PhotoScenery Fans - Free Forest Tool Enhances Airports

[EricGlasper]

I am happy to announce a new tool to add to your scenery design arsenal.


Introducing Forest Tree Placement Tool (http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/download-forest-tree-placement-tool.434494/), a graphical utility for quickly adding realistic vegetation around airports and points of interest.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25087&stc=1


The tool lets you place trees in their proper real-world locations with ease and precision using a graphical editor. You do not need to be a scenery design expert to get great results within the first hour. Once you become adept you'll easily be able to generate vegetation for airports in 30 minutes or less.

An automatic detection mode will analyze any satellite image and generate vegetation to fill out your airports.

Upload your completed scenery to share with others. There's no longer an excuse for barren, uninteresting approaches in forested regions.

http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg628/eglasper/Before%20and%20AFter.jpg


Visit the support forum at FS Developer.com (http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/forums/forest-fsx-p3d-tree-placement-tool.148/).

[trucker17]

Cool Idea.....
Thanks

[Lane Street]

Are the trees seasonal?

cheers,
Lane

[EricGlasper]

Are the trees seasonal?

cheers,
Lane

Hello Lane. Good question.

Seasonal? What are seasonal trees? Just kidding - a pacific northwest joke.

Forest will use whatever tree models you choose as these are individual models placed in BGL files rather than autogen.

It would be very easy to create seasonal versions of the same scenery. Just create tree groups containing the seasonal variants you desire.

The overall goal is to make it easy for photo scenery fans to make interesting airports quickly. For airports you fly at often you could make it accurate down to the individual trees on a satellite image.

For other less used airports you could with very little effort make decent scenery that dramatically improves the experience.

Thanks for the interest.


Eric

[Lane Street]

Seasonal? What are seasonal trees? Just kidding - a pacific northwest joke.

Like the joke, we have four seasons?

Rain

More Rain

Still Raining

Road Construction

[Bone]

Are the trees seasonal?

cheers,
Lane

Photo scenery in itself is never seasonal, so there is no need for seasonal trees. Whatever season the photo data was captured, is the season you will always have for that particular scenery.

[Meshman]

Most photo based scenery is of one display mode, but there is the ability to have different variants show depending upon the month. So seasonal effect could be done.

Scenery based trees are not seasonal, autogen is. But scenery objects can be made to display based on date using an external utility. But the implementation using that utility (SODE) is not conducive to larger scale projects IMO, such as would be seen when planting trees.

[trevytt2004]

This tool looks very interesting.....i wonder if it can be used to plant other vegetation....specifically grass. Around airfields, the large expanses of grass areas beside runways and aprons all of different shapes....i guess as it takes the tree files from fsx guid references....it could use say 3d grass files too....
the installer for me is failing but once i get it installed i will play with it and may be able to finally finish planting grass at RAF Mildenhall.

Below is where i got to and can see what im thinking of.


Before planting grass seed
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25134&stc=1
After
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25135&stc=1

Also added accurate tree placement, fences, cars, mechanical diggers etc with instant scenery2.

General overall feel as to where it was when i put the project on pause
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25137&stc=1
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25128&stc=1

If this new tool can handle grass placement.....ill be one happy camper

Trev

[Jen]

Hi Trev

Very nice and interresting scenery. http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/images/icons/icon26.gif

But how big an extra impact, does all this 3D grass, have on the performance of the scenery ?

Soeren

[EricGlasper]

This tool looks very interesting.....i wonder if it can be used to plant other vegetation....specifically grass. Around airfields, the large expanses of grass areas beside runways and aprons all of different shapes....i guess as it takes the tree files from fsx guid references....it could use say 3d grass files too....
the installer for me is failing but once i get it installed i will play with it and may be able to finally finish planting grass at RAF Mildenhall.

Below is where i got to and can see what im thinking of.

Your grass looks amazing! I've been looking to add grass to my airports but the online tutorials I have found thus far seemed too time consuming.

Forest should be able to place any object as long as you know the object GUID. You mentioned the installer was failing. Did you get it working yet? Do note it's a 64bit only install as I figured anyone with a system powerful enough to be running FSX / P3D decently would be running a 64 bit OS. If you're running 32 bit Windows let me know.


Eric

[trevytt2004]

Hi Trev

Very nice and interresting scenery. http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/images/icons/icon26.gif

But how big an extra impact, does all this 3D grass, have on the performance of the scenery ?

Soeren

To be honest, the way i was planting the trees and vehicles...i was trying different ways....first by density settings to allow users to choose how packed it gets....then another by doing several bgl files for each section of the airfield...this would assist the users who like to max out their sliders but still limit the load on that base.

