Flora Blasting?

[Propfam 2,288]

Hello,

I've seen @CorinaMarie recommends "flora blast" cheat code to cover city tiles with floras. How does it work? How I can use it?

Thanks.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

Here's some info on it:

On 18/12/2017 at 12:30 AM, Cyclone Boom said:

Quite a useful little trick I've learned is the "Flora Blast" command. This allows trees to be planted in batch with a set coverage radius and density, and is included in the game without even needing the Extra Cheats DLL. For example, the following will completely fill a tile with the Maxis flora brush:

flora blast 3000 3000 3000

Open the command box (Ctrl+X), enter the command and press Enter.

The 3 numerical options to adjust the density are:

<Center Count> <Outside Count> <Coverage Radius>

Depending on the size of the city tile and your system, it may hang for around 30 seconds to 1 minute while the trees are planted in the background.

Here's a preview using the above (3000 x3) on a large tile, showing the pines and shrubs on higher elevations:

It's still quite an arduous task to cover an entire region, but this can be a useful timesaver while ensuring consistency.

On 26/06/2018 at 9:40 PM, Cyclone Boom said:

For this I recommend using the Flora Blast command which allows planting them automatically.

The big advantage here is it really saves a lot of time over using the regular God Mode brush tool. Once entering the command containing the 3 parameters, it will mass plant them throughout the tile. Depending on the strength and coverage radius, this can take between 10-30 seconds. These would be the regular trees though I believe, but it may also plant a custom controller should that modify the flora from the default brush.

 

But do be careful and don't use it in an already developed city tile. It'll plant trees in a variety of places like airport runways, farms, parking lots, and so on.

 

And a pic by CB:

And a few more pics showing a flora blasted city:

 

[Prophet42 1,501]

Looks like an episode of 'Life After People'

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

Does this cheat work with custom god mode flora mods (or could it be made to work with some additional trick)? I don't want to prematurely damage more computer mice left click buttons and spend 5 minutes per tile/city district applying one of the most elaborate forest mods ever made for the game, the CPT Meadowshire Forest.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

5 minutes ago, Dragonxander said:

Does this cheat work with custom god mode flora mods (or could it be made to work with some additional trick)?

I've only ever tried it with Maxis trees, but you could easily create a test region and give it a try. Then let us know so we'd all have the answer.

[rsc204 21,808]

I tired it a few times with Cascadia installed, although it did appear to freeze and be doing something, no actual trees/flora were planted. So I'm guessing it's something that only works with the Maxis trees.

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

I have a successful test with the CPT Meadowshire forest mod, I also tested with different numbers for the tree number at center and at edge. So far I got good results with 4096 trees at  the center and at the edge of the flora blast area, I also tested 9999 trees at those spots but the game would take a lot longer to do the trick, while at the end the resulting tree density was the same. One disclaimer: I was working on city tiles that were approximately half-water, half-land. Will test the cheat on a large tile made entirely of land tomorrow.

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

1 hour ago, Dragonxander said:

I have a successful test with the CPT Meadowshire forest mod, I also tested with different numbers for the tree number at center and at edge.

Nicely done. Thanks for posting your findings.

Based on this and the observation @rsc204 made above, it sounds like blasting may only function for those mods which directly replace Maxis flora with the same IIDs (possibly what Meadowshire does). The thing is, since then the default oaks, pines, and shrubs would be overridden by the custom variants. I'm personally no expert on the inner-workings of tree controllers myself, and at present only use the Maxis trees. Though speculating here, perhaps some use a method of adding new separate instances to the flora brush. Therefore when a blast is attempted, it goes through the process (hence the pause), but doesn't know what to plant once the area is scouted.

 

1 hour ago, Dragonxander said:

One disclaimer: I was working on city tiles that were approximately half-water, half-land.

From my own experience of flora blasting my 12x12 region with 400 400 400, I found how it was completed quicker for those tiles containing a higher surface area of water. Some of which there were just a few islands it was almost instantaneous. Whereas those tiles completely landlocked took considerably longer. Along with water, another possible factor could be the extent of cliffs which don't support trees. Or for a developed city, the occupied areas (roads, buildings, etc) where flora cannot be planted.

