All of my holes are routed. I usually lay down shapes in hole order, but I've been messing so much with my water shape and the holes surrounding it, that I went ahead and laid out 15, 16 and 17. This is what I have so far. I will probably have all shapes for the holes placed on my next day off (Saturday).
Here is the back 9:
Now it's time to watch the Masters par 3 tourney!
Doron
New Project
Re: New Project
Almost finished laying out the entire course, just figuring out how I want to route a cart path throughout the course. Should be moving some earth in the next few days. I've also read stillgolfings posts about bunker shapes, and I am going to attempt to try the bunkers with the rippled type of edges, much like TPC San Antonio:
This may pose a problem with shape points and with elevation work, but we'll see how it goes first. The shapes are laid out like the bunkers short of the 13th green:
More to come shortly, with details on how I 'move earth.'
Doron
This may pose a problem with shape points and with elevation work, but we'll see how it goes first. The shapes are laid out like the bunkers short of the 13th green:
More to come shortly, with details on how I 'move earth.'
Doron
Re: New Project
Finished laying out objects (unless I have to redo bunkers). I usually do go back and reshape some objects, like I did here. I took the camera and viewed all objects looking for the jagged or straight edges, instead of nice curves. I took up the pond(s) in the upper portion of the screen because of this. I also had to redo the 4th fairway.
I have made the course as a par 70. Not to worry though, most of my courses seem to be pretty easy, and I also have incorporated SEVERAL driveable par 4's. I have a vision in my mind and drawn in a notebook that I keep for making courses on this game.
Gassing up the bulldozers now, and ready to move some earth!
This is the layout of the entire course:
I have made the course as a par 70. Not to worry though, most of my courses seem to be pretty easy, and I also have incorporated SEVERAL driveable par 4's. I have a vision in my mind and drawn in a notebook that I keep for making courses on this game.
Gassing up the bulldozers now, and ready to move some earth!
This is the layout of the entire course:
Re: New Project
Doron! . Looks like more water in play then most of your previous courses. Keep us posted
Re: New Project
Haven't been keeping up with it like I should have, but it's been so nice here in NC that I NEEDED to play real golf this week!
Yea, lots of water in play Steve! I have started with basic elevations, as in the big hills of the course to elevate which parts I know I will elevate anyways. It will help me when I get there to see better with the camera what I am looking for from the tee shot and greensites. I have started the first hole elevations today and so far, I see what I want. The slope to the left (below fairway) will be a wooded and/or grassy area that will be almost unplayable. The fairway is only about 55 feet wide where it pinches in before the sand trap.
I have Wednesdays off, and it is supposed to be rainy, so I should be inside and on the architect!
Doron
Yea, lots of water in play Steve! I have started with basic elevations, as in the big hills of the course to elevate which parts I know I will elevate anyways. It will help me when I get there to see better with the camera what I am looking for from the tee shot and greensites. I have started the first hole elevations today and so far, I see what I want. The slope to the left (below fairway) will be a wooded and/or grassy area that will be almost unplayable. The fairway is only about 55 feet wide where it pinches in before the sand trap.
I have Wednesdays off, and it is supposed to be rainy, so I should be inside and on the architect!
Doron
Re: New Project
Today I am doing the first hole of my new course (still without a name), and here is how I do it, and I am also typing this while I am designing so I can remember it!
The first thing I did was in my last pic, where I tilt the hole how I want it and made an area where the ball will feed into a wooded area on the left of the fairway. Today, I raised and flattened my tee boxes to a height where the fairway can be seen enough to know where to hit and also to look how a tee area would look on a real course. Then I move up the hole and do a few subtle bumps and hills on the way to the fairway. When I get to the fairway, I make numerous shapes to provide some personality to the hole. I do shape within a shape too and in the first area of the fairway that I have focused on, this is what I have:
After I get the area I have zoomed in on, I delete all shapes and smooth on the second setting until I see nice smooth hills and valleys. For now, I only optimize the fairway and save. The reason I do part of the fairway is to get a closer look at it. It also helps with bunkering when I get to it. I do not mess with the bunker right now, and move on over to the rest of the fairway all the way up to the green. I repeat the same procedure from the first part of the fairway, and now will go back and do the fairway bunkers. In this case, there is only 1 of them. I will get to how I do bunkers later on in the course, since I am trying the wavy edged bunkers right now. So far, so good though. Here is a look from about 170 yards out with everything but the green area completed:
On to the green we go! I generally put some mounding around the green, much like I see at the courses around here. It makes for a great amphitheater for the crowds. I always do my greenside traps before I touch the green, because I use a lot of space to smooth my bunkers and it goes well into the putting surface. When I make green undulations, I try to keep in mind that smoothing will lessen the slope and I go ahead and raise and lower about 1.5 times what I want it to actually be. Once again, I will draw several shapes and even use the 2 shape tool. I almost always use the 2 shape tool instead of flattening to make a lower or upper tier, so I can keep my original slope in the green. When I finish with my shapes, I encircle the green and some of the surrounding area and smooth on the second setting......I always use the second setting for smoothing. So below is the unsmoothed green on the left and the ALMOST finished product on the right:
Now I need to optimize only the green at this time, save, then check to see if my green is going to be puttable on very dry conditions. I use the tape measure tool and start checking different spots on the green to see if the sloping is too extreme, or even on occasion too flat. After doing this, I have determined that there is too much slope coming off of the back bunker. When this happens instead of completely redoing the green, I will simply use the 2 shape tool and slope it the opposite way. In this case, I simply used the bunker as a shape, enlarged it by 2 feet, then drew a massive circle around it focusing on the areas of the green that need to be fixed. It worked, so now I am finished with the first hole elevations and will go ahead and optimize every texture within the hole, except the traps (I only optimize them when I do them). Lastly, optimize the main texture, in this case it's the deep rough. Then save, or as some people do, save as...and give it a course name plus a version number. One thing I was told by a gentleman we all knew as DanO, is that when optimizing and saving to close my camera window, as it takes up a little bit of memory. I really don't know if todays computers will be affected by this or not, but I still do it anyways.
