Arden Tree Controller Help Desk

[epicblunder]

(raises hands and jumps up and down like a little girl)  I'll test it!     But I'll be honest; what i really want is an opportunity to see what you did with the floraproperties values vs. c.p.'s     I've tinkered with tree controllers before so i know what i'm doing with the florapreferences table for trees and elevations, but i have no context for what the value of the reps in floraproperties actually mean.  I hate not knowing what random decimals do, i only know that the decimal fro rep 8 should correspond to the same decimal for the slope to show rock texture.

edit:  also, are you using only one forest brush at a time per slot in the florapreferences table and setting everything to either 1 or 0?  Have you considered mixing multiple brushes in the same slots like c.p. did with decimal values in the table?  I realize that's a total pain though.

[Gugu3]

excellent shots!these forests are simply great!

[noahclem]

Beautiful pictures Vortext    I always enjoy getting a peak at what you're working on over here. Great job with the retextured bridge, also!

[vortext]

@ gn_leugim, art128, Gugu3, Noah, thank you!

@ epicblunder Glad to see at least one volunteer! Guess I'll send you an uncompiled version then so you can easier identify different brushes and pick them apart. 

Now as for mixing things up; frankly I have no clue why CP sometimes used decimal values in the FloraPreferences, or why it's set for every item for that matter. The preference table works in a binary fashion, each slot can hold one brush or no brush. When two brushes occupy the same slot, the one with the largest value gets placed, regardless of decimals. In case of equal values it's the loading order which determines brush placement. Furthermore only the first item of a brush needs to have FloraPreferences set, the rest follows suit via the ClusterType.

That said, it's possible to mix different brushes, up to a certain extend that is, by linking them together. This basically creates one giant brush over different heights and moisture levels. And it's actually another reason why it's not ready for release yet because before mixing things up, I figured it might be handy to first have a decent number of brushes.

[Gugu3]

well vortext if you want me to I can have a go with your beautiful tree controller :thumbsup:let me know!so you have at least 2volounteers

[gn_leugim]

If you want I can test too, I have a nice empty region to paint

[Kergelen]

wow Amazing pictures

Here you have another volunteer. Dependencies are not a problem. I love trees and would love to try your tree-controller in different attitudes!
I like the flowers in the Alpine meadows near the snow.

[vortext]

@ gn_leugim, Gugu3, that's great, thanks! And I'd like to see some seasonal regional views! 

@ Kergelen, I thought you might like that. 

~

Quick note, I had a minor setback because it turns out JENX's SD Quai trees are locked and his HD replacement pack does not contain the same models. So I had to make some last minute replacement here and there, which is a shame really because some of the SD models had really nice autumn colors. Ah well. The dependencies list is almost complete - I think . 

EDIT: everybody check their mail! 

[Simcoug]

I'd be happy to test if you need another subject

[RickD]

Those last two pictures are absolutely stunning. 

I would love to beta test. My mountainious region should be quite a challenge for every tree mod.

[vortext]

@ RickD & Simcoug, check your mail.

@ everybody passing along just now, beta is closed. If you're interested you'll have to wait for another round (if any) or official release. 

~

Also, I just realised I totally forgot to mention trees should be planted on september 1st!*
It's such a given for me so I hope it's obvious for you guinea pigs out there as well. 

* actually trees planted from august 4th to september 3th will change at september 1st from the next year onwards.
Trees planted on or before august 3th will change at august 1st from the next year onwards.
Trees planted from september 4th to october 3th will change at october 1st from the next year onwards.

Given this and some additional effort you can create a nice transition between seasons instead of having the forest change at a heartbeat.   

[art128]

Good luck RickD and Simcoug.    Don't forget to post some nice pictures, so that we can drool even more until the official release. 

[epicblunder]

Soooo, got a chance to do some testing.  Everything seems to work fine from the technical side.  I couldn't get the controllers to drop meadows, so were they not included in this beta? edit: silly me, just checked the preference table an answered my own question.

I was a little surprised by how much spacing you left in the upper elevation brushes, but i guess my experience living in a cold jungle has shaped how i view flora spacing.  Although i must say, the greater spacing will have better performance than any computer-lagging god mode brush i would make.     After looking at some pics of the eastern slopes of the rockies it looks like the higher brush matches that area pretty well.

I won't flood your thread with pics, instead i'll just show my favorite of the ones i took.
The coastal controller on one of my personal mountain maps: (click for full)

[Swordmaster]

Epic! Me wants it!

Cheers
Willy

[Gugu3]

just some testing...
a mountain road

http://imageshack.us/a/img689/7739/albertpass1.jpg

high mountain pass



finally a map shot



very nice

[Kergelen]

Really amazing controller Vortex. The succession of trees along the attitude is fabulous

Yesterday I sent you a PM but I had problems with my computer and don't know if you finally receive it. I experienced a problem with this MMP. I can send some pictures again if you didn't receive my PM.

Some more pictures of the coastal-controller combined with PTM and Ennedi's HD rock.



A picture of the higher attitude flora: the alpine meadows

[Swordmaster]

I get the impression there's a little squareness in that last picture. Or is that the terrain, perhaps?

So far, so good, though!

Cheers
Willy

[epicblunder]

@Kergelen:  whats the problem with the PEG forest scene mmp? is it showing up in god mode?

[vortext]

Pretty pictures FTW! 

@Kergelen, I received your mail and pictures, as well as from the others and I'll adress particular bugs and remarks via PM shortly.

@epicblunder, a number of PEG's mmps have this issue. It's not because there's an ID conflict, as is suggested on SimTrop but because the FloraPreferences are still present. However the FloraPreferences is only used for tree controllers, since mmps can be plopped manually everywhere.

As for the firs, the main reason they're relative far apart is the models from Girafe in fact consist of multiple trees, which makes for rather large models. What's more, put them close together and trees start to get in each others way, with overlap and cut-off between models and pretty soon things get a little messy. In addition these were some of the earliest brushes I've made and at the time, I was happy to get it working in the first place. 
That said, you're not the first to notice the firs look a bit sparse, especially compared to the decideous trees and I will surely adress it in the future.

As for the meadows, I didn't include many yet because of what Swordmaster rightfully noticed. As with everything in Simcity, the moisture level is based on the grid. And since there're only small items in a meadow brush the result, when applied thoroughly, is it fills up every single tile, like so;



This of course goes for every other brush as well but usually it's less noticable as the models are bigger. However, depending on the landscape and thus the height and moisture levels, transitions may still appear a little square from time to time, especially at larger zooms.

[epicblunder]

Yes i'm quite familiar with that annoying MMP issue.  I was going to offer my fixed file with the floraprefs zeroed out (if i can find it, have to dig that set out of storage), but it sounds like you've told him the fix.  I think Paeng may have released an updated MMP as part of the last logging pack, but i don't remember for sure.

That's very interesting that the moisture values follow the grid: although i probably should have figured it out that never occurred to me.  That explains why c.p.'s controllers have all those diagonal 'filler' exemplars that are half one type and half another.  And here i thought he was just a glutton for punishment.     Hmm, i'll have to think about that when i get to making small brushes; that might become a problem.

@gugu3:  nice mountain road.