Do we need new trees?

[BMCha]

I'm all for having collision models, though depending on the performance impact I might still vote for the way it is now. (Forests, however, could definitely use a big all-encompassing collision mesh, which shouldn't take nearly the CPU usage that checking each individual tree would. And as far as I know it would bring tree collision in line with 1946)

On the visual side, the current trees don't look all that bad to me, the only big problem is the shimmering that occurs on trees within a certain distance. Based on my observations, the shimmering only happens during the transition from the 3d tree to the 2d billboard tree.

I'd have to guess there's either badly-implemented stippling shader or there's z-fighting going on. If it's the former then one way to fix it would be to change the shader to have a consistent stippling pattern. If it is the former, then there is only one way to fix it (which would also work in the first case): get rid of the fade transition. While it's meant to be smooth, it obviously isn't working as intended. Popping between 2d and 3d trees may not be the best, but it would probably be better than what we have now, and it's not like we don't have other map objects popping in.