ANSWERED EU England - Too Green Urban Areas

[chrishunt]

Are there any plans to reduce the tree density in England's urban areas? Currently pretty much all urban areas in FTX EU England have far far too many trees rendering many smaller places nearly invisable and the larger towns and cities pretty much unrecognisable. I understand it's supposed to be a representation, and by-and-large it's a very good one, but this is one area where Orbx is actually worse than the default scenery.

Regards,

Chris

[Bruce Hamilton]

Sounds like you might have autogen set to extreme instead of normal. I see a lot of urban areas that could acually use more trees.

[chrishunt]

I'll check that Bruce but then we would need to swap trees for buildings.

[chrishunt]

I had autogen set to extremely dense Bruce - just goes to show how well this software runs on a pretty middling system... reducing autogen to normal does reduce the over-greening effect a little but as I suspected the problem is more that the density of roads, houses and other buildings isn't sufficient in most urban areas. I find also that most large towns lack a centre and instead are made up of generalised housing. I think it is this that is perhaps the problem with most houses being given gardens that are far too large (if only in the real world!), which creates the over-greening effect.

Regards,

Chris

[fltsimguy]

I have never found any scenery package actually emulate real life in colour....although I think the PNW Orbx package is the best ever produced. If you worry about the small details you will forget to go flying and just have fun. It's a simulation game that tries it's best to emulate real life and does a darn good job in many areas.

Change texture colour would require a huge bit of effort.

[chrishunt]

Texture colour isn't the issue Bryan; it's the building to greenery density that's the problem, particularly in town centres. Also it's not necessarily a small detail as it changes completely the character of urban areas in England and not just a little at that. Agreed completely that Orbx software does an excellent job in many areas. Anyone from Orbx want to comment?

[Paul Webster]

Hi,

I currently have no plans to reduce number of trees in town as we place trees where trees are in the landclass tile, we in fact increased the number of trees in town areas after customers and Developers said there were missing trees.

Paul

[chrishunt]

Seems to be an odd decision from what I can see - best thing I can do is a few screen shots (Orbx, P3D and Google) to demonstrate what, to me at least, is a problem. Certainly places like Blackpool, Colchester and similar need many fewer trees in the town centres.

[John Venema]

Chris, you have your answer. We're not reducing tree density in inner urban areas.

[pgreenwo]

Could always use the Max autogen trees tweak to reduce them

[terrain]

TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=

[John Dow]

Texture colour isn't the issue Bryan; it's the building to greenery density that's the problem, particularly in town centres. Also it's not necessarily a small detail as it changes completely the character of urban areas in England and not just a little at that. Agreed completely that Orbx software does an excellent job in many areas. Anyone from Orbx want to comment?

I agree with pgreenwo above. Use the trees per cell line (and the buildings one as well if required) to limit the number of trees you see per unit of area. It should thin out the trees in the urban areas without affecting rural areas too much.

[chrishunt]

I'll come back to this in a wee while. I did notice that there are many larger gardens in Colchester than I had thought - obviously far too much dosh in that neck of the woods . I suppose the real issue is not that the towns are too green but that they lack an obvious, and built-up, centre. Also to be shown soon (when I have the time) is the problem with Blackpool in that the area immediately North of the tower is practically open parkland in FTX when it is anything but in the real-world. Again I appreciate that this is a representation and not photo-real scenery.

JV I think you perhaps misunderstand me - I am a supporter of Orbx, frankly there is nothing else like it and FTX Global will be a huge step forward (I have another well known product on FSX, which pales by comparison); however your somewhat peromptary reply is a bit off to put it mildly. It's up to you whether or not to take any of this onboard but surely you should be seeking the highest fidelity you can get v the cost of achieving it (or maybe you already have?).

As for the suggestion re max autogen trees and buildings - many thanks chaps for the constructive replies; I'll have a look at that.

[fltsimguy]

Sounds like a description of custom scenery polygons! For each city! Lots of work and time required to produce this.

Have you tried photo scenery? You can custom add city centre poly's and annotate with autogen.

I personally just need the look and feel not the exact.

[chrishunt]

Not worth going that far Bryan - photo scenery is okay to a point but misses the element of simulating a living environment. Any change would have to be financially viable and be widely requested/supported (Orbx feel free to correct if necessary). So far that has been little response from others so it may be perceived as a personal issue rather than a "bug" as such. I'm realistic enough to accept that there will be no change if there is no demand for it.