PGA MINI-TUTORIALS SET 3
COURSE LAYOUT AND PLANNING : Steve Knoblock
Both of the courses that I've got close to release were designed as I went along.
PGA99's architect required that of me given I have the same kind of personality impatient to see results) that you have. Combine that with the detail removal process changing the landscape constantly, and creating a course became an exercise in frustration. It was very hard to learn about golf courses and learn the quirks of the architect.
With the new version of the architect I was able to rescue the second course, and hope to do the same with Redgap. It took a lot of elevation changes around existing holes to give the landscape character (it was pretty flat). I found that it was difficult work. You have to be careful where you apply elevation tools lest you wreck neighboring elevations. And new elevations must fit in with surrounding elevations. If you go so far as to complete one hole with green and bunker elevation, you put it at some small risk with each detail optimization.
So, I still stick to my conclusion that the architect was designed mostly for people reconstructing courses for which real data exists before hand, such as a hole layout and elevation (terrain map).
Ideally, I would start by creating a landscape. I would concentrate on creating a realistic setting for the course. Once that was complete, I would do final smoothing and optimization over the whole landplot. It should be fairly heavy to make sure all terrain features have an integrated look.
Next, I would layout the course letting the shapes fall onto the elevations where they may. I'd try to pick good spots for tees and greens, route fairways through valleys or occasionally over hills. I'd set (flatten) greens into hillsides so they don't have too much slope. Then I would do the final breaks on the greens and bunker detail. Only then would I add trees or buildings or streams (for which valleys had been prepared).
This ideal has a few drawbacks :
1st) You may start out with preconceived ideas for several holes. The landscape may not offer opportunities for the kind of holes you want. So you may have to pick or create a landscape friendly to the kind of holes you want. That was difficult for a beginner like me.
2nd) You may get carried away placing holes at interesting spots in the landscape ignoring a logical layout (this is what ruined my other course).
3rd) Streams present a challenge because they often run across buffer shapes you're using or across fairways. You may need to define the stream shape itself to know where to do valley elevations, so the stream can't be left for last.
4th) I wish that I did not have so many trees to contend with when detailing my complete holes. But sometimes the trees are needed for me to have an idea of how the hole will look and play.
The one think I know is that my next course will pay much greater attention to layout. I've gotten better at it since the first course I made, but ideally I would like to have the layout before I start. And I will complete the landscape before completing or starting on the detail elevations of any hole.
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WORKING WITH TWO TERRAIN SHAPES : Alan Toft
You can select two terrain shapes at the same time. Think of it like a foam cup. You have two shape outlines, one inside the other. The first shape is the lip the second shape is the bottom of the cup. They are connected by the sides vertically. By adjusting the height, you adjust the length of the sides.
To see how it works, just lay down a shape inside another shape. Make sure both are selected by clicking both shapes while holding down the Control Key. You can then watch the effect in the window.
What's it for? Instead of a single shape that makes a rounded bump, it lets you make a flat bottomed rise or depression. Like a lake. Or reservoir with straight sides.
An interesting effect of the two shape method is that it leaves any existing elevations alone. So you can take an existing fairway elevation and raise it up. I've used this when there was not enough slope on a fairway. You can create dips to the side of the fairway with this, imitating drainage patterns or built up fairway.
Also, say you didn't put that par 3 green on a high enough hill. Just get out your double shape and raise the whole thing with green elevations intact to where you want.
For example, to give a bunker a vertical lip :
1) create the bunker outline and drop it.
2) Use the Use As Shape to duplicate the bunker shape. You will see the new shape jump out to the side of the original shape. Be careful not to click anything yet. Carefully right click the new shape on the edge. Select Properties. Reduce the size of the shape by one foot. When you close the dialog box, the shape will jump back centered.
3) Click in between the two outlines while holding down the Control Key. Both shapes should now be selected. You will see all their handles highlighted. Click the Slope elevation tool. Set the elevation down by one foot. Click Ok.
There should now be a straight slanted or vertical bunker lip.
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UPHILL AND DOWNHILL HOLE ELEVATIONS : Dano Bunch
Start with your lowest elevation first..then working towords the tee make one simple shape. In the middle of this shape make a very small one and buldge it up to the height you want..click on the larger shape and set the elevation to the highest..now make another shap slightly overlapping the first shape you made and repeat this process but make this one higher yet by making that little buldge even higher than the first.
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VERTICAL WALL CREATION : Ken Mchale
First “create land shape”. Make sure this shape is the size and shape you want.
