Designing a new golf course means changing a piece of land from its current state into something new. These changes often require the approval of many stakeholders including investors, government zoning boards, potential area home-owners, environmental groups and countless others. Many of these people are not technically minded and have a hard time understanding charts, graphs, plans and CAD drawings. 3D Nature’s Visual Nature Studio software (VNS) takes your GIS data and CAD drawings and turns them into photographic still images and immersive animations. Presenting images helps to educate your audience about what your course will look and feel like upon completion. Make your site plans come to life in the minds of every stakeholder.
With photorealistic imagery you can show investors exactly how the course will play. Nothing sells a design more successfully than images and animations of the proposal. Turn empty fields or seaside landscapes into tee boxes, greens, roughs and other elements as they will be once the course is complete. Show a viewpoint from each tee box with all of your precision design elements in place. Illustrate doglegs, sight-lines, vegetation screening and amazing views.
No project moves forward without approval of the environment impact assessment. Eliminate costly miscommunications and delays by ensuring the best understanding of your plans with detailed photorealistic depictions of the site and impact to the surroundings. A better understanding of the project as a whole may result in a more rapid approval process, possibly allowing you to start moving earth sooner. VNS provides the ability to express multiple options quickly, easily and intuitively -- something drawings and plans do not offer.
Sketches and diagrams can give a general feel for a course but to truly understand the playability it is better to have an overview of the layout as well as images from throughout the tee boxes, fairways and greens. With Visual Nature Studio you can verify location of greens and other elements on the course. Determine if a water hazard or sand trap are visible from the tee or if they need to be moved slightly to make the course more (or less!) player-friendly. Identify the proximity of nearby homes and other interference factors. Ensure that you will not be playing shots out of neighboring playgrounds or flower gardens. Place bunkers, water hazards and tee boxes in a real-world environment to ensure a quality course upon completion. Once you have designed your course you can move through the entire area to make sure it meets your strict design requirements.
What better way to sell a lot on the 9th fairway than to be able to show the buyer what their views will be? Sketches and plans do not convey the beauty of your masterpiece the way photo quality imagery of the finished course can. Potential buyers can appreciate the view from the master bedroom of their course-side home while it's still just a muddy field and a twinkle in your eye. With top-notch marketing collateral, lot sales can begin much earlier than previously possible, an advantage not lost on potential investors!
Your next course may be in the deserts of Africa, the green hills of Scotland or on the shores of the Pacific Coast but no matter where your setting, Visual Nature Studio will express the unique feel of your site. A large foliage library and hundreds of pre-built Components provide the tools you need to get your project off the ground quickly. Visual Nature Studio includes Components for fairways, roughs, greens, water hazards, sand traps and tee boxes. You can drag and drop these into your scene and they will immediately bring your drawings to life! Then customize your creation to meet your exact needs.
Visual Nature Studio and World Construction Set satisfy the needs of Golf Course Architects at two different levels. Visual Nature Studio gives you greater power, precision and flexibility plus some extra features that WCS doesn't have. World Construction Set is great for concept development where scientific and geographic accuracy are of lesser importance. Both programs give you the ultimate in artistic expression and photo-realism. If you would like to learn more about the differences between WCS and VNS visit our Product Comparison Page.
Used around the world for Land Planning, Landscape Architecture, Civil Engineering, Cartography, Forestry and Resource Management, Historical and Archaeological Recreation and Golf Course Design.
D'Artagnan was astounded by the terrible confidence of Athos; yet many things appeared very obscure to him in this half revelation. In the first place it had been made by a man quite drunk to one who was half drunk; and yet, in spite of the incertainty which the vapor of three or four bottles of Burgundy carries with it to the brain, D'Artagnan, when awaking on the following morning, had all the words of Athos as present to his memory as if they then fell from his mouth--they had been so impressed upon his mind. All this doubt only gave rise to a more lively desire of arriving at a certainty, and he went into his friend's chamber with a fixed determination of renewing the conversation of the preceding evening; but he found Athos quite himself again--that is to say, the most shrewd and impenetrable of men. Besides which, the Musketeer, after having exchanged a hearty shake of the hand with him, broached the matter first.
