foliage help

[charlieg]

Each color channel is broken up into 3 or 4 ranges of values ... it could also be fourths, that would give 16 different types of foliage instead of nine.

Actually, if you think about it, you're already (potentially) representing more than 9 types with 3 classifications in each as doing it by RGB individually makes it a 3d matrix.You're thinking of it like this:<pre> R G B1 a b c2 d e f3 g h i</pre>But really you get 27 combinations:<pre> R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 B1 B2 B3B1 a b c G1 j k l G1 s t u B2 d e f G2 m n o G2 v w x B3 g h i G3 p q r G3 y z @</pre>EDIT - actually it's probably more than that... R1G1 has 3 combos with B etcUnless you want colour to affect foilage type (e.g. so more green means conniferus or blue means more bushy) then it could be a lot simpler just breaking down 1 number than it will be combining 3, so you may want to stick with greyscale unless features require otherwise.I do, however, think the 'treemap' image is an excellent idea.