Next, right click on your land shape and select “duplicate”. Now right click on the “duplicate” and hold the ALT/ SHFT keys and inflate the “duplicated shape” by + 6 to 8 inches. Holding the ALT/SHFT keys when setting the new size will assure that the duplicate snaps back centered over the “original land shape’.
At this point your duplicate should be centered over the original and just go to Edit in the top toolbar and select Drop Selected Shape insert. This shape will act as a buffer and prevent tares from the finished vertical wall.
Now you have a dropped duplicate inflated 6-8 inches over the original shape, which is still a white undropped land shape. Now you are ready to execute a vertical wall.
Select the original land shape, right click and duplicate, repeat the process stated above. This time ONLY inflate by 3 to 5 inches holding the ALT/ SHFT key again and snapping to center over the original. Now you will have two landscapes. GO to EDIT , Select All, Land Shapes and drop the shape DOWN using the SLOPE tool. Make sure the only land shapes on the plot that are active or white lines are the two you are working with. The dialog will select ALL Land Shapes otherwise. You may need to expand the original shape by 2 inches and flatten to minimum height to finish tweaking the elevation.
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GREEN CONTOURS : Chris Perry
Try removing minimum detail from the green, this will even out the poly detail in the surface and may help out a bit, to view the mesh to see the difference hit Ctrl+Alt+T.
GREEN CONTOURS ADDITION : Ancient 46
Drop a small shape of contrasting texture on the bumps or in the depressions and then do a detail removal on the green with children. The small shapes will fix the height of the spot so you only lose detail and not shape. Delete the shapes after the removal.
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COLLISION NUMBERS REMINDER : Joe Wells
I'm going along placing objects and decide to do a little playtest to see how things look. So I compile the course, load up the game and proceed to purposely hit one towards the grass objects I've placed. To my surprise, I get a message saying my ball has gone OB. Now this is funny because I haven't marked any areas OB and I've put hundreds of balls in that area before that were not considered OB.
The only difference now is that the area is covered in grass objects. So I decided to do a little testing. I find a bare spot in that area and hit a ball into it. No OB. So I hit another one into a grass covered area, yep you guessed it, OB. What's up with that?
The problem was caused by me. Word of advice, never set your collision rectangle numbers to 0, 0. But if you want to simulate high grass like you see at St. Andrews, may I suggest 75 to 90 for the energy restition and 100 for the slip. It's really cool hacking a PW out of this stuff and seeing it go about 40 yards.
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CO-EFFICIENTS : Steve Opfer
Gloucester :
Greens: changed the roll factor from 2.0 (stock) to 1.6
Fringe: same coefficient as stock green
Fairway: same coefficient as stock fringe
Rough: stock rough
Cut Weed Rough: stock weedrough
Primary Weed Rough: Light=Medium coefficients, Medium=Deep coefficients, Deep="Buried," which is a custom coefficient where I just followed the pattern of difference between lies of the stock texture to the next lower step.
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CREATING AIRPORT RUNWAYS AND ROADS: Mike New
1. Create a cart path shape that is 12 yards wide.
2. Move the view to one edge of the shape, so the last handle is easily editable.
3. Duplicate the original shape
4. Move the end handle so that it will fit in the original shape, then move your entire new floating shape to fit within the original.
5. Resize the floating shape to 1 foot wide, make sure it's in the centre, and drop it.
6. Change the texture to the yellow stripe.
7. Duplicate the original shape again, staying where you are to be able to manipulate the end handle.
8. Change the width to 5 yards.
9. Do the handles thing again.
10. Move to a position so that it is fairly close to the yellow. Not extremely close, just "fairly" close. Drop it.
11. Change the colour to the next darkest in the list. I gave them the architect name of "Tire Mark 2%" "...4%" and so on.
12. Repeat from step 6, but decreasing the width of the shape by one yard each time.
Also, try to keep the distance from the centre similar in each case.
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CREATING POT BUNKERS : Joe Wells
This will really get long and without pictures will be tough to understand. Plus the good ones, like on hole #1, were done so long ago using the PGA 99 architect. I hope I can remember the actual steps I used.
First, I created a little circle that would be the actual bunker, usually about 12 to 15 feet wide, and dropped it. Then I chose to use that shape and expanded it by 2 feet. Using the expanded shape, I stretched out the top side to create sort of an egg shape surrounding the circular bunker. Then I dropped the egg shape.
