Mod that Imports Real-World Tree Cover

[madtony26 38]

I am working on a mod for the Map Editor that allows the user to import real-world tree cover using a bounding box similar to that used in terrain.party. 

This mod will connect directly to the a Web API image server and automatically import the tree cover within the provided lat/long bounding box.

The Earth's tree-cover can be browsed with a viewer at http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fec2-50-18-182-188.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com%3A6080%2Farcgis%2Frest%2Fservices%2FTreeCover2000%2FImageServer&source=sd

An early copy of the source is located at https://github.com/madtony26/TreeMapper

Below is an example of the tree cover in Frankfort, KY:

... and the resulting forestry imported into the game:

Here's what it looks like while importing trees into a flat map..

The importing process finishes almost instantly, but it can take several minutes for the game to update the Forest resource, which is somehow blocking the trees from rendering to the screen. I'm still working on understanding how that happens behind the scenes to speed things up (but even with the waiting, it's still faster than painstakingly planting the trees yourself. 

The density will be configurable. The following was imported using three trees per pixel from the image server, which looked great in the game. The trees were randomly placed near the pixel location, and the randomness will be configurable.

The imported trees can also be used as a guideline for lining things up as they are in the real world. For example, the following interchange was easily replicated using the trees around it as a reference. Also, the highway path was easily traceable through the forest in the upper-right corner (below). The river that you can see in some of the pictures flowed nicely through a gap that could be seen in the tree coverage.

I'm thinking about using Tree Mapper as the title.

Some things I'm still working on before I can release the mod..

1. Speeding up rendering the trees after they are first imported. The import happens quickly, but for some reason, they are not drawn until the forestry resource is calculated, which takes several minutes after the import.

2. Tree selection. Right now, it's hard-coded to use the tree you see in the images above. This will probably just be a simple drop-down selection.

3. Accuracy. Right now, the coordinate system doesn't match up perfectly with the terrain.party coordinate system. I read somewhere that the terrain.party author had some issues with higher elevation coordinates being off. To mitigate this, the user can provide an x-scale and y-scale that will stretch the imported trees to line up with the terrain.party terrain.

4. GUI polishing. Right now, it's pretty rigid. I want to get everything else working and clean up the user interface last. Need to add tree limit warnings.

Development slowed down a lot, since I got distracted playing my Frankfort, KY map that I imported! The game is fun and will suck you in like that!

I'll try to publish more updates and screenshots as I go.

Lastly, any test cases/requests for cities to import tree coverage and terrain? I'd like to see how it will handle interesting cities that users would like to build on.

[Macronomicus 128]

Holy $%&^!e! This game, these modders!  My head is going to explode!

I was thinking about something exactly like this recently, it was brought on by wondering if we could make a few more tree types that are thicker and fuller to approximate much denser areas of trees, without lagging the system too much.

Anyhow thanks for sharing this intriguing project!

**Try something like Asheville North Carolina, we live in a Temperate Rain forest, the Flora here is extremely unique and very dense, we have more variety here than anywhere else in the world, also this is the oldest above sea level mountain range that used to be higher than the Himalayas, much of the southern states below us were formed by the run-off.

[Judazzz 1,936]

This is pretty amazing indeed!
Not to knock on the hard-working people that paint trees in their maps by hand (I've seen countless gems pass by in the Workshop), but holy smokes those first and third screenshots are on a whole new level - I had to look twice and then once more for good measure to figure out they were screenshots rather than actual aerial imagery!

[Macronomicus 128]

So smooth to get a nice natural feel in a map, then jump straight into details.  This is truly awesome.  I'm looking forward to painting that layer in photoshop too for custom maps.

How difficult would it be to have the various tree types have a colorkey in the cover map?  Or maybe each tree "mix" has a color key to make it simpler.  Something like green as default mix, then a coastal color, fresh water, parries, hobbiton etc etc.

[madtony26 38]

On 4/25/2016 at 11:39 PM, Macronomicus said:

**Try something like Asheville North Carolina, we live in a Temperate Rain forest, the Flora here is extremely unique and very dense, we have more variety here than anywhere else in the world, also this is the oldest above sea level mountain range that used to be higher than the Himalayas, much of the southern states below us were formed by the run-off.

