Cotton

[VS]

Hello,
I was looking for some references for cotton planting - so that I know how to make new fields for cotton farm. I don't know a thing about it. I can google images; however, they have almost zero new information value. I learned from them that cotton looks white when it is ready to be harvested and green before that. But I want to know.. How does a typical cotton field look in winter? Just plains? How does the plant grow - height during year?

So, if you know something, please tell me!

[PatrickN]

Cotton is planted like any other row crop, and look a little like a jalapeno pepper plant with a thick stem and bushy leaves.  Planting takes place in early summer.  The plant doesn't grow more than 2 or 3 feet (probably 1/2 a meter).  They bloom in late summer to early fall (about 1.5 months ago here in Tennessee).  The cotton bowl begins to form, slowly changing the color of a field from green to white.  By the time the cotton bolls are fully developed, the green leaves begin to fall off.  At that point, the field looks like it has a heavy layer of snow on it.  Then it is harvested, leaving a little bit of cotton scattered on the ground as waste.  As it rains, the waste cotton returns to the soil and it is usually left to the grass and weeds until the next planting season. 

[VS]

Planting takes place in early summer.

So, for quite a few months before it is planted, the field is empty?

[PatrickN]

Probably about 5 months.  The last month of fall and the first month of spring (around here, that is Novemeber, December, January, February, and March it would be empty).  Then in Spring it gets plowed up and the plants start growing in Summer.  For simutrans purposes, the winter scene would be dry grass or snow; the spring scene would be plowed, brown soil with a few green seedlings; the summer scene would be green plants; and the fall scene would be the green plants with a heavy layer of white static on top.

I wish I had time to do this for you, but I haven't even started on that quarry I was going to do yet.

[VS]

Thanks! I pondered for a minute if I should PM you, but then decided to make it public since there was no guarantee you knew

[VS]

Here is an attempt at growing cotton (obviously not finished). What do you think?

[ML]

*Thumbs up*
Nothing more to say

[sojo]

Good work. I like it.

[Noel]

Well, it looks nice. A bit more variety in lightning (darker areas, lighter areas) and it'll be perfect - in my eyes. : )
The ground looks almost photorealistic.

Best regards,
Noel

[marioxcc]

In the image the cotton is perfect, but IMHO the land is too brown.

[VS]

The land is copied directly from grain farm, which has it for ages... it can be changed, but what exactly would you suggest?



Another attempt. Apart from the light dots making "seams" on back of tile, what should I change?

[Roads]

VS, the pic is great!  I can't wait to see it in game.  I have wanted cotton fields in a game for soooo long.  As a child growing up in Alabama, everyone grew cotton and then we still picked it by hand.  If you were good you could pick 200 pounds a day.  A very few could pick as much as 300 but I guess this is info that is not needed here.
Still it is hard for old people not to reminisce and I could do 200.

Anyway what I wanted to say besides how much I like the cotton is I have to disagree about how the fields look in winter.  I think nowadays they go in with some kind of equipment and clip the stalks off at the ground, maybe some plow them under but certainly until recently they left them standing until Spring.  The stalks would be bare and the fields from a distance would be very dark, bordering on black with bits of white.  But hey, however you do it I'll be happy. 

EDIT:  After I've thought about it some, a cotton field in the winter does not look black.  The only thing I can relate it to that would give you an idea is maybe a bar code on packaging.  Just imagine it with thinner lines for the stalks and some branches and whatever background color the ground would be. 

[marioxcc]

The land is copied directly from grain farm, which has it for ages... it can be changed, but what exactly would you suggest?

The new ground is perfect, i was talking of these.

[VS]

Roads, if you manage to find a photo, it would help a lot!

Actually, the first word that came to my mind was "screenshot", but you can't make screenshots from your eyes... yet?

[Roads]

Haha my eyes are not so bad that I can't see a cotton field.

No one I know grows cotton anymore but I think it is still grown in the big fields outside Muscle Shoals.  I believe they also cut the stalks down in the fall but they may not have done that yet.  I'll e-mail my nephew and ask him to get some pics if he can find any fields with the stalks still standing.  I assume you want the pics in .jpg format?

