Neualtenburg Tree System

We've said that Neualtenburg will be the first sim to have changing seasons. Well, the first step towards making that happen is ready. The Neualtenburg Tree System is available to copy just in front of the church, next to the free Neualtenburg textures. It has, somewhat, and old egg shape.

Changing the seasons can mean a variey of things in SL. We're concentrating on two major elements, the ground textures and the trees. Since we own the sim, the Estate tools give us easy access to changing the ground textures, appropriate to the seasons. (Lindens take note! This tool still does not work properly for us! Despite our many help requests.)

Changing the trees to reflect each season, though, is a major job, since each tree needs to be replaced with its seasonal equivalent. We're working on a scripted Seasonal Tree Replacement Device. The first step in that development is to get a consistently named set of trees which the Device will recognize.

The Neualtenburg Tree System contains four tree containers, one for each season. Within each one are 7 trees (hopefully more can be added, if more Linden trees can be developed). We've chosen Linden trees for two reasons; (1) they are 1 prim each, and (2) they move. Each tree has a corresponding version in each of the four containers, since, come the change of seasons, the Device will need a replacement tree for the new season.

Obviously, we've had to take a few liberties with the choice of trees, since the Linden choice is limited. And the choice of appropriate trees for Neualtenburg is limited as well; island palms just wouldn't work.

We're working on the "Covenants and Rules" for the new coop now (see Ulrika's thread). I am hoping that we'll agree to constrain all trees to come from this Tree Systm. That way, we have the chance for a really stunning change of seasons!

Please. Feel free to take a copy of the Neualtenburg Tree System, and plant away. It's Autumn right now in Neualtenburg, so please choose from the Autumn tree container.

Sudane

Hey, this is neat! I'll grab the trees the next time I log in and replace the old trees in the North.

I have a few questions. When the tree replacer works, will it preserve the size and orientation of the trees? I've been using various sizes of the same tree at slightly different orientations to give a more natural look.

Also, will this system work for trees which are not owned by the same owner as the tree replacer?

~Ulrika~

Size and orientation, of course, are edited variations of the same object. So, taking size, I have included two sizes each of fir and pine, and rather varied sizes of the leafy trees. The big problem with size is the desire I had to replace each seasonal tree with another tree of approximately the same size. The limited choice available of Linden trees makes this a real problem. For example, there are only 3 snowy trees. They are all very small, so that scaled to maximum size, they are only as big as a small fir tree. Another example; the very beautiful autumn oak tree is also very tiny. Enlarged to its maximum size, it was only as big as smaller versions of the trees I chose to replace it for spring and summer.

All that said, the system could certainly be expanded. If there is not enough range of sizes (keeping in mind that the entire Anzere was populated by only one style and size of tree) more can easily be added. The requirement for adding trees to the system is that any tree added has a seasonal version in each container, and that they be named with a consistent naming scheme.

Orientation will be another matter. I'm not at all sure that the "Device" will be able to detect the orientation of an existing tree, and duplicate that with the replacement tree.

This is a good question, and one of the technical obstacles to overcome. Not only tree owner, but also land owner, since typically you cannot place trees on land unless you have "Edit Land" privileges. I'm working with Eloise Pasteur on this project, and so far, she's only done conceptual tests to check basic functionality. We have a lot of work to do on this. But, with a organized package of trees to start off with, we've at least created the field to develop the system with.

Sudane