"I was pretty drunk yesterday, D'Artagnan," said he, "I can tell that by my tongue, which was swollen and hot this morning, and by my pulse, which was very tremulous. I wager that I uttered a thousand extravagances."
"No," replied D'Artagnan, "if I recollect well what you said, it was nothing out of the common way."
"Ah, you surprise me. I thought I had told you a most lamentable story." And he looked at the young man as if he would read the bottom of his heart.
"My faith," said D'Artagnan, "it appears that I was more drunk than you, since I remember nothing of the kind."
Athos did not trust this reply, and he resumed; "you cannot have failed to remark, my dear friend, that everyone has his particular kind of drunkenness, sad or gay. My drunkenness is always sad, and when I am thoroughly drunk my mania is to relate all the lugubrious stories which my foolish nurse inculcated into my brain. That is my failing--a capital failing, I admit; but with that exception, I am a good drinker."
"It is that, then," replied the young man, anxious to find out the truth, "it is that, then, I remember as we remember a dream. We were speaking of hanging."
"Ah, you see how it is," said Athos, becoming still paler, but yet attempting to laugh; "I was sure it was so--the hanging of people is my nightmare."
"Yes, yes," replied D'Artagnan. "I remember now; yes, it was about--stop a minute--yes, it was about a woman."
"That's it," replied Athos, becoming almost livid; "that is my grand story of the fair lady, and when I relate that, I must be very drunk."
"By her husband, who was a nobleman of your acquaintance," continued D'Artagnan, looking intently at Athos.
"Well, you see how a man may compromise himself when he does not know what he says," replied Athos, shrugging his shoulders as if he thought himself an object of pity. "I certainly never will get drunk again, D'Artagnan; it is too bad a habit."
"you are mistaken; I rode him nearly ten leagues in less than an hour and a half, and he appeared no more distressed than if he had only made the tour of the Place St. Sulpice."
"Why, here is the simple fact. This morning I awoke at six o'clock. You were still fast asleep, and I did not know what to do with myself; I was still stupid from our yesterday's debauch. As I came into the public room, I saw one of our Englishman bargaining with a dealer for a horse, his own having died yesterday from bleeding. I drew near, and found he was bidding a hundred pistoles for a chestnut nag. 'PARDIEU,' said I, 'my good gentleman, I have a horse to sell, too.' 'Ay, and a very fine one! I saw him yesterday; your friend's lackey was leading him.' 'Do you think he is worth a hundred pistoles?' 'Yes! Will you sell him to me for that sum?' 'No; but I will play for him.' 'What?' 'At dice.' No sooner said than done, and I lost the horse. Ah, ah! But please to observe I won back the equipage,' cried Athos.
"Well, I must confess it does," replied D'Artagnan. "That horse was to have identified us in the day of battle. It was a pledge, a remembrance. Athos, you have done wrong."
"But, my dear friend, put yourself in my place," replied the Musketeer. "I was hipped to death; and still further, upon my honor, I don't like English horses. If it is only to be recognized, why the saddle will suffice for that; it is quite remarkable enough. As to the horse, we can easily find some excuse for its disappearance. Why the devil! A horse is mortal; suppose mine had had the glanders or the farcy?"
"It vexes me greatly," continued Athos, "that you attach so much importance to these animals, for I am not yet at the end of my story."
"After having lost my own horse, nine against ten--see how near-- I formed an idea of staking yours."
"My dear lad, that was yesterday, when I was telling you silly stories, it was proper to tell me that, and not this morning. I lost him then, with all his appointments and furniture."
"Stop a minute; you don't know all yet. I should make an excellent gambler if I were not too hot-headed; but I was hot- headed, just as if I had been drinking. Well, I was not hot- headed then--"
'Oh, yes, my friend; there was still that diamond left which sparkles on your finger, and which I had observed yesterday."
"And as I am a connoisseur in such things, having had a few of my own once, I estimated it at a thousand pistoles."
"On the contrary, my dear friend, this diamond became our only resource; with it I might regain our horses and their harnesses, and even money to pay our expenses on the road."
"I mentioned your diamond then to my adversary, who had likewise remarked it. What the devil, my dear, do you think you can wear a star from heaven on your finger, and nobody observe it? Impossible!"
