Landscape Assets

The terrain generators use some specialized assets like trees and rocks to decorate the generated landscape. They are generic models with a special metadata struct to recognize them as tree or rock.

There are several additional metadata structs for trees and rocks:

function data()
return {
  -- bounding box
  -- collider
  -- lods
  metadata = {
    menuCategory = {
      categories = {
        {
          category = "landscaping_vegetation",
          filterCategories = { "tree", },
          order = 2000,
        },
      },
    },
    description = {
      name = _("European linden"),
      description = _("Place trees individually or with a brush."),
      icon = "eu_lnd_01.tga",
      previewIcon = "/assets/vegetation/tmp_vegetation.tga",
    },
 
    autoGroundTex = {
      categories = { "forestTree", }
    },
    categoryList = {
      categories = { "broadleaf", "large", "plains", "town", "temperate.clima"  },
    },
 
    tree = { },
    -- or
    rock = { },
 
  },
  version = 2,
}
end

The menuCategory struct is used to provide the construction in the right menu. See the construction menu for more details about the menu tags.

The description properties contain data used for the menu entry in the construction menu. This covers:

• name for the display name. It should not be longer than 32 characters.
• description for a short descriptive text highlighting the individuality of the asset. It should not be longer than 320 characters.
• icon is a reference to a small @2x.tga icon which has a resolution of 240×150 pixels shown in the menu.
• previewIcon is reference to a .tga image that is used as background image for the info box. It has a resolution of 720×405 pixels.

Aside from these general

• autoGroundTex is a list of references to categories set in some auto ground textures (see below). The asset counts for every of these categories.
• categoryList is a list of tags that are used in the terrain generation process and climate filtering. Entries that equal the filename of a climate are used to assign the model to a certain climate. It will not be available in other climates.

To mark a model as a tree, the empty tree struct has to be set. To mark a model as a rock, the empty rock struct has to be set. All trees and rocks are available in the according mixed brush tool too.

The terrain around trees is automatically textured with a ground texture depending on the density of tree or rock models. These ground textures are defined in .agt.lua files:

function data()
return {
  category = "auto.model.tree",         -- "auto.model.rock"
  gridSize = 18.0,
  countFrom = 2,
  countTo = 5,
  groundTex = "forest_floor.gtex",       -- e.g. "rock_ground_medium_brown_grass.gtex"
  individual = true,
  individualCategory = "forestTree",    -- e.g. "rockSandstoneMedium"
}
end

The properties are as follows:

• category is an identifier for the purpose of this auto ground texture. It is "auto.model.tree" for trees and "auto.model.rock" for rocks. The assets are assigned to one or more of these categories and count for these.
• gridSize is the grid size for the count grid of this auto ground texture. The assets that have the category set are counted in each of the grid cells.
• countFrom is the minimum number of instances that has to be counted in a cell to get the texture displayed.
• countTo is the maximum number of instances that has to be counted in a cell to get the texture displayed.
• groundTex is a reference to the ground texture that should be displayed.
• individual is a boolean value. If set to true this ground texture is used around individual models (like roots of a tree) instead of big patches between several of them.
• individualCategory is a category that can be referenced from tree/rock models (see above) to be used for them as ground texture.