Is there a reason that trees still have their leaves so that December looks like September? Just wondering, as it didn't seem to be an issue in TSC, where there are 4 distinct seasons as in reality.
Does this not depend on location and date? I’m sure there are some routes that have trees with no leaves
I believe I’m right in saying that in DTG’s world Winter doesn’t start until January 1st, so December has leaf covered trees. It’s basic, should have been fixed many moons ago and totally typical that it’s still like this. If you play on PC you can use GodMode to set the trees to winter each time you go in to the game.
In the real world around here at least some of the trees still have their leaves on them. It has been (relatively) mild so far this autumn and not overly windy so they are hanging on for grim death!
In my place, lots of trees still carry leaves right now. On PC, you can always use godmode to change from Autumn to Winter trees if you wish so. Or just run in January.
Currently crying in poor adhesion and Leaffall contamination paperwork as we speak. There are certainly still leaves on trees
Ah, so the issue is not with the routes themselves, but simply the fact that the game does not change to "winter trees" until january?
Where I live most of the trees had shed completely by the 2nd weekend in November this year. Exceptions are of course the "live oaks" and those that shed in the spring. In-game setting to January helped, thanks - makes it look like November, so better.
In my yard, the damn oaks ration out their leaves all autumn and winter, so there is never a weekend without raking until spring.. Whay can't they behave like every other deciduous tree and drop them all by Thanksgiving?
It’s not abnormal to have some leaves on the trees at this time of year, we’re only a couple of weeks into Winter. What we don’t have is 100% leaf coverage that flips to zero on January 1st which is what this game depicts. I can’t believe it would be difficult to alter the leaf coverage throughout December based on the date. Unfortunately it doesn’t work with GodMode, you can either have full winter trees or no winter trees, despite playing with the sliders there is no halfway house. 22nd December is the Astronomical Winter Season, I’ve yet to ever hear someone using that to measure the start of Winter! The solar season starts on November 1st which is why British Summertime ends on October 31st but the important one is the meteorological season which starts on December 1st. By this time in the year at least 80% of the leaves that are going to drop have generally done so in the UK (and by extension Europe). I was in the US at the back end of November and the trees were looking decidedly bare at that point too. The point is, at this point in December in the Northern hemisphere trees are not in full leaf. I guess it’s academic anyway, what with the awful snow kick-up effect and the snow rendering being completely broken in TSW4 very few people are likely using it anyway.
Historically 'winter' began on the solstice. I'm not sure when this changed (a few decades ago), but the UK Met Office decided it would start on 1st December, I think because that makes it easier to match up monthly weather stats with seasonal ones. BST ends at 2am on the last Sunday in October - used to be the 4th Sunday, but the UK changed to be in line with the rest of Europe - and the US changes at the same time (though daylight savings begin in the US 2 or 3 weeks earlier than Europe, giving opportunities for confusion).
Not only leaves are a problem. The game also has an intense point of surrealism about season-dependent and general time based aspects of sunrise and sundown. I mean it's not really immersive, If I want to make a service at 4 a.m. in summer and sun is already above the horizon yet, and in winter 8:30 a.m. looks like it's in the middle of the night with not a single glimpse of sunlight at the sky.
I drove late afternoon in German route recently and it was dark. Kassel Wurzberg. In December I think about 5pm.... a Fuda service to Kassel. I find it quite accurate but it isn't perfect. In MML I found the trees had leaves on..... Maybe should go and see and post screenshot. It just needs further refining. In summer in Europe the sun would be up at 4am. https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/germany/aachen?month=7&year=2023
Try the Glasgow route in mid December, you ought to get about 6 hours of daylight, and some days calling it daylight is a stretch.
Another neglected part of the "simulator" along with the improperly set up lights in winter stations where it's pitch black darkness for an hour before they come on. There are (were before they were broken) mods that fix this, but you have to ask yourself why a modder can do something, but the game developers ignore it.
