so here I go. This is long about 30 minutes, so if you have no patience just move along now, go play golf or something.
Yeah me, creating a thread called build a course, 
even I know how funny that sounds. I have pretty much no credentials to do this, so why am I doing it.?
Well there are plenty of flat boring courses out there, there are plenty of courses out there where people have poured their heart and souls into, that still look crappy, me included.
I'm like so many of you, I want to build a nice course, but when it comes to making it look nice I struggle big time. Like you I have tried and tried and tried, In my current builds listed in my signature, I'm getting better, at least in my mind. I like my Temagami cliffs, but it took so many releases to get it decent the listing is all junked up. Like you I struggle. However I believe I have a method now that may help all of you like me that struggle to be creative enough to build a decent course. Will I or you ever build a 5 star badge course, maybe who knows, time will tell.
But this is for people who like me struggle with the tools, and the creative process. Creative people cannot relate to us, they think we are lazy, uninspired and stupid.
They just do not understand how hard it is for us to have a vision for a nice course, but be unable to lay it down on the screen. Some of these folks may even feel the need come in this thread and bash this to bits without even watching the videos. Were going to ignore the haters and lay down a nice natural looking course even with our limited ability and skill. Were going to build something we can be proud of that will get a 5 star badge in our own minds.
Lets start with the land. Yeah we could flatten and start from scratch, but this is exactly how we end up building a crappy course for many of us. We are just are not creative enough and it ends up looking like crap no matter how much blood and sweat we poor into it. However even the most creative courses here, ignore the surrounding land around the hole. We cure that issue with this method, I'm going to show you.
So, your still here with me, maybe I have peaked your interest, great, let's rock shall we. Let's try something a little different than the suggested methods, the Boreal theme is best for this method and see what we can develop shall we. It also happens to be faster and easier as well, but that's not lazy, we just have no ability to get natural and real looking any other way. Maybe it's a short cut, maybe not, I do not personally particularly care one way or the other. I'm just trying to build a nice looking, natural real looking golf course, what difference does it make how long it takes.
Ok before we move on, get cozy, get a beer, we have about 15 minutes left here.
Steps
1. Just create the land, but no holes, move the sliders to your liking, I like all the way up, in this theme, full trees, full hills and full water, because I can easily enough remove the stuff and it gives a more sloped terrain. Watch the video.
2. Ok now we have a piece of property to start. if you cruise around you can see how the land starts to suggest to you hole placement. How many times have we walked in a forest and seen a spot and said, this would make a nice golf hole. Fanatic golfers will relate to that. Cruise around this land, find a spot for your first hole, see what the land tells you about what par the hole should be, test your spot by creating a test hole. This almost removes our need for a creative ability to decide hole placement, hole shape etc, let the land tell us what to do. the land is great at this and far better at this than me and likely you if you are still here with me.
3. Create 1 hole now, play the hole fly by. Looks like a pretty crappy hole right now, but wait. Lets highlight the green and fairway and start moving the sliders all the way down, remove the fairway, remove the rough, remove the heavy rough, remove the hazards and shrink the green to as small as it will go. All you are left with now is a tiny tiny green, and a tee box with a bunch of junk between you and the hole.
4. In the create surfaces menu there is a selection called clear generated objects, lets clear the generated objects between the tiny green and the tee box. Fly by it again in the play menu, now what you should see is the perfect foundation for a pretty natural looking golf hole. But the spot for the fairway and green may be to sloped. Use a smooth edge flat tool with soft edges and smooth the terrain between the tee and the green. Fly by it again, see how its taking shape now.
5. I like to lay the tee box now. Do whatever fancies you.
6. Next I will flatten the area for the green, you can slope it later, and lay the green, the green rough etc and any bunkers you want around the green. Try not to sculpt them to a point where the green will feed the ball to the bunker, or at least overuse that. once or twice is fine, but it gets annoying for golfers quick and guarantees no return visits to your creation.
7. Fly it again, this time looking at the area between the tee box and the green, you will see how the land almost tells you where the fairway should go and any bunkers that should be laid. Sometimes the land even gives you clues to bunker shapes, bonus as far as I'm concerned. If the land can take over much of the creative process all the better in my books for me.
8. I like to lay any fairway bunkers now, and sculpt them. Try not to sculpt them to a point where the fairway will feed the ball to the bunker, or at least overuse that. once or twice is fine, but it gets annoying for golfers quick and guarantees no return visits to your creation.
9. Lay the fairway down. Follow the natural terrain for your path, not necessarily the line. Fly it again and play it as well, you will likely see a few hard to play areas here and areas that are flat. Sculpt it now to make the fairway, just that a fair way to the hole. Fair ways are supposed to be a good spot to hit, not something that leads the way to a disaster. Think about wind here, is it reachable in heavy winds, wide enough to allow for the big sweeping side wind etc. It may be easy in the designer with no wind, but what about the 22 mph winds out there.
10. Add trees, grass, plants and bushes etc to the stuff already there. By adding it with the created stuff it gives a natural look to the place IMHO. Play the hole a few times, good practice time, use different clubs and fix anything you see needs fixing.
11. Apply lighting now if you like, but I like to build in bright light, and apply my lighting when the course is done. Once you have applied your final lighting to the course, do us all a favor and remove dark shadows from all your greens please especially around the hole. You do this by either clearing generated objects or deleting created ones.
Watch the video, you will see what I mean here. Even an unskilled lazy sod like myself can build a fairly decent looking golf hole using this method.
I was called away for about 2 minutes around the 14 minute mark, sorry for that, it is just a minute though. I have no idea how to edit a video, I just record and pause, that's about all I'm capable of. So there's nothing fancy added here.
Enjoy, I hope the haters keep at bay here, this is just meant to help fellow beginning designers who struggle to build a decent looking golf course, but have a burning desire to do so.
I don't care what the haters say, I think the video ends up depicting a pretty decent golf hole here. But it really is a matter of taste, not everyone agrees on all wines either.
I'm so glad to have seen Bavaro get a 5 star badge here, that not only shows that Wendy did a magnificent job, it shows that the people running this place are capable of giving a 5 star badge to a natural real looking golf course.
The staff here deserve a 5 star badge in my books, top notch people they are.