Thanks for the response, Macronomicus. I will try importing the Asheville terrain and tree-cover when I get a chance (work and home schedule is pretty tight right now). l enjoyed reading your comment about Asheville's  geological history. BTW, It's relatively close to me, in Durham.. although I used to live in Central KY, which is one reason I started with Frankfort as a test case. I visited Asheville a few years ago and loved the culture and landscape.

On 4/25/2016 at 10:35 AM, Judazzz said:

This is pretty amazing indeed!
Not to knock on the hard-working people that paint trees in their maps by hand (I've seen countless gems pass by in the Workshop), but holy smokes those first and third screenshots are on a whole new level - I had to look twice and then once more for good measure to figure out they were screenshots rather than actual aerial imagery!

Thanks, Judazzz! Those meticulous people were partially the inspiration for this (e.g. dedgren). The sparse tree-brush just doesn't look the same as their work. A mod will never be able to replace the tree-art that these builders can create by hand. However, this mod should allow for a good starting point to save builders from trying to re-create massive forests by hand. There will naturally be some touch-up after importing from the mod.

12 hours ago, Macronomicus said:

So smooth to get a nice natural feel in a map, then jump straight into details.  This is truly awesome.  I'm looking forward to painting that layer in photoshop too for custom maps.

How difficult would it be to have the various tree types have a colorkey in the cover map?  Or maybe each tree "mix" has a color key to make it simpler.  Something like green as default mix, then a coastal color, fresh water, parries, hobbiton etc etc.

Macronomicus, I like your suggestion and this would probably be one of the first updates made after the first release.

At the moment no image files come into play. This saves the user a step of downloading the image from the server, putting it in the right location, and finding the image from the mod. Currently, the user provides lat/long bounding-box coordinates and the mod will directly connect to the web api to get the tree cover data and import the data onto the map.

However, it would be a very simple addition to allow importing a color-coded image from your machine where each color is assigned a variety of tree. The workflow would be something like:

 1. Select an Image from your machine.
 2. Select a Tree from a drop-down list for each distinct pixel color.
 3. Import!

 

[Macronomicus 128]

woah, this is so slick, I didn't realize it was pulling that data layer down.  What you've made already seems excellent enough to release.  I've not tested your code in github yet, but it certainly looks like your tests are going great!  Any contribution is greatly appreciated, I hope in my excitement i didn't come off as demanding anything.

Ahh very cool, I do have info-terrets sometimes, it just pours out lol... so you obviously know quite well this region is pretty epic with foliage.  Are you using the Unlimited Trees mod too?  Tree's is the only limit ive hit so far, its worth it and hasn't dragged my system unless i make it insanely dense with high tri trees, I had to test it until it started to break  

[madtony26 38]

^ Unlimited Trees is a must.. My Frankfort test imported just over a Million trees at three trees per pixel. Asheville may push the 2 Million limit at the same density setting. That's something I've thought about warning against during the setup or import process.

[Macronomicus 128]

Indeed it is very dense here, there is a nominal amount of agriculture & city which reduces coverage tho.  Im doing a couple different Asheville Maps, and modeling some of our local architecture.   Another bit of history, this is where the first American "sustainable" forestry was formed thanks to Vanderbilt's (Of Builtmore estate, yes im modeling it!) efforts, he found the region had been clear cut so veraciously (like the rain forests of today) it inspired him to change things, his work would later add to the improvements in how well all of America tends to its forests.

[madtony26 38]

Alrighty, I did an import on top of the Asheville, NC terrain.

The map broke the 2 Million tree mark.

It took about 15 -20 minutes after importing before the trees started showing up. Although, everything runs smoothly after that initial 15-20 minute hiccup.

Here are some screens for your enjoyment..

I can probably add some basic highways/resources and post to the warehouse if anyone is interested in using he map.

[Macronomicus 128]

wow that looks amazing!!!! ...nearly impossible by hand because its so easy to go too thick in spots, but your mod does the job perfectly, great density, and the empty spaces are perfect.  I have  a few asheville maps but none with perfect tree cover yet, wasnt planing on releasing them until I wrap up the builtmore a few other bits, plus using your mod is a must now hahaa!  Id test it out if you released it

[boldlybuilding 873]

Wow! This would have been really useful for my Napa map and saved me about two days

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Ok.....Now I have to make some trees with lower tri counts just for this. This is awesome!!! Looking forward to it on the workshop.