I'm talking about deciduous trees that shed their leaves yearly. Having them still fully leafed anywhere in the northern hemisphere in December, is not realistic.
Gotta say, in my experience the trees in Texas are every bit as bare in December as they are anywhere else. It can also get damn cold too!
Or drive TSC, where it's the 4 seasons, never mind about months/days. More realistic, and Mister Geppetto said I am a real boy.
As you well know, on this Forum you could post that the surface of the Sun is hot, and someone would argue, lol
Well, as the highest possible temperature in the universe is 14,200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000° C, one could argue if 40°C/104°F should be considered hot while 0°C/32°F is called cold. That's a difference of a billionth of a billionth of whatever on the whole scale - nothing.
I would rather have trees without leaves in December even if in real life they still have some leaves on, than have those unrealistic fully covered trees that look horrible with snow wither way. At least make them have half of the foliage and that would be a start.
picture taken on Wednesday 20 Dec…. And yes that is one of my horses and not a stock photo….i would say there are still leaves on the trees.
No, they are live oaks… and I am in south Texas… the other photo was probably from North Texas… of course Texas does cover a large area
Yes, it was a news story from I believe Austin area about the big storms that came in 2021. Live oaks shed in the spring - we have them up here in the high Plains ("pin oaks" because they are so straight) but not as prevalent. Thank you sir for both of those photos.
Not *too* far off. Even where I live, a bit south of there, the sun could not really be described as "up" until after 10 this morning. Solstice and all.
I was struck by this on New York-Trenton the other day, driving in December but the trees were full of leaves in all their fall glory like it was the first week of October. It would be great if they fine tuned it. DW
Yes well especially the north of Texas can get a few feet of snow. I doubt you get ANY on the Gulf of Mexico. Dallas maybe a sprinkle?
Good comment. We need to put together a wishlist. Similar to preservation crew...where they upgraded routes etc.
They look very similar to the Eucalypts in Australia. Los Angeles area and South California (especially where the shoot movies) has large varieties of Australian Eucalypts which slang is gum trees. I saw one in a John Wayne movie once maybe The Train Robbers but NW Los Angeles well probably heading West has streets full of the tall gum trees. I am certain there might be a few more movies where you can see them. You don't see any in Clint Eastwood's spaghettit westerns because they were shot in Italy. But eucalypt trees don't lose their leaves (I know most know that) in seasons. They do drop (a few only) leaves but its all throughout the year and only a few. I know because I am picking them up haha
History of the Eucalypt in Los Angeles. https://homesteadmuseum.blog/2021/1...f-the-eucalyptus-tree-in-greater-los-angeles/ Side note The famous palm trees of Los Angeles are dwindling now and won't be replaced....
Those leaf vacuum machines are expensive. A ride on mower or even push mower can pick up leaves cheaper... Your advice?
Soooooo….. It would appear that the game (or more likely the engine) uses the Winter Solstice, which is today, to change from Autumn trees to Winter trees. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, the issue is that it’s a binary option. Fully Autumn or fully winter. There must be a way to depict the ‘fall’ in the game. These are the things that transforms a ‘game’ into a ‘sim’. The jury is still out on which of the two TSW is meant to be.
If you're on PC you can always give this a try by adding this line to your engine.ini gm.AutumnTreeMuliplier=1.0 I've noticed it makes trees look more wintery and have little to no leaves during December but I've not tried it properly during other seasons to see what things look like.
Foobian kindly added that command to GodMode to allow me to control that parameter for my lighting mod. All that does is allow you to set how starkly coloured the autumn trees are. 1 is equal to 100% and is the default setting. If you look at the dynamic.ini’s I set up they’re all less that 1, and colour the trees to be a realistic hue. The only way to remove leaves is to the the Winter Tree slider to 100%
I assume it depends on if the trees in TSW are even set up to have a transition between states. I don't know if SpeedTree supports that?
Places in America, generally the southern part, have evergreen broad-leaf trees (live oaks, magnolias, imported eucalyptus etc). But more northerly NA, and Europe, really don't have any.