Well, up until recently I've relied pretty much on using autogen trees for my scenery areas. These have worked marvelously to fill in large sections. However, now that I'm into placing my custom GMAX buildings, which are often riding on top of a large plane of high-res photo textured ground, I'm finding my autogen of all kinds doesn't pop up in those areas. That certainly isn't a surprise.When I began this project I started experimenting with lots of different ways to add in things such as freeware objects and trees and they look wonderful. I've got hot air ballons from Rwy12 flying over the valley, custom palm trees lining streets and suddenly, after deciding to release a payware version of my work, it hits me. Most freeware addons can't be used for commercial distribution. So here's my dilemna and question:It seems I have two options, create any and all objects myself which involves reinventing the wheel over and over or find other sources for those objects that have no license restrictions. Obviously, if it exists within FS, it should be perfectly fine to place and use as the end user would already be licensed for the object's use. With the ones I know about I can put in wonderful renditions of a fast food restaurant with a giant chicken on the sign, a space shuttle launch pad, etc. But, how about trees? The textures must be available in the app (I haven't looked yet) but the models to apply those textures to I'm guessing I have to build anew. How have other commercial designers handled this in the past? What's Microsoft's take on using their included objects? Thanks,Art

If Microsoft in the future would allow a designer to create a series of 5 GMAX tree BGL's, one for each of the 5 "seasons" .e.g. In the spring only the spring bgl (with spring textures) would run. That would give someone complete design control over tree density and type. The scenery folder would have 5 tree bgls, but only the "proper" one would run. FS9 changes textures with time of day, Why not time of year? Just a thought.Bill Gates...are you listening?:-violin

Hi Art,I'm not a commercial designer, but you could use my TreePlanter program available in the Avsim library.George

Great idea, John. Just to elaborate a little further. Seasons in the world are somewhat more complex than the 4 or 5 that you experience. In most of the tropical world (the greater part of the world), seasons come in basically 2 variants, dry and wet. Many times, these two seasons are repeated a few times, 2 dry and 2 wet seasons in the year, but not always. Plus, one must take into account the variability of the monsoons, sometimes very, very wet and sometimes barely humid.Vegetation, and therefore land cover, and therefore ground textures, are highly dependant on this cycle of humidity. But, that is not all.Seasonal variations also directly depend on altitude. Lowland coastal areas do not experience anything like the same seasons as mountainous regions. And there is great variability at different altitudes. Plus, one must take into account the rainfall index for different altitude regions. This has a great effect on vegetation.So, it is not simply a matter of increasing the variety of trees. In addition, the seasons bgl needs to be re-worked. And so does the regions bgl, in order to allow more detailed representation of the world.But, then this is a computer game and for our purposes, is already pretty detailed. Also, the FS Team is excessively ambitious, and it is probably better not to give them too many new ideas - they are quite capable of attempting to put them into effect!By the way, Steve Ballmer is the real boss at Microbland, not Bill.Best regards.Luis

Thanks George.

Hi Art,My tree library is also available (and can be used in commercial scenery if you want). It is just a simple set of trees I made with the default tree textures.

>So, it is not simply a matter of increasing the variety of>trees. In addition, the seasons bgl needs to be re-worked. And>so does the regions bgl, in order to allow more detailed>representation of the world.As Luis says, there are a lot of variables in the seasonal change. But it would already help a lot if the 6F8 variable would match the seasons of the mesh scenery for the location you are at. Unfortunately that is not the case, so to get a better seasonal change you will have to tweak your model using day of the year variable to match the mesh in that specific location.

Thanks Arno.

Ha...I have heard that Steve Ballmer is the prototypical hardnosed operational guy who once screamed so loudly at his people that he damaged his vocal cords.

George,Without vegatation, flight sims are somewhat sterile. Your treeplanter program uses existing resources to dress the landscape up. Your TreePlanter program is a sleeper among addons. Thanks for your contribution to the hobby. I used it in developing my recently uploaded Olathe, KS scenery.

Hi GeorgeI have just started using your TreePlanter program and it is very well thought out and I am having fun being an arborist!I have a question re your copse feature. I have created a file of a string of 10 trees, which I want to be able to place at different locations in my CYVR scenery, eg in multiple lengths along the centre of a boulevard. I have followed your instructions and have created the first string of 10 trees, but they are at the wrong heading, they do not line up with the centre-line of the boulevard. So I figured I would just edit the "heading" entry within the XML file, but I find that each tree has a different heading! How can I swing the line of trees round into the correct heading?regardsNigelVancouver

Hi Nigel,The headings for each tree differs slightly as explained by GianP. To align the trees you would need to change the positions of each tree.In England, a copse is a random placement of trees which is how I have implemented it.If you are using photographic scenery, perhaps you might like to try AGenT by Lars Hoyer. This can place xml objects onto the bmps. See: http://my.chillstation.de/agent/index.phpGeorge

THx GeorgeBy some typical computer mystery I now have it working the way I want; I set up my original line of trees by placing them along a runway on each white marker, removed its bgl, then transferred them to where I want. Seems to be working now.Nigel