The forest - the first 60%

It took me a while to accept that breaking up the big forest area in seven smaller ones was a bad idea. So I had to start all over again. Performance isn't all about area size. It's the amount of different treas, grass, placeables, textures and terrain complexity that slows the system down.

So I first made an analyze of nice areas in the OC and in some community modules. For every texture I did a Swap Terrain and replaced it with black color and took a screen shot. I then had a handfull images where I could clearly see how much and where the artist had used each texture. Then I carefully planned which five textures I would like to use in my area, which 3 tree types I would use. I use only one seed per tree type and make the variation by changing size and proportions together and placing the trees a bit smarter. So far 168 trees are placed and the looks and performance are pretty good. I haven't started with the grass but I hold it down and try to put it in the right places. I'll also use a more narrow far plane and clever walkmesh cutting to keep the players from seeing that the wood stops just a few meters from the occlusion grid.

So far I'm about 60% done and the forest is still just 35MB instead of 153MB when I had it in seven parts. It's not as beatiful as some of the other modders but I think this is how far I can take it with my limited artistic skills. (Able Painter -4).