On my main pc...which died....wasnt the fastest by anymeans and a geforce ti500 if i remember....was getting around 18 to 2o fps, but going to build a new system just now and finish off the project.

[trevytt2004]

Your grass looks amazing! I've been looking to add grass to my airports but the online tutorials I have found thus far seemed too time consuming.

Forest should be able to place any object as long as you know the object GUID. You mentioned the installer was failing. Did you get it working yet? Do note it's a 64bit only install as I figured anyone with a system powerful enough to be running FSX / P3D decently would be running a 64 bit OS. If you're running 32 bit Windows let me know.


Eric

The grass files are from orbx....planted with instant scenery2. some animated some static. the mounds around the base are all animated which looks quite cool to see it moving as if by the regular breeze in east anglia.
I created the work contruction site on the southerly side....lots of little bob the builder diggers moving around....lol

at the moment i was just testing the app on my laptop and it came up with some package no formatted correctly error but just realised my laptop is just 32bit. once i get my new pc built i will for sure play with this.....i love the idea of being able to mask off an area and populate it.....you know how long it took planting some of the grass i have so far......

[EricGlasper]

I have updated the Forest documentation with additional information on the Surveyor and Forester modules.

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/download-forest-tree-placement-tool.434494 (http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/download-forest-tree-placement-tool.434494/)

[EricGlasper]

For fastest response please post your Forest related questions in the official forums linked below.

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/forums/forest-fsx-p3d-tree-placement-tool.148
(http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/forums/forest-fsx-p3d-tree-placement-tool.148)

Thank you.

[jeansy]

The grass files are from orbx....planted with instant scenery2. some animated some static. the mounds around the base are all animated which looks quite cool to see it moving as if by the regular breeze in east anglia.
I created the work contruction site on the southerly side....lots of little bob the builder diggers moving around....lol

Don't let orbx catch you using their grass or other objects in your own custom scenery otherwise you and soh will get a nasty gram for using it outside their eula

25490

You won't be the first or the last and its not worth the hassle for you and soh

Back on topic, interesting tool, might have to have a look

[EricGlasper]

Forest 1.01 beta is now available for download (http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/download-forest-tree-placement-tool.434494/).

While this release carries a "beta" label it should be highly reliable and relatively bug free and is recommended for general use.
Updated documentation should be available within the coming weeks.

Build Notes

Version 1.01 beta (Build 120)

New Features
Added project archival capability (Share > Archive Project) to make it easier to share projects or store them for later use.
New project now creates an "Info" directory. This directory is a place to store useful information about a project. Anything in the directory can be included in project Archives.
A Template ReadMe file is placed into the Info directory.
Loading a Forest definition file will now automatically create the "info" project subfolder if none exists. This will update older projects when they are loaded into Forest 1.01+.
Added a direct menu link (Share > Visit Official Forest Forums) to the FSDeveloper.com Forest online support forums.

GUI Updates
Corrected display of Surveyor and Forester labels so they always show whenever a project is loaded.
Added dedicated editor button to main GUI window removing th eneed for the Survey Image right click shortcut.
Relabeled all "View / Edit Survey Mask" UI elements to "Review Survey"
Added arrow grapics to main GUI window.
New Survey Source dialog more clearly describes the available options.
Improved dialog text for many notification windows.

Usability Enhancements
Modified the Surveyor "Check neighboring pixels" algorithm resulting in much faster processing while retaining similar results.
Review survey functions are now enabled/disabled on project load based on presence required project files.
Main program window now moves to front when Apply Edits (resurvey) is selected from the Editor > Edit menu.
Entering color pick mode in the editor now automatically toggles display of the Color Range tab.
If an image file is present, blank mask files are now created (if not already present) any time a definition file is loaded.
Modifed "Perform Survey" function to test if both mask files are present (_mask.bmp and _wmask.bmp) before displaying Confirm Survey Source dialog.
Program now enables appropriate menu items when a project is loaded even if some project elements are missing.
Added support for jpeg images with ".jpeg" extension in addition to existing ".jpg" support.

Stability / Error checking Improvements
Added checks for a "." character in the project name which causes problems for the BGL compiler.
Added check for "," in folder path which causes issues with explorer operations.
Added check for valid image file before allowing the editor to open.

