What terrain mod and tree controller do you use?

[lhrob 213]

I need a little inspiration. I want to get rid of the Maxis terrain and find something a bit more visually stimulating, so I was wondering what terrain mod you use. I also would like to know what tree controller you use, if any. If you can, please post screenshots ...I'd love to see how the combination looks before downloading.

Thanks!

[Yarahi 1,816]

Terrain: Appalacian Mod by Lowkee

Trees: Pacific NW by Blunder

No shots at the momen though, as I'm currently between regions

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

Terrain: Columbus Terrain Mod

Tree: CPT (Forgot the exact name)

It's what I had for my Teaserchange. Found it to be a good combination.

Also look for a water mod, if you so desire. I've found the Pegasus water mods to be nice.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Terrain: PEG MTP Tree mod. Generally pine trees. I also have the supplemental MMP textures and ploppable trees.

Water: PEG Brigantine.

Picture:

And as you can see, the PEG CDK3 ports package.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

It all depends on what kind of region you want.

These pictures show:

Water Mod - by shoktherapy

Terrain Mod - by Heblem

Rock Mod - by Pegasus

Beach Mod - by _marsh_

Hope these help!

[SilverCyric 130]

ROFLyoshi: That's also Blunder's New PNW (Pacific Northwest) Tree Controller, right?

Im running the same beach mod as well as terrain mod...

Im using the Tropical Mossy Rock Mod and the Crystal Lagoon Water texture

I also have a mod that changes the angle of the sun to make it more like The equator and no snow in the high mountains, I'd have to look up the name, if you wanted it...

I'm also using the HBS Tropical Tree Controller, but I have no pics with it in it because I very rarely use god mode trees...

Hopefully, someone will post some of Gobias's new terrain and water mods, I'd like to see how those turned out

[lhrob 213]

I'm trying out the Pacific Northwest Tree Controller, but there are 2 things about it which bother me. First, I don't like the colored leaves of some of the trees interspersed with the pines. Second, I think it has too many pines. Ordinarily I'm a huge fan of pine trees, and in real life I'd love to live among nothing else but them...but when I'm trying to create a forest on a lowland area next to a sea or river in the midwest, it just doesn't seem to fit in with what I'm trying to do. Is there anything that allows a more diverse mix that includes not only pines, but a lot of different deciduous trees as well?

[Yarahi 1,816]

Is there anything that allows a more diverse mix that includes not only pines, but a lot of different deciduous trees as well?

Tried C.P.'s It has an option when you install to use a generic mix of all his trees

[lhrob 213]

Thanks, Yarahi - I'll give it a try.

[Turjan 1,048]

Terrain: Appalacian Mod by Lowkee

Trees: Pacific NW by Blunder

Same here. In addition, I use Ennedi's brown sandstone texture for rocks, Gobias' "Nantucket" beach texture and the HD modification of PEG's Brigantine by Shoktherapy. The rock mod could be a little bit browner, but otherwise I like the combination quite a bit.

I'm trying out the Pacific Northwest Tree Controller, but there are 2 things about it which bother me. First, I don't like the colored leaves of some of the trees interspersed with the pines. Second, I think it has too many pines. Ordinarily I'm a huge fan of pine trees, and in real life I'd love to live among nothing else but them...but when I'm trying to create a forest on a lowland area next to a sea or river in the midwest, it just doesn't seem to fit in with what I'm trying to do. Is there anything that allows a more diverse mix that includes not only pines, but a lot of different deciduous trees as well?

I'm not worried by the first point, but the second is also a bit disappointing for me. River shores should have many more deciduous trees, even in the PNW. The maples usually appear at the first click and then get drowned out by pines/cedars/redwoods. I wonder whether this is determined by the terrain mod or a conscious decision. It's probably not feasible to make it differently, and for the sea shores of the area, the tree mod is pretty much spot on. I guess you have to plant your river islands and shores in mayor mode.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

If you need, you can simply place the shores using MMPs instead of the God Mode trees.

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

If you need, you can simply place the shores using MMPs instead of the God Mode trees.

Yeah, Girafe makes some particularly exceptional MMP trees. I've been tempted for a while to switch over to them. The lack of a god mode brush is the only thing stopping me (yes, I know there's one on some Japanese site, but I've had...unfortunate results trying to get it )

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

If you need, you can simply place the shores using MMPs instead of the God Mode trees.

Yeah, Girafe makes some particularly exceptional MMP trees. I've been tempted for a while to switch over to them. The lack of a god mode brush is the only thing stopping me (yes, I know there's one on some Japanese site, but I've had...unfortunate results trying to get it )

As Nike says, just do it.

I love them.

[Turjan 1,048]

If you need, you can simply place the shores using MMPs instead of the God Mode trees.

Sure, I mentioned that. The PNW tree controller even comes with some of Girafe's MMP's, and I have added all of his others.

I use a mix of god mode and mayor mode trees already now.