I think what may happen is the game tries to plant them accordingly as per the defined coverage radius and strength. It does its best for what is possible. However should there be anywhere which doesn't allow flora like water, it instantly skips these. Then to fill those areas available, the time taken depends on the command's density as set. Where in the case of a widespread and dense cluster of trees, it involves trying to fit in as many as possible for the count as specified.

[rsc204 21,808]

12 hours ago, Cyclone Boom said:

it sounds like blasting may only function for those mods which directly replace Maxis flora with the same IIDs (possibly what Meadowshire does). The thing is, since then the default oaks, pines, and shrubs would be overridden by the custom variants.

This does hold up in many ways. If I understand it correctly, when making a tree controller you must still have the Maxis flora (IDs) as exemplars. Logically if you were making a non-seasonal controller, the simplest solution is to re-use the Maxis IDs for your own trees, overridding the originals. However, this would not be possible with a seasonal tree controller, because of the issue with overriding RTK1 with RTK4 props (Prop Pox). My understanding is that in such cases the Maxis IDs are overridden with Null Keys, where the exemplars link to no actual models, but technically are still there.

Quote

Though speculating here, perhaps some use a method of adding new separate instances to the flora brush. Therefore when a blast is attempted, it goes through the process (hence the pause), but doesn't know what to plant once the area is scouted.

If I've got things correct, what's being planted are simply the blank or non-existent props when this command is run. Although I'm sure one of those with better knowledge of the inner workings of tree controllers could be more definite.

[Duco 546]

I use the Central European Tree controller, and there is no effect. First I thought: Hmmmmmm, so it don't work

 Now I have read this all, I think: Hmmmmmmmm, so it don't work.

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

I'm here to report success with flora blasting the CPT Meadowshire Forest mod in a city tile that's made (just about) entirely of land!

 

Before...

 

After!!!

 

Took 1min, 43s to complete, then a few more minutes for touch-up on the areas that weren't as thoroughly coated. This was using 4000 in all the cheat's values.

[ohdude 2,353]

I think that with this cheat what you can do if you don't want to wait to much and keep active is applying it by 200 in 200.

For example:

ctrl + x : flora blast 200 200 200.  It only will take 4-5 seconds. This won't add much trees but you can try again if you don't feel satisfied.

So again:

ctrl + x : flora blast 200 200 200, and again: ctrl + x : flora blast 200 200 200, and again: ctrl + x : flora blast 200 200 200...... until you feel tree satisfyed

To me 4-5 times is enough.

Good luck!

 

[Daeris 1,116]

@CorinaMarie Apologies on bringing back an old thread, but I think I'm going to make the jump over to a new region and this time I want to flora blast it all first! =p (I also think I might go back to Maxis trees instead of Monkey Water Always Green TC).

Anywho, just wondering if you have a preferred amount you like to put for the input values. I think I'm leaning towards maybe flora blast 500 500 500 or maybe 600 600 600.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

No worries on the bumping. You are on topic so all is well. And I go insane with mine: flora blast 5000 5000 5000

I like my forests as if they've been growing for a million years before my Sims arrive.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

9 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

flora blast 5000 5000 5000

Wow, I never went past 3000. How high does it go?

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

4 hours ago, SIM-ple Jack said:

Wow, I never went past 3000. How high does it go?

I've no idea. 5000 itself is prolly overkill and I've never tried higher. My guess would be 32,767 based on the possible numeric data type.

[Daeris 1,116]

I've noticed a few strange discrepancies/differences with flora blast, but I can't quite put my finger on what I'm noticing yet.

Basically, sometimes using flora blast, it will create some pockets of different trees at different elevations (which is fine, I like this) - however - in the next tile over (which has generally the same elevation), it doesn't create the same type of pockets of trees. On some areas, I've noticed it would only produce little bushes on higher elevation, but then if I would flora blast again, it would then begin to put actual trees in the same spots where there were only bushes.

I am hoping to figure this out, because I prefer the look of the pockets of denser forest in some of the tiles. I'll try to share some pics to demonstrate the discrepancies that I'm seeing.

To preface, I'm using Maxis standard trees here, and using Flora Blast 999 999 999.

 

^From the region view here, you can see the tile in the middle (above my cursor, and north of the river) produced some green trees on the lower elevation. and some pockets of denser forest along the ridges of the mountain. However, also on the mountain is a big chunk of just little bushy guys. In the city-tile to the west of the aforementioned tile, you can see it's pretty much the same elevation (and perhaps ascending more), however with the same flora blast command it ended up only producing a mix of green trees and denser dark green trees on the higher elevation (this is the look I prefer).

