Scenery Question - Seeking a Better Canada

CrisGer

CrisGer

Charter Member
OK, this is a scenery question but i am trying to achieve something more lifelike in Canada and the northwest, and the pine trees that the default autogen spins up are ..well, they look like bushes.. :)

i was trying to achieve more of what i see in Sandermann's screenies for his mesh packs...i am trying to make the Fraser River near Valemont look more like it really does and currently it looks llike a minature golf course with some low stubble :)

any suggestions? i have the scenery settings all the way up and the extremely dense settings but i maybe need to raise up the resolution? dunno, any suggestions or suggested add ons welcome.

sandermannpic.jpg


Sandermann's pic of Lake Louise....

fraserrivernearvalemont.jpg


my current set up

i moved his mesh and secenery packs to the top of my priority list (1, 2, 3..) so they woudl overlay eveything else but so far, not much improvment. I was hoping. maybe some better trees out there?
 
Gerrish Gray's tree library should sort you out,
its available at all the main sites (like many scenery files was made for fs2002 but will and does work in fs2004)
or here ----> http://bfu.avsim.net/scenery_Bases.html

or if that doesn't suit you, go here http://files.fsnordic.net/Flight_Simulator/Scenery/Finland/ (scroll down the page)
and get Pekka Martikainen's 'Forestration project' (it is the name of the file,really!!)
or flightsim.com and get Aime Leclercq's 'TreeX'

and finally,IIRc there's a fs9.cfg tweek that alters the scale of autogen, in the developers kit for autogen or terrain
from here ----> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555857 ,however,that tweek affects all autogen objects so you end up with oversized houses too.



ttfn

Pete
 
wow, thanks, that was just what i was hoping for and wonderful resources for Finland, one of my favorite countries in teh world, thanks for that too, now i can create a much better Suomi as well.

I will try the forestation, i already had Gerrish trees but i may not have had them in the right place :) thanks so much. i just want dense pine forests....and hope to achieve them.
 
And here I thought this was going to be a political discussion ... :friday: :focus:

I've tried both the Gerrish and Finn trees - I preferred Gerrish's a bit more as a solution for the whole world. Whilst the Finn's trees looked good in Scandinavia, some other parts of the world looked a bit weird to me. I'd strongly recommend backing up all your tree textures, (some packs have backups included, but not all) in case you don't like one set or the other.

My biggest hangup with FS9 trees is less the colour, but the size. Since I haven't found a way to reduce their size (relative to buildings), then I have just given up on the whole tree improvement thing. Again, like water textures, they are very much subject to personal preference, and nothing beats a temporary trial to help you make up your mind. Ironically, I've reinstalled GW3, and I'm just staying with its tree textures.

Having climbed extensively throughout the Lake Louise/Moraine Lake/Mt Temple area, I find it hard to take any of the FS renditions of the area too seriously - but it looks like you're looking better than stock FS.

Good luck, and let us know how you make out.

dl
 
ok, i went back and started again with Gerrrish's packs, and am working thru them all, ...i see what you mean about not taking it all too seriously, i hope for the best i can....and Sandmanns meshes have helped i think....

thanks for all the input from everyone, i just dont think i am going to get the tree density that is what is up there. :) but, we are lucky to have this at all :)

nearvalemont.th.jpg
 
Try Ed Truhan's conifers for FS 2002. Thats what I run for trees. Doubles the number of pines and has a slightly smaller texture size for better performance.

Brian
 
ok guys thanks VERY MUCH! i will seek those two and try em...i will continue to hope for Thicker Forests :)

UPDATE: i found those elusive conifers by Ed Truthan, they are NOT listed under ANY search nor were they visible by going thru ALL the scenery add ons!!!! only by a search by his name with a th :) instead of han :) but here is the linkey if anyone else wants to try them.

Ed Truthan water and trees
http://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=12544
Filename: conifers.zip
License: Check within download
Added: 28th December 2001
Downloads: 10393
Author: Ed Truthan
Size: 2916kb

File Description:
A set of seasonal replacement textures to greatly enhance the quality and
realism of the FS2002 auto-gen default conifers. Two sets are included:
Standard 512x512 bitmaps, (no framerate hit), and Deluxe 1024x1024
bitmaps,(slight framerate hit), with enhanced resolution for high end
users who want the ultimate in realism. Also increases conifer numbers by
4 to 1.

