Kauri Cliffs in 3D

Beta testing begins

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Sun, 09 May 2010 22:10:00 +0000

The initial beta testing of the unfinished course is now underway. Planting isn’t yet complete and the miles of farm fencing which are essential to the look of the inland parts of the course are not yet in place.

What is in place is the very fine custom panorama made specially for the course by Daniel Watson.

The image is of the 15th with the Cavalli Islands behind.

A full update on the status of the project

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 09:49:00 +0000

HOLES 1-3: All have been planted and ready for beta testing

HOLE 4: The valley below the hole on the south side is yet to be planted. This is quite a large area and is tricky to get it looking right. Also the terrain on this part of the plot isn’t finished yet due to panorama work.

HOLE 5: Mostly finished and just needs some new planting and tidying up of the existing plantings.

HOLE 6: Very advanced and ready for beta testing, the most advanced hole on the course currently

HOLES 7 & 8: The actual golf holes are complete but the cliffs need finishing and more planting needs to be done. There is quite a bit still to do here (2-3 days work).

HOLE 9: Very advanced and almost ready for beta testing (needs the plantings to be rechecked.

HOLE10: Again the actual hole in finished, just needs some more planting to the area in the front of the fairway,

HOLES 11 & 12: These holes are ready for beta testing.

HOLE 13: The hole is ready for beta testing.

HOLE 14: The hole is very advanced but the terrain to the north of the hole is a work in progress and will be until the panorama is installed in its final form.

HOLE 15: The hole is complete and so is the forest next to the fairway apart from some very minor changes needing to be made to the plantings.

HOLE 16: This hole is ready for beta testing.

HOLE 17: This hole is in the middle of getting a complete replant. Not a major job.

HOLE 18: The hole is ready for beta testing. The long grass needs some replanting (not a major job).

OTHER PARTS OF THE TERRAIN

INLAND: This is everywhere on the west side of the 1st and 10th holes.

There is a lot of replanting and some retexturing to be done. The forest near the 3rd hole needs a full replant though this won’t happen until after the first round of full beta testing starts. Most of the rest of the inland section is farmland and is still unfinished.

THE GORGE: The floor of the valley is still in need of a lot of planting. This is a big task ( 2-3 days work).

THE CLUBHOUSE AND CABINS: A lot more planting still to be done around the car park, immediately behind the clubhouse, and around the swimming pool. The area around the cabins is partially planted.

THE PRACTICE RANGE: This part of the course is very advanced and only needs some minor mesh work to be done to the terrain and some minor planting of trees and bushes.

SUMMARY

I hope to have the course finished by the end of July this your. Full beta testing should start at the end of next week

A new image

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:14:00 +0000

Taken from the floor of the valley below the 13th hole. In the middle of the image is the 12th green. The new forest has also been under planted with grasses.

Enjoy!

Trees, weeds and big slopes

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 08:47:00 +0000

Here’s an image with the the golfer on the 11th fairway. The marshlands that can be seen wrapping around the 11th and 12th greens is nearly complete now. The forest on the top of the hill on the right is a big improvement on the original one I planted as a placeholder.

The course is getting closer and closer to full beta testing………………

Building Kauri Cliffs with acres of screen space

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:39:00 +0000

On Monday I purchased a second 1920 x 1080 Viewsonic VX2433wm 24” LCD monitor, This is excellent for many things including when doing work in APCD where it’s possible to have two different views on each monitor or for huge vista’s of a course as in the image below. This cinerama like view is great for checking out contouring of the terrain.

Note this image is very large at 3541 pixels wide!

The hole in the image is the par 4 10th.

Fighting the weeds

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 07:40:00 +0000

I’ve been planting the very long marshland area that is on the back nine at Kauri Cliffs. It’s about 60% done so far. After much experimentation I’ve found a good method of planting the marshes.

The green in the foreground is that of the par 4 11th hole with the dangerous par 3 12th in the distance.

An update

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 01:35:00 +0000

I have been at work on the course again for the last couple of weeks, mostly planting the course which currently has nearly 1.4 million plant objects. My goal is to have the course finished by the end of July this year.

Here is a rundown of the current state of the holes:

1st: The hole is complete.

