February 27th, 2020 – Development Update

[Dominique_K 10,151]

Just now, Nedo68 said:

If i only could!!! 😷

And don't you leave us 😉 ! 

[ual763 361]

6 hours ago, Shack95 said:

Yeah ok, but in my book those trees seem out of place nontheless. It should look more like this:

I'm not worried at all though as it's still in alpha and the trees will surely be adjusted.

Agreed!  This particular picture (no offense to the team) looks more like the Pacific Northwest rather than south Florida.  The trees are also gigantic in this picture, making many of the single family homes appear flat.  This may be accurate sizing for giant sequoias of the Pacific Northwest, but SE Florida doesn’t have pine trees like this. The majority in SE Florida are deciduous trees such as the live oak/mahogany.  In addition to the deciduous, palms are obviously also extremely numerous.  Central/Northern Florida on the other hand, does have numerous conifer types inland, mainly ugly pine types such as the Longleaf Pine.  The areas 5-10 miles from the coastline are mostly deciduous/palms.

I too, would agree that any “default” tree east of the Rockies should be deciduous. Whereas west of the Rockies should be coniferous.  
 

Hopeful & confident this will be sorted before release.

Great shots otherwise!

Edited March 2, 2020 by ual763

[sightseer 895]

1 hour ago, ual763 said:

 Central/Northern Florida on the other hand, does have numerous conifer types inland, mainly ugly pine types such as the Longleaf Pine.  

Hey!  Longleaf pines are beautiful!  really cool, tall, scraggly things that let you know the beach is near. 🙂

Edited March 2, 2020 by sightseer

[188AHC 2,138]

That was my point. Miami sits at the edge off the Everglades and the tallest trees you will see there are palms and cypress.

I've flown in and out of KMIA a number of times and it doesn't look like the original pic. This last pic is much more realistic.

 

[Casualcas 830]

6 hours ago, ual763 said:

.too, would agree that any “default” tree east of the Rockies should be deciduous. Whereas west of the Rockies should be coniferous.  
!

And northern states evergreen and southern palms, or actually,  northern northern states evergreen and southern part of states deciduous except where they transplanted the trees that weren't actually native to the states.  

In other words, they'll get there.  That's why I like Michigan, cause it's so diverse 

Edited March 3, 2020 by Casualcas

[188AHC 2,138]

We do have conifers in the entire state of Florida. But not spruce, Hemlock, or scotch pine. 

However, the original picture used the wrong trees in the wrong place. 

[Shug 210]

9 hours ago, Casualcas said:

Yeah, wait, next they'll say the kangaroos look more like a wallaby's

As long as they don't confuse a European swallow and an African one 😉

[GlideBy 324]

Maybe they just need to train the AI more.  But I would think it could do a decent job by looking at the photo, cross checking with location, and using common tree types for that area.  And for tree height they can use shadow data, and/or pull from the standard heights for the tree type.

[Paraffin 2,197]

It should be noted that there are many invasive or wrongly-planted trees in the Miami area, like Australian Pine and Melaleuca, both of which very common within the urban area and can grow very tall. That will be a challenge for AI recognition if it's only based on native plant species.

[sightseer 895]

since we seem to be a vegetation kick...I hope they include Saguaro Cactus and Joshua Trees.

[ual763 361]

3 hours ago, Paraffin said:

It should be noted that there are many invasive or wrongly-planted trees in the Miami area, like Australian Pine and Melaleuca, both of which very common within the urban area and can grow very tall. That will be a challenge for AI recognition if it's only based on native plant species.

I realize that, but the vast majority are not pines.  I’m not asking them to model hundreds of different types of flora.  Rather a few of the main types for which data is available.  Miami should not look like coastal Oregon/Washington state.  If ORBX can make Florida look believable, I have no doubt ASOBO can as well.  
 

P.S. - Although I will say the Melaleuca, does look like local vegetation.  I’d be happy with that.  Kind of looks like a large Ficus or Live Oak.  But the giant Sequoias are way out of place!

Edited March 4, 2020 by ual763

[ual763 361]

32 minutes ago, sightseer said:

since we seem to be a vegetation kick...I hope they include Saguaro Cactus and Joshua Trees.

Would be really cool in the southwestern US and Mexico!  Sign me up!

Edited March 4, 2020 by ual763

[Amon1973 1,421]

35 minutes ago, sightseer said:

since we seem to be a vegetation kick...I hope they include Saguaro Cactus and Joshua Trees.

That would be bring a superb immersion to the sim, I might be wrong, but I don't think other sim have Cactus etc?

[Amon1973 1,421]

3 hours ago, Paraffin said:

It should be noted that there are many invasive or wrongly-planted trees in the Miami area, like Australian Pine and Melaleuca, both of which very common within the urban area and can grow very tall. That will be a challenge for AI recognition if it's only based on native plant species.

Equally Palm trees are planted in the odd places in the UK, we certainly wouldn't want the AI to place Palm trees where they're not a native species. 

[Anthracite 131]

35 minutes ago, eaim said:

Equally Palm trees are planted in the odd places in the UK, we certainly wouldn't want the AI to place Palm trees where they're not a native species. 

Yeah gotta have lots of Cornish palm in Cornwall though. I grew up in a place with loads of those.