• Welcome to SC4 Devotion Forum Archives.

Missing tree props in Italia Tree Controller

Started by palazzo, September 20, 2018, 09:43:46 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

palazzo

I installed all the dependencies listed on the download page for the Italia Tree Controller (even the cactus), yet I am still missing some trees at higher altitudes. I know they're missing because PEG's Mountain Trail Park mod makes them show up as buildings. When I remove the MTP, the trees disappear. Any hints? Stuff I datpacked but shouldn't have?

twalsh102

It looks like maybe you went off the dependency list on the download page, but didn't cross check it with the Dependency Tracker  It is not unusual for the two not to match completely.  If necessary dependencies are discovered to not be listed in a dependency list by anyone other than the content creator, it is usually the Dependency Tracker that will get updated.  So it always pays to check both.

palazzo

#2
Thanks for the heads up on the dependency tracker, @twalsh102. I did have everything, but I re-downloaded the updated prop packs to make sure I had the latest version of all props. Even then, I still have invisible trees — mind you, they're not brown boxes, but completely invisible, which makes it pretty weird. I am attaching the screen capture of my Plugins folder; the empty JRJ prop folders are files that were removed by the BSC Cleanitol (I tried putting these files back, but to no avail). Also, there's no change whether I use hardware or software rendering.


twalsh102

So here's what I've come up with:

1.   CPT_No7a_ItaliaRiver_TreeController.dat in an original unedited state contains 702 files.  It contains all of the Flora exemplars.  This presumable means that all the dependencies provide the necessary models.  So, if you have all the the dependencies, you wouldn't see any brown boxes since only missing models create brown boxes.  However, ir prop exemplars went mysteriously missing (or are being overridden by something else that is missing something or is corrupted), you just wouldn't see them, which is what you're describing.

2.  According to SC4DataNode, BSC Props Jeronij Vol 02 Trees is overridden entirely by BSC MEGA Props JRJ Vol04.dat and BSC MEGA Props JRJ Vol05.dat.  All the parts of BSC Props Jeronij Vol 03 Trees Seasonal Woods that are actually used by CPT_No7a_ItaliaRiver_TreeController.dat are also overridden by the same two Mega Prop Packs.  So, BSC Props Jeronij Vol 02 Trees and BSC Props Jeronij Vol 03 Trees Seasonal Woods are not needed if the 2 Mega Packs are installed. 

3. I don't see in either of your screen shots either CPT_No8_TreeModelsPartOne.dat or CPT_No9_TreeModelsPartTwo.dat.  But you must have them someplace, or because of the large number of props in the controller that rely on models from these two files, you most certainly would see brown boxes.

By the way, what happens if you try to paint a new area of mountains with the Flora brush?  Do you get trees, or nothing?

Going back and re-reading your first post, I think I may see the problem (this is an oddity of SC4):  To recap what you did (please correct me if I misstate something) - you used the flora brush and because the IIDs of some of the props in PEGs Mountain Trail Park were the same as those of some of the trees being used, the tree props were overridden.  You tried to resolve this by removing PEGs Mountain Trail Park from your plugins.  Did you by chance bulldoze all of those instances of buildings that were supposed to be trees before remove the PEG package?  When you have overrides like this, just removing the override doesn't make the original instance of the IID (i.e the trees) magically appear.  The game save-file saved those particular instances of the IIDs in question as PEG props.  Now that you removed PEGs Mountain Trail Park, the game treats the already plopped instances of those IIDs as a missing prop, which means it just doesn't show up.

The only way to fix this would be to put PEGs Mountain Trail Park back into your plugins, bulldoze ALL of those instances of buildings that are supposed to be trees, and then remove PEGs Mountain Trail Park again.  Then you should be able to repaint that area using the Flora brush with success.

If the above is not true (i.e. you did bulldoze all buildings that should be trees, we've got a lot more sleuthing to do.  Each flora exemplar has parameters about which altitudes that particular piece of Flora will grow in, but I don't know how to decipher that property.  Se we would have to do some research and some digging to determine what trees aren't growing.

palazzo

I started on a fresh new city after removing PEG's mods and, sure enough, there are no trees where PEG's buildings would normally have shown up. I'm starting to think that maybe this was by design, so that mountain tops would be devoid of trees in the controller, but I'll have to investigate how the controller file works.

mgb204

Indeed many of CP's tree controllers will not plant trees in certain circumstances. I believe it's specified in the Readme, this text:

"What makes one CPT_No7a tree controller different from another CPT_No7a tree controller is the pattern of trees that gets planted on the landscape when you use the god-mode flora brush tool. The mayor mode tools are the same for all CPT_No7a controllers. If you never use the god-mode flora brush, then it doesn't matter which CPT_No7a controller you install."

How this works in practise is based on the moisture and elevation values of your terrain. In certain spots different trees will grow, but CP deliberately included gaps where trees will not appear. However, you can switch between 7a tree controllers, other variants may cover gaps left by your current one.

It's also important to note that trees don't generally grow beyond a certain elevation on mountains. Tree controllers can be configured to mimic this effect, only there is no perfect one size fits all setting for this. Depending upon your terrain mod / map / tree controller configuration, you might need to modify a setting for this to work. ST is down right now, but try this link when it's back up, see the section "Snowline", which will help you to tweak this setting to optimise your personal setup.