Golf Sim Clubhouse Forum

A couple more random questions. First, is there any way to set the prevailing wind for the course you are designing? I am guessing the answer is no, but it would be nice to know which way the wind is going to blow most of the time when setting up your holes.

Second, do you need to create a hazard area for all areas of water, or is that only used for "out of bounds" areas on your golf course? Thanks guys, and sorry for all the random questions. I've been working on my new course for about a month and a half and have just about fininshed the first hole! Woo hoo! Cheers to slow progress, right?

No, to answer your first question. I always thought that would be nice, but on the other hand it always makes for a challenging variation.

Second, no. There are 3 different ways to have areas unplayable.
First is a texture itself: Water, rocks, some plant textures are marked in the libes as unplayable. You don't need to establish a hazard area UNLESS you want an area surrounding the water itself unplayable (ie, the textures themselves are playable but the area isn't; the ball gets in there, there's no way to get it out, but you have to keep hitting it and hope to heck "pickups" is set. My Wabash Valley, either #15 or 16, has a shot over an old gravel pit with a lake in the bottom of it; I used the hazard boundary so that any short shot falling into the pit is unplayable and is teed over.
Second, to build a hazard area by using the arch tool.
Third, by establishing an OOB line using your hole designing tool (ie, where you set your shot lines and pins.)

As we've said before, don't hesitate to ask ANY (or any amount of) questions at any time. As far as time goes, it takes a long time to master the designer (IMO) and that's just half the equation; the rest is getting what's in your imagination onto the screen... that's the hardest part!

Thanks Indy, that was quite helpful. I didnt realize there is a way to establish an OOB line. I wanted to have an OOB area to the left of my first hole, and I was intending to just draw a hazard area. You think it would be better to do option #3 from your post in this situation?

Also, just one other question about the example you gave. What do you mean by an area where the textures themselves are playable but the area isnt? What would be an example of this in the game? I've got areas of water, but they were not marked in red or blue in the library dropdown menu in the arch. Will they still be considered a hazard once I compile the course?

Finally, I am hoping to use the Gleneagle fairway texture for all of my fairways, but it is blue in the library dropdown menu. Adam said he forgot to uncheck a box when he was creating it. Will this have any impact on my course when I compile it, and if so, would I be able to fix it? I'd really love to not have to switch textures at this point, as I really like the tones of Gleneagle. Thanks!

Guggy, I'd use option 3, the OOB line, which I also mark with OOB stakes (available in various stock libes, Sahalee being one of them.

As for "playable terrain marked as a hazard area, I'll show you using Wabash Valley #15.
First, the main view. The area inside of the blue line is UNPLAYABLE texture: Water and (IIRC) Canaveral Dunes weeds (marked unplayable.) However, the rough textures leading to the fairway are ordinary (ie, playable) roughs in use throughout the rest of the course. If a struck ball fails to reach the fairway, it's going to roll back down into the ravine. If it doesn't reach the UNPLAYABLE texture(s), the poor golfer is going to find it next to impossible to extricate himself. Therefore I made the entire area a hazard (see the red line); a short shot now gives the player a stroke penalty and a tee-over. A couple of the OOB markers are noted in purple just for your info.

Note the overhead view. I couldn't use an OOB here because the shot line would have to cross the OOB line in order to reach the fairway, which isn't doable.
As for what textures are playable/unplayable, the best thing to do is to test it. Just compile your course, set your game for practice, move your cursor into the area you want to check. Pressing the right mouse button will show you either the texture or if the texture is unplayable (it'll also show an area that's OOB.) A strange thing is that some sand textures won't allow you to move your player into them (place cursor, shift+L click) but they're still playable; I've never figured that one out. I'm assuming that all of the gleneagle textures are playable unless Adam set one (or more) of them to be unplayable.

Guggy, using my Gleneagle fairway texture will not cause any problems. Thank you for choosing that texture set! I'm glad it's getting some use!!

No problem! Thanks for putting it together!

I had another question about the out of bounds part of the define hole function. I was planning on using that to define an OOB area on my first hole, but I'm not quite sure how it works. It says to choose the next point for segment one of out of bounds markers. It doesnt seem to be the same as creating a regular shape, as it never lets me close the area I want to be out of bounds. Do I only need to define the boundary and not worry about closing the area? Will the game know I just want everything to one side to be OOB?

My problem with that is that I will likely be having a tee box on the other side of the OOB area, and I do not want the game to think I am placing the tee box OOB. I've included a rough drawing so you can see what I'm talking about.

Guggy107! I'll presume you are using the (define hole information) tool in the architect. All you need is to make a line defining the begining and end of the out of bounds area. Be careful to consider all shots when doing this or you may hit a good shot that the game thinks is OB. You can have more then 1 out of bounds on a hole if needed or wanted.

To add to Steve's answer, when using the OOB tool you can set several points; it doesn't have to be a 2-point straight line. Just point and click and the tool will set a point, just like if you're making a shape, but the last click doesn't close the shape; it simply finishes the OOB line. Then it's possible to magnify your view and adjust each point individually if you need to do that.

As Steve said, you can use as many OOB lines on a hole as you wish; for example let's say you want an area left of the tee and an area right of the fairway OOB. So you set the first area as OOB#1, the second as OOB#2... etc. When you turn on "view shot paths" you'll be able to see your OOB lines.

Re your sketch: Hole #2 isn't affected by the OOB on Hole #1 (ie, if a shot from tee 2 goes wild left over the hole 1 OOB, it won't be OOB. If you want hole 1 to be OOB to hole #2 then you'll have to draw another OOB line along that same area for hole #2. See my example. The red line is OOB for hole #1; the blue line is OOB for hole #2. Without one of those lines, it wouldn't be OOB for the other hole; with both a shot left on #1 and/or #2 is OOB.

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks again.

One thing I recently discovered (12 years down the line) is that more often than not, the prevailing wind will blow from green to tee on the first hole when you first set the tee and green points in the architect. It has happened on two courses lately, neither of which I wanted the wind to blow in that direction. The first unfortunately I already did some elevation work on, so I was about to bother rotating everything. The second, though, I hadn't laid out any elevations, so was only too happy to rotate everything 90 degrees after initially setting the basic shot points and one pin on the first hole only.

I'm not saying it's a recipe for success, but if you can, give it a whirl and let us know if it works for you, too.