[Macronomicus 128]

3 hours ago, Mr_Maison said:

Ok.....Now I have to make some trees with lower tri counts just for this. This is awesome!!! Looking forward to it on the workshop.

Yes, I was contemplating this topic recently, im thinking another few tree types, for densities sake, any number (or none lol) of trees could be made in each style.

Style 1, Canopy Trees -has a lot less lower branches, more of a canopy effect, maybe have vines reaching up on some.

Style 2, Tree Clusters -a small to medium arrangement of trees and/or ground covering as one tree, the thickness of them could mean alphas for the trunks on some of them.  Wind effects might make this one weird, though hopefully not.

Style 3, Clipping Trees -what if some trees dumped mesh when clipping with another tree or building?  Seems odd & difficult but im interested in clipping, even if only visual, for my giant greenhouses being modular against themselves, and also the plants within.

Style 4, Density Aware Trees -Just like 1 & 3 but instead of collision its measured in density, so the denser the trees become the less lower branches they have. hahaaa  *#%()*@! that seems like it would be difficult!

Then of course we can still  layer through all the amazing existing trees to mix it up even further.  

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

The best we can do now is make trees with low tri counts. Trees with exaggerated canopies and clusters are possible and may be the best solutions until we get more tree type support from CO. I'll see what I can do.

[Macronomicus 128]

oh you do so amazingly, im sure you'll have some before me, i had planned on a few trees but man i have made a big list in front of them, not to mention they're challenge in and of themselves! eg... ill have to learn to make foliage first then try some lol, and if they're not total $%&^! share them lol.

[madtony26 38]

Pease help!!!!!

I've been stuck in a rut trying to add a simple dropdown list that lets the user select which tree they want to use for the import, and I'm not sure how to figure out what's going on. I'm getting the following error message on the Main Menu

A Mod caused an error [ModException]

Details:
System.Reflection.ReflectionTypeLoadException: The classes in the module cannot be loaded.
  at (wrapper managed-to-native) System.Reflection.Assembly:GetTypes (bool)
  at System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExportedTypes () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at ColossalFramework.Plugins.PluginManager+PluginInfo.GetInstances[IUserMod] () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at ContentManagerPanel.RefreshPlugins () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

It only occurs after I add the following property to my TreeMapperUIPanel

UIDropDown treeDropdown;

I'm initializing it using the following, but I'm not sure that this code is even being hit in the Main Menu. It is called from the Awake() method override in the TreeMapperUIPanel

treeDropdown = AddUIComponent<UIDropDown> ();

Does anyone know why adding these two lines would cause the reflection error? I feel like it's probably an assembly conflict, but there's not even any info in the error about what couldn't be loaded. Is there any way I can tell where the assembly conflict is?

This is a blocker to being able to release, so any help would be appreciated. In the meantime, I'll keep doing what I can to track it down!

Thanks!

[Judazzz 1,936]

Are you familiar with SamSamTS' UIUtils library? It contains a lot of helpers to quickly set up various controls (dropdown included) with just one function call, and it saved me a ton of time when working on my own mod. Many modders already use this library, so it's included in many mods: here's a link to the script used by the Building Themes mod: https://github.com/boformer/BuildingThemes/blob/master/BuildingThemes/GUI/UIUtils.cs
I'm not sure it will fix your problem, but in any case it won't hurt if more modders use the same libraries, so I highly recommend using it.

On a related note, I recently completely moved away from dropdowns and replaced them with FastLists instead (example): they're a bit more tricky to implement, but much more user friendly. The code for FastLists can also be found in the Building Themes repository, although ultimately I found the one used in the Advanced Vehicle Options (also by SamSamTS - link) to be a better starting point (I'm a web developer by 'nature', and Unity's approach to user controls left me scratching my head on more than one occasion).

[madtony26 38]

^ Thanks for the suggestion, Judazzz. I would definitely be up for using tools created by other developers, especially if they work well and give a better user experience. I will give this a shot and let you know when I get past this current road block.

