Links Corner Forum

Thought I would pop in and say, introduce myself. I have just started back with playing around on APCD, after experimenting with it waaay back when it first came out. I had forgotten how addictive it was... as well as how difficult it was to learn how to use it, and how annoying it was when the program crashed at crucial times!

I'm not much of a designer yet compared to most of you, but I enjoying creating, experimenting, and just having fun with APCD. I have attached a couple of screenshots of my first course that I'm working on, though it's more something to create for the learning process rather than something that I expect to be any good ;-) The pano, most of the 2d objects etc are ones I have managed to collect from various courses, or free downloads, which are just so much better quality than the stock standard ones that come with APCD. A big thanks has to go to people that make their stuff freely available for beginners like me!

Cheers, AJ

Welcome, mate! I think a lot of us are digging into the APCD since there isn't much else to do! At least you guys get a break from all that awful heat and those wildfires you were dealing with recently.

Pete

Thanks Pete. Yes, we had a rough summer alright. Temps were nudging or even over 50c some days, and the fires were just terrible. Lucky we not in the areas of the worst ones, though we could smell the smoke some days.

I remember when I first started using APCD. The Links2003 had just come out and I bought the discs, which had APCD with it, so of course I installed that as well and started playing around with it. Never actually got a course finished, and as things changed I moved on with other things and forgot about it. So it's been 15yrs or so since I touched it, and just started back a couple of weeks ago. A long road re-learning how to use it, collect new textures alphas, trees etc etc. But just loving it!

I'm not sure if it's as popular as it was back then when MS owned it and used to run the servers for P2P games. Now I use Gameranger to play with friends. I have played the WGT online and while that's fun, it just doesn't seem as much fun as Links2003.

OK, so back to it... I'm currently trying to figure out how to use the Gizmo so that I can get a worn grass path orientated the right way and to the correct scale to blend in with the rough.

Cheers, AJ

AJ, take a look at these lessons from Lez Marwick. I'm learning the APCD right now. too, and I saw him go over the gizmo in one of them. I'll post if I remember which lesson it was. There are some good APCD things in the Sticky area of the Designers Forum, too.

https://linkscorner.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=49

Pete

pmgolf wrote: ↑May 13th, 2020, 3:04 am AJ, take a look at these lessons from Lez Marwick. I'm learning the APCD right now. too, and I saw him go over the gizmo in one of them. I'll post if I remember which lesson it was. There are some good APCD things in the Sticky area of the Designers Forum, too.

https://linkscorner.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=49

Pete

Pete. Would some of you new designers like to have a more detailed explanation of the GIZMO and how it works?

Dan

I have watched every single one of those videos, multiple times. They are fantastic help, I'm just so grateful to him for taking the time to put them together!

Yes, there is one that touches on using the Gizmo, but I can't seem to get the info I need from that. In my situation, I have a cart track alpha which is 2 wheel ruts running parallel to each other. I used the rough as 1 texture, and dirt as the other. But if I create a cart track using the path tool,the texture tiles vertically, not horizontally.

I practiced on a new plot and did actually manage to find how to get it horizontal, but have no idea how I did it, and can't do it again. But even then, it was a straight horizontal track that of course run off at every little bend so it looked terrible. Maybe I need to make my tracks dead straight?

Maybe there is a tutorial somewhere that shows how to do things like this, it sure would be helpful!

Cheers, A

AJ Allen wrote: ↑May 13th, 2020, 3:58 am Yes, there is one that touches on using the Gizmo, but I can't seem to get the info I need from that. In my situation, I have a cart track alpha which is 2 wheel ruts running parallel to each other. I used the rough as 1 texture, and dirt as the other. But if I create a cart track using the path tool,the texture tiles vertically, not horizontally.

Cheers, A

If you are creating roads and paths, then the texture must be imported into the APCD like it runs from north to south. Then when you create a PATH to apply the texture, the road will connect end to end, and not side to side. Take your texture to Photoshop and rotate it 90° and then re-import it into the APCD, and let it overwrite the existing one.

Hope that helps,

Dan

Hello! I'm another former linkster/designer coming back for a second round! Feel free to ask any questions in the designer forum as well. I've gotten some great help there and I remember a bit from back in the golden days of Links Course Design so I may be able to help as well.

- Ben

Welcome aboard Ben.
Go Bombers!