Post by mcbogga on Dec 21, 2014 10:28:52 GMT -5
Thought I'd post up some WIP pics of my try to recreate my home course. Is something I have wanted to do for a long time, but have never had the tools before getting this game and the brilliant course creator.
The course has no back tees and measures only 6200yds from the mens tees. It has small greens and quirky doglegs that requires shaping shots with less than driver. From normal tees in moderate winds it will be defenseless to the accomplished TGC golfers even if offline shots are punished and beginners will struggle with it. In windy conditions I assume it will have more teeth due to the small greens. Being a modest course out in the Swedish out-back it may bring something a bit different.
I hope this may be in the running for hosting the Nordea Masters on the European Tour, but in that case 6200yds won't do. I'm thinking of making a "tour caliber" set of tees as well, stretching it to 7100 - 7200 and firming it up. This could potentially create a monster of US Open and Copper Creek proportions.
Decided as well to try to make the course play like the real thing over having the slopes down exactly as reality. However good the game is, its not an exact representation of the real thing. I do still need to tone down some features. Easy to overdo it when pushing and pulling to get a feature right. I am happy with the greens in test play, as they are close to the real thing.
60h and 11 holes into this project, will be at least 100h to completion.
If there is any interest I can publish the work in progress. Would love to get some playing feedback.
(hole numbers in pictures are wrong, have not re-ordered yet. Also all holes have at least some planting left)
17th - 180yds par 3 with a small tierd green.
5th - uphill, very tight 580yds par five. Hardest hole on the course in real life.
6th - par four coming down same hill five goes up. Approach over water
16th and 18th viewed from clubhouse. (This actually is quite close to how it actually looks)
And the real deal from slightly different angle...
1st tee - 350yds par 4 downhill dogleg right. fairway narrows, so tee-shot is not more than a 3-iron to leave a PW into a hard to hit green.
2d tee-shot uphill 90deg dogleg left.
18th from the forward tees. 580yds from regular tees. A good tee-shot will end up in the fairway between the two trees and leave 290yds to the green.
7th green from behind. Hole is only 320 yds, but if pin is top left or top right the pitch needs to be dialed in since the back to front slop is severe. I can imagine this may be an excellent hole streched out to need a 3-4i approach.
I have gone for as much realism as possible. All holes are traced from Google maps, I took overall elevations from Google Earth and made a rough sculpting of the plot before starting to lay out holes. Then course guide, photos and knowledge from having played it probably over 400 times. Did have some issues with the water-level and this has created some unwanted elevations around the club-house and holes 1, 15 and 16. Still trying to figure out best way to solve that one. Other issue I have is that the course is half forest where boreal is perfect but half parkland style, so missing the right trees for this part...
Don't know if it is helpful, but my lessons learned this far (some with help from the community and some through trial and error):
- Get rid of all auto-gen stuff, then build the hole. Still have some auto-gen left on 1 and 2 that may come back and bite me.
- For sculpting, get the macro right first. Overall slope from tee to green and sideways, then start sculpting features going into more and more detail. Same goes for greens. Start sculpting the green area with large brushes and get general tilt and any large features, humps etc in place. Have had a couple of greens where no fine adjustment necessary. Do not try to sculpt slopes on the green itself, Build the terrain that the green is on and let the slopes happen for a natural look. I think this approach is probably as valid for fantasy courses. Let the slopes on the green happen naturally from the terrain you are sculpting, not the other way around.
- A push and pull technique with the soft brushes is best way to get natural flowing terrain.
- Understand the difference between "flatten" and "raise" modes. They both have their specific uses. Am moving more and more to a "flatten" for preparing the green area and then raise to sculpt it. Took probably 20h to get the hang of these.
- Save often. This game does crash. Finding the keyboard shortcuts to save on the forum when screen turned black saved me 3-4h at one point. Was ready to give up.
- Use signs or dead trees as markers for tees, greens, hazards, any defining features. Positions can be triangulated using Google earth and measure to green and tee. Then match up those measurements in GNCD. Works very well and ensures the hole matches real thing. Very easy to start drifting and end up with something looking wrong if going free-hand.
- My current workflow:
Mark center of tee and green measuring from last hole.
Lay out hole in correct direction.
Put markers tracing rough, fairway, green, hazards and any other points of interest.
Do any needed macro corrections to elevations.
Lay down green shape and any green-side hazards
Lay down rough and fairway shapes, plant any key trees or other features (helpful when checking how sculpting looks)
Sculpt in order - rough, fairway and tee, green complex. Check that the tee-green elevation does not get out of hand and that sculpting is not overdone.
