Arden Tree Controller Help Desk

[JoeST]

Congrats on associating with that crew of crazy (awesome) people XD

Joe

[FrankU]

@FrankU / Frank, it's more or less the same for me, I spend way more time modding and lotting than actually playing. When I do however the seasonal stuff is all the more worthwhile 

And the funny thing is: I am working on a quite large set of new farmfields and I try to make these as seasonal as possible (sometimes with four different stages), but the trees.... No no no!
This is mostly because it will be almost impossible to make all trees on all lots seasonal. And I fear my computer will get slow as a snail.

[Kergelen]

Your project has attracted me from the beginning. It will be a great addition to the SAM. And the Seasonal Street Side Mod with the animals and birds will be very realistic and amazing!
Other than that the pictures are wonderful. A very fine rural feeling

[vortext]

Thanks for all the kind words folks! 

Sorry I don't have time nor energy to reply to each individually. Should be sleeping really but before doing so I had a few things to get of my mind. So here goes, in no particular order.

• I'll pack up all the timed tree props as soon as possible so everyone can use them in the Lot Editor.

• Yes, I will most certainly continue working on my region and hereby offer you the tiniest of sneak peeks

• Speaking of which, tonight I transfered the latest project to an empty SAM range. Wasn't that much work really since it's only 1 test piece yet 

• Turns out that besides a shiny badge being a NAM associate actually has benefits (who knew  ) by which I mean some new tools to fool around with. . 

• Hopefully The Seasonal Tree Mod will hit the shelves within a few weeks. That said, I was wondering about the textures. More specific about 'copyright' so to speak since they're based on CPs textures but heavily worked upon. Moreover, I don't know if he's still around. How would I go about if I want to release the texures as well? 

[FrankU]

Hi, the texture looks beautiful!
In the earlier images I only saw some dirt like brownish rubble. Is this the textre you are going to use for the streets?

My opinion: if you based your texture on CP's but have been heavily editing it I woud say: it's now your texture.
Have you ever seen a house built of bricks? As long as it's not a copy of an already existing house you cannot say that it is still the copyright of the first brick house that was built (somewhere in Jericho, about 10.000 years ago).
So a copy is someone's copyright, a very little editing still asks for copyright or at least some kind of reference to the original, a heavily edit is considered new work.
Agreed?

[vortext]

In the earlier images I only saw some dirt like brownish rubble. Is this the textre you are going to use for the streets?

They're two different sets actually. The brownish rubble are the Dirt Streets (finished), the newest will be a cobble stone set (only just begun and part of a larger project still  ). The texture is fine on its own but needs some work to make it suitable for simcity; this is too dark and too repetitive for my taste. Also, I'm struggling a bit with kerbstones or something, this is way to clean a cut.

So a copy is someone's copyright, a very little editing still asks for copyright or at least some kind of reference to the original, a heavily edit is considered new work.
Agreed?

It does make sense yes. Still, feels kinda awkward claiming them as my own since CP did provide the basics (and if I do, he would be acknowledged big time off course). Would appreciate if more people could weigh in on this.

[mike3775]

IMO if you improved upon his textures, and are giving credit for the original for it, they are your textures.

Its just like lots I have seen on ST, someone did some lots in 2003/2004 and they were re-uploaded in 2009/2010 with improved textures, those people gave credit to the original, while also claiming it as their own

[FrankU]

The point is that most of you that make BATs are not going out with a camera to photograph something in order to make a texture out of it, but take exisiting textures from, well, from wherever you take them.... So whose product was it in the first place anyway?

[vortext]

The point is that most of you that make BATs are not going out with a camera to photograph something in order to make a texture out of it, but take exisiting textures from, well, from wherever you take them.... So whose product was it in the first place anyway?

err.. no BATting for me  But point taken, it will be released completely. Though I should note I normally take free-to-use textures which isn't the case now and I didn't want people yelling at me for stealing 

[noahclem]

Glad that these will be incorporated into the SAM! It's looking good 

[vortext]

So, funny story. After having made a new sidewalk and retextured the wide curves and after figuring out compatibilty and such, turns out I'd forgotten all about quite a crucial bit.





You see, since I have no need yet for fancy intersections with other networks I overlooked it untill this very moment. Sorry for getting ahead of myself but for the time being there'll be no texture override. 

On with the good news then.





A rather simple T21 mod. Adding seasonal trees and 2 type of birds to SAM 3,4 & 5 for agriculture and unzoned streets. At the moment it's being tested but I expect no complications or anything. Should be safe to use with other mods as well.

[Lowkee33]

I had the same issue with the streets I made out of Chris Adam's paths.  It isn't particularly realistic for a street like your first picture to connect to a road anyway.  As a solution I made a little TE lot from Chris Adam's textures to another SAM texture.

I knew there was a picture floating around.  The TE lot is 1x2, the intersection with Chris' path is a prop on that lot (you can see slight changes of textures as to what is a lot and what is network):


(and yes, that field with a path through it is 4x1.  It's a pretty dense picture of modding...)

[vortext]

G'day Folks!

Time for an another update, admittedly long overdue. In part because RL has been rather busy lately as I've been promoted at work. Well, sort of that is. The paycheck doesn't reflect the additional responsibilites nor the longer hours but at least I'm of the hook for half the time (pun intented, I'm sure you'll figure it out  ). Anyhow, I've also found another area of interest when it comes to modding which I'll get to in a moment but first the street tree mod.