Next, I right clicked on the egg shape and used as a shape. I then expanded this one by 15 feet and lined it up so the bottom edge of the expanded shape was even with the bottom edge of the smaller egg shape (it's getting confusing isn't it). Once I had it lined up, I chose the hill tool and raised it up about 2 to 4 feet depending on how much front face I wanted to end up with. Then delete the expanded shape.
Now right click on the circular bunker shape you made to start with and choose use as a shape. Expand this by 6 inches or 1 foot, then flatten to minimum height and delete the shape. Now right click over the little egg shape again and choose use as a shape. Do two smooths at the second lowest setting. Next, still using the egg shape, choose the bunker tool and lower the terrain about a foot. then delete the shape.
Now right click the little circular shape and choose use as a shape. Then right click around the egg shape and choose use as a shape. With both shapes selected (CTRL+A), choose the bunker tool and lower both shapes about 1.5 to 2 feet (or lower if you want to). Delete both shapes again.
One last time, right click over the egg shape and choose use as a shape. Expand this by roughly 18 to 20 feet. You want to make sure to have the bunker and front hill surrounded. Do a couple of smooths at the second or third lowest smooth setting until you get a look you like.
As you can see, all of this will create a lot of added detail to the course and that's why I only used a limited amount of pot bunkers on Rostraver. One way to overcome this would be to create a buffer shape around the bunker area that you can use to optimize detail in that particular area once you are done. But remember to delete the buffer shape when you are through. Since I did most of the pot bunkers using the PGA 99 architect, this wasn't really an option for me at the time, but it should work fine in PGA2K.
Hope this all makes some sense.
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COMPILER'S NOTE : R.S. Barker
I added the complete post below to this, the 3rd set of mini-tutorials, because I felt that it would be to everyone's advantage to read it. Mr. Opfer describes a potentially dangerous problem within the architect's library usage, and his post focuses on the removal of an unused library, and the subsequent results . There are some responses that help to clarify this situation.
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DANGEROUS DESIGN QUIRKS ( LONG POST/LONG STORY ): Steve Opfer
OK. I think I've stumbled onto a discovery...after much headache and frustration. At least I THINK I have and perhaps some of you could help me clarify this.
When I was creating my last course (announced over on the General Discussion Forum), I was creating a whole new library. Everything was fine until I loaded some custom sounds that didn't work. OK. I deleted those sounds and re-compiled the library...like countless times before. Now the game wouldn't recognize that library and I couldn't figure out the problem. Consequently, I went back into the architect. That immediately caused the architect to generate an "uninstalled library" since it couldn't recognize the one that was currently in use and went bad. Fine. I did a global replace of everything using the Parkland library...which the game has always recognized.
All's well, right?
It appeared OK to me, so I deleted the "uninstalled library" which was no longer in use. Oops. While the course wasn't using it, the architect still continued to list it in the course properties section....but I didn't realize that. Consequently, when I opened the course again, it now generated two (yes, count 'em...two) uninstalled libraries. It didn't effect the course, though, because I wasn't using any of them...right? Wrong. I went back into the Course Manager and deleted BOTH uninstalled libraries. Crazy me. When doing so, I ignored the prompts that all of my custom courses were using one of these libraries when I knew good and well they were not. What I didn't notice was that Sahalee (the default library of the architect when it opens) was also using one of the uninstalled libraries. Consequently, when I re-opened the architect, ALL of my libraries were missing except my custom libraries (the good ones that is). After a few re-installs and a lot of head banging I figured out, by catching the error as it happened when I almost did it again, that when the architect generated that SECOND uninstalled library, what it really did was not recognize the Sahalee library for some reason. Consequently, when I deleted BOTH uninstalled libraries, I actually deleted the one that represented the custom library that was listed in the course properties section of my course and the Sahalee library that replaced that uninstalled library after the first time I deleted it.
So how did this all turn out?
I got back to square one (after a complete wiping out of software from my hard drive...meaning registry keys and such...and performing a clean re-install...a full re-install that put the stock courses' libraries on my hard drive where I could keep track of what was happing to them). Then, having gotten back to where I started, I finished the course ignoring the "uninstalled library" that was listed in the course properties section of the architect. The course manager didn't see the "uninstalled library" and, consequently, the "uninstalled library" hasn't effected the final outcome. It appears it's only a placeholder for the architect's reference, but God help anyone who robs the architect of that placeholder 'cause it'll start grabbing the Sahalee library from you and turning it into an "uninstalled library" to rectify its need for the placeholder. Only problem is...the original placeholder persists to show up...even in that circumstance. So you end up with two "uninstalled libraries."
