Silgrad Tower from the Ashes

It should be easier to adjust the preset when we know what the final trees will look like.

I'm not the most knowledgeable person about SpeedTree trees, I'm afraid, but I might be able to answer at least some questions about them anyway. I'll try.

I think you're talking about the canopy shadows, Zurke? SpeedTree trees can cast shadows, though I'm not exactly sure how it works. In Oblivion's video options, there's a setting for canopy shadows. IIRC, when you stand underneath a tree (we'll say during the day) with canopy shadows turned on, it looks as though sunlight is being blocked by leaves and only gets through in some spots. Kind of a realism effect. If you have canopy shadows turned off, the tree will not cast those shadows. It'll simply behave like a static mesh in that regard.

All of the objects in the WorldObjects -> Trees heading should be SpeedTree objects. Most of our trees were made by Razorwing.

As for vertex shading around SpeedTree trees... I usually do add a bit myself. It looks as though Bethesda often did that with their trees in their region generation presets.

And to try to answer the question about converting the static-type mesh to a SpeedTree tree, I don't think it's possible. Trees are created from templates and options set in the SpeedTree program itself. Much of it is done through random generation, and the program also needs to know exactly where branches begin and end, and where the leaves are. It calculates all of that when it creates the trees. Importing (if it's even possible), the program would have trouble making heads or tails of the tree. Of course, I've never really worked with the program either, so you might want to wait for someone who knows more about SpeedTree to confirm that.

I guess 'canopy shadows' is what I am speaking of. I will now continue to use the correct term .

I was wondering as it could have saved work when hand changing. But after reading your post and explanation it seems a good idea to keep using the shadowing tool as some players may have limited options selected. Thanks for the reply.

I'm hoping it would be somehow possible to keep the trees TMJ created because they are very nice. It would be a shame if we couldn't use them on the exterior landscape.

I was looking at the models in the CS, and it appears as though there's only 1 model which actually has leaves. I'll definitely try to use them to add character to the landscape when i go through by hand, but i can't see a large-scale use for 4 more dead-tree models. If leaves were placed on two or three more models, i'd definitely clamor to have them turned into speed trees, but i'm not sure that i could use the 4 models without leaves.

I think before giving you another .esp i'll post shots of the landscape from in-game and see what you think. Maybe i'll even boot up morrowind to get a perspective in-game there as well.

Alright, here's the new .esp, drastically reduced in the amount of trees generated, in order to better replicate TES3.

Keep in mind that i'll deal with the landscape and swamps later. I'll make the region more suited to be BC (rather than mountain foothills), and the swamps i have to hand-place, along with some additional flora.

What i want to know now is whether the tree density looks to be good. I can always reduce it more. I actually still need to add in some more varied plants to the preset, I just want to know how the trees look (best to know now before i do a bunch more tweaking)

I did notice the order of your list was a bit weird. When I generate regions, the CS usually goes through that list from top to bottom (other times it just does something completely weird). When it reads to first make statics and texture the landscape around them, it will do that. But when it comes to the base landscape texturing farther down, it will generate the textures over top of whatever it already did around the static objects. I think the cypress knees were at the top of your list? You might want to move them farther down in the list. If they stop generating, there are too many other objects already being generated so you'll have to reduce the densities of trees and rocks to make space.

You can take a look at some of Bethesda's presets to see how things should be ordered. In the Great Forest presets, I see textures first, then rocks, then trees, then other miscellaneous objects and flora.

If you're already happy with how your region is generating though, you might want to not do that. Maybe even less considering you're going to go over the landscape customizing it later on. The appearance of the region is what matters most, in my opinion. If the preset list itself looks weird but the generated region looks okay, I don't think the players will really mind too much.

EDIT: I see you posted while I was typing. I'll post again later then...

Ahh, forgot about the textures, i kind of disregarded their position in the list, and ignored them when i shuffled things around in the order. I'll move the texture up in the list and see how it looks for the next version.

What i want to figure out is whether the current tree/plant configuration is more or less good. I'm trying to get the most important part (the tree density) finished before i move on to the small stuff like bushes.

Okay, just a few more suggestions. I think it would be best to make changes first before going much farther.

I think there could be just a few less trees and a few less mushrooms. There probably should be a few more objects per cell, but they can't be trees so make them rocks instead (especially the larger ones, there should be a few more of those around). StExComRockBC05 and StExComRockBC06 could be sunk more... I didn't notice if any objects used the conform to slope feature. You may want to go over the maximum slopes for the trees and make it so that they generate only on reasonably flat terrain. Larger objects should have vertex shading around them.

I'm a bit ahead of you, my latest version has less trees and less mushrooms, plus more ferns.

Before generating the final region i am going to modify the landscape to make it a bit more swamp-friendly, and i'll modify it even more when hand-detailing the region, so maximum slope shouldn't matter too much. Also, there are some large slopes in the region i'm using for testing, and i want to see density more than anything, rather than see large gaps where the slope's too great.

I'll definitely add some more rocks with vertex shading.

That's great! :goodjob: I'm looking forward to seeing the final result.