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Introducing TGC Designer Tools and Real Course Recreation Lidar Import

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  • Introducing TGC Designer Tools and Real Course Recreation Lidar Import

    Hi everyone!

    I've been hard at work for the last month developing tools that primarily will import Lidar data into TGC 2019 Courses.

    There have been a lot of ups and downs, but I'm at the point where I'm ready to accept feedback from the community.

    A completed course file is available here:
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RYW...ew?usp=sharing

    Please don't publish this course in game, it's not completed and I call 'dibs' on publishing this course after I finish decorating it.


    I've completed the proof-of-concept phases and have created playable, realistic courses. I'm still working on the User Interface and instructions to make this the easiest that it can be, but I wanted to open the tools up for developers to contribute fixes.

    The source code is available free on Github and releases will be available there under the "Releases" link. I'm targeting the initial release in a week or two as a Windows download:




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    I also am supporting import from OpenStreetMap golf courses ( https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=1...576/-115.28536 ) into TGC as splines if you don't want the lidar elevation or can't get lidar for your course.





    Quick tips if you want to get started on your OpenStreetMap course: use the highest quality sat image available, map greens along the inside of THE FRINGE, map bunkers on the outside lip, map water on the outside lip.

    For more information on the process or if you want to support future features of this tool, please read here: https://www.patreon.com/chadgolf

    I hope this brings enjoyment to everyone. We all have courses that are personally meaningful to us, and I hope this software inspires you to create something for the community.
    - Chad

    Special thanks to MTHunt, crazycanuck1985, friendBOMBER, and HTdumps for initial feedback and guidance.

    Instructions and a tutorial linked from this page: https://chadrockey.github.io/TGC-Designer-Tools/
    Attached Files
    Last edited by ChadGolf; 02-07-2019, 07:06 PM.

  • Originally posted by frodaddy00 View Post
    Plotting your course in OSM - 2 hours
    Finding lidar data - 1 hour
    Using Chad's awesome tool to create course - 10 minutes
    Adding 10 billion trees by hand - 50 hrs and counting..

    Its too late for me to use the cool new tree feature since I'm already heavily invested.. trees trees everywhere.

    Made me think of this.

    Comment


    • How do you line up the course to the lidar? Mine is slightly off. I am not sure what to change. So my course needs to move right and down in map like what I would call 10ft?

      Comment


    • Hi is there anyway someone could upload a blank course for me to try the lidar tools on please?

      i'm using my macbook pro but running windows on it as well, to test the tool, my lidar data and open street maps before I commit to buying the game and a windows pc

      Comment


      • jimmer007
        jimmer007 commented
        Editing a comment
        @NetcheK

        I'm running Windows through bootcamp (uses full Mac power I believe, where parallels is emulated so only uses small percentage)

        However my MacBook Pro is from 2012, and only has 4gb ram, so not good enough to run chads lidar tool or run the game which I've tried.

        Depends on your spec of Mac, I'm weighing up.all possibilities, either upgrading to a Newer iMac, or buying a Windows PC just for this game

        Chad pointed out you can buy steam version on windows and as long as you play under 2 hours and request refund within 2 weeks you'll get your money back, so worth a try

      • NetcheK
        NetcheK commented
        Editing a comment
        Thanks jimmer007, I bought TGC2019 3 days ago and tried it.. on parallel desktop: error on startup because of DirectX11.
        They agreed to refund. I guess I can’t try another time on bootcamp now :-)

      • ChadGolf
        ChadGolf commented
        Editing a comment
        For what it's worth, Steam games give you lifetime licenses for the software on as many computers as you want (uses cloud authentication). So if there's a sale or you want the software, you can have it on a bunch of different PCs.

    • Originally posted by Supraracer View Post
      How do you line up the course to the lidar? Mine is slightly off. I am not sure what to change. So my course needs to move right and down in map like what I would call 10ft?
      Go to the measurement tools in tgc and measure out the North/south shift and then the east/west shift that you need. Then re run the exe and use the shift boxes to either shift the OSM course or the elevations accordingly.

      Comment


      • Supraracer
        Supraracer commented
        Editing a comment
        Thanks Wang. I'll give that a go.

    • jimmer007 I apologize for the posts this morning, had some insomnia and was trying to answer forum posts half awake. Since you had to post a lot about this and you're having issues in your VM, to make it up to you, I ran your course through the whole process.