Almost forgot.............since the hole is finished, I will take a good look at the green and select several pin locations that are not ridiculous. I always try to put at least 5 locations on every green. Most of these greens are toughly 30 yards by 20 yards. Some are bigger depending on how long the hole is relative to par. For example, let's say we have a par 3 of 125 yards and a par 3 of 225 yards. You don't need a lot of green hitting at a 125 yard hole. A 225 yard par 3 will most likely be a long iron or a wood, which neither will stop on a dime on dry or very dry conditions.
I hope I'm not rambling or giving too much basic info, just trying to explain my methods and why I do them. I'll continue with updates. By the way, doing the hole and the forum post at the same time has roughly taken an hour and a half.
Doron
The first thing I did was in my last pic, where I tilt the hole how I want it and made an area where the ball will feed into a wooded area on the left of the fairway. Today, I raised and flattened my tee boxes to a height where the fairway can be seen enough to know where to hit and also to look how a tee area would look on a real course. Then I move up the hole and do a few subtle bumps and hills on the way to the fairway. When I get to the fairway, I make numerous shapes to provide some personality to the hole. I do shape within a shape too and in the first area of the fairway that I have focused on, this is what I have:
After I get the area I have zoomed in on, I delete all shapes and smooth on the second setting until I see nice smooth hills and valleys. For now, I only optimize the fairway and save. The reason I do part of the fairway is to get a closer look at it. It also helps with bunkering when I get to it. I do not mess with the bunker right now, and move on over to the rest of the fairway all the way up to the green. I repeat the same procedure from the first part of the fairway, and now will go back and do the fairway bunkers. In this case, there is only 1 of them. I will get to how I do bunkers later on in the course, since I am trying the wavy edged bunkers right now. So far, so good though. Here is a look from about 170 yards out with everything but the green area completed:
On to the green we go! I generally put some mounding around the green, much like I see at the courses around here. It makes for a great amphitheater for the crowds. I always do my greenside traps before I touch the green, because I use a lot of space to smooth my bunkers and it goes well into the putting surface. When I make green undulations, I try to keep in mind that smoothing will lessen the slope and I go ahead and raise and lower about 1.5 times what I want it to actually be. Once again, I will draw several shapes and even use the 2 shape tool. I almost always use the 2 shape tool instead of flattening to make a lower or upper tier, so I can keep my original slope in the green. When I finish with my shapes, I encircle the green and some of the surrounding area and smooth on the second setting......I always use the second setting for smoothing. So below is the unsmoothed green on the left and the ALMOST finished product on the right:
Now I need to optimize only the green at this time, save, then check to see if my green is going to be puttable on very dry conditions. I use the tape measure tool and start checking different spots on the green to see if the sloping is too extreme, or even on occasion too flat. After doing this, I have determined that there is too much slope coming off of the back bunker. When this happens instead of completely redoing the green, I will simply use the 2 shape tool and slope it the opposite way. In this case, I simply used the bunker as a shape, enlarged it by 2 feet, then drew a massive circle around it focusing on the areas of the green that need to be fixed. It worked, so now I am finished with the first hole elevations and will go ahead and optimize every texture within the hole, except the traps (I only optimize them when I do them). Lastly, optimize the main texture, in this case it's the deep rough. Then save, or as some people do, save as...and give it a course name plus a version number. One thing I was told by a gentleman we all knew as DanO, is that when optimizing and saving to close my camera window, as it takes up a little bit of memory. I really don't know if todays computers will be affected by this or not, but I still do it anyways.
Almost forgot.............since the hole is finished, I will take a good look at the green and select several pin locations that are not ridiculous. I always try to put at least 5 locations on every green. Most of these greens are toughly 30 yards by 20 yards. Some are bigger depending on how long the hole is relative to par. For example, let's say we have a par 3 of 125 yards and a par 3 of 225 yards. You don't need a lot of green hitting at a 125 yard hole. A 225 yard par 3 will most likely be a long iron or a wood, which neither will stop on a dime on dry or very dry conditions.
