Introduction
In this article, we will be exploring a topic touched upon during our speech at Oxonmoot: Trees. We’ll take a look at how we build thousands of custom trees, how they’re implemented on our map and how they fit into our vision of a world faithful to both the lore of the legendarium and the laws of nature.
Introduction to our trees
JRR Tolkien is famous for holding nature close to his heart: he was distraught by the industrialisation of the area he grew up in in rural England and it is suggested that the chimneys and smokestacks of the West Midlands inspired his vision of Mordor. Within the text itself are many themes of environmentalism: his portrayal of the Scouring of the Shire and the industrialisation of Isengard show his disdain for the destruction of nature and his desire to preserve the natural world. Central to this was his love of trees. As Tolkien himself once said, “I don’t know why, but I am always attracted by trees”. Trees not only are beloved by Tolkien, but also play a role in his narratives, for example Treebeard and the other Ents and Old Man Willow, both angered by encroachment on lands that have been untouched by mankind for time immemorial. Even the non-anthropomorphised trees still contribute to worldbuilding and themes, with the Two Trees of Valinor literally lighting up the continent and the Mallorn trees of Lorien representing the last remnants of the First Age as magical things fade out of Middle-earth. Furthermore, Tolkien often used trees as a scene-setting device, with their descriptions defining the mood of an area and the general tone of a passage. On ArdaCraft we aim to give Tolkien’s most treasured aspect of the natural world the care and attention it deserves, whilst preserving both the real world accuracy and importance to the lore.
Why do we use custom trees?
If you’re in any way familiar with Minecraft, you’ll know that the game generates trees itself, to populate the procedurally generated world available in the base game. So why don’t we just let Minecraft do the hard work for us, and use their trees? Unfortunately, the trees from the base game are massively inadequate for our needs; there is a very limited number of both sizes and species (some of which are fictional) to work with, reducing the regions we would be able to add the vanilla trees to. Additionally, these trees are rendered even more blocky and inadequate by the Conquest Reforged mod, a mod which adds thousands of new blocks to the world and is integral to our efforts in recreating Middle-earth. So if we can’t use the trees available in the base game, then how can we populate our server with the flora Tolkien treasured so greatly? The first thing we need to consider is the diversity of Middle-earth; our map will span a range of environments, from the northern tundras of Forodwaith to the deserts of Harad, and these areas will all have their own unique species of trees and bushes. You can learn more about the biomes and environments of our map in an upcoming video. We also need to account for different densities of flora: the trees you might find in a large, wild forest would differ from the trees of a well-maintained orchard, so every species needs a range of sizes, shapes and uses.
How do we build our trees?
On ArdaCraft, trees are actually only built by a small number of builders, who all follow a fairly organised process when creating the trees. Trees are categorised in sets: firstly by species, for example, White Poplar, then by variety, for example if they are mossy or if they are covered in ivy, and finally by size, which ranges from tiny to extra large. Furthermore, every individual type of tree will have between 8 and 20 different variations. This enables us to have a sufficient variety of trees to make every orchard, wood and forest feel unique, as well as appropriate to both their on-map and real life contexts. In actually building these trees, the process goes as follows: a builder will claim a type of tree to build, let's say a Forest Large Oak. They will then check for references of what this tree actually looks like- to make this easier we have a separate Landscaping Discord server where we compile images of various trees and landscapes to be used as inspiration for future projects. From the reference images, the builder should get a good idea of what they want to build. The building of the trees itself is done not on the main map, but in a separate area known as the Tree Grid, where every single model of tree and bush can be found- the Tree Grid consists of a 2D grid upon which the in progress trees are built and a 3D grid where completed trees are saved. Once all of the research is done, the builder will start actually building their trees, using a broad variety of blocks from the Conquest Reforged mod such as branches, logs, branch tips and leaves to create the tree or bush. The finer processes differ from builder to builder, but usually the trunk and main branches are completed first, before the focus changes to the leaves and smaller branches. When the builder feels they have completed all of their trees, they will put them up for approval in a manner similar to how builds are on the main world, which will be explored alongside the entire building process in another episode. The tree lead will then look over the trees and either approve them if they think they are up to our standards, or add comments where improvements are needed, after which the builder will need to go back and make these changes. When the lead is satisfied, the trees can be saved. For the trees to be used in the main world, they need to be saved as schematics, or just ‘schems’ for short. The trees are pasted into the 3D grid and saved as a code that is added to a spreadsheet where progress for the entire grid is tracked. For example, the Forest Large Oak would be saved as ‘okfl’.
How do we use trees?
When the schematics are saved, they can finally be used by the rest of the build team. Any builder can look at the spreadsheet and find the code for the type of tree they need to use and place a randomly selected version on the main world using a schembrush. If they don’t like the tree that spawns in, they can simply undo and place another random version until they get one they like. For example, a builder making an orchard might use smaller pruned pear trees, whereas a builder making a field boundary might use a medium poplar. When placing these, builders still need to look out for how the tree interacts with the terrain, consider if it makes sense being there and consider how the tree might affect its environment, and vice versa. On a larger scale, trees are an integral part of making different regions of the map have their own feel and identity, and can be placed on a mass scale in World Painter as we create our new map, about which you can find out more in a future article.
Conclusion
Currently, there are around seven thousand trees saved and available to use whilst making our map; more are being built all the time, and the eventual goal is to reach 35 thousand saved trees and bushes. Every single one of these trees brings us closer to recreating Middle-earth and bringing to life the world created by Tolkien through his works, so many thanks to everyone who’s given their time to the Tree Grid. If you have any questions, know anything about botany or just want to help with the project, join our Discord.