Plant all other items.
Finally spend a lot of time tweaking back and forth for minimal return on investment...
The course has no back tees and measures only 6200yds from the mens tees. It has small greens and quirky doglegs that requires shaping shots with less than driver. From normal tees in moderate winds it will be defenseless to the accomplished TGC golfers even if offline shots are punished and beginners will struggle with it. In windy conditions I assume it will have more teeth due to the small greens. Being a modest course out in the Swedish out-back it may bring something a bit different.
I hope this may be in the running for hosting the Nordea Masters on the European Tour, but in that case 6200yds won't do. I'm thinking of making a "tour caliber" set of tees as well, stretching it to 7100 - 7200 and firming it up. This could potentially create a monster of US Open and Copper Creek proportions.
Decided as well to try to make the course play like the real thing over having the slopes down exactly as reality. However good the game is, its not an exact representation of the real thing. I do still need to tone down some features. Easy to overdo it when pushing and pulling to get a feature right. I am happy with the greens in test play, as they are close to the real thing.
60h and 11 holes into this project, will be at least 100h to completion.
If there is any interest I can publish the work in progress. Would love to get some playing feedback.
(hole numbers in pictures are wrong, have not re-ordered yet. Also all holes have at least some planting left)
17th - 180yds par 3 with a small tierd green.
5th - uphill, very tight 580yds par five. Hardest hole on the course in real life.
6th - par four coming down same hill five goes up. Approach over water
16th and 18th viewed from clubhouse. (This actually is quite close to how it actually looks)
And the real deal from slightly different angle...
1st tee - 350yds par 4 downhill dogleg right. fairway narrows, so tee-shot is not more than a 3-iron to leave a PW into a hard to hit green.
2d tee-shot uphill 90deg dogleg left.
18th from the forward tees. 580yds from regular tees. A good tee-shot will end up in the fairway between the two trees and leave 290yds to the green.
7th green from behind. Hole is only 320 yds, but if pin is top left or top right the pitch needs to be dialed in since the back to front slop is severe. I can imagine this may be an excellent hole streched out to need a 3-4i approach.
I have gone for as much realism as possible. All holes are traced from Google maps, I took overall elevations from Google Earth and made a rough sculpting of the plot before starting to lay out holes. Then course guide, photos and knowledge from having played it probably over 400 times. Did have some issues with the water-level and this has created some unwanted elevations around the club-house and holes 1, 15 and 16. Still trying to figure out best way to solve that one. Other issue I have is that the course is half forest where boreal is perfect but half parkland style, so missing the right trees for this part...
Don't know if it is helpful, but my lessons learned this far (some with help from the community and some through trial and error):
- Get rid of all auto-gen stuff, then build the hole. Still have some auto-gen left on 1 and 2 that may come back and bite me.
- For sculpting, get the macro right first. Overall slope from tee to green and sideways, then start sculpting features going into more and more detail. Same goes for greens. Start sculpting the green area with large brushes and get general tilt and any large features, humps etc in place. Have had a couple of greens where no fine adjustment necessary. Do not try to sculpt slopes on the green itself, Build the terrain that the green is on and let the slopes happen for a natural look. I think this approach is probably as valid for fantasy courses. Let the slopes on the green happen naturally from the terrain you are sculpting, not the other way around.
- A push and pull technique with the soft brushes is best way to get natural flowing terrain.
- Understand the difference between "flatten" and "raise" modes. They both have their specific uses. Am moving more and more to a "flatten" for preparing the green area and then raise to sculpt it. Took probably 20h to get the hang of these.
- Save often. This game does crash. Finding the keyboard shortcuts to save on the forum when screen turned black saved me 3-4h at one point. Was ready to give up.
- Use signs or dead trees as markers for tees, greens, hazards, any defining features. Positions can be triangulated using Google earth and measure to green and tee. Then match up those measurements in GNCD. Works very well and ensures the hole matches real thing. Very easy to start drifting and end up with something looking wrong if going free-hand.
- My current workflow:
Mark center of tee and green measuring from last hole.
Lay out hole in correct direction.
Put markers tracing rough, fairway, green, hazards and any other points of interest.
Do any needed macro corrections to elevations.
Lay down green shape and any green-side hazards
Lay down rough and fairway shapes, plant any key trees or other features (helpful when checking how sculpting looks)
Sculpt in order - rough, fairway and tee, green complex. Check that the tee-green elevation does not get out of hand and that sculpting is not overdone.
Plant all other items.
Finally spend a lot of time tweaking back and forth for minimal return on investment...
