Links Corner Forum

How about having two identical sand textures. One for main body of the bunker and the other for near the edge. The second has its texture properties adjusted to be more like a fairway.

Just adding 2 cents worth at this late hour. I have no real preference, although probably lean towards the dirt lip. I suppose it all depends how much you enjoy seam blending and all the extra mappings involved. Also the dirt lip will have several blurred areas as well due to mapping issues. If you have a good quality alpha a single grass lip is fine.
What I will say, and this all depends on time, patience, PC performance etc, etc is the bunkers you pictured look at little too perfect. Too rounded, too even so to speak. Adding more verts and playing around with them - up down, in out etc can create a more desirable looking end product as well. As I said, just my 2 cents.

Cheers
T

Since I only do real courses, I make what is there. A dirtlip does require a little more work but most golf courses have them so.......

Duck Hook wrote: ↑August 25th, 2021, 7:36 am[...]

Yeah the train for the original poll and post of the topic has left the station quite a while ago But bunker methods is always a relevant topic. Indeed depends a lot on how much time one is willing to spend on them, but the way I use the dirt mapping in that old picture and still do for most bunkers, that same mapping can be used for the dirt for the whole bunker without blurrier parts. Definitely not saying its the best method, but a very efficient one. I would also say it depends a lot on what type of course it is, on some courses more "rugged" bunker styles fit better than on others. I very much remember the bunker lips you showed a while back on Cambrian Ridge, they looked stunningly beautiful! And I remember you talking about using 8 dirt mappings per direction to avoid the blurry spots, Im not sure if Im capable of spending that much time on bunkers myself.. but we're all very, very much looking forward to your courses being released... Good to see you around and posting

Hey Adelade, I find it interesting that you can do the dirt lips without blurred areas. You will have to show me what method you use. The bunkers on Cambrian Ridge frustrated me to the point where I gave it all away. That plus all the different shit life can throw at you. I opened it up again last night and fiddled around a bit, the trouble is because it's been so long I forget how to do things, lol. I sat there for about 10 minutes trying to remember how to map a dirt lip on a bunker, lol. But you know, the interest is back so hopefully I can make some progress.
T

Edit: Although I admit, for the sake of my sanity I have learned to live with the blurred bits...

Yea shortly before I posted the original post in this topic, I experimented some with the method it sounds like you're using (I tried it based on Paul Seaman's text tutorial), and I just didnt get very satisfied with how they turned out, but I remember thinking it was probably because I didnt have the same alphas and dirt texture that Paul Seaman had (I thought his bunkers looked good with his method, but not mine when I copied what he did). Perhaps by now I know of more alphas and dirt textures that could be used, and maybe it would work better if I tried it again.

I personally dont think the blurred spots with the base method you're using are particularly bad, depends a bit on which textures I think, but plenty gorgeous courses have slight blurry bunker dirt spots and its no a big deal IMO, bunkers still look good. Scioto and Ridgewood are two good examples I can think of. I dont think its reasonable to be too perfectionistic with bunker blends, I think the only really pretty dirt-lip bunkers that display absolutely 0 problems when scrutinized up close, that I remember having seen, are ones with very shallow bunker edges or perhaps very dark dirt lips, and those arent always the desirable fit, at least havent been for me thus far.

My method with just a single dirt mapping is based on what I experimented with and arrived at after studying how Dan DeShaney made them on The National Kansas, which he kindly allowed people to take closer looks at, so if I recall correctly its more like his method - cheers Dan The "trick" is basically to have a simple horizontal dirt mapping with correct scaling, thin enough dirt lips, and suitable dirt texture. I described my process for making them in detail in this old post (the topic as a whole can be a good read too I think): viewtopic.php?p=5690#p5690 Im not saying it looks 100% perfect from all angles when viewed very close-up, just that it doesnt have those blurred spots that come with vertical or remotely-vertical dirt planars. The darker dirt texture you use with this method (and also probably the thinner the lip is), the less visible the little "jags" at certain angles become when very close-up I believe, but from most views further away I personally much prefer somewhat brighter dirts, and I dont think the very minor jags matter much. Even on Augusta you have a lot of those and Ive never heard anyone complain about Augusta.

(Since that post where I described my method, when I tried it out on my Nine Bridges course, I realized that the upper alpha between dirt and grass that I used doesnt work perfectly if the closest verts in the rough are a little further away, so I slightly squeezed that gradient together a bit towards the dirt side on that alpha for Nine Bridges.)

Cool, thanks for the info and link.
T