[Marcia Cemin 0]

I could not use this mod. Can someone please help me?

[madtony26 38]

16 hours ago, Marcia Cemin said:

I could not use this mod. Can someone please help me?

The mod has not been "officially" released, so you won't see it on the workshop yet. It is open source, and the progress so far can be seen at https://github.com/madtony26/TreeMapper

[boformer 3,169]

How are you compiling your mod? Visual Studio?

Make sure that .NET Framework 3.5 is selected in the compiler options.

[madtony26 38]

5 hours ago, boformer said:

How are you compiling your mod? Visual Studio?

Make sure that .NET Framework 3.5 is selected in the compiler options.

^ That was it.. Danke, boformer!

I am compiling in Mono, but switched to 3.5 and it started working again. I should be able to move forward again.

[Macronomicus 128]

14 hours ago, madtony26 said:

^ That was it.. Danke, boformer!

I am compiling in Mono, but switched to 3.5 and it started working again. I should be able to move forward again.

Yay! this mod is uber exciting!

Oh and thats interesting about mono, I hadnt realized there were other ways to compile, I must look into the mono thing too.

[madtony26 38]

32 minutes ago, Macronomicus said:

Yay! this mod is uber exciting!

Oh and thats interesting about mono, I hadnt realized there were other ways to compile, I must look into the mono thing too.

I've been meaning to get VS 2015 Community working, but haven't gotten around to it yet. In the meantime, Mono has been good enough for a small application like the one I'm developing. Mono is very similar to visual studio, but it will also allow you to build for multiple platforms including windows, android, and ios (yes, you can use mono to write ios apps in c#, but need a mac to compile)

[Macronomicus 128]

Very interesting, ive just been reading up on it, would you say either one has better command line functionality than the other?  I've tinkered with VS 2015 a bit, but ill give Mono a whirl at some point too, one of the main reasons im getting into modding this game is I want to learn c# in fun ways. 

10 hours ago, madtony26 said:

I've been meaning to get VS 2015 Community working, but haven't gotten around to it yet. In the meantime, Mono has been good enough for a small application like the one I'm developing. Mono is very similar to visual studio, but it will also allow you to build for multiple platforms including windows, android, and ios (yes, you can use mono to write ios apps in c#, but need a mac to compile)

 

[boformer 3,169]

It does not really matter which IDE you use. All of them are outputting dlls which can be executed by mono on Windows, Linux and OSX (the game uses a .NET 3.5 compatible mono runtime).

Both can compile unsafe code, which is important for the detour technology.

The game itself can also compile mods. You just have to place the cs files in the Source directory inside the mod directory. It also uses a mono compiler with unsafe code disabled.

Personally I'm using VS with ReSharper. It provides a lot of useful hints, code autogeneration and the newest C# features.

[Judazzz 1,936]

I use Visual Studio 2015 Community - which doesn't seem to look/function much different compared to the Enterprise version I use at work, at least not within the scope of mod building - but with a heavy heart I had to get rid of ReSharper once the trial ran out (I really love it, but I'm not going to cough up hundreds of bucks for what essentially is a hobby project for me - same why I use Community instead of Enterprise).
Getting set up was easy enough, btw: after the setup was complete it took about 15 minutes to get C:SL solutions up and running, including the Colossal/Unity assemblies and outputting the compiled code to the local mod folder.

[Macronomicus 128]

Thanks for the insights guys, the VS ide is rather nice, I like how it can be tailored for c#. 

I only ask because I tend to like command line quickness, truthfully ive been spoiled by the Drupal community which has tons of its own CLI goodness, its quite handy

[Judazzz 1,936]

Well, if you really miss the CLI, you can always install the Git Command Line tool  

[Macronomicus 128]

3 hours ago, Judazzz said:

Well, if you really miss the CLI, you can always install the Git Command Line tool  

oh yea, i love it! git-bash is great, I use it all the time in developing websites, I use git & other tools to version control my drupal websites, instance & branch them etc etc.    Windows command line is not so bad anymore either, but I still prefer linux cli because im much more familiar, at least from a server version that is, not so much desktop.