foliage help

[thelusiv]

charlieg: I see what you mean and I think you're talking about the same thing I am.<pre> R G B1 a d h2 b e i3 c f j</pre>So, let's say on a given pixel represents a square 5 m x 5 m in the actual game (it may be different, idunno). Let's also say that for each lowercase letter in my matrix above there is a range equivalent to 0-100% that corresponds to the color values 0-33% for a, 34-66% for b, etc. Let's say "a" represents grass, "c" represents bushes, and "h" is an oak tree. Let's also say grass has a 10-unit per-square max density, bushes have a 6-unit max density, and oak trees have a 2-unit max density.So, if there was a dot on the map that had the value a(50%) c(20%) h(10%) then in that 5x5 meter square there would be 4-6 grass tufts, 1-3 bushes, and 0-1 oak tree. The actual numbers of them should have some random coefficients because that's how plants grow, kinda randomly.If there is a dot which has any channel as 0xFF (255) then all the foliage types that channel maps to are forced to 0% for that 5x5 meter square.The extended matrices you made are basically permutations of the system I describe here. As you say, we could have each of these permutations map to another type of foliage, but realistically 9 types of foliage will be plenty for one track. Thus it'd be more useful to be able to combine different types of foliage in a given area than have yet more types of foliage.

I do, however, think the 'treemap' image is an excellent idea.

I must admit the idea is not mine, a grayscale foliage map was used in their FAQ page as well as the rest of how to make Trigger tracks.