What trees should I use? Please help!

[Guest]

I made myself a private airstrip near my home town in a somewhat wooded area. I really wanted some fairly close proximity trees to the runways and such. After using the exclude areas (using Airport 2.6) the autogen trees receeded quite far away. I tried everything to get them to come a little closer, and right now my exclude areas share the same borders as the runways themselves, and the default trees are still about a half a mile from where I want them. I decided to go ahead and add in my own trees to fill in the treeless areas. My problem here however, is that I havent been able to find any tree macros that blend in with the defaults. The defaults are quite dark and everything I have tried appears quite bright in comparrison. The closest I have found are Gerrish's 1 poly rotating tree macros, but they are still to bright, and for some reason, they through all hours of the day, they retain their day time ambience. Simply put, they look like they have spot lights on them, they are BRIGHT at night. Can anyone suggest a good tree macro that blends in with the defaults?Thanks in advance to all,Ian Grant

[Guest odog]

i have trees in bgl format but not in api, theyre made in gmax. you could easily convert them to api. these are garrish's wonderful textures applied to my clunky gmax models.if you have gmax this is easy, if not ill give you the models but you have to get the texs.

[Guest JR Morgan]

Hello Ian. If you'd care to share the exact Lat & Lon of your new runway's center and it's magnetic heading, I'd like to have a go at seeing what could be done to preserve all the autogen trees possible. This would minimize the number of add-on trees you'd need.'Regards; J.R.

[Guest]

That would be great. Would you like the Airport .apt file? It is only 28k. I have a few addon macros that might cause some errors when loading, but that way you could be really hands on about it. Otherwise, Ill just take a screen shot and overlay the Lats and Lons over it so you get a good picture of it. there are two intersecting runways with some other things tucked in the corner of the intersection. I didnt mean for my little airport to get so involved lol. Ill post the screenshot here tommorrow, and let me know if you want the apt, or the bgl files. Thanks for being so willing to help.Ian Grant

[Guest GerrishGray]

Hi IanI do not understand what your are saying about my trees. During the day, they are shaded in response to the angle of the sun and get progressively darker as the afternoon wears on. At night they are more or less pitch black (like any dark-coloured object not supplied with an _lm night texture). On my own machine they look fine, and there is certainly no sign of any 'light' effect nor any brightness at night. I must be missing something. We need to get to the bottom of your problem, and I would also like to know if anyone else has seen the same things?Are you using the section 10 object library as supplied and unaltered, with its original textures? There are many sceneries available that use these trees; all look fine to me and nobody has previously mentioned the strange lighting effects that you seem to be getting - but I can only go on those kind enough to give me feedback. The only things that I can immediately think of are[ul][li]perhaps some graphics cards have a problem with the 'Bmp2000' format extended bitmaps used for these textures?[/li][li]have you tried to convert the textures to DXT format using imagetool.exe - because that tends to make a complete mess of them and can indeed introduce bright lights at night as a result of something odd about its mip-creation algorithm.[/li][/ul]Perhaps you could kindly e-mail me direct with some further details and, perhaps, screenshots.Kind RegardsGerrishWimborne, Dorset, UKgerrish@flightsims.co.uk

[Guest odog]

hi Gerrish,sorry i spelled your name wrong...I love your trees, the best add on ive found, keep up the good work! I have no complaints, the underbrush feature really adds alot. Do you have plans for any new textures?odog

[Guest GerrishGray]

Hi JoeI've added your details to my mailing list to keep you posted on future developments ... (always happy to do that for anybody).The trees that Ian is referring to are not the Autogen replacements but an object library I made for FS2000 scenery design (it works with FS2002 too).Kind RegradsGerrish

[Guest]

Hi all, Something I should clear up is that the trees that I ended up using that are giving me the afore mentioned problems are in fact, not Gerrish's trees after all. I belive I got the zip file they came from confused with a different one. I just wanted to clear that up with everyone, and especially Gerrish. Sorry for the confusion. :-rollIan Grant

[Guest GerrishGray]

Hi IanThanks for clearing that up ... you had me worried! A correct and up-to-date copy of the Trees Object Library, complete with SDK, is winging it's way to you by separate e-mail.Good luck with the scenery - I'll look forward to seeing it here in the AVSIM library.Kind RegardsGerrish

[spotlope 0]

Hi Gerrish! Can I ask two things -- first, can you put me on your mailing list for future developments? And secondly, can I get that up-to-date copy of the trees object library as well?Much obliged,Bill Womack

[Guest JR Morgan]

Hi again Ian.. No, just the Lat/Lon, the Length and Headings of your runways is all I would need at first. Then, in seeing how much autogen can be retained with your basic runways configured, you can see and work-with the impact the other add-on objects contribute to loss of autogen. Sorry I'm late getting to post today --- today is yard work day :-(.J.R.

[Guest GerrishGray]

Hi BillSend me an e-mail direct to gerrish@flightsims.co.uk to register for the mailing list and future updates (applies to anyone else reading this too).I'll also send you the correct library .bgl and a new SDK for the Trees Library (as previously sent to all registered users).Kind RegardsGerrish