The tree problem

[Khornet]

Trees. Probably one of the most notable and prolific aspect of any world in Vintage Story. Trees are everywhere. Trees are necessary. Trees... are love.
UNFORTUNATELY, the trees we all love to cut down with tender affection are... ugly.

First of all, the trunks are stuck in the basic blocky pillar shape from stump to top.

Second of all, we have this weird idea of diagonal/curved trees, the blocks of which aren't formally connected to each other:

There's no way around it; it's hideous.

Then we have the tree "branch" logs, that, for some ungodly reason, weren't ever changed to be horizontally-aligned instead of vertically (despite you being able to manually place them as such):

There's no way around it; it's repulsive.

Then we also have the issue of branchy/leaf blocks not being even connected to the logs/branches themselves, just casually floating in the air. Illustrated in the screenshot above as well.

The reason why I would like to address this issue is because: reworking the trees would most likely involve re-working worldgen AGAIN. This means, we'd all have to commit to a new world migration AGAIN. I personally think worldgen changes should be prioritized in the development process. I also personally believe the ocean/water biomes are going to get more in-depth content, which also warrants another drastic worldgen change, that would be a good opportunity to finally get trees to look and act more immersive and pretty.

Now, I'm not sure if there's any plan to re-work trees altogether (nothing on the roadmap and I've oddly never seen this issue being talked about). This could just be my personal gripe and trees may as well function "as intended" for the final iteration of VS. Which would be a damn shame IMO.

Now, because I'm not one to do criticizing without proposing solutions, what I would roughly expect as the optimal state of trees is what RLCraft has (you gonna have to YouTube and check them out yourself because I couldn't find a good screenshot and I don't wanna "steal" any). They're still blocky, but ostensibly more tree-like. The smaller trees are properly thinner. The core "branches out" into... branches... to form treetops. 
There is also a mod for VS itself that adds proper stump-like diagonal shape to the lowest log of the tree, but I can't for the life of me find which one does that exactly. 

More tree variety is also always welcome,  preferably being segregated into patches of different geographic areas to encourage exploration. Though at the very least I would propose to add palm trees into the base game.

Edited January 8 by Khornet

[Maelstrom]

I like to think that fruit trees may be the intent for all trees down the road (like when Tyron has time to scale things up).

[Khornet]

Of course, how could I forget to mention fruit trees in the post above.
I also think that it was a nice start and a good template. Which makes the old, standard trees so jarring in comparison. Which makes their rework all the more desirable. 
Though in general, I would obviously like trees to deviate from the shape of the fruit trees in a lot varieties, similar to real life trees.

[DarkJak]

Given the way we cut down trees there's no reason they have to be blocky like they are now. I think making them more like fruit trees is the way to go.

[Thorfinn]

How would one deal with leaking resin or wild hives? Seems those kind of have to be associated with a particular voxel. Or even just attaching other nodes like signs, blocks, ladders, torches, skeps, etc?

Not insurmountable, no, just something to consider.

[Dra6o0n]

Since blocks can be chiselled now, I wonder if generated trees can have 'branches' and connections that looks like it's chiselled to look more realistic?

So a way to generate is to do the base of the tree first, and have prefabs for the branch connections, which are in a different voxel shape than blocks? So you 'generate' one of the few branches that is designed ahead of time, onto said connection of the base of the tree. And for the top, one of few prefabs that connects and spreads a canopy at the top?

Edited January 16 by Dra6o0n

[VaelophisNyx]

I think the existing tree system is both fine and preferable to most alternatives for a lot of reasons, too many to get into all of them

but particularly, there is the matter that...it can just be improved

a lot of the issues brought up here are easy fixes, just low on the priority list

[Thorfinn]

One other thing to consider is how the logs themselves work. Would they all fill the entire voxel space? Or are the higher trunks and branches smaller diameter? They couldn't all then stack, and neither would it be reasonable to assume they should all yield the same amount of planks or firewood.

I ask because my favorite build style is log cabin hunting lodge, and if they do not fill the entire space, it would look even more odd to see the walls with visible gaps between the logs, though presumably they would still count as a full block in terms of qualifying for a room. Or would I have to chop down 4x as many trees to get the larger diameter ones to build with?

[Dra6o0n]

Apparently the branchy leaf blocks are considered 'branches' of sorts, so when the game uses logs as branches that's when things look a little odd.

The best way to revamp trees is to make them generate as simply 'trunks' without leaves or branches first, then generate actual prefabs of branch entities attached to trees and leaf blocks on the branches.

Because when someone chops down a tree it destroys the whole thing (sometimes).

EDIT: Modding could fix this, if modders can override the tree generation with a more simplistic version of prefabricated tree types (basically a 1x1 cube thick, or a 2x2 cube thick, or a 3x3 cube thick variants of trees).

The issue here is that most trees spawns on rocks and cliffs. So said mod would have to try to find ways to 'only place' prefab trees if the area has space for a 1x1 to a 3x3 space.

Edited January 18 by Dra6o0n