How To: Foliage

Mastersax68 · October 7, 2010

Hey guys. Apparently I'm somewhat decent at making foliage in RCT2. I got a request to make a How To on foliage, and said what the heck. I will show you all of my tips and tricks, and hopefully you'll be able to pick some of it up. Well, here's the first update. Here are my main 3 rules, which might grow when I think of more of them. Until then, have fun!

1st Rule: Be diverse. You cannot achieve a full and colorful vein of foliage if you use the same tree over and over. This goes for trees and flowers.

2nd Rule: Explore your options. There are a lot of good objects included in the game that will look good if you know how to use them. Fiddle around with things until you get something you like. How do you think all of these methods were discovered?

3rd Rule: NEVER USE FULL TILE GARDENS!!! This is more of a preference thing, but the quarter-tile flowers do look better in almost every case than the full-tile variety. Listen to this especially when trying to make wild looking foliage.

Full Tile Plants 1.bmp

Here are the plants I commonly use when doing foliage. Notice that they occupy their tile more so than other plants.

Hegde Cheats.bmp

Here is my hedge cheat. Something I saw J K use in Dreamport, so I started using it. The idea is to use the Hedge Fence object or the Conifer Hedge object to create a more full look. You can mess around wiht it on slopes as well.

Hole Cheats.bmp

You can also lower the tile of a plant to create an entirely new looking plant. Here I've set it up by lowering the ground.

Hole Cheats 2.bmp

Here the plants are placed into their holes.

Hedge+ Hole Cheats 1.bmp

Here I've used some Hedge Walls to achieve a fuller look.

Shrub Stacking Cheat.bmp

Another little trick. I call it shrub stacking. The idea is pretty basic, but if executed well, can look very good. It can be used next to trees that don't fill their tile well to create a more complete look.

Dirt Phase 1.bmp

Here's the first example. I changed the ground type to dirt, since most trees don't just grow grass under them.

Dirt Phase 2.bmp

Now I've added some Dirt/Grass around the edges, so the ground doesn't go from Dirt to Grass, just like that.

Tree Phase 19 (Tall).bmp

Here I've added the taller trees onto the Dirt tiles.

Tree Phase 2 (Short).bmp

The smaller trees are added around the taller ones.

Tree Phase 3 (Really Short).bmp

Some even smaller trees have been added at this point.

Shrub Phase 1.bmp

The shrubs have been placed around the trees, creating a fuller look.