      I think you're working on the closed "Frome Golf Club", so I went and found the data and ran it through the tool.

      A few notes: your lidar is high quality, so it takes up A LOT of memory. If you don't allocate 8 to 16GB to your virtual machine, it will run out of RAM and that's probably why it freezes.

      You only need the data from ST47ne, but there's way more data there than necessary for your course, so you could probably use Fugroviewer or other software to reduce the number of lidar files you're feeding into the tool.

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      But from there, I drew the box around your course and brought it into the game. I used the new Trees and Tree Variety features, so this course should be looking pretty close to how it looked in its prime: Looks like you did a great job in OpenStreetMap, it looks excellent to me.

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      And I tried to find an "on the ground" view that you would remember clearly, so here is a view from the 18th tee over the forced carry.

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      Let me know if I picked the right course and everything or if there's something else you need before you make the big jump into PC ownership.

      Comment


      • jimmer007
        jimmer007 commented
        Editing a comment
        ChadGolf

        My new Mac has arrived and runs your tool and tgc 2019 perfectly through bootcamp

        Anyway I selected the lidar point cloud 2013 ST47ne lidar file (only tile available for this year???)

        But the projected area in the tool only has one hole on it

        On the grid it should have the whole course, any idea what I can do to rectify this?

        There are other types of lidar to download for this year which include both gilrs

      • ChadGolf
        ChadGolf commented
        Editing a comment
        jimmer007 Awww, I'm sorry to hear that. I took another look and we were fooled by the download website.

        The darker green here is the 2013 data and it barely enters the course, but it enters it enough to tell us that there's data for 2013.



        Sorry that I wasn't able to run the 2013 for you in time. I hope you can use the 2016 data and undo what the farmers did.

      • jimmer007
        jimmer007 commented
        Editing a comment
        ChadGolf

        Ah that explains why it only ports in this bit

        Is it only lidar point cloud that can be used?

        There are other lidar options that have both tiles available????
        Last edited by jimmer007; 03-07-2019, 01:53 PM.

    • 18 th tee
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    • Such a game changer to see the 18th elevated properly, I'd never have been able to achieve this manually
      Last edited by jimmer007; 03-03-2019, 08:41 PM.

      Comment


      • Few pics I have to hand:

        5th tee view

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        7th green view

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        15th tee view

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        Comment


        • ChadGolf
          ChadGolf commented
          Editing a comment
          Most of the holes look perfect and just like the photos. Something's wrong with the 7th green. maybe the hole is backwards or it was changed at some point, but it's completely unplayable and on a hill!

        • ChadGolf
          ChadGolf commented
          Editing a comment
          Just realized I downloaded the 2016 data and not the 2013. Is there any chance they started tearing up the course by 2016?

        • jimmer007
          jimmer007 commented
          Editing a comment
          @ChadGolf

          The course closed in September 2015, and some holes and features have since been filled in, not sure 2016 would work??

          I think my selected data was 2013 because of this.

          Thank you for sharing the course with me, I've just tried to give it a little play, wow it's awesome and so realistic

          The 7th is on a hill like it is, but has 4 tiers

          but green wasn't quite as sloped at the front, first two tiers (largest part were playable), pin on top two tiers was a nightmare in real life.

          don't be past the pin on 7th otherwise you're off the front of the green after your putt or chip (lol,)

          If it's 2016 data might explain why this greens wrong ,the 7th green as it was flattened with the lie of the land I believe by the farmer who bought the course

          the 4th green isn't right either and is a slurry pit at this time, hence the weird banking near and around the 4th green.

          Also the hump on right of 11th 50 yards or so from green is missing, again I think some humps & greens flattened for farm land after the golf course closed in 2015

          There was no major changes to the courses after 2013, so that data should be perfect
          Last edited by jimmer007; 03-03-2019, 08:44 PM.

      • I seriously can't get over the quality the course from the play test, especially the greens, the slopes and contours area spot on, everything comes together perfect, the elevation changes are amazing and are exactly as they were

        I can't thank you enough, some trip down memory lane I've just had.

        apart from a couple of problem areas above which is probably due to the data being used after the course was closed and flattened in some areas, I'm totally speechless at how good it's been replicated
        Last edited by jimmer007; 03-03-2019, 04:14 AM.