Bottome line:
Don't delete an uninstalled library that is listed in an ach file if you ever want to open that ach file again and work with it. At least that's been my experience....as far as I'm able to determine.
Now that I've released the course, though, do I dare delete the "uninstalled library ?"
What dangers that I've yet to experience might be lurking if I do? It doesn't seem to be hurting anything, but I have this incredible urge to delete it...like it's calling my name or something. It just bugs the livin' daylights out of me to see it staring me in the face every time I open the Course Manager...like it's saying "Ha, ha sucker! I've got the last laugh and you don't dare mess with me."
Any thoughts on this? Has anyone experienced this? I'm fairly sure it's the source of the notorious "Missing Thumbnails" problem that snagged a few people (including me) just after PGA2K's release and remained a mystery to all concerned ....mainly 'cause Headgate could not reproduce it. During one of my numerous re-installs during this fiasco, I reproduced that problem, but don't ask me how. I think all of it boils down to the architect listing libraries in the course properties that aren't really used, but were placed on the course then taken away then deleted later. Somehow, I think it's still calling for those libraries and when it doesn't find one of them, it generates an uninstalled library. And then, if it can't even generate the uninstalled library, it grabs Sahalee and turns it into an uninstalled library...while still listing the original uninstalled library.
Hopefully, you can see how this can pile up in a hurry and turn into a nightmare if, like me, you fail to catch what's going on. In fact, I'm still not even sure this IS what happened. It was that confusing.
BTW - When I was finishing up that design...and still to this day ('cause that uninstalled library remains), my default texture when creating a shape is "Fairway - Uninstalled Library."
Frankly, I'm scared to do anything. It's working and that's all I really know. I'm anxious, though, to get any feedback I can on this. I'm certainly going to point it out to Headgate. I'm fairly convinced the solution is really simple: the architect just needs to stop calling for libraries that aren't in use 'cause (if those libraries aren't there) it can lead to one problem that subsequently multiplies itself through all of the other game's applications. Then again...maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions. What do you think?
UNINSTALLED LIBRARY'S : Ancient 46
Boy did I experience the uninstalled library problem when I first got PGA2K. I had three custom libraries attached to my ACH file that I did not know I needed to install before opening my course file.
For some reason the Architect wants the libraries with all the elements in the same order as they were when the course file was last saved. It will accept a library with additions but not subtractions.
I deleted a texture and I could not get the file opened in 99 until I reinstalled the textures in the exact order they were before deletion. When this happens in 2K the Uninstalled Library replaces the textures with ones from a stock library and the architect will open the file. The concrete fairways and the asphalt lake helped to discover what happened. Never ever save the course file when you are changing a library element.
When an uninstalled library shows up, never save the course file.
Look in the properties and find out what libraries the Architect needs and try to reinstall them. Do not save the course! Just close the Architect.
When you delete the uninstalled library from the course manager be prepared to reinstall the stock libraries from the CD.Check the properties of the U. L. and you will see what stock CLB file it uses. If you have one U. L., the Sahalee library will be deleted when you remove it. The entry for the Sahalee library will be there but the CLB file will be gone. If you open the properties of Sahalee it will report the file size as zero. You need to remove Sahalee from the library list and then reinstall it from the CD. By the time I figured this out I had only the Princeville library left on my drive.
RE: DANGEROUS DESIGN QUIRKS ( LONG POST/LONG STORY ) : Joe Wells
Guys,
If you remove an uninstalled library, it actually removes one of the pre-existing libraries that are installed for the game. That's the deal. When the .ach file can't find a required library, it uses a pre-existing one to allow you to open the course, naming it uninstalled library. In essence you have two versions of the same library. If you remove the uninstalled one, you are actually removing two.
Once you are done with your course and are positive that you will no longer need toopen the .ach file, you can remove them. But, and here's the big but, that means you will remove a library that's needed somewhere else. Eventually you will come across a course that won't load in the game because a required library is missing. That's when you find out which one the architect used as the uninstalled library. Then you have to remove it from the course manager (because the name is still there even though the actual library file is not) and re-install it. In my case, it's always been one of the stock ones and I simply re-installed it directly from the CD to the proper directory and all was fine.
I figured this out during beta testing when I removed them and then couldn't play some of the courses. But it never kept me from opening my .ach file, like you guys experienced. But for safety reasons, I won't be removng the ones in there now until I'm sure that Rostraver is complete.
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