2nd: The actual hole is complete but the area to the south of the hole needs more planting in the valley below the driving range.

3rd: This hole is complete and just needs some minor planting

4th: The huge valley below the hole on the north side needs a lot more planting. This is a critical part of the terrain so I’m taking my time.

5th: Complete.

6th: Very advanced with some minor planting and tidying up left to do.

7th: One of the most dramatic holes on the course which has had a preliminary test plant but still has a long way to go.

8th: Very advanced now with only minor tidying up to do.
9th Complete.

10th: The actual hole is complete but the complex task of planting the marshlands continues.

11th: Same as 10.

12th: Same as 10 and 11.
13th: Very advanced though the terrain surrounding the hole needs a lot more planting.
14th: Very advanced with minor work needed to the green and the fringe. Needs a lot more planting on the huge slopes below the hole.
15th: Complete with some minor planting to go.
16th: I have been working on this hole today and it is very close to being completed.
17th: Very advanced now with the initial planting being done a couple of days ago.

18th: This hole particularly the fairway had a total restoration from the Microsoft version of the course. The actual hole is now finished though there is still planting to do in areas surrounding the hole.

Other parts of the course:

The clubhouse and cabins. There is a lot of planting to be done here.

The gorge in the middle of the course still needs a lot more planting especially in the floor of the valley.

Here is a new image of the 16th:

Grass, grass and more grass!

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 09:20:00 +0000

I've been planted grasses most of the day with many holes on the front nine starting to really take shape. The first isn’t quite completely planted yet but 2 and 3 are very advanced with the 3rd now almost at beta standard. the large area between holes 2-5 is now completely planted.

The 8th, 9th, 16th,17th, and 18th are all partially planted with grasses

now,

How to get access to the course file early

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:25:00 +0000

A quick reminder to anyone who wants access the beta version of the course when it is released. If you become a friend of this blog (see the bottom of the home page to join) you will be given automatic access to an advanced pre-release version of the course.

Tinkering and testing

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:15:00 +0000

At the moment Pat has the master file while he does some mesh maintenance to the clubhouse. Just some adjustments to enhance the visual appeal of the building and some fix and fit stuff..

In the meantime I’m doing some testing and modifying of plants and trees so I’m ready to continue planting when I get the master file back. I’ve also been doing some play testing to weed out any playability issues the course may have, this include things like incorrectly assigned properties to textures etc on areas that are or can be in play.

The wind settings have already been set. The wind will be the prevailing wind will be from the north-east and will be gusty when used in tournament play which means it’s going to be important to shape your shots!

Going underground!

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0000

I won’t be posting any new pics in the meantime while the course is entering a critical stage of it’s development.

I will try to update progress though on a regular basis.

Another new image

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:55:00 +0000

Here’s another image from inside Links of the course as it currently looks

, the 8th green is just out of picture on the right.

A more refined look

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:57:00 +0000

Here is the result of the latest testing and experimenting for the course. The base texture has been carefully tweaked to blend in with the now much more refined planting.

A panoramic view of the course

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:41:00 +0000

The image below is that from the hills near the 9th tee boxes that can be seen in the foreground and the Pacific Ocean in the distance. The holes from left to right are the 7th, 6th (flagstick only showing), 5th, 4th, 8th, and the 2nd (with the 3rd hole tee boxes near the 2nd green.

More new images

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 09:12:00 +0000

These images are from inside Links 2003.

The 1st hole

Bunkers and the 6th green

The 9th green

The 16th hole

Out to pasture!

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 20:58:00 +0000

I’ve been playing around a lot with getting the right look for the course and especially the many large areas that are to be planted in pasture grasses.

Here is the first two pre-alpha test images of the course. There has as yet been no blending of the base textures with the plants as yet.

This part of the design process is one of the most critical as if it doesn’t look right the visual appeal and realism of the course will be badly affected.

Preparations for planting

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:24:00 +0000

I’ve been doing some testing for huge task of planting the course which includes solving the knotty issue of how to make the course look realistic while not having the issue of such a large plot being infested with nasty looking tiled textures everywhere. I’ve found a way around it that should look very good in Links 2003.