I found Ed's descripton and discussion of the tree question very interesting so here is his read me for fellow deep forest seekers like me :

IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT THE TREES:
Upon first flying in fs2002 I was immediately impressed, (as we all have been), at the wonderful improvement over FS2000 on almost every front. However, as someone who has lived a great deal of time in Colorado and Montana, (and enjoy simming there, and in Alaska), it became apparent that the default conifers, if improved, would VASTLY enhance the enjoyment and realism of low altitude and VFR bush flights. I assume that Microsoft had set a limit on the auto-gen density (for frame rate reasons) and felt it was necessary to render the conifers as WIDE as they did to help improve the appearance of "ground coverage".
Vegetation in simulators has for years used the technique of criss-crossing two flat bitmaps at right angles in order for the object in question to look "volumetric" at any angle observed. Fs2002, as you may have noticed, uses this same technique for the four varieties of conifers present everywhere. In attempting to change the WIDTH of these trees to a more realistic shape, it was apparent that if the trees were thinner, the above-mentioned "appearance of ground cover" would be weakened. What should be a well-forested area would then look rather sparse in appearance, even with auto-gen settings at maximum. As there is a limit to auto-gen density, (and there is no SDK as of yet), that seemed unfortunate. Nice trees...no coverage.
The solution was simple. Assuming that FS2002 would use anything that was placed the designated section of the vegetation bitmap assigned to the conifers, I placed TWO TREES in each panel, as wide apart as possible. Where the trunk of one FS2002 tree should be then becomes the MIDDLE of a group of FOUR NEW TREES. The new trees stand at what would be the outer branches of one wide default tree. The trade off is that they appear as "flat" bitmaps when seen from the side, (the criss-cross point is transparent). HOWEVER, the sheer NUMBER of trees combined with the fact that FS2002 renders each tree with a random azimuth alignment, AND randomizes their sizes, AND the seeming "width variety" for identical trees seen at differing angles, such reduces this problem as to be almost completely unnoticeable, even welcome. In fact, I was quite stunned upon cruising the first time low and slow over the pointed crowns of a thick and seemingly endless stand of conifers. It is my sincere wish you will be as well.

December 28, 2001


ALOHA SIMMERS,

The enclosed files will replace the FS2002 default auto-generated conifers with new and more realistically shaped and colored trees. They also INCREASE the number of visible conifer trees by a factor of 4 to 1, (with a small trade-off, PLEASE READ "IMPORTANT NOTES" BELOW). They do not change the other default auto-gen vegetation at all, except for the examples noted below. All five FS2002 seasonal changes are present. The most noticeable change in the seasons is "winter", and "heavy winter", when lack of new growth and snow cover are, respectively, present.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
I would like to mention as well that I have adjusted the COLOR of the conifers to that which seemed to best display a feeling of living trees in FULL SUN... WITHOUT, hopefully, having them be to bright, saturated, or vibrant in general. The Default conifers seem to me much too drab and melt into the ground textures at everything but close range. I wanted to avoid this without going overboard on the color. They are quite different in different light and I hope I have succeeded in making them seem "alive" without to much distraction to the landscape.

As stated above I have not changed any of the default vegetation (except for the conifers), with two small exceptions: the "heavy winter" "evergreen generic" trees were given a bit more snow so as to more look like "heavy winter", and to blend more realistically with the new conifers during that season. Also (as I live on Maui), I noticed that the generic palm tree vegetation was solid black in the shadowed areas of the palm fronds and was most distracting. I have corrected this and given them a hair more yellow as this more closely resembles the trees in life.

Trees are certainly one of the most beautiful aspects of our Earth, and with Microsoft's remarkable improvements in this latest Flight Simulator release, simming has just crossed over into the twenty-first century. I hope this small addition will help make yours that much more vibrant.
Aloha and Mahalo...
-Ed Truthan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top