        Comment


        • Quoted from an earlier post. “
          But from there, I drew the box around your course and brought it into the game. I used the new Trees and Tree Variety features, so this course should be looking pretty close to how it looked in its prime: Looks like you did a great job in OpenStreetMap, it looks excellent to me.”

          Im using latest version and get all the same tree type, where is this new tree variety feature?

          Comment


        • ChadGolf do you think there could just be a sort of toggle for a type of tree. Like have a random option but maybe also give the option to have maybe a random among Oak trees or among Maple trees or whatever? I’m making a course that has a million of the same tree. Just an idea......very much appreciate your work on this.

          Comment


          • ChadGolf
            ChadGolf commented
            Editing a comment
            The menu options start to get too complex and theme dependent, so I'm not sure what to do. It's one of those things that easier to do in theory than to make reliable, clear UIs that users will understand. It's difficult because the trees change types between themes and only the first ID '0' tree can be relied upon.

            So the two options for now are: you can have all the 'zero' tree, or the lidar will classify trees based on boring, normal trees (oaks, trees, no willows) and skinny trees (palms, pines) and randomly select the variations of those as appropriate.

        • ChadGolf While playing with your tree chart in TGC 2019, I found a little glitch that gives you "Ocean front property in Arizona" seems if you start in desert then go to tropical and change the back drop to ocean and go back to desert it leaves the ocean back drop in the settings. I was always told those cacti only grow in Arizona, and there they are on the ocean front.
          I also know that trying to swap out themes after using the LIDAR trees and swapping them out can give you some wild stuff, I wound up with two willow trees that would have been over 500 foot tall. I like the LIDAR putting the trees in place, just have to choose a theme you can live with, your program does a better job of sizing the trees and to me size and placement are the most important part of the setup.

          Comment


          • ChadGolf
            ChadGolf commented
            Editing a comment
            Yeah, changing the theme gets really wonky. I don't think the Willow Trees should have grown to 500 feet, but maybe there's some behinds the scenes stuff that isn't accessible to us. I can only use relative sizes, not absolute sizes, so I just set the tallest tree to the tallest and the shortest tree to the shortest and make sure everything else is in that range.

          • BGCurtis2nd
            BGCurtis2nd commented
            Editing a comment
            I went back and don't know why I didn't notice the ocean back drop on the desert theme first time I went through, guess I just didn't expect to see one so I simply over looked it.

          • Fhacker
            Fhacker commented
            Editing a comment
            I agree with BG sizing and placement of the trees are the top priority. I would bet only a low % of golfers actually know what variety of trees are on a given course. And u can only identify some types with aerial photos. If u choose an appropriate theme tree type will probably be OK for most courses at least to start with.

        • ChadGolf I got a quick question. Do you have a list showing what OSM tags are supported by your tool and how they show up in the designer? I tried to collect them from the posts here but I got confused.

          Comment


          • Sascha1818 Don't be afraid of source code.

            Tools to support course creation and Lidar/Terrain Creation in The Golf Club 2019. - chadrockey/TGC-Designer-Tools


            --------------
            List of golf types:
            Tools to support course creation and Lidar/Terrain Creation in The Golf Club 2019. - chadrockey/TGC-Designer-Tools


            Waterway:
            Tools to support course creation and Lidar/Terrain Creation in The Golf Club 2019. - chadrockey/TGC-Designer-Tools


            Building:
            Tools to support course creation and Lidar/Terrain Creation in The Golf Club 2019. - chadrockey/TGC-Designer-Tools


            Natural:Wood:
            Tools to support course creation and Lidar/Terrain Creation in The Golf Club 2019. - chadrockey/TGC-Designer-Tools


            Tree:
            Tools to support course creation and Lidar/Terrain Creation in The Golf Club 2019. - chadrockey/TGC-Designer-Tools


            --------------------------

            And for those who don't wanna look:

            Golf: green, bunker, tee, fairway, driving_range, rough, water_hazard, lateral_water_hazard, cartpath, path, clubhouse, hole
            Waterway: ALL
            Building: ALL
            Natural: Wood, Tree

            Comment


            • Sascha1818
              Sascha1818 commented
              Editing a comment
              Thanks a lot

            • ChadGolf
              ChadGolf commented
              Editing a comment
              Oh, and wood, water, and buildings are placeholder splines.

          • I'm deathly afraid of source code.

            Comment

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