Additional Foliage for the game

[Danny_zoo]

Modern zoo's are conservation organizations, and a lot of their exhibits are focused on creating public awareness for entire ecosystems that are currently on the verge of disappearing. The island nation of Madagascar has been the focus of many award winning exhibits within the world's top zoological parks, since approximately 90 percent of its animals and plants are endemic, all of the island's unique species are at an increase risk of completely disappearing. There is also the fact that the game already has two lemur species within its base roster, so it would make it easier for the developers to create other species of lemurs. The reptiles and amphibians of the island would also make fantastic small exhibits additions. All of these reasons could be good indicators, based on frontier's direction with this game, that at some point a Madagascar dlc could be developed, this would be a perfect opportunity to include many striking species of plants alongside the native wildlife. Some of the best Madagascar zoo exhibits in the world can be found in the following institutions, feel free to add to the list if others come to mind.

Zurich Zoo-Masoala Rainforest (A fantastic example of what modern zoo planning and design is all about, while depicting a single habitat within Madagascar the institution does a superb job at taking the visitor right inside the Masoala Rainforest)

Bronx Zoo- Madagascar. Simply put one of the best exhibits ever dedicated to Madagascar, it addresses pressing issues like deforestation in spectacular fashion. The exhibit blends world class museum displays with modern zoological concepts, and the result is an accurate depiction of many of the Islands threatened ecosystems.

Parc Zooloqique de Paris- Madagascar Biozone. A beautifully planned and executed exhibit that showcases two ecosystems within the Island, the tropical rainforest and the dry forest.

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium-Hubbard Expedition Madagascar. As all projects related to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium the zoo does a fantastic job displaying a very large number of species who have indoor and outdoor exhibits for the most part.

The island of Madagascar is home to some of the most amazing and unique animals in the world, and a hot topic of conservation within the zoo world, assuming that frontier continues with the direction of promoting conservation and realism within the game, we should then expect more from this island. In the second part of this post I will list a number of plants that would assist virtual zoo exhibit designers to create their own award winning exhibits.

 

[Danny_zoo]

Here is a suggested list of already available plants and trees within the video game market that could be added to a Madagascar dlc.

 

[Danny_zoo]

In many zoo exhibits you will find recently trimmed or felled landscaping that acts as enrichment for the animals, many dead trees can be used to add climbing options, create natural barriers, etc. Institutions with access to bigger financial resources do commission landscape pieces, like hollow tree trunks, and large fallen trees that replicate nature and in many cases blend with the natural landscape in a fully immersive experience. Within the foliage section of Planet Zoo we can find a small selection of tree sections of excellent quality that can aid in creating naturalistic and realistic zoo exhibits. There is also a small selection of different log sections and tree branches within the piece by piece building section. This is an area that is currently extremely limited within the game, and is really needed to improve the realism of the game, in short with need more of it and greater variety.

If the game was to add a birds dlc at any point, this would be a most, as the great majority of the pieces and tree sections available within the base game are not adequate for displaying birds. We need many pieces with small branches that are suitable for birds to rest. Adding the very large and mature trees to bird enclosures is neither realistic or practical, since you would have a very hard time spotting the birds. The same came be said about every other animal exhibit, since there is a very small selection of pieces and textures available, most of the exhibits end up looking very similar to each other. I have seen videos of the top players and builders that have created very detail buildings, but their landscape architecture seems unrealistic and poor, this is of course not their fault, but the result of the game's current limitations, or lack of foliage diversity.

I would like for Frontier to expand on the aspects of piece by piece construction that will assist players when building realistic exhibits. In addition to tree trucks and branches, there is also a need for other landscape items, as piles of fallen leaves that can be placed on the ground, since we already have a prop that creates fallen leaves, but since they never fall on the ground, it takes the realism away entirely. Other props like dead palm tree trunks and dead palm fronds would be of great value.

