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Arden Tree Controller Help Desk

Started by vortext, June 01, 2011, 06:42:21 PM

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Girafe

The Floraler

This is the end, hold your breath and count to ten, feel the earth move, and then...

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *    *   *   *   *   *    * 

sunv123

Beta testers, huh? ;)

Seems like I can't find it.
Provo, a city apart Updated July 4.

noahclem


mave94

Looks great there! I am already looking forward to using these controllers. ;)

Indiana Joe

#284
Beta testers?  Aw, I'm really sad I missed that memo.  The controller looks amazing.  (If it were me, I'd blend the deciduous and coniferous even forests more smoothly.  That's probably just because I live in an area with mixed forest though.)

epicblunder

#285
Quote from: Indiana Joe on January 30, 2013, 12:57:26 PM
(If it were me, I'd blend the deciduous and coniferous even forests more smoothly.  That's probably just because I live in an area with mixed forest though.)

When programming tree controllers, something either IS or it IS NOT, there isn't some magical slider of how much of this you want with a side of that.  Vortext has done the best he can to reach the effect he wants within the various limitations and considerations, and it's a bang-up job.   :thumbsup:

Hopefully i can bust out some pics tonight.  No promises yet, though, sorry.
edit: pics.  i shrunk again to not overwhelm the thread, please clicky for full.
01: at the whatevermind school of flora-ing.   :P 


02: Coast extended, Teton Mountains, Gobias' terrain, summer:


03.  Hi-altitude transition zone.  I love, love, love this effect.


04.  It looks good in summer too.


05.  Lower down, one of the meadows.  I really like the effect of these too.


06.  River controller in fall.  Not so sure about yellow leaves on bright green grass.


07.  Same, summer.


08.  The inland praire in summer.  I really like this effect too.


Overall everything seems to be working great.  Performance was a huge issue for me on my sluggish pc trying to tree a whole large tile with the coastal controller but i don't see a way around that.  Overall its a really, really great looking effect.

vortext

@ Girafe, thanks! It wouldn't have looked half as good without your flora!!  &apls ps: you've got mail

@ sunv123, since the controllers still lack a read-me and have some dependency issues to take care off, it's not ready for proper scrutinizing yet. Or did I overlooked you also wanted in?!  %confuso

@ Noah, thanks!

@ mave94, thank you!

@ Indiana Joe, you'll find there're seasonal firs in the transitions zones. Check your mail!  ;)

@ epicblunder, a magical slider, now that would be something! Thanks for the pics, too. I had some doubts about SFBT birches as well but in the end decided they complement the VIP poplars well during summer, too well to leave out. And your flora setup is eerily similar to mine!  :D

time flies like a bird
fruit flies like a banana

Kergelen

After testing the three controllers with the diferent options I must said it's amazing! &apls &apls
I love variety of flora and the transitions between them.
I specially love the High-attitude coastal mod where the is a wonderful combination of meadows and forest, and between seasonal and non-seasonal flora.
With the premise that the controllers are amazing I think a couple of things coul be improved: the distribution of Cattails and Parasol Pines along the altitude.


Coastal mod High attitude


This picture is closest to MMP work than a Tree-controller. &apls


Coastal mod Low attitude




I love this effect. I only found one defect in the coastal controller:  in this picture the cattails are on top of this mountain and IMO it's not very realistic, as cattalis grow near wetlands that are usually in valleys and not in the high part of the mountains.


River controller Low attitude
I really like the poplars near the river and all the varied flora. Anyway, maybe could be nice that the flora be closest to the water.


I think River controller is good for peoople who urbanize in flat terrains because the controller don't plant trees in this areas


River controller High attitude


Here we see Parasol Pines near the snow. Parasol Pines usually grow from 0 to 1000 meters, and in this case are up to 2000 m.
Also Parasol Pines are toghether with firs with I think is not realistic. Parasol Pines are mostly a shoreline species, at least in the Mediterranean climates &Thk/(




vortext, I think the controllers are almost perfect to be released , and the only two "problems" that I have found are the result of coherence that I personally want to achieve as a biologist in terms of flora.
In the future I will try to work a little with your Coastal controller to achive a Mediterranean feeling in the coast (from 0 to 400meters, leaving your original controllers form 400 till....) ( mainly with Parasol Pines and diferent kind of oaks). I think if the base is made by you, I'll only need to change the RKT1 and RKT4 right?. Well, if I need some advice I'll send you a PM :)

PD: You misundersand me on my previous post ( or I explained badly, probably), but I don't want sparce flora. I love a lot of flora! :)


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vortext

#288
Kergelen, thanks so much for a thorough testing. And it looks great with the Pyrrean mod too. :thumbsup:

It appears you have stumbled upon two mishaps. The cattails aren't meant to appear at the mountaintop indeed! Couple of options as to why that happened, shouldn't be too hard to track down.

