active Palm Tree Solution?

[gotjackson]

I have been enjoying everything about OLC NA since it's release... another exceptional job by the ORBX team! So, this is really a minor thing and maybe it has nothing to do with OLC, but I continue to find palm trees in places they would never exist in the real world... pretty much anywhere in the northern half of the U.S., but especially at higher elevations. I find them in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and many other places. Is there any way to exclude palms trees north of specific latitudes, for example, like 38 degrees or more (except California)? And maybe for elevations above a certain altitude (you would find palm trees in Phoenix, Arizona, but not in Flagstaff, Arizona). I'm sure there are other types of vegetation that are "misplaced" as well, but the palm trees really stand out to me in certain places. It's not going to ruin my enjoyment of OLC, but it would be nice if this was fixed someday.

 

On a related topic, it would really be spectacular to have aspen trees added to the higher elevations of western mountains (8,000-10,000 feet).

[dave302]

I've noticed this issue with palm trees at high elevations as well. Even in New Mexico at its relatively low latitudes there are no palm trees because of the high elevation, yet they appear in openLC. I live at almost 5000ft, and although the terrain here is semi desert, is in the Southwest U.S., and gets darn hot in the Summer, it also gets darn cold in the Winter hence no palm trees. Phoenix, which is at almost the same latitude, has many palm trees because it is only at 1000ft elevation and has mild Winters.

 

I think fixing this would be quite a bit of work as it would require making custom textures for high elevation areas of the southwest and then updating the landclass for these areas.

 

FSX does change the landclass based on elevation, e.g. it calls hard winter textures with snow above certain altitudes, and I wonder of this feature could be utilized to call certain Southwest textures without palm trees above about 3500ft?

 

I totally agree about the Aspen trees. This would make the Rockies a lot more realistic.

 

Dave

[fltsimguy]

Agreed!

I think the ultimate solution will be the development of a full blown region where customization of landclass and related autogen can be customized for these areas.

 

I have noticed aspen/poplar stands in various places in regions already, so I think this is something they are aware of an can customize.  Unfortunately, it has taken many years to get to the level we already have regarding regions, and it will be a long way off before we can see all these issues addressed.

 

[rcoultas62]

Is it the LC that controls vegetation? Just curious, Also many palm trees in Amarillo, Texas that do not belong.  Amarillo looks like Miami!