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ProX Golf Course Design Tutorial (Part 2) 

 

Step 4: Create the Texture map

 

Reopen the SurfaceObjects map image, expand it to 2048 pixels width and 4096/5120 pixels height and save it to a new file using the „Save as…“ feature. Remove the “SurfaceObjects” part of the name and replace with “Texture” e.g.  StSurfaceObjects3.bmp to StTexture3.bmp

 

Because the new texture image was created by expanding the SurfaceObject image file, the areas will have jagged edges. ( more noticeable on strong contrast areas like the green and bunkers)

 

These have to be smoothed out by selecting the surface area,

increase the selected area by 3 pixels,

 

 

and finally fill the area again with the area color

Do this for the fairway, green and bunkers.
We now need to replace each surface color to the image color of the surface and apply an appropriate structure to it.

 

Using the select wand in Photoshop, select the Hi-Rough surface.

Fill with the predefined HiRough texture

(solid color RGB 0,92,13 and set the structure filter to Grain Intensity 24, contrast 59, type Soft )

  Select the standard rough area,

 

and fill with the TexRough texture

 (solid color RGB 0,90,0 and grain structure Intensity 18, contrast 43, type Soft)

  

Select the Fairway and fill with the pre-defined TexFairway texture

 

 

Bunker Sand structure:  foreground color RGB 217,217,201 background color to RGB 109,111,111.

Filter structure to Sandstone, scale 57, relief 3

 

 

Select the bunkers and fill with the pre-defined TexSand texture

To create a bunker fringe, select the bunker, set a border around the selected area and fill with standard Rough or Hi-Rough texture

 

Select the green and fill with the ggs Green structure

 

 

 


Water

 

Use the pipette tool and set foreground and background colors to the Water Texture colors defined in the SurfaceColors image  (rgb (24,108,179), (4,85,94)

 

edit the flow fill tool so that lighter color flows smoother to the right (sorry this window is in German)

Select the pond area and increase it’s size by about 20 pixels and flow fill from left to right.

Set a filter to Glass / Rifle glass Distortion 14, Smoothness 7, Scale 100%

As you can see here, this action creates quite nice looking waves or riples but leaves nasty looking holes at the edges. But because we have increased the pond size by 20 pixels before hand we can overfill these holes with the banking texture.

    

Pond Banking

To make a pond banking, select the complete pond with the select wand, increase the selection size by about 8 pixels and set a 20 pixel border around it.

 

Fill the area with the pre-defined Brackle Texture

 

 (normal size)

 

(zoomed in view)

To achieve a translucency effect as the banking flows into the water, make sure you have the „Smooth“ box ticked before filling.


For smaller ponds, HiRough maybe a more appropriate texture for the banking

 

The previous shots just used standard textures created in Photoshop. However, you can also use grass textures created from real photos a shown above. These give a far more realistic impression.

The hole surface texture file is now finished. 

Optional:

Due to performance problems on slower PCs when loading this rather large 24MB image file, the GGS system can optionally read a smaller compressed version of file.

Before performing this task, make sure you have saved  this file.

Now resize the file from it’s original 2048 pixels width and  4096 (or 5120) pixels height to 2048 (or 2560) pixels width and  2048 pixels height.

That is, just change the height from 4096 to 2048 (or 5120 to 2560). The image looks distorted now but that is corrected when loaded into the system and the file size has been reduced from 24 MB to 12 MB.

Save this new version of the texture image file with the same name as you have previously used but add an ‘s’ to the end of the file name: i.e. StTexture3.bmp would now be StTexture3s.bmp


Step5: Create the Reflection map (optional)

 This describes the old method. A new more accurate method using a 3d model is also possible. Go to WaterReflectionModeling for details.

  1. Re-open the SurfaceObjects map image.
  2. Select all blue water and fill with pure white.
  3. Inverse the selection and fill the rest of the image with pure black.
  4. Save the image to a new file using the „Save as…“ feature.
  5. Remove the “SurfaceObjects” part of the name and replace with “Reflect” e.g.  StSurfaceObjects3.bmp to StReflect3.bmp.

 

 

Using the example hole we’ve made here, the reflect map should look like this


Step 6: Create the hole Overview Window image

 

To create the Overview window you have to first set the virtual camera to the birds-eye view.

This is normally done by pressing the F2 key /which allows you to step through up to 8 user definable camera positions. The first position is always the birds-eye view which is not user definable.

 

Start GGS, goto the hole you are creating and press the F2 key to set the virtual camera to the birds eye view position.

 

Make a screen shot of this view by pressing the “Print” button (usually to the right of the “F12” function key on the top of row of your PC’s keyboard). Exit GGS.

