Arden Tree Controller Help Desk

[epicblunder]

(1) Is it that different trees are planted depending on the terrain (slope, height, etc.)? I.e. that the game automatically varies the collection of trees (aka "the brush") while using the one flora tool in god mode? This is how I observe it ingame.

Yes.  A 'brush' is our term for a clustered selection of flora.  For instance, in any of CPs controllers there are 34 'brushes' that appear in the mayor mode menu (such as western red cedar, larch, lodgepole pine, etc. where you click, it drops a tree, you click it again, it cycles to another tree); but there are dozens more hidden ones that only are used by the god mode controller.  Each brush, whether it is enabled to be used in mayor mode or solely in god mode, has something we call a 'flora table' where it can be assigned to be placed by the god mode controller across a variety of terrain and moisture combinations.

Because of how the controller works, each slot in the flora table is assigned to only one item, so on the first god mode placement, it drops the assigned flora item (if there's space and all conditions of the flora are met).  On subsequent clicks it cycles to the next clustered flora item within that brush.  So to answer your question #2: not with the god mode part of it, but you can brush in whatever you want with tree brushes that appear in the mayor menu, which we call MMPs.  If you're new to MMPs, look at the green button at the top of your in-game menu and click the tree.  You should see all kinds of new stuff to play with that showed up if you have all the dependencies for Vortext's controller.

God-mode controllers are designed to cover a large amount of terrain quickly, while MMPs are meant for intricate detail work. 

[vortext]

Sorry to hear about the confusion standop. Not to mention the extra work it caused to restore the mess. 

As you found out by now the Winter Patch is meant for temporary usage only which implies you should not save the game while the Winter Patch is present in the plugins folder. However, the Read-Me doesn't explicitly state this as such so my apologies again.

And actually, I ought to thank you as well since I was thinking about releasing the controllers on the STEX. If and when I'll do, however, I'll be sure to rewrite the Read-Me beforehand to clarify this issue. So in a way you can consider yourself a beta tester, albeit unintentional.   

At any rate, regarding the term 'brush'. Since it seems you've spelled this thread front to back I'll quote myself from reply #137.

Brush - a bunch of flora items strung together via the Cluster Type property. Think of this as your typical MMP, apart from a few properties. Just less properties actually.

If interested in the mechanics of a tree controller I'd suggest to read the entire post, in addition to these two posts as well.

On a side note, thank you both Indiana Joe & epicblunder. K-points have been ordered. 

[epicblunder]

On a side note, thank you both Indiana Joe & epicblunder. K-points have been ordered. 

  Thank you, sir!   

[Indiana Joe]

Thank you indeed, Vortext! 

It's good to hear that standop is a resolute readme reader. ( No more alliteration, I promise)

One thing I'd like to clarify is: yes, there is one and only one actual "brush" tool.  I do not believe that more brush tools can be made.  But many MMP tools do not plant 'one tree at a time.'  Instead they plop clusters of a few trees, fully grown, so it's somewhere in-between a brush and the Maxis MMP 'one-at-a-time' trees.

[guiloli]

Hi i have a problem, I put the STC coast extend and i thought it was oak when I look at yours picture but I got that

[APSMS]

The tree controller occasionally "borks". Try exiting the game and reloading the city tile to see if that doesn't fix anything. I doubt the problem has anything to do with vortext.

[Flatron]

This happens to me sometimes, too. I think it's an ID-conflict or something, since I sometimes get these giant trees on sidewalks,too...

[epicblunder]

Howdy Vortext,

I was wondering if you had a tool around that shows the moisture value of tiles that is more accurate than the overlay replacing the health tab by.... i think casper?  Like a custom terrain texture mod or something.  I seem to remember a shot of something like that around here somewhere.

edit:  and yes, it's because you started that itch   

[vortext]

Not sure if it's any different from Casper's file but I use Carl's Moisture-Over-Power data view attached to this post. And my sincere apologies for bringing up the topic. 

guiloli, sorry I've missed your post before, at the time I was very busy. Has the issue resolved itself as APSMS says it does? If not, please let me know, I keep a closer eye on this thread now.

