Forest.dat draw distance

[pepsipowell]

Is there any way to change the default draw distance of the forest.dat files, as I'm cuurently scenerising a bit of route with field next to the line, and forest a few hundred metres to the side. It looks good in the Route Editor, where the forests do not disappear until the tile disappears, but in game you see nothing stretching away into the horizon until you are almost level with the object, then lots of trees appear suddenly in a block, then disappear, then another block etc. etc.

After lots of searching, it seems nobody has found (or tried?) to fix this, unless I've missed something. Could it be that there is a template shape or file in a global folder, and the draw distance could be altered, or is this wishful thinking?

Jonathan

[JohnKendrick]

It would be nice if there was a fix but as far as I know it is hard coded in the main MSTS executable.

One semi solution is to use some of the the objects like the USDecidClumps at the edge of the forest so not all the trees leap into an out of view at the same time, but that isn't possible on a steep slope, the sort of location thr forests are often found.

I guess it may be possible to examine the MSTS code in a disk editor to find the distance level and patch the Kuju coding. It would be even nicer if they had a helpline to arrange such modifications for you themselves. But that is surely asking too much now they've abandoned the project. That forest object distance level really should have had a user defined value shouldn't it.

John

[alan2]

not only a user defined distance but!

Levels of detail customisable by the user!

i could use the forest appearing further away in one location

and better control over how many trees / distance. eg. Far away less trees. closer more...

but it is hard coded

[bigvern]

And I still occasionally see the problem where the forest display inverts, with the trees at the rear appearing through the front (think this is a bug on tiles that have water enabled). Sort of looks like viewing your forest through a migraine.

Interestingly, though, I have noticed forests in some of the default routes are given a detail level of -1 (minus one). However in the RE you can only input a value to zero. Looks as if at least some of Kuju's route building was achieved via hard coding rather than our beloved RE.

[pepsipowell]

After looking through the global folder I found nothing apart from a reference in object.ref:

Code: Select all

Forest (
       Class                   ( "<Forests>" )
       Filename                ( _ACT_FOREST_ )
       Align                   ( None )
       Description             ( "Forest 1" )
)

This didn't seem to help, so I looked at the world files for my route, the forest entries are as follows:

Code: Select all

Forest (
		UiD ( 7 )
		TreeTexture ( IJ_tree1.ace )
		ScaleRange ( 0.9 1.4 )
		Area ( 50 706.5 )
		Population ( 18 )
		TreeSize ( 18 21 )
		StaticFlags ( 00100000 )
		Position ( -995.516 42.9834 -490.717 )
		QDirection ( 0 0.0940365 0 0.995569 )
		VDbId ( 4294967295 )
		StaticDetailLevel ( 0 )
	)

I'm guessing the only possible entry that could have an effect on the draw distance is StaticFlags, does anyone know what each one represents?

Jonathan

[scefhwil]

MSTS is now over three years old. It's been a well established fact for much of that time that the forest draw distance isn't user definable. After all this isn't the only site in the world where such technical issue get investigated.

[pepsipowell]

Ok, the reason I asked in the first place is that the draw distance is set to >2000m in the Route Editor, and much lower in the game, so I wondered why there was a difference. Back to treelines I suppose...

On a related note, does anyone actually know what the VDbId () number means, also what each of the StaticFlag numbers refer to? Quick investigation showed the fourth and fifth numbers set the shadow, whether it is a terrain object, and animation, but what about the others?

Jonathan

[barrymcguire9999]

bump!! Only just found this topic as I have this problem while scenerising the climb up Beattock (virtually solid coniferous forest), lots of trees, just that they don't appear until nearly up on them..........one thing I will probably experiment with is lots more, but smaller forest markers as I would expect the 2000m (or less ) to be measured from the actual "green box" marker and not the edge of the forest.....

Original reason for looking this topic up is that I would like to create many more forest markers with different non-default trees........anyone any ideas what the figures at the end of the lines mean (the ones ending with an "f" ?

Forest ( "Decid Tree 1" "usdecidtree1.ace" 16.0f 18.0f 0.9f 1.1f)
Forest ( "Decid Tree 2" "usdecidtree2.ace" 16.0f 18.0f 0.9f 1.1f)
Forest ( "Decid Tree 3" "usdecidtree3.ace" 16.0f 18.0f 0.9f 1.1f)
Forest ( "Decid Tree 4" USDecidTrees1.ace" 16.0f 18.0f 0.9f 1.1f)
Forest ( "JP1 Tree1" "JP2AutoTree1.ace" 16.0f 20.0f 0.9f 1.1f )
Forest ( "JP1 Tree2" "JP2AutoTree2.ace" 14.0f 18.0f 0.9f 1.1f )
Forest ( "JP1 Tree3" "JP2AutoTree3.ace" 10.0f 14.0f 0.9f 1.1f)
Forest ( "Tree Fir 01" "US2autofir1.ace" 12.0f 22.0f 0.9f 1.1f)
Forest ( "Tree Fir 02" "US2autofir2.ace" 12.0f 23.0f 0.9f 1.1f)

Cheers

Barry

[eyore]

Have a look in ts.com Route Design forum there is an old thread there, somewhere, discussing this problem which contains a fix.

I can't remember the details but I will post them if I track it down again.

[victreebel]

anyone any ideas what the figures at the end of the lines mean (the ones ending with an "f" ?

Do they control the average height of the trees, and how much they can vary by? Don't exactly know which is which, but some experimentation would show that up quickly if I'm right.

[eyore]

I think this is the thread with the fix for forest viewing distances, about the 8th reply down the thread.

http://forums.flightsim.com/ts/dcboard. ... ype=search

[victreebel]

Also take a look at:

http://steam4me.railpage.org.au/trainsi ... rests.html

[qzdcg8]

I think this is the thread with the fix for forest viewing distances, about the 8th reply down the thread.

http://forums.flightsim.com/ts/dcboard. ... ype=search

Here are the relevant words...

(Btw: If you're unhappy with forests popping up into view when approaching them, open your global/shapes folder, and uncompress "forestmarker.s" in there. Change the viewing distance from 500m to 2000m or even 3000m, and your forests will no longer wait with coming into view until you are almost atop of them).

I don't think there's much point going beyond 2000m though

[barrymcguire9999]

I think this is the thread with the fix for forest viewing distances, about the 8th reply down the thread.

http://forums.flightsim.com/ts/dcboard. ... ype=search

Here are the relevant words...

(Btw: If you're unhappy with forests popping up into view when approaching them, open your global/shapes folder, and uncompress "forestmarker.s" in there. Change the viewing distance from 500m to 2000m or even 3000m, and your forests will no longer wait with coming into view until you are almost atop of them).

I don't think there's much point going beyond 2000m though

I tried this, didn't seem to make any difference...........

[qzdcg8]

Here's an obvious bodge to try and hide the effect, at least on a hillside this will help a bit - make sure the terrtex underneath the forest has a matching patch coloured the same as the trees