Automatic Forester

[Ramah]

Heh. The adding the control in is the $64k question. The simple answer is yes. It would be a cinch to change the variables for the jitter on the fly. If only I knew how to increase the UI to do such a thing. I've learned quite a lot about java over the past few weeks and I am sure without a doubt that I would be able to do it. But if the previous two weeks has taught me anything it's that I will be throwing hours at it to get something that appears to be simple to work, only to find that it is some kind of weird syntax that any young teen would know off the bat. So I might just leave that to Fluesopp as he is much better equipped to extend it in such a way.

Anyway... back to the main reason for my post. I think... THINK... I have solved the problem of the trees straying out of bounds. Not only that but fixing it has also solved the problem of the taller trees straying up the image and requiring a larger blank space at the top... AND... AND... I seem to have fixed the 1024 x 1024 limit for a mask at the same time. Yay. Well.. I've just tested it with a 1204 x 2048 image and it worked fine.

I'll just get it all cleaned up and post the new version shortly.

[Ramah]

Ok. So here's the latest version then. I haven't included your lightsourced brushes yet CM. I'm not really sure what you meant in your earlier post about changing the directory names. The brushes I made the default ones DO have shading images with them. And shadows.

Anyway... here it is. Let me know how you get on with it. If you load your alpha BEFORE you add the jitter then you may need to press generate to have any trees out of the confines deleted. Oh and btw, I forgot to mention earlier, the program offsets the trees so that they should be positioned from the base of the trunk. So the trees will stick out at the top but there shouldn't be any trunks outside the area.

The sourcecode is also uploaded for Fluesopp to pick apart and for anyone with a mind to see if they can spot how many memory leaks there are and how much garbage is generated every time a button is pressed.

[Coyotemax]

Well, it does appear to work exactly as described. I would have to redo the masks to take into account the distance between trunk and treetop (for some reason I was thinking it would keep the entire tree within the boundary of the mask, I forgot that point, my bad. I'm supposing that having the program calculate to keep the top within the mask would be hard on the computing?). I tested it with the fullsize forest mask for the map, and can tell you that 4800x6600 is too large for the program. I haven't tried cutting it down to see where the limits are yet, that will come soon. In the meantime, for actual work purposes, I just went over the previously generated trees and edited to fit within the shorelines etc. Oh, and it does look like it fills to the top of the mask on that example I posted earlier so that's perfectly done As to directory names from the upload, forget I said anything beyond "here are the brushes in renamed directories" lol Left LightSource and RightLightSource for ease of remembering. I was originally thinking of having them in 2 different direcotries.. LightsourceLeft and LightsourceRight to keep things easily separated. But I also renamed the brush directories themselves too. you'll see what I mean when you look in the zip. My original idea wouldn't work since it needs the default brush dir in with the program itself, so feel free to do what you need to for the directory structure. (sorry for the apparent lack of paragraph breaks, I've been putting them in but they don't always seem to stay after I hit "post")

[Ramah]

The previous version you downloaded also positioned the trees from the trunks so their should be no change there.
The program does actually work on the top left boudary of the png and wants to position them from there. But I added an offset to each placement so that it is from the trunk, which makes a lot more sense to me and should certainly help positioning around things like rivers. I might add in the option to turn off this offset the same as with the jitters and indents, would only take a few minutes.

Edit: Actually... hmm... I think I have just thought of a problem with the offset. I need to do some tests and I may well need to upload another version later depending on the outcome.

[Ramah]

Ok, so I fixed the perceived problem with the tree offsets. They really don't matter anyway, unless your alpha is the same size as your map and you want it to snap right into position it doesn't really matter if it is on or not. I also added the functionality you asked for CM to make the trees only placed within the bounds of the alpha and not poke out at the top. They may still poke out at the sides just a little though. I called it "Strict Mask Constraints" in the edit menu.

I also found that that large mask I managed to load up earlier won't let me change anything such as brushes on it. So yeah, problem not fixed. It MAY be that some masks a little above 1024 x 1024 will work but.... <shrug>

You should change to this version whether you want the constraints or not as the tree offsetting could well cut a little off the bottom of your alpha in the last build. Oops.

Edit: Oh, I also included the light sourced png's in this one. Although I had to place them all in the root directory for now and not separated into left and right directories. I need to alter the code to take in subdirectories I guess. But for now, don't place brush directories inside another one.

Oh.. nearly forgot.. thanks for editing those png's CM. Much appreciated.

[Coyotemax]

Holycarp! yay! I'll test this out once my wife finishes making me spend time with her (oh the burden.. lol)

[Coyotemax]

Ok, I just ran through a test with the strict mask enabled - omg yay! There's still a bit of work editing some of the edges here and there, but I'd say that combined time for creating masks, chopping them apart, generating the forests, pasting them in, and editing strays, worst case scenario for this large map of mine, maybe 1 hours total for the entire forest layout. Which I would guess is about 1/4 or less of the time I would expect to do them all by hand, especially when taking into account the overlapping..

As far as i'm concerned, we have a winner!

[Ramah]

Ok, another update here.

I've given it the ability to save all 4 layers at once should you be needing that option. Saves a bit of arseing around changing views etc. If you do use this then be aware it will copy over any files with the same name. I'm not sure how best to do the dialog but at the moment if there is a file with the same name as you input then it will ask you if you are sure etc. then it will completely disregard that file anyway and save the four layers with the suffixes "_Trees", "_Masks", "_Shading", "_Shadows" on the end of them. Anyway, it works, it's just something to be aware of.
I've also finally given it the ability to edit the jittering amount on the fly. I've not added this ability for the cumulative jitters because they are more complex and there's not a lot of point. You can, however, now alter the amount of the X & Y jitters, the X & Y diagonal jitters and the amount of gaps in the trees.
The "Shuffle" button just reapplies whichever jitter is highlighted in the combo box. If you want to reapply all jitters at once hit "Generate." You can also use the Shuffle button to switch the jitters on instead of going into the edit menu.

As far as I am concerned now, the only pressing thing left to sort out in this is the shading and shadows being sorted on a per tree basis.

Anyhoos.. have fun.

[Ramah]

I thought I'd post a quick screenie to show where the program is at and what it does more. The top image is obviously the program in use. Default jitter settings on x-jitter and x & y diagonal jitters. An alpha mask imported which takes all of 20 seconds to draw in PS or Gimp. The next four images below show the 4 separate layers that are saved (providing the brush set being used has shading and shadow brushes included). The bottom image shows all 4 layers combined and just ripe for a little blurring, blending, colouring and hey presto! A forest in a few minutes.

[Coyotemax]

Perfect timing by the way. i've just been asked to redo the forests on the Dark Lands map