On a side note, Flatron and others, I'd like to know more about this whole 'borking' business that seems to happen every once in a while. As I've never had it happen personally, please post pictures when it goes haywire again. I'm intrigued. 

[Swordmaster]

It's most likely something on the part of the .exe itself. I've reported this back before you released, Erik. I was occasionally successful in replicating it by alt-tabbing out of a full screen game and back in. Since I've been using windowed mode exclusively for many months now I've never had it happen again (then again, I've not been planting many trees ).  Not sure if Flatron's problem is related to this, though.


Cheers
Willy

[vortext]

Since I've been using windowed mode exclusively for many months now I've never had it happen again.

Hm, this might have something to do with it since I play in windowed mode, like, forever.

[epicblunder]

It's most likely something on the part of the .exe itself. I've reported this back before you released, Erik. I was occasionally successful in replicating it by alt-tabbing out of a full screen game and back in. Since I've been using windowed mode exclusively for many months now I've never had it happen again (then again, I've not been planting many trees ).  Not sure if Flatron's problem is related to this, though.

I've had Alt-tabbing do do bad things with tree controllers and graphics not showing up on a multi-core if you don't have the cpucount tag running.

Thanks for the link!  After doing a little more digging, i found i was thinking of the picture from Gobias' thread on page 2 where he radically colored terrain textures.  Hopefully this little tool will do the trick though and i won't have to resort to that.   

[Swordmaster]

I've had Alt-tabbing do do bad things with tree controllers and graphics not showing up on a multi-core if you don't have the cpucount tag running.

I've had the cpucount tag since back in the days animals could speak, so I'm not sure that's it. In any case I wouldn't worry about it, except maybe sneaking it into a readme somewhere.


Cheers
Willy

[art128]

This is the last thing I can do, ask in this thread.

I'm having some troubles with Aerden controller. It doesn't give me the result it should, at least that's what I think.

I'm using the Sudden Valley Terrain mod. My plugins are cleaned. Just the terrain mod, Aerden and its dependencies ( fresh download), so no, it's not a plug-in conflict. My plugins are in my doc, but I tried with them in program files, same result.

Here are three pictures using Inland. I tried using Coast and river, both normal and extended. To my surprise, they ALL give me the EXACT SAME result. Which according to the readme, shouldn't.





As you can see, there are a lot of empty spaces in mountains, where there should be trees, or at least some vegetation.
On flat areas, I get this huge dense forest composed of ~three different trees, kinda strange.


Any idea what went wrong?
IF there's anything wrong of course. Which I think there is.


Fresh download, fresh install, clean plugins.....

[kelis]

indeed, I've got the same problem !! Exactly the same problem 

[Delecto]

Same for me. 

[art128]

Runned some test:

- Without Sudden Vally terrain mod (and of course with Lowkee's patch if needed)
- different controller ( extended, normal, inland)

Same result.

Great to know i'm not the only one. This time a solution will be hopefully found....

[vortext]

Here are three pictures using Inland.

*snip*

On flat areas, I get this huge dense forest composed of ~three different trees, kinda strange.

Yes, this is strange indeed as the Inland controller doesn't have dense forests near the water. My first hunch is there still was another of my controllers present in the plugins (which would also explain why you got the same results no matter what). Make sure there's only one (1) controller present in the plugins at all times.

As for the first two pictures, they look alright to me. It's been a while though so I don't remember exactly how it's supposed to look. At any rate, Inland and River do not cover the entire terrain. The Inland controller specifically might give quite large, empty stretches depending on the terrain. Or to put it in other words, only the Coast controller will give 100% flora cover.

On a related note, I can't get my game to run in a maximized window anymore. I removed all the shortcut extensions, verified because the intro comes on, however, the game still runs in windowed mode.   

[Swordmaster]

Well, Art clearly indicated he has a clean plugins folder, so that rules out a controller conflict.

As for the fullscreen problem, add the -f option to your shortcut.


Cheers
Willy

[vortext]

Well, Art clearly indicated he has a clean plugins folder, so that rules out a controller conflict.

Maybe I should rephrase: I mean a 'conflict' among my controllers. Though they are compatible with each other, they cannot be used all at the same time.


Edit: full screen works now. I assumed it'd do that by default. Thanks!