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GC3D-The Virtual Plantation
by Francois Cristallo
| Links Corner Course Database ID Number - 1539 |
Release Date |
CRZ Filesize |
Par |
Course Length |
| 2005-01-10 |
128,167,936 bytes |
72 |
7383 yards |
| Type |
Style |
CRZ Filename |
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FICTIONAL |
DESERT |
GC3D.crz |
| Course ID |
Course Key |
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LINKS CORNER REVIEW |
Reviewed by: Big Three
Designer Background: GC3D is the 7th course released by Francois Cristallo. His previous releases were Waterworld, Arsonval, Bellcombe Village, Crystal Ball, Ether Links @ Crozon Peninsula and Fagen's Forest.
Course Overview: GC3D - The Virtual Plantation is a Par 72 fictional design designated as being of an unclassified style. It plays 7383 yards from the back tees. The course has a five Par 3 / five Par 5 arrangement, with the back nine having three Par 3's and Par 5's. The course has the full compliment of 5 sets of tees. The pano for the course is entirely constructed from terrain.
Layout/Playability: GC3D is based on the top view of an Arnold Palmer course in Florida by the name of Lost Key with some modifications. The course then is fictional and is not intended to represent Lost Key. The location of the course is hard to pinpoint, as there is quite a varied amount of terrain and vegetation. The entire plot is built on sand, with each hole being essentially on an island amidst the sand. For the most part each hole is contiguous; so don't think that this course is a series of island hopping shots. Think more in terms of the TPC @ Starpass (if you are familiar with that real life course), with each hole being surrounded by sand filled with scruffy vegetation. The course type is hard to pin down, but it is closest in layout to a desert course as described above.
The course is quite flat with very little elevation change throughout. It features 15 lakes, but strangely enough the water comes into play very little. In fact, hole #18 is the only hole that water is always in play. The fairways are of a fair width, surrounded by deep rough, which in turn is surrounded by the sandy areas. There is no first cut, so missing the fairway by an inch causes you to have to play your next shot from the deep rough. It is a feature of the course that I do not care for. The course would play better if there was at least a first cut of rough, so that the penalty for barely missing the fairway is not so severe. With the minimum elevation change, you will not find any extreme lies from the fairway and most lies are easy enough to compensate for, if it is necessary at all.
Many of the greens are huge, and several are sort of hourglass shaped. For the most part, they are of medium difficulty and in the area of the pin are fairly mild. Some difficult pins are placed on slopes, but most are difficult due to the location of bunkers or tucked into the back of the green. You must be careful on your approach shots because it is easy to leave yourself a monster putt here. With a front pin location, a shot hit out of the deep rough can run to the back of the green and if it doesn't run through, the putt can be incredibly long. In one practice round I faced a putt of nearly 115 feet (37 yards). There is no fringe around the green, although the fairway extends around every green forming a collar that serves the same purpose as fringe.
Overall, the play of the course is rather uninspiring. Most of the holes require little else other than keeping it in the fairway. There is not a lot of strategy from the tee. I had a tough time picking out any one hole that stood out. For all the water, the element of risk/reward is virtually non-existent. Three of the par 5's exceed 600 yards; the distances range from 580 to 645 yards. Only the 6th and 12th may be reachable in two, but even those are doubtful. My favorite holes would have to be the Par 3 7th and Par 3 17th. Both play over water, but only an extreme right pin location on #7 and a severely pulled shot on #17 are threatened.
Planting/Textures: GC3D is really about the planting. Mr. Cristallo custom designed the 2D objects with a program called XFrog. Francois designed over 200 trees, bushes and grasses in this 3D program, and converted them to 2D objects for use in the APCD. As seen before in his courses, this was another chance for Mr. Cristallo to show his artistic talents. I'm sure it was quite a bit of work to model each of these objects from scratch. The objects created were done quite well, especially the bushes and grasses. The trees, on the other hand, didn't quite work as well. The problem here is that, given the photorealistic environment that we are accustomed too, the 3D modeled trees look a little artificial to me. The other problem with the trees is the colors chosen. There are a number of trees that have leaves that are gray, some are brown or tan, orange, yellow and some that are a deep olive green. This creates an environment where nothing seems to fit together. The course seems to focus on putting the 3D work on display, while ignoring the creation of a cohesive environment. Many views of the course seem surrealistic, or as described by others as an impressionistic painting. There is no denying the talent of Mr. Cristallo, and the work he put into it, but it just doesn't work for me. Having the opportunity to check out this course extensively, I prefer the photorealism, especially for the trees.
