Arden Lakes re-texture

[Stephen Sullivan]

Following on from Lez's post. I wondered if there would be enough interest for me to redo my friend Mick Lenton's only course, Arden Lakes?

Opened it in APCD last night and got all the plants showing correctly, then changed out the textures to hi-res ones. I wouldn't touch the planting, but would seam blend and re-pin the greens.

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The only thing concerning me are the bunkers, most of which are quite extreme, with the dirt tucked under. Also the dirt is all done with a cylindrical mapping, which I've only ever used for pot bunkers with sod walls before.

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Would do this if people are interested, once I have Close House finished.

[Lez Marwick]

I would hope that everyone would like to see this course updated, but on a more personal note, if I was working on a project that I had an emotional connection with, I'm sure that it would be a positive and worthwhile venture, and if I felt that it was the right thing to do I would carry on regardless of other people's opinions.

[GoBucks]

I'm in favor of the update, Steven.

[Paul44]

I'm in favor of the update, Steven.

[Stephen Sullivan]

I would hope that everyone would like to see this course updated, but on a more personal note, if I was working on a project that I had an emotional connection with, I'm sure that it would be a positive and worthwhile venture, and if I felt that it was the right thing to do I would carry on regardless of other people's opinions.

It's a very emotional thing to take on Lez. Started the Memorial course not long after his death, and your post about updating those courses made me think of Mick's course. It's a real monster in length, and I don't like a lot of the planting, but it was Mick's, so it will stay. May well lessen the severity of some of the bunkers, as they look too extreme, but nothing else will be touched.

I've also got my dad in hospital again after a mild heart attack, so need something to occupy my mind. Thank goodness for APCD

[Lez Marwick]

It's always difficult working on someone else's course. I usually feel obliged to keep it as close to the original as possible. When updating Coomb's Mill I was tempted to change the strange bunker shapes, but as the designer stated in the Read Me that one of his aims when designing the course was these individually distinctive bunker shapes I decided to leave them as they were. Ben then gave the course a 6/10 rating for appearence because of the 'silly bunker shapes' but in this case, leaving them as the designer had intended was the right thing to do.
That said, if the designers of the past had all the plants and textures that we have access to they would surely have used them and so on Canyon Hills I am making a few changes to things I don't like, to improve the look. So long as the course is not altered radically I think most designers would approve of a few changes if it means their course will be played and enjoyed again by the Links community.

[Stephen Sullivan]

Lez

In theory I could leave the dirt lip in place and just add a seam either side. I assume I can use the existing cylindrical mapping of the dirt lip?

[Lez Marwick]

Lez

In theory I could leave the dirt lip in place and just add a seam either side. I assume I can use the existing cylindrical mapping of the dirt lip?

It sounds ridiculous but I don't remember ever using a cylindrical mapping on a bunker so I can't advise you.
My current update project had cylindrical mappings on the bunker lips as well. I've just replaced them with the usual planar and multiples that I normally use. I don't think cylindrical mappings display properly on anything but a fairly circular bunker but I could be wrong. On the low-res 2001 textures it's hard to tell anyway.
I plan on doing a few experiments with APCD when I finish this course, so I'll have a play around with cylindrical mappings then.
I know there are a number of APCD techniques I used to use that aren't covered in my videos. Some have come back to me this last week... some haven't.