"Go on, go on, my dear fellow!" said D'Artagnan; "for upon my honor, you will kill me with your indifference."
"You are laughing at me, and want to try me!" said D'Artagnan, whom anger began to take by the hair, as Minerva takes Achilles, in the ILLIAD.
"No, I do not jest, MORDIEU! I should like to have seen you in my place! I had been fifteen days without seeing a human face, and had been left to brutalize myself in the company of bottles."
"That was no reason for staking my diamond!" replied D'Artagnan, closing his hand with a nervous spasm.
"Hear the end. Ten parts of a hundred pistoles each, in ten throws, without revenge; in thirteen throws I had lost all--in thirteen throws. The number thirteen was always fatal to me; it was on the thirteenth of July that--"
"VENTREBLEU!" cried D'Artagnan, rising from the table, the story of the present day making him forget that of the preceding one.
"Patience!" said Athos; "I had a plan. The Englishman was an original; I had seen him conversing that morning with Grimaud, and Grimaud had told me that he had made him proposals to enter into his service. I staked Grimaud, the silent Grimaud, divided into ten portions."
"Grimaud himself, understand; and with the ten parts of Grimaud, which are not worth a ducatoon, I regained the diamond. Tell me, now, if persistence is not a virtue?"
"I won back your harness, then your horse, then my harness, then my horse, and then I lost again. In brief, I regained your harness and then mine. That's where we are. That was a superb throw, so I left off there."
"Swear to nothing. You have not played for a long time, I said; you ought, then, to have a good hand."
"Well; the Englishman and his companion are still here. I remarked that he regretted the horse furniture very much. You appear to think much of your horse. In your place I would stake the furniture against the horse."
"You would do so?" said D'Artagnan, undecided, so strongly did the confidence of Athos begin to prevail, in spite of himself.
"The devil!" said Athos. "I would propose to you to stake Planchet, but as that has already been done, the Englishman would not, perhaps, be willing."
"That's a pity," said Athos, cooly. "The Englishman is overflowing with pistoles. Good Lord, try one throw! One throw is soon made!"
Athos went in quest of the Englishman, whom he found in the stable, examining the harnesses with a greedy eye. The opportunity was good. He proposed the conditions--the two harnesses, either against one horse or a hundred pistoles. The Englishman calculated fast; the two harnesses were worth three hundred pistoles. He consented.
D'Artagnan threw the dice with a trembling hand, and turned up the number three; his paleness terrified Athos, who, however, consented himself with saying, "That's a sad throw, comrade; you will have the horses fully equipped, monsieur."
The Englishman, quite triumphant, did not even give himself the trouble to shake the dice. He threw them on the table without looking at them, so sure was he of victory; D'Artagnan turned aside to conceal his ill humor.
"Hold, hold, hold!" said Athos, wit his quiet tone; "that throw of the dice is extraordinary. I have not seen such a one four times in my life. Two aces!"
The Englishman looked, and was seized with astonishment. D'Artagnan looked, and was seized with pleasure.
"Yes," continued Athos, "four times only; once at the house of Monsieur Crequy; another time at my own house in the country, in my chateau at--when I had a chateau; a third time at Monsieur de Treville's where it surprised us all; and the fourth time at a cabaret, where it fell to my lot, and where I lost a hundred louis and a supper on it."
"Well, Tempter, what more do you want with me?" said D'Artagnan. "You want me to throw again, do you not?"
"You are wrong, then. I would take the hundred pistoles. You know you have staked the harnesses against the horse or a hundred pistoles, at your choice."
"Well, then, I repeat, you are wrong. What is the use of one horse for us two? I could not ride behind. We should look like the two sons of Anmon, who had lost their brother. You cannot think of humiliating me by prancing along by my side on that magnificent charger. For my part, I should not hesitate a moment; I should take the hundred pistoles. We want money for our return to Paris."
"And there again you are wrong. A horse slips and injures a joint; a horse stumbles and breaks his knees to the bone; a horse eats out of a manger in which a glandered horse has eaten. There is a horse, while on the contrary, the hundred pistoles feed their master."
"Upon our lackey's horses, PARDIEU. Anybody may see by our bearing that we are people of condition."