I hope I'm not rambling or giving too much basic info, just trying to explain my methods and why I do them. I'll continue with updates. By the way, doing the hole and the forum post at the same time has roughly taken an hour and a half.
Doron
Re: New Project
Doron! HOUR AND A HALF for both. That's pretty fast if you ask me.
Re: New Project
Steve, I noticed that the other day it only took me about 2 hours to do 2 holes. I ALWAYS plant last though, and still have a meticulous playtest/tweaking routine. That will take plenty of time as well.
Well I'm almost finished with 5 holes now, but saved the green area around the 4th hole to show some bunkering techniques. I have 4 greenside bunkers around the front and left of this 540 yard, uphill par 5. I think I mentioned before that I do my green after I finish the bunkers. You'll see why in a minute. The first pic is with a finished fairway, except for smoothing when I smooth the traps. I have already drawn some small mounds around the edges of the bunkers ranging from .5 feet to about 2 feet. You can see where these have been placed:
Next, I will use the tape measure tool to see just how steeply angled each trap is, as well as find a low point in each one. I have numbered the bunkers to explain the next part. Once I find the lowest area of a trap, I draw a small circle in that area and lower it based upon how deep I want it, and how steep it is toward the green. Bunkers 3 and 4 are steeply sloped, as in more than 5 feet, so I will only drop them a foot or so. As for bunker 1, it is relatively flat, so I am dropping it 4.25 feet. Bunker 2 is being dropped at just over 2 feet. Next, I use each bunker as a shape, then duplicate and expand it to about 2 feet. Then I use the slope tool and RAISE the bunker anywhere from .7 feet to 1 foot. This will provide me with a little bit better looking edge once I smooth. That is what it looks like on the bottom.
Now, I simply flatten each bunker on the minimum setting. Now I draw an enormous circle around all of them and smooth on the second setting until I like what I see. Then I delete the big circle, use each bunker as a shape, then use the bunkers lip as a shape and drop it anywhere from .1 to .3 feet. This course I am doing .15 feet, or roughly 2 inches. I then optimize each lip on the highest setting, and each bunker on the lowest. Then I optimize everything around it within the hole. The final product is at the bottom.
I hope this has been helpful, or at least not too boring. This is just one way to do this, but usually how I do groups of bunkers like this. This method does not really bring a lot of points to the actual trap itself.
Doron
Well I'm almost finished with 5 holes now, but saved the green area around the 4th hole to show some bunkering techniques. I have 4 greenside bunkers around the front and left of this 540 yard, uphill par 5. I think I mentioned before that I do my green after I finish the bunkers. You'll see why in a minute. The first pic is with a finished fairway, except for smoothing when I smooth the traps. I have already drawn some small mounds around the edges of the bunkers ranging from .5 feet to about 2 feet. You can see where these have been placed:
Next, I will use the tape measure tool to see just how steeply angled each trap is, as well as find a low point in each one. I have numbered the bunkers to explain the next part. Once I find the lowest area of a trap, I draw a small circle in that area and lower it based upon how deep I want it, and how steep it is toward the green. Bunkers 3 and 4 are steeply sloped, as in more than 5 feet, so I will only drop them a foot or so. As for bunker 1, it is relatively flat, so I am dropping it 4.25 feet. Bunker 2 is being dropped at just over 2 feet. Next, I use each bunker as a shape, then duplicate and expand it to about 2 feet. Then I use the slope tool and RAISE the bunker anywhere from .7 feet to 1 foot. This will provide me with a little bit better looking edge once I smooth. That is what it looks like on the bottom.
Now, I simply flatten each bunker on the minimum setting. Now I draw an enormous circle around all of them and smooth on the second setting until I like what I see. Then I delete the big circle, use each bunker as a shape, then use the bunkers lip as a shape and drop it anywhere from .1 to .3 feet. This course I am doing .15 feet, or roughly 2 inches. I then optimize each lip on the highest setting, and each bunker on the lowest. Then I optimize everything around it within the hole. The final product is at the bottom.
I hope this has been helpful, or at least not too boring. This is just one way to do this, but usually how I do groups of bunkers like this. This method does not really bring a lot of points to the actual trap itself.
Doron
Re: New Project
Just a quick update: after 10 full holes of terrain completed, I am getting locked up and the usual design problems i get while designing a course. Usually this comes later on with my designs, so I am holding my breath with every shape i draw and everytime I open the terrain tools. If I can, there may be some new pics in the next couple of days.
Re: New Project
After 6 weeks on my new job, I absolutely hate using my computer when I get home now! I haven't messed with this course in a month, but I'm off this week and want to try to get it going again. That being said, I'm not so sure about these oddly shaped bunkers that I have laid out. Here are 2 of them on the second hole:
What do you think????
Doron
Doron