^Here is a close-up of the look I prefer (the left-center tile from the region pic above). You can see the green trees primarily in lower elevation, and the pockets of darker green trees in some spots in higher elevation. I like how natural this looks from above, so I'm trying to continue achieving this look (again this was standard Maxis trees at Flora Blast 999 999 999)

^This is a new/different tile, but similar elevations as seen in other tiles. However you can see the bushes I'm talking about here. You can see it goes from green trees, to the darker green trees, to then little bushes. For me personally, I think this is a bit too bushy for me. When I flora blast again, it actually does start to put more of the lighter green trees in the higher elevation spots.

 

^Another example of the look I prefer. I like it going from the green trees to darker trees, with minimal bush spots. But I'm simply not understanding why some tiles produce this look above, and others produce bushes, and then - further yet - I have other tiles that are now just producing the light green trees (no darker green pockets) even though those said tiles also have elevations that are basically identical to the tiles that are producing the darker green forest pockets.

 

So I'm a bit confused at understanding how to achieve the look I like. Has anyone else seen discrepancies like this? In theory, shouldn't the same flora blast command (999 999 999) in my case also create the same type of looks in other tiles that have similar elevation change? Why would it create dark green forest pockets in some tiles, but not others? Why would it create bushes in some tiles, but not others? Why only light green trees in some tiles, not others (again, same elevational fluctuations).

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

While I'm not an expert at the tree parameters, I believe what might be happening is random natural variation that the flora parameters provide. How the pine trees which are the greener type, appear at certain elevations depending on moisture cycles. Then this way explaining the fluctuations you've observed, and not repeatable consistency between tiles. I suppose Maxis made it this way to create disparities between similar terrain elevations.

There is an article which @11241036 wrote which explains into detail about tree controllers for ways to alter various things:
 

It does get rather (actually very) technical, but there seems potential to customise options depending on personal preference.

Also as linked in the guide, there is a mod Cori made which enables the unused moisture view.

As follows:

 

We've still not been able to find a direct usefulness of the moisture levels, as the correlations appear to be variable for how the data is. But that's not to say there isn't a useful use for how it might explain things in certain scenarios. There are still lots of pretty colours anyhow.

Maybe people who are familiar with tree controllers might be able to explain for what to adjust specifically with those for what you'd like.

[Daeris 1,116]

10 minutes ago, Cyclone Boom said:

Also as linked in the guide, there is a mod Cori made which enables the unused moisture view.

Oh I'll snag this just to see if there is perhaps a correlation somehow. I might use this for some in-game decision-making from an RP perspective as well (where the most fertile land is for example).

EDIT: Oh you know what though, I'm already using Cori's special Abandoned Building dataview (to completely remove trees), which also replaces Radiation dataview, so not sure I can use both of these at the same time. I definitely find the tree removal dataview SUPER useful so I'll be keeping that for sure.

[Daeris 1,116]

Updates: Still not sure what is causing it (like @Cyclone Boom said, perhaps it is random variance of a degree). That said, I guess I've kinda figured out a workaround for now.

^This was after doing Flora Blast 999 999 999.

^Then I save and left the city-tile, and re-entered, did another Flora Blast 999 999 999, and got the light green trees. This I like the look of (the bushes are actually under all the new light green trees from what I'm seeing). Then I just tried the process again in another tile, and the results were the same (pics below).

 

^Flora Blast 999 999 999 on the first time visiting the tile. Saved and exited.

^Flora Blast 999 999 999 on the 2nd time immediately revisiting the tile.

EDIT: I noticed if I didn't leave the tile (on one occasion), it actually just flora blasted in more bushes in the spots that already had bushes. Hence why I left and returned and then got these results.

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

@Daeris

Looks great you've found a way with the trees!

I noticed your edit:

1 hour ago, Daeris said:

EDIT: Oh you know what though, I'm already using Cori's special Abandoned Building dataview (to completely remove trees), which also replaces Radiation dataview, so not sure I can use both of these at the same time. I definitely find the tree removal dataview SUPER useful so I'll be keeping that for sure.

I've whipped one up specially for you (or anyone) so it replaces the Power data view instead:

Power View as Moisture v1.1 - by CoriBoom.dat
(92.94% created by Cori with 7.06% Boom.)

