Panos and Plots

[Guggy107]

I just had a few newbie-ish questions about using panos and creating plots. First off, my problem with creating the land plot. I'm trying to create a seaside links course, and I'm having trouble making an actual sea. I cant get the water to go up to the edge of the map, and when I lower the water, you can still see the thin strip of land sticking up. Anyone have any tips on how to get around this? This sort of leads me to my question on panos. Could I possibly set up my pano so that it "covers up" the land sticking up? In other words, can I move the pano forward away from the edge of the map? My other question about panos is can I use more than one pano on a golf course? I thought I saw it in some of the created courses on here, but maybe they were just different parts of the same pano. I found some custom pano tutorials on here, but I couldnt find much info on pano use in general.

I probably have a zillion questions to ask about the architect, but I'm trying to keep it to the most pressing here! I can try to figure out the rest on my own. Thanks guys!

[Terry Grayson]

Guggy...

From the onset, make the entire plot the water...It will already be flat, then draw the entire land plot where you want it, and raise it.... That is so much easier to do... then you will not have the strip you speak of....You could draw out the land plot shape, drop it, make that texture a beach area or whatever, then select it, use as a shape, shrink it down and make it whatever you want (rough, etc)...You'll find that is a much better and easier way to do it.... For a beach/oceanside course

Hope this helps

[Indy Anna Jones]

Guggy, it's also called "the art of camouflage." Terry is starting you out on the right path. Draw a shape that almost completely covers your plot and drop it. Make both this and the border your main textures, then start working inside of your drawn shape. Raise the edges that you DON'T want water to show up on and disguise it with trees, shrubbery, cliffs.. whatever. Make sure when you're routing and planting that the fairways don't get close enough to those edges that the water can be glimpsed.

Check out "Arcadia Bluffs." The entire mass is surrounded by water, but the water itself is only visible to the west (left side of the plot. The other sides are built up, but if you move your camera to any of the other sides the water is visible. Actually it's a pretty good idea to stay away from edges as much as possible to prevent green strips and other unwanted sights from showing up on your finished course.

[A Brandt]

Terry and Indy are correct, that's the best way to do what you're asking. As far as panos, you can only use one pano image, split into halves. Some people have been very creative with their own panos, making them seem like multiple images. Photoshop can work wonders if you can master it!

[Terry Grayson]

I liked what you posted Indy about the strip below panos....Man I had a hard time hiding that darn thing on this last course with all the elevation work! For instance on Hole 4...Tee box is 1400 feet hight....70yards or so above the green, to the left of the tee, all you could see was that strip, so I hid it by placing a tree up there just off the left of the tee box....

You can still see it in spots...I tried to hide it best I could...One thing that truly puzzled me

On hole 6 tee box, Looking toward a huge rock cliff on 7 it was like there was NOTHING there...You could see all the way to the plots end ...Nothing I did would correct it..it was like there was so much elevation work it overpowered the arhictect and just said WELL lets put NOTHING there...LOL...So I had to disguise that area as well with trees..... In the architect it was an awesome view being able to see all the way over to the 9th fairway, but in game, NOTHING.......So much elevation work, on 6 the tops of the mountains look jagged, like the arch just couldnt handle that much....

On 18th, second shot, MAN it was horrible...could see all the way to plots end too...I actually had to build up behind the green a hill of upwards of 200 feet just to plant trees to hide that hideous view.... However made a good spot to put cliffs in where the clubhouse ended up being put...I had some head scratching moments for sure on it, but man was it fun...

I am still shaking my head how I kept this to just over a million points....

[Indy Anna Jones]

I know exactly what you're talking about Terry. Although my Levette Mountain course doesn't have near the elevation of your new one, it does have enough that the "green strip" was a bother on several holes. I was able to disguise almost all of them except where the river was running through the middle and end of the horizon. There are a couple of holes (#9 in particular) that I just couldn't disguise.

Gunny, another suggestion is to move your course perimeter as close to the finished routing as you can. I think this is under the "file" tab but I'm too lazy to cloak libes and open the designer to take a look. Anyway it's under one of those tabs; just draw a perimeter exactly like you'd draw a course object. After you compile it'll bring the pano closer to your course.

[SteveHorn]

I had a disguise issue working on Point Reyes. Although the main texture was water, for some reason on #13 in the fairway looking towards the green you can see the lighthouse and the island its on. That was what I wanted except between the island and main land was a green strip that I tried and tried to fix with no luck. The strip was about 40' higher then the main water texture and was about 200 yards long. I disguised it with a few trees on the Island and a large rock formation between the Island and land. I wasn't to pleased about it but it was the best solution I could come up with.

Terry! I love your new course but I did notice some of the jagies. In the fairway on #16 in the distance was a noticable jagie and on #18 I saw jagies. That being said it didn't hinder in my enjoyment of the coure. It was a tad easier then I thought it would be but still very well made.

[Indy Anna Jones]

Steve, you probably already know this but sometimes "jagies" can be fixed simply by changing the horizon distance in your game setting. Sometimes though, it just creates a new set of "jagies"...

[Guggy107]

Wow, some great tips there. I think I'll definitely give it a try using water as my main texture then work from there.

I'm still confused in general about panos though. For the ocean side of my course, I just want sky to be seen. But for the other three sides, I'd like something along the lines of the Birkdale pano that comes with the game. I'd also like a pano with overcast skies. Anyone have any suggestions?

Finally, I'd prefer using a pre-made plot, as I think it would create the added challenge of "finding" the holes within the given terrain. I found a few plots in the utilites section of this site, but given the plethora of other user-created stuff on here, I was kind of surprised at the limited selection. Can anyone point me towards another location where I might be able to find more pre-made plots?

[Indy Anna Jones]

Trying to find the right pano is usually a matter of trial and error. You seem to have a generally idea of what you're looking for. Go to utilities -> course panos and explore the panos until you find something similar to what you're looking for. Offhand I think Machrie, oldhead and ragtime might fit your description.

After you select your pano, next you're going to have to figure out the course routing to determine which direction to work toward to get the particular view(s) you're looking for. You can adjust the dimensions of your plot. Once you're in the game directions don't really matter. St. Andrews, for example, has a N-S orientation with the sea to the east. So it doesn't matter if the plot has a general E-W orientation as long as the sea is the correct side of the plot.

I guess what I'm saying is that there's no A-B-C-1-2-3 steps to follow in this initial stage. Each of us probably does it differently, but I'd say the initial planning is going to have a huge effect on the overall quality of your course. Be patient, work slowly until you're comfortable with what you're doing. A few experienced designers (like Robert@) can throw together a beautiful and challenging course in a week. My experience has been more in the area of a few months (at least) and a couple of hundred hours of work.