How can I learn to stop worrying and love placing flora?

I am woefully ignorant regarding species of flora (bushes, trees, shrubs, etc.)

Naturally, this causes some problems when attempting to build routes.

In years (and Trainz versions) past, I would rely on some passable, generic tree-splines, but...

1) many of these don't hold up in newer versions of Trainz
2) "proper" tree assets tend to look better.

Can any prototypical route builders give me some pointers on how to improve (in the words of my generation) my tree game?

I would also appreciate recommendations for good tree/grass/bush assets for TS12.

I have gotten so used to blank gray baseboards, no woads, no twees', no schwubberies' ... no nothing ... I don't sweat the small stuff ... I just lay twack' and have fun wunning' twainz'

Look at the countryside around you or, if possible, in the areas you are modelling.

Some possible guidelines (but every area can/will be different)

• In relatively unspoiled environments, the most dense foliage will follow the natural water courses (creeks, etc) and around dams both natural and man made
• Grasses tend to grow best in the depressions where more rainwater will collect or flow through - this effect can often be achieved by selecting a darker (or more dense) texture
• In agricultural areas, natural foliage (trees, shrubs) will often follow the fence lines where mechanical harvesters are not likely to reach - farmers usually do not plough right up to the fence line

The more difficult question is often what types of trees, shrubs and grasses should you use. Local knowledge is the best guide here. Running tracks are usually free of grasses because their root systems can disrupt the ballast so weed spraying will be used. Where grasses do exist they will often be dead and/or dry. Little used tracks and yards will often have some grasses due to cost cutting (fewer if any sprays). Likewise shrubs and trees will normally be kept well back from the tracks.

But there will always be exceptions to these guidelines

Yup knowing the area you're modeling helps. If you are doing a route local to your area, go out and look at trees. My area for example has loads of maples, oaks, pine, spruce, and birch as the most common woodlands trees. There are other species as well such as various willows, aspen, ash, poplar, horse chestnut, catalpa, choke cherry, and locust species.

You'll find that birch, along with the choke cherry, and locusts tend to grow on the edges of forests. These, as someone I know in horticulture calls them, are junk tree which are the first trees to fill in before other species take hold. Birch and choke cherry trees have soft wood and soft bark, and tend to be short lived. The locust form spiny tangles, and tend to fill in barren ground, empty lots, and other places.

There are of course introduced species as well such as red maples, mimosa, catalpa, various fruit trees, and such which came in from Europe and Asia as ornamentals, which have now hybridized with natural species and taken over some areas.

Maybe I'm lucky that I always had an interest in trees and plants/flowers in general so my knowledge base is there already.

You might find this useful here:

https://www.arborday.org/

Thank you all for the tips.

Are there any particular sites or content creators who you would recommend for trees and grass/shrub splines in TS12?

I understand that the trees in T:ANE are different, but I'm not upgrading just yet.

Personally I would go easy on the splines. They tend to lend a uniform/symmetrical look and can be a frame rate hog, too. Better to plant a small selection of single specimen grasses and clumps, then use the copy/rotate-paste function to apply these for a more random appearance. Most of the later JVC grasses still look okay in TANE, the guy who does the rmm speedtrees has a few grass types in the collection, there's also a few TANE compatible grass clumps in the Ultra collection which can be used to add a "procedural" look to the terrain texture.

However even then I would say, don't overdo it. Choose your grass/ground textures carefully and let those do their intended job. Optimise according to the type of route - if it's a 90 MPH main line then ground clutter will go largely un-noticed. If it's a creaky branch line with a 15 MPH speed limit, a train twice a week and hasn't seen the weedspray train in 10 years then copious grass and weeds everywhere will be right at home.

Find trees, scrubs, and grass that you like. In a far away area plant sections that you like then copy and paste in viewed area.

If your not sure, you can always do a search on the web for trees in the area that you are working in.