 

Switch to / or start your graphics tool and paste the image (presently in the clipboard) into a new image.

 

    

 

Mark the exact hole outline with the select tool, and copy and paste the image into another  new image.

Reduce the image’s size to width 128 pixels / height 256 pixels (or 320 pixels for longer format map files) and save the new image to a bmp file using the usual naming procedure as above but with Overview in the name. e.g. “StOverview3.bmp” (You can discard the full screen shot image file you created previously).

Reduce the image again to width 64 pixels / height 128 pixels and save this new image to a bmp file using the usual naming procedure as above but with a small “s” at the end of the name. e.g. “StOverview3s.bmp” . This file is used for the “GoTo Hole” complete course overview image.  

 

You should now be able to load the course hole in ProX. 

Direction of play settings can be made for each course hole. Press ctrl/Z to enter this mode when course hole is loaded. However, this feature should only be necessary on dog leg holes. Normally the camera will always point to the flag.

 

Complete Golf Course Rendering. (Optional) 

The complete course layout should be made in a bmp texture file called „courseLayout.bmp“. At the moment this file is 2048*2048 pixels but can be increased for better resolution at the cost of loading time if required. Rendering time is not effected though.

 

If this file exists in the courses\course_name folder (ie. Courses\Augustin)  then it will be loaded and rendered.

 

It is required that each main design hole be lined up with the hole in the course layout so that when the hole is loaded you can see all the other holes on the course from the correct perspective.

 

This is done interactively by pressing ctrl/F2 key when on the course in ProX which brings you into the course rotation and position mode. You can the rotate and position the course layout to line up with the current hole.

 

You need to do this for every hole.

 

Objects that should be seen on the course can be planted interactively by going into planting mode (ctrl/T) and pressing F5.

 

Press F2 to goto birds-eye aerial view mode and plant objects as usual using the new cross cursor. (you can also plant normal hole objects in aerial views now too). Press F2 again to increase zoom and loop back to normal view.

 

Objects that are rendered for the course are separate from hole objects because the number of pre-defined hole object will probably be too great for real time rendering to work correctly on slower computers.

 

Because of this it is necessary when planting course objects that they be assigned to a specific hole ie if you are planting course objects on hole 3 then you should select hole 3 (with the F4 key when in course object planting mode) so that when you load hole 3 normally the course objects for this hole won’t be shown and only the hole objects will be shown.

 

With the F4 key in this mode you can select all holes and the driving range. You can also select Global objects with this key so that these objects will always appear on the course no matter what hole is loaded. This is good for objects that are not on any specific hole ie the Club-house.

 

Surface Texture Objects

 

 

Surface texture objects (STOs) can be used where texture detail is required (ie bunkers) when using the main texture file rendering method. Without these, either grass structures will appear in the sand or sand structures will appear in the surrounding grass depending on where the camera is, plus surface transitions are rather fuzzy . 

To make a Surface texture object you simply create an image of the surface area. The image canvas size should be around 1280 * 1280 pixels and the object image itself should placed in the center leaving a fair amount of border (otherwise texture wraping will occur). 

 

The above image is an STO of a bunker. 

 

To create the image you should load the main course hole texture file into PhotoShop. Using the Wand tool, select the desired object (in this case a bunker) and copy into to the clipboard. Next create a new image 1280 * 1280, fill with pure black and paste in the clipboard object image. 

 

Now resize the image object so that it is quite large (around 400 % of its original size). Using the wand tool select the object again, set the Feather to around 2 or 3 pixels and fill the image object with a suitable texture.

 

Use the select, smooth (30+) and feather(30+) options to select areas in the object that should be shaded or high lighted and use the brightness control to achieve the correct effect.

 

When all is finished, save the file in a bmp format in the courses / course name folder using the following naming convention: 

The first 2 characters in the file name are the first 2 characters in the name of the course you choose.
e.g. if the course name you choose is “Augustin” then “Au” is used.

This is then followed by the string “STO” and the hole number. ie "AuSTO5".

Because there can be a number of STOs in anyone hole we need to append an extra ID number to the file name.

Append the name with "-n" where n is the STO ID. ie. -1, -2, -3 ... etc. e.g. The file name "AuSTO5-1" is for STO 1 on hole five of the Augustin course. 

The final file name with the file extension is then “AuSTO5-1.bmp

When you load the course hole in GGS it will be detected and rendered. Problem is, it's very unlikely that it will be in the correct position.

To position and scale the STO press the ctrl/N key to go into the STO positioning mode. Follow the instructions in the window to position and scale as desired.

Up to 8 STOs can be made for each hole.

 

Continue to Golf Course Designing Tutorial Part 3