All functionality is preserved as the STEX version.

Just use this instead, and I tested to confirm it works combined with Cori's Abandoned view too.

[Daeris 1,116]

30 minutes ago, Cyclone Boom said:

I've whipped one up specially for you (or anyone) so it replaces the Power data view instead:

Awesome, thanks so much @Cyclone Boom!

[11241036 5,097]

There is an interesting discussion going on here. Unfortunately, I can't provide you with some insight or information on what's going on, but in the last week, I happened to make some experiments with the default Maxis TC and I experienced the same behaviour daeris mentioned (albeit without using flora blast): Sometimes, when using the TC at the same spot, the result is different every time I do this.

From my knowledge, brushes (terminology for a specific flora combination) are dependant on altitude and moisture. We can rule altitude out because it always stays the same. Unfortunately I do not understand exactly how this whole moisture thingy is working, but I found on the Internet that moisture depends on: Orientation of the hillside, proximity to the sea, month of the year, and intensity of the slope. Maybe daytime also plays a role?

During my examination of the Maxis TC, I only found that the values at the FloraPreferences property are pretty confusing, but I didn't make extensive testing, especially because I'm having a hard time figuring out how to perform tests in order to find evidence for any hypothesis whatsoever. I also found something interesting: Usually, a tree brush is only active on one slot (= one altitude-moisture combination), and I'm only using values 0 or 1 to activate/deactivate a brush, but Maxis interestingly uses values such as 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 and so on, and sometimes, there seem to be several brushes active per slot. Perhaps this plays more of a role than I initially thought, I've already been thinking that a value of 0.2 means that a certain brush has a 20% chance to become active; but sadly, I haven't been able to learn more about this so far.

I'll try to do some testing the next days on this matter, just out of interest, but so far, I can't tell you more.

[Daeris 1,116]

42 minutes ago, 11241036 said:

I'll try to do some testing the next days on this matter, just out of interest, but so far, I can't tell you more.

Let me know if I can help in any way. After further testing myself (wouldn't really call it testing, just more gameplay) I would say I'm definitely noticing some patterns with flora blast and the Maxis TC... enough to say I personally don't think it's random. There is something that seems to be going on when I leave a tile and when I come back (even if basically no time has passed in-game). This might sound strange, but I think perhaps when I alt-tabbed out of SimCity 4 and then came back, flora blast was then producing different results (can't fully verify, would need to test this more), and then when I'd exit the game and restart, the flora blast would then produce the results I preferred (pockets of denser forest). Are there seed number generations of any kind going on?

[Daeris 1,116]

Well the mystery most certainly continues, but I can say alt-tab definitely did something in my experience. I'll try to explain what I experienced.
 

I just started SimCity 4 back up, went back in to do more flora blasting. All tiles in my region had been given a once-over with the flora blast, to create the regular forest and the denser dark green forests, and the bushes at higher elevation. So now I was going to go back in and give them a 2nd pass of the flora blast to add trees in the high-elevation bushy spots (since I don't prefer the bushes, and giving it a 2nd pass worked for me earlier).

^Went into this tile to give it the second Flora Blast 999 999 999, and all it did was end up just adding maybe a little more of everything that was already there (AKA basically just more bushes in the spots that already had bushes). I left the tile, came back, tried again, and still the same result. My earlier trick wasn't working any longer.... so then I alt-tabbed to test that out....

 

^After alt-tabbing out, then coming back into SimCity 4, I did another Flora Blast 999 999 999 on this same tile, and BOOM, this time the trick worked and it now adds the light green deciduous trees on the high elevation (on top of the little bushy guys).

 

So, can't say I really understand what is occurring yet, but just providing some (hopefully helpful) information for others.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

@Daeris

This may or may not be what you'll like: Maxis Oak, Pine, and Scrub Settings - Tweaked by Cori - v0.01.dat

Before:

 

After:

 

You can drop the file in your Plugins and it'll override the default settings. Because it is adjustments to existing exemplars, there's no worries about CTD adding or removing it at any time providing you continue with Maxis trees.

To use in your existing treed tiles, enter the tile, do Ctrl+x, flora off, Ctrl+x, flora on, Ctrl+x, flora blast (with the numbers you like).

 

Additionally, I've included tweaks to the Oak Trees I made for myself several months ago.

Before:

^ There were lots of places like this the trees simply would not go.
 

