Hello, I posted a mod for the Community folder that follows WeptBurrito2749’s suggestion.
The mod can be downloaded from flightsim.to:
7 Likes
Thanks for the great fix to everyone involved!
Here is my comparison of the default sim, flighsimulator.blog fix and the flightsim.to vegetation fix. I’m using 200 LOD and ultra trees settings.
Default
The default screenshot has a different color tone, but that’s because of a different time of day setting. I personally like the flightsim.to vegetation fix better than the flighsimulator.blog fix.
Btw, I didn’t see any FPS hit with the mods.
7 Likes
In testing, I realized that the terrain LOD also affects , well the terrain lol, I quess from low quality to high. My poor system can’t handle it being too high, but lots of trees was only a few fps less.
Just to see what would happen, I made the min/max 1500/1750… came to a crawl lol
1 Like
Hi WeptBurrito,
Would your mod need to be updated after each patch or is it a drop and forget kind of deal?
Haha there’s no telling. For now it seems it should be fine for awhile, I’ve had tree “hacks” for awhile now, for color and height and haven’t had to mess with them.
New version is out with higher trees draw distance and a bit shorter trees. Default trees are unrealistically way too tall. Added special thanks to WeptBurrito2749, being a big part of the final solution for this workaround!
https://www.flightsimulator.blog/2020/12/29/increase-trees-draw-distance/
EDIT: The latest version 1.7 adds all the vegetation (not only the trees) as well and makes some of the too tall trees and jungle palms a bit shorter too.
4 Likes
Yep,
That’s what I was going to say, different trees size between the two mod;
One has low trees size (https://www.flightsimulator.blog/2020/12/29/increase-trees-draw-distance/)
And the other (Vegetation Draw Distance Fix • Microsoft Flight Simulator) has perfect match to genuine trees size.
Thank you all for your work, much appreciated 
2 Likes
Great fixes! The tree height always bothered me, and i had a fix earlier on (also at flightsim/to), but its great that we can drop the vegetation draw dist fix into the community folder, rather than mess with the root MFS folders!
Enjoying the trees LOD and size mod. Great work. Thanks!
I can think of only one practical suggestion that might improve forest realism. I wish I had the time to try this myself. Nature is cruel. Not every tree survives to an old age. The sim forests are too perfect. Randomly add some ‘dead’ trees - trees with more trunk than leaves. This might look very good if done properly.
That’s in a different file, but is exactly what I did. Forests arent full of 100% green trees. It is just messing the the color unfortunately, and until/if they add dead trees, have to settle for brown.
1 Like
Great mod! Mountains actually look populated with trees and the distances are set just right, no FPS hit. Really great and fixes the FSX LOD we had before.
1 Like
Remember guys, WeptBurrito2749 is the one who deserves the credit entirely for this find, I just took his idea and made it available to everyone.
3 Likes
Awesome mods, guys! Thank you!
For maximum awesomeness, combine both flightsim.to and flightsimulator.blog. Just download both and compare the contents of the XML file. I think the one Propeller uploaded looks better at mid-high altitudes but the one from flightsimulator.blog reduces the humongous stock trees so it’s more accurate around airports and at very low altitudes.
2 Likes
I was thinking of creating a dead tree. I even downloaded the SDK. I am not certain it is even possible. IIUC, it would require adding the new tree model to the list of trees used by the forest procedure. Is the forest procedure even accessible or is it baked into releases? I ain’t got time for all of that. Just get rid of the dang spikes. Those are killing the best part of the current chapter in the MSFS story…
1 Like
Hi all - I’ve been a fairly long time lurker on these boards but this issue has got me thinking and I don’t know enough so Im going to ask questions and think out loud if thats OK.
First - @WeptBurrito2749 - you’re a genius. way to think outside the box!
second – the tree placement data - it must be in different resolutions - different levels of detail for different distances (I can’t think of the word)… it seems to me to be logical that low res tree placement data would place more trees than high res data which would be more refined in its placement. This may explain @CptLucky8 's situation with disappearing/changing trees?
third - maybe the sim asks a logic question “Can any tree be seen at this distance?” and if the answer is NO then it moves on but if the answer is yes then it might load another ring of tree data.
The bigger the tree, the farther out the question become TRUE and the more tree data LOD rings it draws. Does that make sense at all to those who might know?
Is the reason @WeptBurrito2749 's trick works is because it forces the answer to be TRUE for a much greater distance and so it loads all trees and not just the one non visible tree?
If this post is too stupid for words then just ignore it I guess.
2 Likes
I haven’t had much luck with Tree Editor (latest version). I continue to try to fly in the several square miles around my house, and all the 2 lane and 4 lane roads are massively over crowded with trees, to the point where I can’t see the roads. I’ve cut down the min and max on conifers and deciduous (Atlanta suburb) and later cut down all the spawn ratios. I don’t see to get any appreciable response.
I’ve also adjusted trees, grass and bushes, under graphics settings …
bumping for 30 more days…
Ever since i tried this LOD fix all the trees and no matter where i am in the world look like almost hexagon in shape. I removed the mod and still they look the same. I guess a file is screwed up somewhere. Any ideas on how to sort this.