The pic you posted of the grain farm looks really good to me for cotton growing up until the fields start turning white.  Neither the blooms nor the bolls are apparent from a distance but I'm relying on my memory here and that is dubious at best.  It is a running joke among my sons and one has dubbed it the "R" and never to be used.

[VS]

Ah, a little clarification is probably in order: what I mean is a photo of these stalks in winter, about which you talked earlier. Similar to barcodes.

Of course I was able to squeeze some photos out of internet, after a few minutes of searching. I have a fairly good idea of how these fields look - except during winter.



edit: Oh sorry, I didn't read your post carefully - yes, your offer is great, many thanks!

[VS]

Another test. Please disregard glitches on tile edges, these will be removed on final version...





I am not very pleased with the "middle" version. One white (well, rather gren/white) dot on top of every plant, and it looks completely different.

[marioxcc]

The color is fine, but the arrangement of the cotton inside the tile is ugly, too cotton plants at the bottom left and upper rigth, and not enough in the center.

[Roads]

Honestly I think they are both good.  The last field actually looks fluffy.

The only things I would change, if possible, the second field is not green enough.  I assume this is when the cotton would be blooming and forming bolls?  If so, even then it is vividly green.  And in the last pic, it would be good if it were whiter mixed with some dark.  Cotton is equal to snow in being about the whitest thing you've ever seen.  This all said I'll defer to Marioxcc since I've no doubt when he comes to graphics, he is far, far better to make a judgment.

[VS]

How's this... I fixed all known glitches:

[sojo]

I don't play pak128, but I like it!!!

[VS]

Thanks!

Any word from our resident cotton experts? (Nominated for the position by actually seeing it live )

[Lodovico]

Create it for pak64, too. I need it. 
But for the period before 1930 or so, remove the tractor.

[VS]

I made just the fields, farm building is Patrick's.

[sojo]

Create it for pak64, too. I need it. 

Than I need it for pak96.comic, too.

[VS]

Aaaa! They want my preciousssssss!

I will upload all the files to gsc and then you can try yourself...

[sojo]

I will upload all the files to gsc and then you can try yourself...

gsc?

[Alex. Brose]

gsc = graphics.simutrans.com

[sojo]

gsc = graphics.simutrans.com

Ah. Yes. shabifoth!!! (sojo have a board in front of the head )

[marioxcc]

How's this... I fixed all known glitches:

It's perfect!.

Create it for pak64, too. I need it. 

We wil also need consumers.

[VS]

Thanks for all the compliments!

Here are the sources:
http://graphics.simutrans.com/thumbnails.php?album=40

[Sarrus]

owesome

[Roads]

VS, I'm sorry I have not responded earlier.  Yes the last pic looks great!

I have not heard from my nephew on the winter fields but I will see him, probably this coming Thursday and talk to him about it.  Also I'm sure the kids will be bringing their cameras home for Christmas and we'll take a day if possible and go cotton field hunting around the area.  If all efforts fail, there is always late next fall to catch the fields before the stalks are damaged.

One more thing, cotton is not taken directly from the fields to a textile mill.  It is taken to gin to have the seeds removed and be baled.  Normally gins were the biggest buildings in small communities and every little town had one as late as the 1950's - '60's.  Farmers could not afford to haul it long distances and even if they could, the bulkiness of it would make such a trip cost prohibitive.

[VS]

Thanks! It's not that important to apologize As I see it now: There are fields in the game, good, players are happy. Improvements are possible, even better, everyone is happy.

About the gin - good point, I'll have to learn more about real life industries again.

[PatrickN]

Doh!  I should have got a picture of some cotton fields last week.  Well, what they do around here is plow the field up right after harvest, so it looks like a plowed field with a few brown sticks from the dead plants.

This is right after a harvest.  A few weeks after harvest, they plow all those dead plants under so they refresh the soil for the next season.