The surrealism is further enhanced by the pano built out of terrain. The pano is a series of rock walled buttes, topped by a scruffy dirt and patchy grass texture. By itself, the pano again looks quite well, but as is a common thread with GC3D, it doesn't seem to quite fit with everything else.
The course has 42 textures, and the texture work is quite good. The timbers building the wall along the lake on the 7th are extremely well done and look very realistic. The patchy looking texture between the deep rough and sand was another texture the worked quite well, although I didn't like it being used on the sloped edges around the tee boxes. There it gave the appearance of a poorly maintained golf course rather than the scrubby, patchy transition texture between the sand and the deep rough. I thought the color of the fairway was a bit too bright, but that may have been more from the clash with the drab grays, browns, oranges and dark greens used in the vegetation.
APCD: Mr. Cristallo, as he has shown in the past, uses the APCD and the tools at his disposal very well. You do not see any signs of APCD errors anywhere you look. The only place that may look a bit off is on a few of the side walls of the buttes, where the rock texture looks as if it may be a bit stretched in a few places, but other than that this is a very strong aspect of Francois' design work.
Extras: Another constant in a Francois Cristallo design is the extras. This edition features his usual artistic and well done splash screens, custom tee markers, of course the aforementioned extensive 3D to 2D objects and custom textures, the terrain built pano, and a 3D clubhouse built from terrain. Also included is a very nice readme done in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf file). It gives a very nice presentation of facts about the course, followed by excellent and informative hole previews and a colorful and very handy pin sheet. The pin sheets are large pictures of each green, with each pin numbered and color-coded according to difficulty. This is a very nice addition for those who wish to custom set their pins.
MOD Notes: Overall the course should play well with the MOD at moderate settings. Due to the layout, the increased distance of the driver would have little effect on play, although the par 5 6th and 12th may become reachable at times using the MOD. On M/M settings, I found the greens to be playable. Most pins should handle the faster settings, but you would probably want to check the pins first as there are some mid-slope pin locations that will be a problem. Overall though, you can find many pins on each hole that should be fair to play.
Summary: This is a tough course to recommend. I know the review doesn't sound too promising, but the work by Mr. Cristallo is quite impressive, even if the color scheme and look of the 3D modeled objects weren't quite to my liking. The course, although it didn't reach out and grab me, does present a decent challenge. I'd say this is a good course to play; it just didn't wow me at anytime. If you are on dial-up, be forewarned that this is a very large download of about 128 MB. If you are on a high-speed connection, it is worth checking out just to see the creative possibilities of using 3D graphics. You can then make your own judgement as to 3D vs. photorealism. For me, I'll take the photorealism.
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CLIPNOTES by Ben Bateson (ousgg) |
Description
Imaginary, marshland course |
Location
TBC |
Conditions
TBC |
Concept 3/10
Odd. One of the few courses that it is virtually impossible to pin down to a firm location, GC3D is an odd mish-mash of trees of many colours, grassy desert and water features, all surrounded by a rocky terrain panorama. It wins no points for credibility: thankfully the golfing design is suitably imaginative, if not necessarily realistic. As a concept goes, it's sadly firmly below average. |
Appearance 7/10
Despite the oddball concept, the course is not bad looking on the whole, with the sandy texture blends around the bunkers being both bold and good-looking at the same time. The planting suffers close-up and is lacking around the water, but the texture choices are good, and you could always believe you are hacking around a golfing tranquillity. |
Playability 7/10
You'd be liar to call any course of Cristallo's a washout. Strong emphasis on the accuracy of every shot, while still leaving plenty of room for invention, is the hallmark here. To some extent it works, although it's not inconceivable that people would tire of incessantly being pushed by the course. |
Challenge 5/10
Birdies are very much at a premium at The Virtual Plantation. The Par 5s are monsters, and the deep rough pushes hard up to the fairway. Pretty much the only ways to make or break par are to keep it in the short grass, which is a bit too stringent, even for the best golfer. Several over will be your likely round. |
Technical 5/10
Too many nagging errors such as: inappropriate texture assignations; wild choices and heavy handedness with the planting; and the rock terrain surround are all detractors from a decent round of golf. While overblown ostentation with the APCD is necessary in some situations, here it just means a massive and unwarranted file size. |
| Overall |
An almost indefinable oddity of a course. Simultaneously fun, frustrating and vulnerable. Definitely one of a kind. |
27/50 |
Please remember that Clipnote reviews are the opinion of one person and do not constitute an 'Official' Links Corner review of the course. |
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