Test reports came back a while ago and in general it was deemed pretty decent. There were (and still are) some restrictions however, which make it a beta release for now.

    * trees are applied to SAM 3/4/5. Moreover only one type at a time!

    * trees are applied to unzoned and rural streets only. Mostly to avoid compability issues with the original SAM T21s and other mods.

    * a shoddy read-me. I'm no good at html. It does link to dependencies though.

Sure this could all be fixed but honestly, I don't feel like it. You see, I didn't think things through beforehand and ended up with no less than 144 T21 examplers just for the trees! I'll spare you the why and how but needless to say it would be pretty tedious to change all exemplar IDs by hand. And given this mod wasn't intended for release in the first place, I rather start out anew and develop a more user friendly mod, along the lines of the SFBT street tree mod which has a rather clever design (= much simpeler ).

Long story short; those who want to give it a try are welcome to do so. It's available for download over here. Please note I'm not responsible for any unforseen conflicts that may occur but I'll gladly help out if it does. Others will simply have to wait untill a proper version is ready. This may take take a while though because last couple of weeks I've been captivated by something different alltogether.

On second thought, it's not that different. As you may have noticed I'm a big fan of all things seasonal. After I'd spent a week and half finishing up a medium tile however, I figured something had to give. Either I had to lower the bar and give up on seasonal flora. Or I had to up the ante and figure out a way to get it done faster, i.e. make a seasonal tree controller. Guess what?!
All flora in the pics to follow are done with the god mode brush. 

It all started innocent enough; I just wanted to get the shoreline in faster, which was pretty easy.





And while at it, why not throw in some trees.



And what about some shrubs as well. 



Actually it was quite a pain to get all the models to show. Which led me to explore the flora placement & spread.






It was at this moment I realized an entire seasonal tree controller would be feasible. Having learned from former mistakes (i.e. losing track of files and settings) I took a step back and prepared for a more systematic approach. First I made an inventory of all seasonal flora available, including their respective RKT4s. Next it was a matter of mix & match and try to create different forest types and find suitable placement. Here're some examples.

















This sums things up for now. Keep in mind it's far from finalized. So if you have suggestions which flora to combine, or any comments otherwise, please know feedback is highly appreciated. Thanks for stopping by!


ps: I'm still having ferry troubles, as explained here. Would be nice if someone has a solution.

[j-dub]

I will say, http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/9710/stcc.jpg is the most realistic bunch of tress I have ever seen. If I did not know that was an SC4 shot before hand, I would not know at all, since there is nothing else in that shot that resembles SC4.

[RickD]

I'll give the tree mod a try. Thanks for making it available.

I am impressed by the flora brush. This is one of the best modding ideas since a long time. This could get me to actually use the seasonal flora. 

[noahclem]

That's some beautiful work on the tree mod   Very exciting!

I'll have to have a look at the street tree mod as well and will be following progress on the release version 

As for the ferries, I don't think I can help. I've barely ever used them, though I plan to change that and I'll let you know if I figure anything out in the process. The only two ferry ports in Siilijoki are WFK ones using vanilla automata if I remember and understand correctly--and I think the only traffic now commutes to the neighboring tile. I do think I'll have a look at those WMP ferries and see if they work for me. I'm always a sucker for HD rendering and they look very well made.

[jdenm8]

I've had some luck with some Custom Ferry lots working with the normal ones fine. I think it's more about which lot it inherits certain properties from. I know traffic from the Maxis Car and Passenger ferry cannot interface with the Maxis Passenger-only terminal and vice-versa.

[FrankU]

This looks very promising. A large project, but wow!

[mave94]

Those tree controllers look fantastic!

[mattb325]

Very detailed work you are undertaking

These are just suggestions mind you, as it looks good enough in present form

For the tree controller (I assume you are using the SFBT, CP, TSC and Chris Adams models, so will keep suggestions to these sets), it is probably easiest to start backwards and go top-down - almost everything grows at sea-level, but not everything grows at elevation.

Upper elevations within the tree line:
Subalpine Firs, and smattering of birches (use the SFBT ones at highest elevation, they are smaller than Girafes) and the pasture flowers/grasses. As this decreases replace the Subalpine firs with conifers and spruce and increase the amount of Girafes birches and introduce more bushes (CP has quite a number of deciduous ones as well), taller weeds/grasses while decreasing the pasture flowers
Lower - Mid Elevations:
Start replacing the birches and decrease the coniferous plants with maples, cottonwoods and oaks and introduce the other TSC trees. Girafes bushes will make excellent open area complements when mixed with grasses; this is pretty much exactly what you have done.
Personally, I would limit the birches at the lowest levels: the scruffy browns and greens/dull yellows (there are a ton of trees with that autumn hue, including CPs) are more complimentary to a coastal/plain location and I would reserve the brighter reds, yellows and oranges for higher up...

I really like the ide of the poplars along the river banks, when mixed with the cattails it is pretty eye-catching

These two pictures show a real skill in mixing this flora 



All in all, very beautiful: the fact that the trees are spaced reasonably open and interspersed with grasses is particularly lovely, and one of my favourite features so far