Golf Sim Clubhouse Forum

I am posting this here because I do not want to detract from the Castle Stewart, Snowdonia, Jocasee or Abernathy project posts in the course design section- preferring to see those posts remain on top. I love what is going on in those designs. This post is not meant to imply that these designers do not have talent or style or flair.

But here is my thought - whatever happened to the fantasy designs? How about playing golf in an amusement park or maybe playing golf in a ship yard or how about in a landfill or some such thing? How about creating entirely different textures and properties so we could play golf like indoor soccer? Yeah, I know - my ideas might be a little off but here's the thing - creativity is needed to keep things going forward and when a fantasy course is made it pushes that creativity. In order to adapt an environment to golf and make it look real you have to experiment with techniques and such to get it right. This advances what we are doing and brings a change of pace and fun to the table. So how about it - Is there another Robear in the house? I think our game needs one!

Lack of libraries/panos would be the #1 problem. A course can be "built" anywhere... well, almost anywhere if you have the "ingredients."

I had started on a Grand Canyon type of course, with the holes being on stair step levels. There was no pano to worry about on that one, however the problem I created with that course was the horizon. The settings only allow you to go to 750 yards. I had nothing to block the view of the other side of the canyon, which also had holes on it, at 1000+ yards away.

Vertigo Island.

One of my old courses just to stretch the design limits, have a look at it and see if it brings on any ideas. One tip though, big drops tend to cause massive tile stretching in the height map so just watch out for pitfalls and make any areas that have them hazard zones so the players dont get stuck in them.