131. Ecosystems placed with a global Environment are only limited by the Rules-of-Nature. Ecosystems can also be attached to vectors, which define their areal extent and give them priority over Environments. Use the Zoom Box in the Planimetric view to zoom in on the widening of the canyon east of the Main Camera.

132. Undock and drag the view out to give us a larger view to draw on.

133. Render a preview.

134. The render illustrates the challenge of Ecotype Dissolve Textures. What looks good from one camera view doesn't necessarily look good from another. Go to the Land Cover Task Mode, disable the Dissolve Color Texture, and open the Color Editor.

135. The Grassland Fill Light is adding intensity to the Ecosystem so reduce this Intensity to 50%.

136. Keep the color, save the project, and render a preview.

137. Select the Pine Burn Ecosystem in the Scene-At-A-Glance and Create. Confirm that you're creating a vector for the existing Ecosystem, Pine Burn.

138. Left-click a couple of vertices around this raised area.

139. You won't see the vector on the render, but if you want to check your progress, key F8 to switch to a realtime view and select Yes to Retain diagnostic data. This will save the RGB render (and other channels) in memory. Continue digitizing here, if you'd like, or F8 back to the render. Digitizing on a render gives you more scene detail and more precise vertex placement.

140. Right-click, or Escape on a Mac, when you're done and name the vector Forest.

141. Confirm that you want to add the vector to the Pine Burn Ecosystem.

142. Save the project and render a preview.

143. The Pine Burn Ecosystem has rendered, but not quite within the vector we digitized. The outline is blocky, and if we use the Measure Distance tool, we find that the length of those blocks is about 90 meters.

144. Bring the Pine Burn Ecosystem Editor forward and go to the General page. Our vector bounded Ecosystem is rendering in 90 meter blocks because that's its Resolution.

145. Reset the Resolution to match the underlying DEM by unchecking and checking the Floating box.

146. Save the project and render a preview. Dock the Planimetric view when you're done.

147. A Foliage Effect is used to place individual Foliage Objects. Select the Foliage Effect in the Scene-At-A-Glance and Create.

148. The Create window will confirm that we're creating a new Foliage Effect with an attached vector.

149. Go to the Mouse page, select Connect, and change the Point Space to 10 meters.

150. You can't see it now, but there used to be an old cabin here that's been long since broken up for firewood. All that's left are the snags of trees planted around the cabin as a windbreak.

151. Switch to a realtime Plan view and Zoom Box in on the area directly in front of the Main Camera.

152. Open the Planimetric View Preferences to the Overlay/Gradient page and select Ecosystem Map.

153. Left-click four corners of a quadrangle along the north canyon wall and right-click to finish.

154. Name it Tree Break.

155. Add the vector to the Foliage Effect, and close out the Component Gallery when it opens.

156. Change the Absolute Height to Foliage Group.

157. Go to the Groups page, Add Foliage Group, and name it anything. Load Foliage Group.

158. Select the Pine Snags Component we created earlier.

159. Bring the Grassland Ecotype Editor forward and enable the Dissolve Color Texture.

160. Save the project and render a preview.

161. Switch the Main Camera back to a realtime view and retain diagnostic data; we'll use it in a moment.

162. By default, Realtime Foliage Preview is enabled for Foliage Effects.

163. Because of the possible resource load involved, it's not recommended that you enable Ecosystem Realtime Foliage without first changing the Preferences. Open the popup menu and select Realtime Options > Land Cover > Realtime Foliage File Preferences or use the / keyboard shortcut.

165. Move the Diagnostic Data and View Realtime Preferences windows so you can see both them and the Main view. Find the distance to the right ridge, about here.

166. The Distance is about 600 meters. Change the File Display Far Distance Criteria to 600 meters and the Minimum Height Criteria to 5 meters. Close the window.

167. Open the Main popup menu, and select Realtime Options > Create Realtime Foliage File.

168. WCS will render a preview to generate the foliage file.

169. When it's finished, open the popup menu and uncheck Show Preview.

170. Open the popup menu again and select Realtime Options > Load Realtime Foliage File.

171. Edit View's Camera to open the Main Camera Editor, which will set an undo point.

172. Go to Manipulate Camera Move Mode and move the camera forward. The view response to mouse movement will be sluggish.

173. Realtime Foliage is very handy for knowing where the trees are going to be so you don't render right in front of one.

174. When you're done moving the camera, Undo all changes in the Camera Editor to undo your camera moves since the Editor was opened.

175. Open the Main view popup menu and select Realtime Options > Load Realtime Foliage File to unload the foliage file.

176. Save the project and render a preview.

177. The last category in the Land Cover Task Mode is Snow. Double-click the category to create a new Component, called Snow.

178. Snow has a Rules page, just like Ecosystems. The big difference is that the Elevation Line is the lower limit of its coverage, not the upper. Change the Elevation Line to 2065 meters.

179. Render a preview.

180. Snow covers Ecosystems and Ground Effects, just like it does in the real would, but not Foliage Objects. If you want snow on your trees, you'll need Foliage Objects that already have snow on them.

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