Known Issues
Editor performance degradation when zoomed. Performance improves as editor window size is reduced.
Extremely large images may exhibit refresh issues when zoomed to maximum. Performance improves if zoom is reduced.
Some functions are disabled while Editor is in color selection mode including:
- Editor close button (X) is disabled while Color Selection mode is active
- File and Edit menus are disabled while Color Selection mode is active
- Main program window does not confirm exit if close button (X) is clicked while any editor window is in color selection mode
Forester (Plant Trees) progress bar is not accurate when Tree Density is not set to 100%

[EricGlasper]

Forest 1.01 (build 130) is Now Available for Download (http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/forums/forest-fsx-p3d-tree-placement-tool.148)

Release Notes:

================================================== Version 1.01 beta (Build 120) ==================================================

New Features
Added project archival capability (Share > Archive Project) to make it easier to share projects or store them for later use.
New project now creates an "Info" directory. This directory is a place to store useful information about a project. Anything in the directory can be included in project Archives.
A Template ReadMe file is placed into the Info directory.
Loading a Forest definition file will now automatically create the "info" project subfolder if none exists. This will update older projects when they are loaded into Forest 1.01+.
Added a direct menu link (Share > Visit Official Forest Forums) to the FSDeveloper.com Forest online support forums.

GUI Updates
Corrected display of Surveyor and Forester labels so they always show whenever a project is loaded.
Added dedicated "Review Survey" button to main GUI window removing the need for the "Survey Image" right click shortcut available in earlier versions.
Relabeled all "View / Edit Survey Mask" UI elements to "Review Survey"
Added arrow graphics to main GUI window.
New Survey Source dialog more clearly describes the available surveying options.
Improved dialog text for many notification windows.

Usability Enhancements
Modified the Surveyor "Check neighboring pixels" algorithm resulting in much faster processing while retaining similar results.
Review survey functions are now enabled/disabled on project load based on presence required project files.
Main program window now moves to front when Apply Edits (resurvey) is selected from the Editor > Edit menu.
Entering color pick mode in the Editor now automatically toggles display of the Color Range tab.
If an image file is present, blank mask files are now created (if not already present) anytime a definition file is loaded.
Modifed "Perform Survey" function to test if both mask files are present (_mask.bmp and _wmask.bmp) before displaying Confirm Survey Source dialog.
Program now enables appropriate menu items when a project is loaded even if some project elements are missing.
Added support for jpeg images with ".jpeg" extension in addition to existing ".jpg" support.

Stability / Error checking Improvements
Added checks for a "." character in the project name which causes problems for the BGL compiler.
Added check for "," in folder path which causes issues with explorer operations.
Added check for a valid image file in the project folder before allowing the Editor to open.


================================================== Version 1.01 (Build 130) ==================================================

New Features
Smart Filter is now usable in the graphical editor. Combined with "Obey" restrictions this will enable you to produce results identical to the auto survey function.

GUI Updates
Added smart painting filter button/indicator to the Editor tool panel.
Added image area statistics to Surveyor logging.
Added Smart Filter status and sensitivity settings to Surveyor logging.
"Check Neighboring Pixels" function has been relabeled "Smart Filter".
Rearranged Editor Options tab functions to accommodate new Smart painting filter functionality.

Usability Enhancements
Upon closing the Editor you will now be asked if you would like Surveyor to apply your edits (if edits have occurred).

Bug Fixes
Corrected bug which caused projects to load with functions disabled if Forest is launched from an associated definition file.
Corrected several bugs with auto definition file (.fdefauto) loading.



Known Issues
Editor performance degradation when zoomed. Performance improves as Editor window size is reduced.
Extremely large images may exhibit refresh issues when zoomed to maximum. Performance improves if zoom is reduced.
Some functions are disabled while the Editor is in color selection mode including:
- Editor close button (X) is disabled while Color Selection mode is active if there are unsaved edits.
- File and Edit menus are disabled while Color Selection mode is active.
- Main program window does not confirm exit if close button (X) is clicked while any Editor window is in color selection mode
Forester (Plant Trees) progress bar is not accurate when Tree Density is not set to 100%
Forester may on occasion create a blank XML/BGL (file with no coordinates in the filename). It is safe to delete this BGL file as it contains zero scenery objects.

[EricGlasper]

Minor update Forest 1.02 is now available for download. (http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/forums/forest-fsx-p3d-tree-placement-tool.148)

The Forest documentation has been updated to cover the new features and layout introduced since version 1.0. Please download the newest documentation available with the Forest setup files.

[EricGlasper]

Minor update Forest 1.03 is now available for download. (http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/download-forest-tree-placement-tool.434494/)

=========== Version 1.03 (Build 133) ============
New Features
Project cleanup functions added

Usability Enhancements
Editor now only asks if you want Surveyor to apply recently saved edits if edits have actually been saved during the session.