"To take the hundred pistoles, D'Artagnan. With the hundred pistoles we can live well to the end of the month. We have undergone a great deal of fatigue, remember, and a little rest will do no harm."
"Well, you may be assured that your horse will not be half so serviceable to you for that purpose as good golden louis. Take the hundred pistoles, my friend; take the hundred pistoles!"
D'Artagnan only required one reason to be satisfied. This last reason appeared convincing. Besides, he feared that by resisting longer he should appear selfish in the eyes of Athos. He acquiesced, therefore, and chose the hundred pistoles, which the Englishman paid down on the spot.
They then determined to depart. Peace with the landlord, in addition to Athos's old horse, cost six pistoles. D'Artagnan and Athos took the nags of Planchet and Grimaud, and the two lackeys started on foot, carrying the saddles on their heads.
However ill our two friends were mounted, they were soon far in advance of their servants, and arrived at Creveccoeur. From a distance they perceived Aramis, seated in a melancholy manner at his window, looking out, like Sister Anne, at the dust in the horizon.
"Ah, is that you, D'Artagnan, and you, Athos?" said the young man. "I was reflecting upon the rapidity with which the blessings of this world leave us. My English horse, which has just disappeared amid a cloud of dust, has furnished me with a living image of the fragility of the things of the earth. Life itself may be resolved into three words: ERAT, EST, FUIT."
"Which means that I have just been duped-sixty louis for a horse which by the manner of his gait can do at least five leagues an hour."
"My dear D'Artagnan," said Aramis, "don't be too angry with me, I beg. Necessity has no law; besides, I am the person punished, as that rascally horsedealer has robbed me of fifty louis, at least. Ah, you fellows are good managers! You ride on our lackey's horses, and have your own gallant steeds led along carefully by hand, at short stages."
At the same instant a market cart, which some minutes before had appeared upon the Amiens road, pulled up at the inn, and Planchet and Grimaud came out of it with the saddles on their heads. The cart was returning empty to Paris, and the two lackeys had agreed, for their transport, to slake the wagoner's thirst along the route.
"My friends, that's exactly like me! I retained my harness by instinct. HOLA, Bazin! Bring my new saddle and carry it along with those of these gentlemen."
"My dear fellow, I invited them to a dinner the next day," replied Aramis. "They have some capital wine here-please to observe that in passing. I did my best to make them drunk. Then the curate forbade me to quit my uniform, and the Jesuit entreated me to get him made a Musketeer."
"Since then," continued Aramis, "I have lived very agreeably. I have begun a poem in verses of one syllable. That is rather difficult, but the merit in all things consists in the difficulty. The matter is gallant. I will read you the first canto. It has four hundred lines, and lasts a minute."
"My faith, my dear Aramis," said D'Artagnan, who detested verses almost as much as he did Latin, "add to the merit of the difficulty that of the brevity, and you are sure that your poem will at least have two merits."
"You will see," continued Aramis, "that it breathes irreproachable passion. And so, my friends, we return to Paris? Bravo! I am ready. We are going to rejoin that good fellow, Porthos. So much the better. You can't think how I have missed him, the great simpleton. To see him so self-satisfied reconciles me with myself. He would not sell his horse; not for a kingdom! I think I can see him now, mounted upon his superb animal and seated in his handsome saddle. I am sure he will look like the Great Mogul!"
They made a halt for an hour to refresh their horses. Aramis discharged his bill, placed Bazin in the cart with his comrades, and they set forward to join Porthos.
They found him up, less pale than when D'Artagnan left him after his first visit, and seated at a table on which, though he was alone, was spread enough for four persons. This dinner consisted of meats nicely dressed, choice wines, and superb fruit.
"Ah, PARDIEU!" said he, rising, "you come in the nick of time, gentlemen. I was just beginning the soup, and you will dine with me."
"Oh, oh!" said D'Artagnan, "Mousqueton has not caught these bottles with his lasso. Besides, here is a piquant FRICANDEAU and a fillet of beef."
"I am recruiting myself," said Porthos, "I am recruiting myself. Nothing weakens a man more than these devilish strains. Did you ever suffer from a strain, Athos?"
