Mr_Maison's Creations [Metropolitan depot 2, 5/21/2021]

[Turjan 1,048]

Hah, that would feel like Arizona all over again. Then you'd need some aspens for the higher parts (I guess you could fake it with one of the available birch trees) and some cottonwoods for the lower areas.

[Simulanten 681]

I checked the conifers I use so far - they have 196 tris an 512 textures...

I might keep some of them as fillers - there are about 500'000 of them and replacing all of them with your (so much nicer but heavier) beauties will bring traffic across the pass to a stand still I'm afraid...

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

10 hours ago, Simulanten said:

I checked the conifers I use so far - they have 196 tris an 512 textures...

I might keep some of them as fillers - there are about 500'000 of them and replacing all of them with your (so much nicer but heavier) beauties will bring traffic across the pass to a stand still I'm afraid...

Good idea. All you need is enough to make their presence known. I will continue to try and find techniques for more optimized trees...some are just expensive in order to look convincing. The average 3D tree in the CG world is in the 100,000s polygon count. The really nice ones are well over 1,000,000. For games, they are very challenging if going for realism. Making skyscrapers is easier than making a tree as it's in the "organic" modeling class which requires more vertices. So yeah, always use native trees as fillers.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

All my trees are now updated and placed in a collection. I fixed all the ones that was affected by After Dark shadows. You can now browse for them in one place. The collection will continue to grow.

Steam Link

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=644677259

[Avanya 2,605]

Yay! And I didn't even realise the bare ones existed (and now I know they do, I really need them!)  

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

I wasn't going to do the Mangroves yet but I started playing around to get a feel of them and ended up really getting into them. Here are some WIP previews of my first Mangrove variation. They are very young. I will be making the foliage more full going forward. I really wish we can make custom LODs for trees. These mangroves almost disappear when the lod kicks in. I'm hoping a fuller canopy will help.

WIP Mangrove 1. The tri count is around 1,700 so far. I used simple square billboards for this one.

 

 

 

This one looks good up close. Putting them on slopes is ok near the bottom but placed too high and some of the roots will float off the side of a hill.

In the above pic, you can see the mangroves thining out in the upper left corner.Once that's figured out, This tree is good to go public.

[Judazzz 1,936]

Wow, that is awesome! I love mangroves, they're such a weird ecosystem, and those trees look spot on!
A first step towards building my own Mekong Delta in C:SL one day \o/ But how to make a river a coffee-and-cream colored without resorting to pollution?  

btw: I think the best way to approach this is to terraform narrow trenches snaking outwards from one or two main channels in a very random pattern to form a mosaic (the geography is ever-changing due to the tidal influences), just deep enough to let a little water flow through it. Floating roots shouldn't be as much as a problem then.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Well, before I knew it, I was calling this one finished. Mangrove Tree is now published on Steam. It's not perfect as we still have limitations with trees and water. But keep in mind that newly made land on coasts or from river/lake/Ocean beds will need time to dry before the full foliage will be seen. I'm still trying to figure out how the developers set up the rules for coastal surfaces. Sometimes the trees do not recover from the "ruined" look and in many cases they do. I even see some healthy trees right in the water....I'm a bit confused

As always, there will be more variants made in the future. More info in the description of the workshop page.

 

 

Steam Link http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=653736121

[Turjan 1,048]

9 hours ago, Mr_Maison said:

Well, before I knew it, I was calling this one finished. Mangrove Tree is now published on Steam. It's not perfect as we still have limitations with trees and water. But keep in mind that newly made land on coasts or from river/lake/Ocean beds will need time to dry before the full foliage will be seen. I'm still trying to figure out how the developers set up the rules for coastal surfaces. Sometimes the trees do not recover from the "ruined" look and in many cases they do. I even see some healthy trees right in the water....I'm a bit confused

Very nice trees. To get rid of the environmental effects, you have to downgrade the tree quality and skip on one of the maps (specular?). I don't remember which one it was, but Shroomblaze or Breeze should know. Here's some close and far images with Shroomblaze's Pin Oak trees for comparison:
 

Spoiler

 

 

You can see that his trees are resistant to the water effect. Of course, the trade-off is less detail.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

37 minutes ago, Turjan said:

Very nice trees. To get rid of the environmental effects, you have to downgrade the tree quality and skip on one of the maps (specular?). I don't remember which one it was, but Shroomblaze or Breeze should know. Here's some close and far images with Shroomblaze's Pin Oak trees for comparison:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

You can see that his trees are resistant to the water effect. Of course, the trade-off is less detail.