After:

 

Before:

 

After:

 

CB has tested too and we both feel I might've gone too far with the Pines forcing out the Scrub Brush, but we'll let you test to see how you feel about it. Stay tuned to this thread for his comparison pics.

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

7 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Stay tuned to this thread for his comparison pics.

/me wanders into the thread (while dramatic entrance music plays) to present his comparison...

 

It's really cool Cori how you figured this out in the terrain properties. The neat thing here is the levels are able to be adjusted to our own preferences. Cori tells me how this is a little tedious to do from the editing side, but I've an idea for a spreadsheet which might help make the task quicker to adjust the parameters.

Either way it shows how upon the re-planting of trees and they do adhere to the newly set values.

[Daeris 1,116]

23 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

This may or may not be what you'll like: Maxis Oak, Pine, and Scrub Settings - Tweaked by Cori - v0.01.dat

@CorinaMarie @Cyclone Boom You two are the absolute best! At first glance I think that looks pretty darn good! The more I see the Maxis trees again (after using another TC) I'm enjoying the variation at different elevations (sans those high-elevation scrubby bushes), so yeah I think I will plop this in the plugins.

I don't think I'll mind the pines at the higher elevation, but I do think that may be perhaps a bit too much tree on the sandy beach area. Do you think that would be a simple edit on my end? If so, I'll gladly make it (perhaps with a nudge of help from you, lol... plz?).  It's about time I try to tweak some stuff on my own (usually I'm just a scaredy-cat). 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

5 minutes ago, Daeris said:

I do think that may be perhaps a bit too much tree on the sandy beach area.

Ofc, that was deliberate for my preferences, but yes, it can be tweaked. How comfy are you with Reader?

What I did was copy out all 256 reps which @11241036 shows in their tutorial, pasted them in N++, added a new line after each 16, and then tweaked the numbers. To paste them back into Reader, I then removed the LF/CRs. All per group (Oak, Pines, and Scrub) are the same for each of the 5 exemplars for each set.

Here's how it looks with the Maxis settings and chopped into 16 rep lines:

Pine Tree Clump 1 - Maxis Settings - 0x6534284A-E83E0437-2A0C8312
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1.000000,0.800000,0.600000,0.400000,0.200000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,
1.000000,1.000000,0.800000,0.600000,0.400000,0.200000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,
1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,0.800000,0.600000,0.400000,0.200000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,
1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,0.800000,0.600000,0.400000,0.200000,0.000000,0.000000,
1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,0.800000,0.600000,0.400000,0.200000,0.000000,0.000000,
1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,0.800000,0.600000,0.400000,0.200000,0.000000,
1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,0.800000,0.600000,0.400000,0.200000,0.000000,
1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,0.800000,0.600000,0.400000,0.200000,0.000000,
1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,0.800000,0.600000,0.400000,
0.600000,0.800000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,0.800000,
0.400000,0.600000,0.800000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,0.800000,
0.000000,0.200000,0.400000,0.600000,0.800000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,0.800000,
0.000000,0.000000,0.200000,0.400000,0.600000,0.800000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,
0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.200000,0.400000,0.600000,0.800000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,
0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.200000,0.400000,0.600000,0.800000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,
0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000,0.200000,0.400000,0.600000,0.800000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

So, it's just a matter of tweaking the numbers how you want them.

 

Spoiler

Ofc, I based the idea on what I've seen in real life. Here's a sample pic I found online:

 

[Daeris 1,116]

12 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

How comfy are you with Reader?

Haha, I have the .dat open in Reader but that's about the extend of my comfort level. I have a ways to go before I decipher what it all means. 

 

12 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

What I did was copy out all 256 reps which @11241036 shows in their tutorial, pasted them in N++, added a new line after each 16, and then tweaked the numbers. To paste them back into Reader, I then removed the LF/CRs. All per group (Oak, Pines, and Scrub) are the same for each of the 5 exemplars for each set.

Here's how it looks with the Maxis settings and chopped into 16 rep lines:

I think I'll need to reference @11241036's tutorial and work to understand everything a bit more before I can make the changes myself. Most of what you said there unfortunately went over my head.  

 

12 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Ofc, I based the idea on what I've seen in real life. Here's a sample pic I found online:

Haha, touche touche! The more I looked at the beachy trees the more I think I liked how much more green and lively it made that little island.