 

[Arrakai]

Yes please! More dead trees, logs and such would be great! Especially if they were not tied to a specific biom/continent, that would be even better!

 

[Firestar97]

In many zoo exhibits you will find recently trimmed or felled landscaping that acts as enrichment for the animals, many dead trees can be used to add climbing options, create natural barriers, etc. Institutions with access to bigger financial resources do commission landscape pieces, like hollow tree trunks, and large fallen trees that replicate nature and in many cases blend with the natural landscape in a fully immersive experience. Within the foliage section of Planet Zoo we can find a small selection of tree sections of excellent quality that can aid in creating naturalistic and realistic zoo exhibits. There is also a small selection of different log sections and tree branches within the piece by piece building section. This is an area that is currently extremely limited within the game, and is really needed to improve the realism of the game, in short with need more of it and greater variety.

If the game was to add a birds dlc at any point, this would be a most, as the great majority of the pieces and tree sections available within the base game are not adequate for displaying birds. We need many pieces with small branches that are suitable for birds to rest. Adding the very large and mature trees to bird enclosures is neither realistic or practical, since you would have a very hard time spotting the birds. The same came be said about every other animal exhibit, since there is a very small selection of pieces and textures available, most of the exhibits end up looking very similar to each other. I have seen videos of the top players and builders that have created very detail buildings, but their landscape architecture seems unrealistic and poor, this is of course not their fault, but the result of the game's current limitations, or lack of foliage diversity.

I would like for Frontier to expand on the aspects of piece by piece construction that will assist players when building realistic exhibits. In addition to tree trucks and branches, there is also a need for other landscape items, as piles of fallen leaves that can be placed on the ground, since we already have a prop that creates fallen leaves, but since they never fall on the ground, it takes the realism away entirely. Other props like dead palm tree trunks and dead palm fronds would be of great value.


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The dead Baobab Tree in the first Picture would be beautiful in a Gorilla-Enclosure
The hollow Tree in the second Picture would also be great for small Animals and Birds that incubate their Eggs in hollow Trees and similar Places

 

[Danny_zoo]

Zoo Landscape Scenery

 

[Danny_zoo]

GRASS
After long periods of gameplay and video observation I realized that there were instant elements that could be added or extracted from the game, that would increase the realism and complexity of the zoos being built. I have watched many concept zoo exhibit preview videos of actual real life projects, and while most, if not all of them were of lesser quality than the Planet Zoo textures, props and scenery, in the most of the videos the exhibits, zoo panoramas and overall vistas looked more attractive and realistic than what was displayed in the game.

The first step in my observation was to remove all zoo visitors, since their cartoon appearance instantly takes away from the realism of the zoo. This is not a problem for me, since not only the game performance increases, but I actually prefer looking at what I have built without visitors walking all over the place, and many times thru objects and walls. But even after this extraction from the game, something else was totally missing, a variety of grass and ground cover that would immediately change this game. I'm not asking for the developers to increase the variation of ground textures, I do understand that this is a technological limitation, and Planet Zoo has the maximum of possible textures within each map. I'm simply asking that the foliage team gives the players access to a reasonable selection of grass species and ground cover. In addition to the fallen leaves and branches already discussed previously this would really create a new and improved level of realism for the player's zoos. I was disappointed when the base game was released and I discovered the very limited amount of grasses within the foliage section, but what truly shock me was during my research of available 3d grass models in the market, how much more variety there is outthere.

Visit any zoo in the world and you will see a number of grass species, the zoos in Planet Zoo look sterile, because when you look down all of the grass looks the same, there is no variation, other than short grass and long grass, and in some maps they look pretty similar. Grass and small plants can be used in a number of ways within the game, and added not only to exhibits but all areas of the zoo. Hopefully this is something that is corrected by the foliage team, since it could really change the look of the zoo's drastically.

 

[Danny_zoo]

Grass

 

[Danny_zoo]

Grass