Thanks for bringing this up. I actually spoke to Shroom last night about that. Actually there's no special maps with this tree. Only diffuse and alpha. What I found is that we have to make the texture with as little alpha area as possible without sacrificing the individual leaf structures because the game averages everything. So if the texture have 50-75% alpha area, the foliage would almost disappear at LOD distance. So I remade the texture. Shroom did show me a technique to add more filler billboards to decrease the thin foliage. Those plants that Shroom made in that image have thick dense foliage so it will hold up nicely. In order for me to get that, I would have to sacrifice the foliage quality for a more dense look. I will experiment with that idea maybe adding more foliage billboards (it will bring up the tri count though). But the real issue is that we have no way to truly make the trees waterproof. It's hit and miss on the maps. The Mangrove is fine on dry land and really do not require that fix with more billboards technically but I will try it for the sake of them being more out in the water.

I did some tests and observed that if the water floods a small island long enough, the trees will ruin but then return to fullness after the water recedes and the land dries up. There is something about the maps where some areas are "wetter" than others. We are still trying to get an understanding of this. Perhaps one day we can make some kind of color map to control where coastal trees can be placed with no problem. For now it's best to keep them on solid coastal lands. When they are spread out on beaches and river beds, they will thin out severely at LOD distance. I'm really hoping CO will give us waterproof tree options.

 

 

[Fearlessmayor 44]

I thought I subbed to one of your willows, but it might be the same one you're talking about here.  did you make another since my post in january? if you did, could you plz link me to it? Thanks. 

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

25 minutes ago, Fearlessmayor said:

I thought I subbed to one of your willows, but it might be the same one you're talking about here.  did you make another since my post in january? if you did, could you plz link me to it? Thanks. 

My first was a willow last year but I did not update it yet (not very fond of it but it's my first game asset ever). The last one I made in January was this one http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=593210924

 

I did an experiment with the Mangrove tree. I imported it using a boulder template in the rock category (which is a building). I figured since rocks are immune to water, maybe a tree will hold up nicely. It works but no without consequences. The billboards get pruned and slightly stretched and the effect of vertex normals is different than it is on real trees so the foliage is not as light. However, I made it mainly for the sake of the mangroves that disappear when out further on the water and wet beaches. It works good to keep some foliage visible at LOD distance. But I would ONLY use these rock versions as supliments very moderately. The random tree rotation does not work on these and they count towards building limit. Just a few of them will help the disappearing shorelines. See the following images...

In this close up image you see some of the mangrove trees as rocks at the outer edge. Notice the difference in the foliage.

 

In this image further out, You can see that the foliage is maintained.

 

I'm on the fence about publishing the rock version. I'm gonna do some more tests and weigh considerations.

[ethansprang 41]

I know there a "place in water" flag you can set for buildings. Is that available for trees?  You could then have water and land versions.  Or maybe a prop version for water?  Users would have to rotate it manually and use Prop Anarchy.

 

What if the "tree" is actually a pair of trees, widely spaced around the origin?  If the center point is placed on the water's edge, one will end up in the water and one on the shore.  This would allow random rotation to work as well (make sure the models are oriented about 120 degrees different).

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

7 hours ago, ethansprang said:

I know there a "place in water" flag you can set for buildings. Is that available for trees?  You could then have water and land versions.  Or maybe a prop version for water?  Users would have to rotate it manually and use Prop Anarchy.

 

What if the "tree" is actually a pair of trees, widely spaced around the origin?  If the center point is placed on the water's edge, one will end up in the water and one on the shore.  This would allow random rotation to work as well (make sure the models are oriented about 120 degrees different).

Those are some good ideas! I will try the radial (origin on land) approach.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Introducing a young Banana Tree! This is my first tropical plant. I will be making a version with fruit but wanted to first make one that can go nicely anywhere..including for decoration.

[Azurespecter 506]

You are my hero Mr_Maison! Making my tropical paradise city look incredible, one plant at a time.