As for the Parasol Pines, that's just plain weird! Like really, really strange. I did NOT use parasol pines (they're not listed as dependencies) so there appears to be somekind of ID conflict!?!  &Thk/( I will start to investigate.

EDIT: Kergelen, are you sure the parasol pines aren't a remnant of your own tinkering?! ATM I'm unable to reproduce it, let alone solve it. Could you otherwise perhaps send me a screengrab of your plugins content and loading order via PM? Thanks.
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fruit flies like a banana

Gugu3

Haven't taken pictures yet...nice tree controller...just one question...at higher altitudes in my map i'm getting a lot of PEG pines...is it supposed to happen???

Kergelen

#290
Well, one of the problems is I had a Parasol pine Brush made by me, so here was one conflict. :P

I removed the Brush an Parasol Pines, but now I have another problem. A conflict with this MMP modified by removing the "KSC4 Fora Preference property" like you said in this post. Now the PEG MMP appear where before appeared Parasol Pines.


If I remove the PEG file, all is ok, and there is a gap (no flora) where PEG MMP appeared.


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vortext

Quote from: Kergelen on February 02, 2013, 03:22:03 AM
Well, one of the problems is I had a Parasol pine Brush made by me, so here was one conflict. :P

Yeah I figured something like that because I couldn't reproduce it!  ;D

Quote from: Gugu3 on February 02, 2013, 03:21:02 AM
just one question...at higher altitudes in my map i'm getting a lot of PEG pines...is it supposed to happen???

NO!   %bur2$ 

Really annoying those PEG mmps, especially because I thought I had blocked everything. What happens if you load the tree controller last, i.e. create a 'zz_tree controller' map in the plugins root.
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Kergelen

I loaded the Controller last and the problem persists. See pictures in the previous post.


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vortext

Meh.  %wrd

Guess it's best to adress it in the read-me. As in, 'this is a known issue with PEG mmps and therefor, it should be absent from the plugins while using the tree controllers' or words to that effect.
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Swordmaster

Is that because PEG didn't set SpecialCase=True ?  So one could technically mod his files properly?


Cheers
Willy

vortext

#295
It appears so. At first I thought it was because the FloraPreferences still hold values, which is unnecessary for mmps, thus appearing in slots the controller leaves open. However I included an item which ought to block all slots without proper flora items. Honestly, I'm a bit baffled it still persists even when the controller loads last. And yes, one could very well mod PEGs mmps to behave properly, see the link in Kergelens post (though again, this entails deleting/nulling the FloraPreferences).
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fruit flies like a banana

Swordmaster

Quote from: vortext on February 02, 2013, 04:05:47 AM
It appear so. At first I thought it was because the FloraPreferences still hold values, which is unnecessary for mmps, thus appearing in slots the controller leaves open. However I included an item which ought to block all slots without proper flora items. Honestly, I'm a bit baffled it still persists even when the controller loads last. And yes, one could very well mod PEGs mmps to behave properly, see the link in Kergelens post (though again, this entails deleting/nulling the FloraPreferences).

It doesn't matter what loads last; there are no IIDs that overwrite each other. SpecialCase=False means it can be used by the God mode tree tool in certain circumstances depending on the parameters. I've found out in all my tweaking that these settings aren't exclusive and if multiple flora items fit in one place, the game will pick one randomly.


Cheers
Willy

vortext

#297
It's not random. Otherwise there would be a 50/50 chance PEGs mmps interfere.

Also, in my tinkering I found the loading order does matter with regard to the FloraPreferences, if 'SpecialCase' is left out of the equation. If two items occupy the same slot and have the same value, the one that loads last will appear - the FloraPreferences overwrite in this case, regardless of IID.

In any case. If I would add 'Special case=False' to the item that is supposed to block, or maybe to all items, it will override PEGs mmps? Yes, no, maybe?! Of to do some more tinkering!   ::)

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fruit flies like a banana

Swordmaster

No, 50/50 means regular. Random means irregular. In this case, it's random depending on how the game behaves. Like the alt-tab/reload problem reported by sunv123 recently. I've had this all the time, with flora items appearing in one session, not appearing at all in the next. This is definitely not determined by loading order or the flora preferences settings. I somehow expect this is what Kergelen is experiencing.

I found the only fix for me was to have only my tree controller items have the SpecialCase=False, everything else True. I don't know what settings you have in your controller. Do you block maxis trees by overwriting their preferences or by setting them SpecialCase=True?


Cheers
Willy

vortext

We mean the same thing with random.  ;)

It's rather curious though, I have never ever had flora not appearing in one session for no good reason. If Kergelen is still around I wonder if he had this happening as well?

Maxis trees are blocked with Preferences, which works like a charm. However, I have not included the 'special case' property to any of the items, which I now suspect is the cullprit.  &Thk/(
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