"Never! Though I remember, in our affair of the Rue Ferou, I received a sword wound which at the end of fifteen or eighteen days produced the same effect."
"No," said Porthos, "I expected some gentlemen of the neighborhood, who have just sent me word they could not come. You will take their places and I shall not lose by the exchange. HOLA, Mousqueton, seats, and order double the bottles!"
"PARDIEU!" replied D'Artagnan, "for my part, I am eating veal garnished with shrimps and vegetables."
"What could I do?" said Porthos. "This horse made my visitors ashamed of theirs, and I don't like to humiliate people."
"Still," replied Porthos. "And, my faith, the governor of the province--one of the gentlemen I expected today--seemed to have such a wish for him, that I gave him to him."
"My God, yes, GAVE, that is the word," said Porthos; "for the animal was worth at least a hundred and fifty louis, and the stingy fellow would only give me eighty."
And then commenced a roar of laughter in which they all joined, to the astonishment of poor Porthos; but when he was informed of the cause of their hilarity, he shared it vociferously according to his custom.
"Well, for my part," said Athos, "I found Aramis's Spanish wine so good that I sent on a hamper of sixty bottles of it in the wagon with the lackeys. That has weakened my purse."
"And I," said Aramis, "imagined that I had given almost my last sou to the church of Montdidier and the Jesuits of Amiens, with whom I had made engagements which I ought to have kept. I have ordered Masses for myself, and for you, gentlemen, which will be said, gentlemen, for which I have not the least doubt you will be marvelously benefited."
"And I," said Porthos, "do you think my strain cost me nothing?-- without reckoning Mousqueton's wound, for which I had to have the surgeon twice a day, and who charged me double on account of that foolish Mousqueton having allowed himself a ball in a part which people generally only show to an apothecary; so I advised him to try never to get wounded there any more."
"Ay, ay!" said Athos, exchanging a smile with D'Artagnan and Aramis, "it is very clear you acted nobly with regard to the poor lad; that is like a good master."
"In short," said Porthos, "when all my expenses are paid, I shall have, at most, thirty crowns left."
"Well, then it appears that we are the Croesuses of the society. How much have you left of your hundred pistoles, D'Artagnan.?"
"Well, of the four horses of our lackeys we will make two for the masters, for which we will draw lots. With the four hundred livres we will make the half of one for one of the unmounted, and then we will give the turnings out of our pockets to D'Artagnan, who has a steady hand, and will go and play in the first gaming house we come to. There!"
The friends, at ease with regard to the future, did honor to the repast, the remains of which were abandoned to Mousqueton, Bazin, Planchet, and Grimaud.
On arriving in Paris, D'Artagnan found a letter from M. de Treville, which informed him that, at his request, the king had promised that he should enter the company of the Musketeers.
As this was the height of D'Artagnan's worldly ambition--apart, be it well understood, from his desire of finding Mme. Bonacieux--he ran, full of joy, to seek his comrades, whom he had left only half an hour before, but whom he found very sad and deeply preoccupied. They were assembled in council at the residence of Athos, which always indicated an event of some gravity. M. de Treville had intimated to them his Majesty's fixed intention to open the campaign on the first of May, and they must immediately prepare their outfits.
The four philosophers looked at one another in a state of bewilderment. M. de Treville never jested in matters relating to discipline.
"Oh, we can scarcely say. We have made our calculations with Spartan economy, and we each require fifteen hundred livres."
"It seems to me," said D'Artagnan, "with a thousand livres each-- I do not speak as a Spartan, but as a procurator--"
"Well, that's something, for I have not the shadow of one," said Athos cooly; "but as to D'Artagnan, gentlemen, the idea of belonging to OURS has driven him out of his senses. A thousand livres! For my part, I declare I want two thousand."
"Four times two makes eight," then said Aramis; "it is eight thousand that we want to complete our outfits, toward which, it is true, we have already the saddles."
"Besides," said Athos, waiting till D'Artagnan, who went to thank Monsieur de Treville, had shut the door, "besides, there is that beautiful ring which beams from the finger of our friend. What the devil! D'Artagnan is too good a comrade to leave his brothers in embarrassment while he wears the ransom of a king on his finger."