Arden Tree Controller Help Desk

[Jack_wilds]

everybody has already said what I had to say,  sooo good work  will give tree mod a good try...

[vortext]

@ j-dub, thanks, that's quite a compliment. Especially because it took me a while to get Girafe's models, which contains multiple trees, to mingle with single models. 

@ RickD, you're welcome. And I've also wondered why there wasn't a seasonal tree controller yet though I believe I know the answer, it's a lot of work! My guess, however, is you'll be able to use seasonal flora without too much effort in the future 

@ noah, thanks and let me know how the street mod works out. As for the ferries, it isn't a pressing issue anymore since work on the region has ground to a halt. In fact, it's save to say it has been abandoned, yet again. 

@jdenm8, I hadn't thought about cohort files before, thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into it when times call for a ferry. Won't be any time soon though.

@ FrankU, it's quite extensive yes but I believe well worth the effort.

@ MrMAvE94, glad you like it.

@ mattb325, thanks so much for the breakdown, I'm not that familiar with mountainous terrain and was having a bit of trouble how to proceed. Also glad you like the open spacing, it's more or less by necessity beacuse of Girafe's models and I personally prefer as little overlap as possible. 

@ Jack_wilds thanks for stopping by anyway

I've begun work on the highest elevations, does this look about the right hight for the tree line?





Two types of fir done, three more to go. I've decided to finish forests first, meadows and grasslands come later.

Leaving on a personal note, at long last my vacation is coming up and I'm going to visit relatives in what I hope will be sunny Madrid. So it'll probably be a few weeks before I check in again. 

[Lowkee33]

Looks real good Vortext 

Are you playing with the Flora Parameters to set your tree line?  I wouldn't recommend that, because this is generally done within the terrain mod.  Different terrains have different snow levels, so the height that trees will plant is defined there (which is why the seasonal-flora-patch patches terrains, not tree controllers).

I believe the altitude of each level of tree is 1/15 of the height set in the Flora Parameters.  This takes care of the first 240 reps of teh FloraPreferences Property.  The last 16 reps start at the max height, and never end.  If you do want to make a perfect tree line, just keep those last 16 reps at 0.

I think I lined up my tree line pretty good with the snow line.  If so, it might even be possible to put snow covered trees in those last 16 reps (that was my idea anyway, when I was thinking about tree controllers).

It looks awesome, I enjoy the parts where trees are sparce, but maybe thats just the terrain guy in me

[vortext]

I do play around with both the flora preferences & parameter properties but only those present in the individual tree examplers. So the relative distribution of trees in the end is, much like you say, according to the terrain mod that one uses.

Do you happen to know by the way if there's some way to control the slope on which trees can and cannot be present? My best guess is it's one of the reps in the aforementioned flora parameter property. I do, however, also know (from experience ) some of those reps control the timing of seasons. So what I'm asking is really; what reps should I definitely leave alone?   

[noahclem]

Have a great time in Madrid and I hope the sun shines!!

The recent work looks great and between you and carl I have a pretty good feeling about the potential of the flora mod   

[Lowkee33]

Rep 8 is the slope.  1, 6 are the important ones for seasonality.  Rep 7 (value 15050, or something) has something to do with seasonal flora, but as far as I know changing it will either have flora changing seasons or not.  (I changed it to 15051 for heck of it).  The most informitive post I've ever made about the parameters is Here. 

[vortext]

Thanks Carl, rep 8 works like a charm and you'll be happy to know trees don't grow on solid rock anymore. Hadn't come across your post before, the little information on this subject is all over the place, kinda like a treasure hunt. 

Will do Noah and me too!

[vortext]

Picking up where I left off;



Pretty yes? 


Winter time is giving me a bit of a headache though. On the one hand I like to include the snow models as it's fairly easy to swap terrain controllers for the desired result. For instance using the Apalachian mod, flora was placed with the 'high snow' controller, for the winter pic I simply switched to the 'default height + snow' controller.



This however also meant the snowline was lowered, i.e. suddenly decidious trees were surrounded by snow. Luckily, the VIP rural pack also contains proper winter models, which could circumvent this issue.

The lowest snow line.


VIP winter trees.


So I'm wondering wether or not to pursue a fully seasonal tree mod, as my initial set-up was to make 2 tree controllers (conventially named coast & river ) with evergreen firs. Of course it's possible to do both one (or more) semi-seasonal mod and a full fledged seasonal version. It would only require more time still on my side and for the end-user to switch terrain controllers for a winter pic, which may be too much a hassle for some. Besides, folks that would like to create a winter scene most likely use MMPs anyway. Let me know what you think though.

On with the good stuff. Now I don't know about you but I for one was pleasantly surprised to see CP back on the scene with a brand new flora prop pack, all seasonal mind you! Less surprising perhaps I created some new forests, or brushes as I've come to call them. These are flatt-bed testing pics, haven't decided on placement yet.










Also had a go at meadows.




winter - autumn - summer


I'm not particulary pleased with this. In part because the smaller the models, the harder it is to create a smooth brush with decent spread but mostly because there isn't that much small flora which has proper seasonal models. Basically a seasonal and HD remake of the ALN wild flowers would be ideal (any BATters reading along? ) untill than I'll makeshift.

