Austin CC 2022 in Devlopment

[sagevanni]

I lived in Round Rock TX for 10 years. Crossed that bridge many times.......Very realistic.

Sage......

[Danny D]

I lived in Round Rock TX for 10 years. Crossed that bridge many times.......Very realistic.

Sage......

Thank you Sage!

[Danny D]

Danny & Adelade, that is very nice work

Thanks Glen!

[Adelade]

Im not fully back to APCD activity, but I started doing some stuff here and there a month ago, and have been getting some stuff done, at least. Springtime in Sweden is pretty magical when everything outdoors comes alive, so it was impossible to not get inspired and wanna end my APCD break.

Since my last update (and - as you saw - the big bridge being built), I have completed the last few greens, planted all pins, completed all bunker elevations, all creek-side elevations, and all rock-wall & water edge plank/rock elevations. I am not planning on featuring all the rock walls present on the course, because there are what seems like hundreds of them. Im simplifying the areas with rock walls around individual tees for example, since they dont feel any kind of important to the enjoyment of the course (and because I have main course projects planned that I rather spend that type of time and attention on).

I planted full tees as well, though I havent yet decided what I want to do with the 5th set of tees. In real life there are only 4 different tees per hole, and they offer the ability to also play 3 different combo tee sets that basically alternate between 2 of the 4 original sets from hole to hole. There arent really any significant opportunities to lengthen the course with a fictional 5th tee (at least not without building fictional tee areas, which Im not interested in doing), so Im thinking I'll probably just feature the longest of the combo tees.

I have also mostly completed texture choices and edits (at least as a first draft), so the course in terms of colours now looks closer to the final product. I always knew I wanted to try some type of drier look for this course where the Rough looks drier than the short grasses (as I've seen in most pictures/videos of the course from different times), but it seems very tricky to get that right without the difference between fairway and rough looking a bit... undesirable... to my eyes at least. Took me quite a while to arrive at something I believe I like, but it is likely that I will edit it further after seamblending.

Next up (after finishing the last few texture edits) Im going to set some mappings, build a certain hillside next to the course which wouldnt be practical to feature on a panorama, build a couple small walk-bridges, and then seamblend everything. After that comes the big task of planting, but it wont take nearly as much time on this course compared to my main courses.

Austin May 27.jpg (540.36 KiB) Viewed 5522 times

[pmgolf]

If the opportunity presents itself, one of the tee options I enjoy is when a tee is offset to the normal approach - off to one side of the straight line-up of tee boxes - to present a different look at hole. Just a suggestion.

Pete

[gene_golf]

If the opportunity presents itself, one of the tee options I enjoy is when a tee is offset to the normal approach - off to one side of the straight line-up of tee boxes - to present a different look at hole. Just a suggestion. :smile:

Pete

Par 3's where can change angle of approach to green as well as change up length play from round to round makes for more of an interesting aspect playing a course. I do not think so much possible with par 4's and 5's due to taking up more area of course and makes for more course maintenance if had same yardage from left, center and right potential angles to fairway or green affecting the hole's definition badly instead of just having one possible alternative option that could be seen as a positive every now and then. Here could bring up alternate fairways and alternate greens course designers have occasionally done besides having different angles for tee boxes.

[pmgolf]

O Wise One - I couldn't wade through all your verbage and get any meaning out of it so I'll just say - anyone wondering what I was talking about can just look at the tees on hole 13 at Torrey Pines and see tees located on the left side to allow them a different approach to the hole. No changes were made to the fairway - just tees coming in to the hole from an angle. You can find examples of that very thing at hundreds of golf courses throughout the world, and I think it can add an interesting perspective to some holes. I didn't specify par 3 holes because it applies equally to par 4's and 5's - regardless of whether or not you like it.

Pete

[Adelade]

Since last update I completed mappings, the hillside, small bridges (simplified) and made Out-of-Bounds borders and the custom flag. I decided to turn the Ladies tees into a custom set that plays mostly in between Back and Mid tees, in large part to fill a gap for the driveable par 4 that I think might play nicely in Links. For 3 or 4 holes they play a few yards longer than the Back tees. I also realized a few more holes needed rock walls in some important places so I added those. Then I selected alpha textures and seamblended everything, which felt quite fun, since it went much faster than Im used to - with a lot of the work having been done long ago with most seamblend areas horizontally meshed out, rather than needing extrusions. Also it naturally helped a lot that I didnt insist on having a bunch of tricky-to-seamblend texture 3-way-border spots on this course.

After that I went through and selected trees from my overall planting set that were most appropriate for the setting. As I've said from the beginning, for this course (which I still regard as a minor, less meticulous project, even if it has grown somewhat), I wanted to keep things simple with the planting, so I didnt want to create a bunch of new tree objects this time around if I could avoid it. Well, I was going to add two available trees that would have fit in really well, but sadly they both turned out to be too poor cutouts to allow for editing, and I didnt have the energy to fix them. As a result, this planting set ended up being fairly narrow/small... with only about 30 different large trees making up most of the planting, with an extra 30 or so for more rare plantings like small or special trees or larger bushes.

After selecting the tree objects, I expermineted with some changes to them in terms of colour, brightness and contrast for a somewhat drier, sunnier look than the courses I've planted in the past. Doublechecked that object settings were ok with them all, then planted one hole and asked a few alpha testers for opinions (and adjusted some things) before I proceeded with the rest of the planting. The trees that will mainly be in play and visible from common gameplay areas are now done for the first 15 holes, all planted one by one referenced from videos. It is taking more effort than I expected, mostly because of it being rather tricky to avoid obvious clones when not having a lot of objects to choose between. But now its almost done!

After that though, I will have to plant the surroundings further away from play areas as well, which I will probably do with the 'forest planting' feature in most places.

Then it is not much left, just Hole Previews, perhaps some light underplanting in a few places (most of the course doesnt need any at all), some quick bits of misc planting, making a simplified clubhouse representation (it is basically not visible from play areas except for roof/chimneys), and planting residential houses in the surroundings (the 3D objects will probably(?) be sufficient), planting crowds, a background sound, logo and splash screen.

Austin July 1.jpg (333.97 KiB) Viewed 5275 times

(The trees may appear out of place in the above picture, but it is because the satellite image (like many others) is taken from an angle rather than directly above.)

[Adelade]

Beta will be ready in a couple days, crowds being the only thing left to do (plus splashscreen and logo, which I will do during the beta). If anyone beyond my previous testers wants to be part of the beta, post here or send a private message. Unless beta leads to a bunch of extra work, current plan is to upload the final two weeks after the beta starts.

Honestly a little disappointed in how its turning out, not that theres anything particularly wrong with it, but I cant help feeling that theres nothing about it that Im proud over (except for the speed at which I got it done). On the bright side, IMO the layout itself is good enough that it doesnt really require a superb APCD craft in order to be highly enjoyable. Some of the things Im not fully happy with could be improved if I had more time and energy for it, but they're ultimately things that I simply dont want to do, and as I established from the very start of this project, I want to direct that type of time and attention into other courses.

[Adelade]

Just a small reminder, 3 days left of the beta, so now's probably last chance of trying to effect anything about the outcome