Farm fields and forests?

[Railfan727]

Will the OR world editor include a way to easily model farm fields? Perhaps there could even be pre-defined scenery objects for commonly-grown crops (corn, soybeans, wheat, etc) that can change appearance with the seasons?

And how about forests? One of my biggest complaints (of many) with MSTS is that it never could even come close to creating the appearance of a real-world forest. Even by layering several different forest objects on top of one another with different types of trees and different densities, I still never could get a look I was quite satisfied with. The density just wasn't even close to what it needed to be, and there was no heavy undergrowth... you could still see individual trees with plenty of space in between, not heavy, impenetrable forest and brush.

Will there be any way to define oddly-shaped forest regions instead of having to layer a bunch of rectangles on top of one another?

[longiron]

Will the OR world editor include a way to easily model farm fields? Perhaps there could even be pre-defined scenery objects for commonly-grown crops (corn, soybeans, wheat, etc) that can change appearance with the seasons?

Procedural texturing is something that's a long way's down the World Editor roadmap, but on it none the less

And how about forests? One of my biggest complaints (of many) with MSTS is that it never could even come close to creating the appearance of a real-world forest. Even by layering several different forest objects on top of one another with different types of trees and different densities, I still never could get a look I was quite satisfied with. The density just wasn't even close to what it needed to be, and there was no heavy undergrowth... you could still see individual trees with plenty of space in between, not heavy, impenetrable forest and brush.

Will there be any way to define oddly-shaped forest regions instead of having to layer a bunch of rectangles on top of one another?

Letting the user define density of objects within a block object is something you could adjust today within the OR code, and is on the near term World Editor roadmap. Rectangles are relatively easy block object definitions, while oddly shaped regions are much more difficult.

There are many other technical considerations to evaluate for forest regions - object tile density, close up vs far away, among many others.

[Railfan727]

So would there be any way to simulate a field of standing corn in 3-D rather than just painting a texture on the terrain?

[Old_Codger]

A corn field and a forest of trees are the same thing to a computer.

[longiron]

A corn field and a forest of trees are the same thing to a computer.

Exactly, it's just a 3D object. The WORLD EDITOR would know the difference, but the rendering system would be just show what it's asked to show.

[Railfan727]

The only difference is that to show a field, we would need to display the plants in uniform rows rather than being randomly scattered as in a forest. This same technique could be used (with appropriate spacing settings) to display trees in rows as well, as for an orchard or timber plantation.

Also, would there be any way to get the maximum forest density higher than the maximum that MSTS allowed? Or possibly to allow more than one type of tree to be displayed in the same forest object (in individually variable proportions) rather than having to overlay several different forest objects to create a realistic mixed forest? And will there be a way to randomize the sizes of trees in a forest (possibly by scaling the individual tree objects up or down within some user-defined percentage range) rather than having them be uniform as in MSTS?

And, while we're on the subject of block objects... can a similar technique be used to create a line of fence posts or telephone poles, by replicating one specified object periodically at some user-defined spacing, and adjusting each individual object to the local terrain elevation? This would be so much easier, faster, and more precise than having to place each pole individually.

Bruce Bridges
Builder of Conrail Indy for MSTS

Currently studying feasibility of improved and expanded Conrail Indy route for OR

[eric]

On the topic of forests.... I'd like to see some added parameters, and the ability to get higher density, even if it means overlapping shapes.

Specifically....

1) Grid placement within the forest object.... I want to model real crop fields that follow terrain. Can't do that with forest objects because the density issue and the random placement. If I could have a super high density **and** have a grid pattern that places the individual "trees" in an evenly spaced pattern, instead of totally random x/y coordinates, that would be the ultimate improvement to me...

2) Multiple shapes to use within a forest object... Let me list several different tree shapes to be invoked, so that it looks naturally random.

Combining both could allow some interesting outcomes, ie a full parking lot using grid plus a list of ten different vehicles, or even a subdivision by using grid plus a list of six or seven house shapes....

Problems might come in by using the extra params with the MSTS engine, but being backward compatible isn't exactly my main concern... And really not much different than non-bin and bin today with some equipment.

[longiron]

Problems might come in by using the extra params with the MSTS engine, but being backward compatible isn't exactly my main concern... And really not much different than non-bin and bin today with some equipment.

Great suggestions and certainly do-able with enough development resources. But you are correct, implementing these kind of features would be Open Rails compatible only and not be useable with the MSTS engine.

[OTTODAD]

So would there be any way to simulate a field of standing corn in 3-D rather than just painting a texture on the terrain?

Has already been done by Frank Carver in his UK-GWR Toddington route.

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