Another important part of getting ready for planting is tidying and finishing a myriad of places on the plot as these cannot always be easily changed once planted. This mostly making sure areas around tee boxes etc are finished and I’ve also been finishing off the last of the cart paths of which this course has plenty of them!

The other work that has been continuing is the advanced shaping and contouring of bunker surrounds and the main rough which is mostly thinning out and tidying the original mesh.

I hope to have some decent images of the course over the next seven days.

In the meantime here is the clubhouse with some more planting done (the tree on the right and the plants on the roof of the garage.

Getting back to working on the course

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:45:00 +0000

I’m having the summer break from my IT course so it’s back to APCD and Kauri Cliffs. I had already started some of the planting previously so I will be continuing with that while also tidying up some of the terrain in a couple of small places like around the 13th hole which is currently getting some remeshing of the slope below the fairway so it looks more realistic.

One of my goals over the next couple of weeks is to get the large marshland area on the back nine (holes 10-12) planted.

When I have some new screenshots worth looking at I’ll be posting them here.

Adding the pretty stuff next to the clubhouse

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:50:00 +0000

I’ve done a test plant to areas in front of the clubhouse as the two images below reveal. It isn’t necessarily the final look this part of the course will have.

I’m in the process of getting the garden next to the swimming pool ready now.

Lawns, paving tiles, and a huge slope

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:17:00 +0000

I”ve been working on the area around the clubhouse and the huge waste area between the 9th and 18th holes. This terrain is a has huge slopes, first is the from top to bottom right down into the gorge and has as big side slope with the 18th hole being on the high side, the 9th on the low side.

I’ve also been tidying up the area around the clubhouse including laying down the various lawns in front of the clubhouse and finishing the paving tiles on the northern side of the building.

Here is an image of the clubhouse and it’s surrounds as it currently looks:

At each end at the front on the corners a small garden will eventually be planted. The whitish colored path will be replaced with a hi-res texture.

New image of the 4th hole

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:29:00 +0000

The image below of the 4th shows the two cuts of rough. The heavy rough was the main rough until I substituted it for a more suitable texture.

Replanting the rough

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:23:00 +0000

I changed the main rough on the course with a much more suitable texture that bear a close resemblance to the real course. The previous texture will now be the heavy rough.

Here’s some images of how this new rough looks:

The 8th hole

The 10th viewed from the start of the fairway

The par 3 12th hole

The area adjacent to the 17th green

The view next to 18th green showing Pat Auge’s imposing clubhouse.

The rough texture will get some more tweaking so it’s not in it’s final quite just yet. Remember to click any image for the full size version.

Refining the terrain

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:42:00 +0000

I’ve been working away at knocking the terrain into shape. Most of the actual holes are in a very advanced shape now after much refinement.

The holes in question are on the back nine:

10th and 11th: The retaining wall has been put in place next to these two holes. The wall separates the marshlands from the actual golf holes.
12th: Yesterday I did the final shaping of the tee box area
13th: This hole has had a lot done to it the last week including the final modelling of the tee boxes and some very detailed work on the five greenside bunkers and their surrounds.
14th: This hole is the northern most hole on the course. The tee boxes and most importantly the slope on the left side of the hole has been finished.
15th: Most of the work has involved again doing the tee boxes and a lot of tidying up.
17th: Tee boxes and the terrain around the green has had a lot of smoothing out.

Here is a wireframe view of the aforementioned 13th green and bunkers complex:

The terrain around the 18th still needs advanced shaping especially the area to the north of the actual hole.

More bunkers

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:52:00 +0000

Here’s some screenshots of bunkers with a new high resolution texture I’ve been playing around with.

Bunker next to the 6th green

Bunker adjacent to the 17th green.

18th green, bunkers, and the clubhouse.

Thanks to Vulture for creating the original texture.

Playing in the Kauri Cliffs bunkers

lindsay.addie@gmail.com (Lindsay Addie) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:10:00 +0000

Most of the bunkers on the course have had their final shaping and sculpturing.

Here are four screenshots, (click any of the images for a full size version):

Bunkers next to the 7th green

The large fairway bunker on the 8th hole.

Greenside bunker on the 15th hole.

Green and bunker complex on the 17th hole.

Note: The bunker lips have to textures assigned to them hence the red color.