That's it for now. Still some work ahead for sure, putting it all together in a coherent fashion and such. In the meantime, why not leave me a message? 

[Jack_wilds]

impressive, really really wonderful.... 

[packersfan]

It is threads like this that make me tip my hat and nearly give up playing SimCity at all.  How can I compete with this, how can I build my cities without spend a ton of time trying to implement all these great REALISTIC creations.  Amazing what people in their free time create...too bad we don't see this stuff in games that are made by "professionals"...hehe.  Awesomeness!

[Lowkee33]

Looking real good there 

Winter time is giving me a bit of a headache though.

I have a case of Advil left over from the terrain mod, but nothing beats Fukital.

JENXPARIS Seine River trees as Seasonal Flora has both seasonal and non-seasonal varieties.  The non-seasonal exemplars share the same ID so that you only have to plant once and then switch exemplars to get different seasons.  Perhaps something similar could work for snow/no-snow.

[RickD]

I would really love having a fully seasonal tree controller. I would not mind snow in the decidious areas if it only appears in winter. Green trees on snowy ground would look very strange, though.

[Kergelen]

Awesome tree controller. The new CP props looks nice and I like to see meadows here. 
I think the meadows may fit very well in the higher areas, just before the rocks where trees generally do not grow due to the altitude. Just a suggestion.

[vortext]

Hi, sorry for not getting back here earlier and without any pretty pictures no less. It's just lately I've been enjoying simcity the way it was intended and finally have something going that I would dare call a city. The population already exceeds 6000 sims, mind you! 

Ah well, guess slow development is the price to pay for wanting to lot everything myself.

Anyhow, I started putting brushes together but quickly realised not only must each individually be tuned, the entire treecontroller itself must have more or less the same consistency when it comes to smoothness, flora spread and the like. And it turns out that unlike lotting or minor modding, putting it together isn't something I can do for a short period of time. It involves a lot of going back and forth between the reader & the game which is rather time consuming in and of itself. Moreover I keep going round in circles, seemingly starting over again each time, despite writing stuff down. .
To put it in other words, the sheer scale and complexity of the ordeal is something I'm not comfortable with just yet.

That said, it has kept me thinking and as it stands now, I'll probably settle for three versions;

Mountain; for mountainous terrain, obviously. No shoreline, dominated by firs and will be the winter controller proper i.e. containing the VIP snowy winter models.

Coast; PEG weeds for the shoreline, pretty dense decideous forests which give way to firs and meadows at the highest altitudes only.

River; Girafe cattails & VIP poplars for shoreline, meadows at lowest altitudes, intermingled with decideous forest and small shrubs. Firs start appearing halfway.

Sounds pretty neat, right?! At least I think it does. Lets wait and see how it turns out. 

impressive, really really wonderful.... 

Thanks, glad you like it.

. . how can I build my cities without spend a ton of time trying to implement all these great REALISTIC creations. 

Hehe, I wondered the same and somehow ended up doing it myself 

JENXPARIS Seine River trees as Seasonal Flora has both seasonal and non-seasonal varieties.  The non-seasonal exemplars share the same ID so that you only have to plant once and then switch exemplars to get different seasons.  Perhaps something similar could work for snow/no-snow.

That's an usefull idea, thanks!

I would not mind snow in the decidious areas if it only appears in winter. Green trees on snowy ground would look very strange, though.

The latter would look rather strange indeed but what about bare trunks on a snowy ground, would that be all right?

I think the meadows may fit very well in the higher areas, just before the rocks where trees generally do not grow due to the altitude. Just a suggestion.

Suggestion taken into account. 

[rooker1]

Vortext is our CCC-OSITM this month and with great reason, just look through his thread and see all the amazing work he has done for us.



Congrats from The Staff and myself.

[Kergelen]

Congrats on the OSITM. 
Always interesting things here.

[FrankU]

This thread has been interesting for several months now.... But I am curious what you are going to show us this time!

Congratulations! 

[art128]

Congrats! As seen by your works, this award is well deserved!

[noahclem]

Congratulations! When this thread was new I knew that it was "of special interest"--long before there was a CCC-OSITM. Luckily, since then, many more people have noticed the outstanding work you've been doing around here. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you'll have for us during your month in the spotlight 

[vortext]

Thanks everyone! It'll be my pleasure to be of special interest this month. Should be fun as I've got a few updates pending regarding the seasonal tree controllers as well as some surprises.

However lets kick things of with a contest! 

Thing is I want another title for this thread since last couple of posts weren't exactly street geekery anymore and I almost felt bad for deceiving the unwitting passerby while posting all these flora pics.

Anyhow, I was thinking something along the lines of 'Vortext's Virtual Playground' though I'm pretty sure you can come up with something less cheesy. 
So get those greycells working, entries can be submitted untill July 30th and I will pick a winner the next day. *


In the meanwhile, here's a random pic a.k.a. a preview of things to come. Enjoy and I'll be back soon.





* not an actual contest since there's no price involved apart from some very small internet fame and my eternal gratitude of course.