Edit: I just want to add that I also like Cycledogg's Olympic Tree Controller. It's supposed to represent roughly the same area as the PNW controller, but it's much, much more diverse. You have a narrow coast belt, cripple pine and juniper stands on drier patches, deciduous forests in wet valleys, a larch belt, an aspen belt. It generally changes a lot with every little bit of terrain change and height. Still pretty heavy on coniferous trees, though, but that comes with the theme. Of course, the tree models are not HD.

[SilverCyric 130]

Yeah I've tried to use the PNW Tree Controller too, It was very nice, don't get me wrong. I was estactic when I seen Blunder post that for us, but it just didn't fit into what I was trying to create...

If you need, you can simply place the shores using MMPs instead of the God Mode trees.

Yeah, Girafe makes some particularly exceptional MMP trees. I've been tempted for a while to switch over to them. The lack of a god mode brush is the only thing stopping me (yes, I know there's one on some Japanese site, but I've had...unfortunate results trying to get it )

Hi, Indiana Joe, if you don't mind me saying, I've got Girafe's trees, and I use them pretty much exclusively. I have a tree controller, but I never use it, I always select the area to tree, and start plopping in larger models (4 and 5 clicks in a single spot to get the big overlapping tree models) of his trees spread out randomly and fill inbetween with some smaller trees other trees types and bushes and grasses to break up the monotony... At first it was kinda tredious, but I'm getting the hang of it and I can usually tree out a pretty decent part of a large tile in about 1-2 hours, but if you're covering entire large tiles, I'd probably want a brush too...

[lhrob 213]

Edit: I just want to add that I also like Cycledogg's Olympic Tree Controller. It's supposed to represent roughly the same area as the PNW controller, but it's much, much more diverse. You have a narrow coast belt, cripple pine and juniper stands on drier patches, deciduous forests in wet valleys, a larch belt, an aspen belt. It generally changes a lot with every little bit of terrain change and height. Still pretty heavy on coniferous trees, though, but that comes with the theme. Of course, the tree models are not HD.

Yeah, I actually decided I'm going to use Cycledogg's Olympic Tree controller. I know the lower elevations are all coniferous trees, and I know I said I don't really want that...but I think what bothers me the most about it are the colored leaves on the deciduous trees. If they were simply green, I'd like it more. So for as much as I would rather have more deciduous mixed in at the lower elevations, I guess I'd prefer all conifers with no deciduous instead of a mix which includes the colored leaves found in the Pacific NW controller. And aside from that, the thing that actually won me over to the Olympic Tree controller is that it is more diverse at higher elevations, which makes it look better overall to me.

Now....I still can't decide on a terrain mod. If I describe what I want, maybe you guys could steer me to the one which most closely matches what I'm looking for...or at least tell me which plugins to install to achieve the look I'm after. I want something that is green at lower elevations, but then quickly transitions over to brown dirt or barren ground as you go up in elevation so that the pine trees stand out more, and then ultimately goes to all medium or dark gray rocks as you move higher up the mountains. I want a moderate amount of cliffs, but I don't want an overabundance of them. For instance, with one of the terrain mods I tested (I can't recall which one), practically the whole slope of a mountain looks like nothing more than bare rock. I don't want that. But I also don't want the slopes to be all green, like you find in the Appalachian terrain mod. Any ideas?

[Turjan 1,048]

Now....I still can't decide on a terrain mod. If I describe what I want, maybe you guys could steer me to the one which most closely matches what I'm looking for...or at least tell me which plugins to install to achieve the look I'm after. I want something that is green at lower elevations, but then quickly transitions over to brown dirt or barren ground as you go up in elevation so that the pine trees stand out more, and then ultimately goes to all medium or dark gray rocks as you move higher up the mountains. I want a moderate amount of cliffs, but I don't want an overabundance of them. For instance, with one of the terrain mods I tested (I can't recall which one), practically the whole slope of a mountain looks like nothing more than bare rock. I don't want that. But I also don't want the slopes to be all green, like you find in the Appalachian terrain mod. Any ideas?

The nice thing about terrain mods is that you can always change them at will anytime you want, a thing you cannot do with tree controllers (you are basically forced to stay with the one you choose or start over). Also, rock textures are usually separate and can be mixed in freely. The thing you describe with the rock surface may be one part of Lowkey's Appalachian mod, where one of the removable options makes many more cliff surfaces appear than with other mods (no erosion results in steeper surfaces that are rendered as rock).

You might try Gobias' Sudden Valley texture mod, which has greens in lower elevations and reds in upper elevations. On my computer it looked more like Northern Arizona high forests, but maybe the area behind the Cascades looks similar (I wouldn't know). However, I decided against it, as the main texture you see in cities looked a bit drab and flat to my eyes, but your mileage may vary (and it might also look different on your computer).

As for rocks, look at some of Ennedi's HD mods. Here is the Olympic tree controller with a brown sandstone texture of Ennedi at a very steep rock face, just to show that the texture stretches well and doesn't show any noticeable tiling. He also has several grey variants (Edit: sorry for the grid).