That said, I'm going to be a stickler and tease you about there being no such thing as a Banana Tree. Hahaha  

From Wikipedia:  "The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant. All the above-ground parts of a banana plant grow from a structure usually called a "corm". Plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy, and are often mistaken for trees, but what appears to be a trunk is actually a "false stem" or pseudostem"

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

On 3/29/2016 at 2:35 PM, Azurespecter said:

You are my hero Mr_Maison! Making my tropical paradise city look incredible, one plant at a time.

That said, I'm going to be a stickler and tease you about there being no such thing as a Banana Tree. Hahaha  

From Wikipedia:  "The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant. All the above-ground parts of a banana plant grow from a structure usually called a "corm". Plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy, and are often mistaken for trees, but what appears to be a trunk is actually a "false stem" or pseudostem"

OOps!...I should've done more reading  

Some facts about trees and plants are very interesting. I been learning a lot lately...and now this. Thanks for the heads up...I will tweak my description in light of this info.

 

[Simulanten 681]

Incredibly beautiful plants! Getting a bit jealous though 'cause those tropical banana things will die during the first of my Colorado nights...

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

3 hours ago, Simulanten said:

Incredibly beautiful plants! Getting a bit jealous though 'cause those tropical banana things will die during the first of my Colorado nights...

I have some more for you coming real soon.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

A new smaller Scots Pine tree for more variety. I been wrestling with tri count on this one. A full pine tree is challenging to stay at low tris due to how many billboards it takes to look good. I thought we needed a smaller pine tree that would fit in many more situations in any map.

 

 

 

 

 

Steam Link http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=659116531

[Simulanten 681]

Excellent stuff! In fact that's more useful than taller giant pines. The Overlook Hotel will sit closely above the treeline and that's where those younger / smaller pines are growing too...

I'm excited. 

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Another pine tree joins the Nature Series...a Siberian Pine Tree! This was a request by our friend BloodyPenguin. It's tall and makes a visual impact on the landscape even from a distance. I like how this one turned out.

 

 

 

Steam Link http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=662727512

[Avanya 2,605]

Beautiful tree!

[Simulanten 681]

Epic! And I'm really impressed by the reasonable poly count. Time to go tree hugging in the Rockies.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

The London Planetree! A very common species. Here in NYC, they are in parks and line the streets of many neighborhoods. It was a request by a friend and I'm glad to bring it to the game. More variations will follow in the future.

 

 

 

Steam Link http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=664488801

[lancedragon 12]

As always, you never fail to produce gorgeous trees.I don't even think anymore i just subscribe to them as soon as they come out :).

Any plan for a stone pine ? as they have quite a large canopy and should provide a huge visual impact for anyone trying to recreate a mediterranean ambiance .

 

 

[Judazzz 1,936]

7 hours ago, Mr_Maison said:

The London Planetree! A very common species. Here in NYC, they are in parks and line the streets of many neighborhoods. It was a request by a friend and I'm glad to bring it to the game. More variations will follow in the future.

As always a real gem, looks amazing!
Question: would it be possible to create a somewhat smaller and narrower variety that branches off from the main stem closer to the ground, resulting in a canopy that starts closer to the ground?

So a bit more like this ...

or this ...

Those would be awesome for tree-lined roads and avenues (imo. the current selection of suitable trees is somewhat limited, as most trees are quite large and will collide with the adjacent buildings, which doesn't look too pretty).

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

5 hours ago, lancedragon said:

As always, you never fail to produce gorgeous trees.I don't even think anymore i just subscribe to them as soon as they come out :).

Any plan for a stone pine ? as they have quite a large canopy and should provide a huge visual impact for anyone trying to recreate a mediterranean ambiance .

Thanks...I will definitely look into that.

2 hours ago, Judazzz said:

Question: would it be possible to create a somewhat smaller and narrower variety that branches off from the main stem closer to the ground, resulting in a canopy that starts closer to the ground?

Those would be awesome for tree-lined roads and avenues (imo. the current selection of suitable trees is somewhat limited, as most trees are quite large and will collide with the adjacent buildings, which doesn't look too pretty).

Yes, I have variations planned. I'll do this shorter style for the next one

[WesOvWolves 32]

Loving  your work! You should do some Australian Eucalyptus trees!

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

The Bald Cypress is finally here for our wetlands! This is a 2 piece set. One with knees and one without.

 

 

 

 

Steam Link http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=668294281