Speedtree dissappears after using vray proxy!!

[own1221]

Hey i'm using max 8 and vray 1.5 and speedtree 3

 

I inserted a tree which renders fine and everything and went to "vray mesh export" to create vray proxies. export as a single file + automatically create proxies checked. The tree dissappears, but when you press h its listed in the objects you can even select it but theres nothing there, even if you zoom extent it.

 

Help please?

[Spooner04]

I'm not very familiar with speedtree.

 

But, I do know that xfrog trees are 3 or 4 different objects. I.E. leaves are one object, branches are another object, etc. If this is the case with speed tree, you need to attach all of the objects to make it one object with different elements. The elements would all be assigned a different material i.d and then you would apply a multi/sub-object material.

 

We typically create the vray mesh and save it to the network and then create a vray proxy and then link it to the proxy mesh. Typically keeping the vrmesh separate from the model file.

[Trick]

Although I use SpeedTree v4 I don't think things are different with previous versions. All trees are proprietary, so you can not convert them to editable mesh, patch, poly or whatever. The plugin generates a tree from a description file and this "description" is what you are trying to export, which (in the latest version) VRay does simply not accept. For the larger part SpeedTrees are texture mapped planes that always face the camera to keep the polygon count low. So it would not make much sense to export them to proxies. My workflow is basically that SpeedTrees are good for distant forests and Onyx, NatFX and XFrog trees (exported as proxies) for more closeup stuff. Of course you can make forests with proxies but when the inside tree is more then 1M poly, rendering can really slow down if you need flickerfree animations...

[own1221]

So basically theres no need to convert speedtree into proxies?

[Spooner04]

The point of a vray proxy is to eliminate polygons in your actual max file and to load the geometry into ram only when the bucket is being rendered. If speed tree pastes an image of a tree onto one single plane, then it is kind of pointless to proxy the single plane into the file as you're not really helping to reduce the geometry in the file.

[own1221]

I think speedtree trees have the branches as a mesh and each leaf is one plane?

[Spooner04]

Ya, I thought that speedtree created geometry trees also. I know that it did in previous versions. I would try attaching the tree into one object. Give your leaves, branches and trunk+roots a different material ID. Then export the vrmesh into a different file somewhere. Then when you want to bring that proxy in go to create/vray/proxy.

 

You need to make sure the tree is all one object, that is very important and I think that is most likely the problem.

 

 

There is a pretty good tutorial at evermotion.org. It's under tutorials/rendering and its number 6

[own1221]

Yeah i saw that evermotion tutorial, when i followed it the tree disappears, how do you "attaching the tree into one object" when you click the tree its one thing, the leaves and branches are one object.

[Spooner04]

Ok,

If it is selecting the whole tree at the same time then it is either already all one object or it is a group.

 

If it is a group then you will need to ungroup it. Convert the pieces to editable polys and then attach them. In order to do that you just select on one of the objects and there should be an attach button in the modifier tab.

 

 

Typically a vray proxy does not show all of the original geometry. When you put the proxy in the file it gives you the option to display as bounding box or reference the original geometry. You wouldn't see the whole thing until you actually try to render. Another thing is to make sure you are using vray to render and not scanline. I assume that is overly obvious, but just to make sure.

[Trick]

Guys, again...Speedtrees can NOT be collapsed into an editable mesh, at least in v4. So you can NOT export them to VRay proxies. SpeedTrees can only be generated randomly and can be edited in SpeedTreeCAD (Lite) !!! The tree in the Evermotion tutorial is a full geometry tree (which either is a collapsed mesh or poly), so CAN be exported to a VRay proxy.

[Spooner04]

Any idea on speedtree v3 trick?

 

If speed tree can't be collapsed then trick would be correct.

[own1221]

Where can I get trees that are meshes? onyxtree + xfrog trees can vray proxy?

[RobNJ73]

I don't know about xfrog, but I'm using about 400 Onyx trees in an animation now, and they're all proxied.

[Trick]

Where can I get trees that are meshes? onyxtree + xfrog trees can vray proxy?

 

Except for SpeedTree ALL tree solutions (XFrog, Onyx, NatFX, TreeFactory) can be collapsed to an editable mesh/poly and so can be used as VRay proxies. In combination with Gugila GroundWiz and a 64bit 16GB system you can easily render 100000 VRay Proxied trees of 1 Million polygons each...you do the math !! You can also use a system with less RAM but then you need memory use set to Dynamic and rendering can really take very, very long !!

[own1221]

Except for SpeedTree ALL tree solutions (XFrog, Onyx, NatFX, TreeFactory) can be collapsed to an editable mesh/poly and so can be used as VRay proxies. In combination with Gugila GroundWiz and a 64bit 16GB system you can easily render 100000 VRay Proxied trees of 1 Million polygons each...you do the math !! You can also use a system with less RAM but then you need memory use set to Dynamic and rendering can really take very, very long !!

 

Gugila GroundWiz - i gues that makes forests and stuff? is NatFX the same as bionatics? and how much ram does vista support, i never heard of 16gb of ram

[Spooner04]

If you're on a tight budget you can find individual xfrog trees on turbosquid, and other brands I would imagine. Might be good to check them out before you buy a whole software package or library.

 

If you've got a decent budget and you're really looking for a long term solution, I would recommend something that has a stand alone software that will let you modify the geometry of the tree to get rid of unnecessary polygons and let you export it out into a standard 3d format like 3ds, obj, etc. That's been one of the nice things about xfrog is it's standalone so it's not dependent on max updates. We can also export out in a variety of formats to get into whatever software we need to. Its not being improved anymore to my knowledge, which is really disappointing.

 

 

The quantity of your ram is limited by whether your operating system is 32 bit or 64 bit. not necessarily whether it is vista or not. A 32 bit system can only support 4 gigs of ram. I'm not sure exactly what the cap is on a 64 bit system, but it is significantly higher, hence trick's 16gb ram system.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the uncollapsible trees trick. : )

[own1221]

I'm actually a student right now so no budget literally *hint alot of choices right now.

 

Whats the more popular choices in the architecture/visualisation offices these days? i gues onyx and xfrog are both quit popular, how bout bionatics? i've heard of vue which seems to create really really good images but it seems a bit too hard to use. does onyx tree do export of models (i.e. standalone)?

 

Alex Roman interview - used onyx tree looks so good!

http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/stories_bts/bts_detail/publications_by_alex_roman/

 

I gues most new systems e.g. quadcore computers are 64bit? does 64bit have any other advantages? is it faster? i know for sure i dont have a 64bit, but i might get a new system maybe next year when octa core comes out?! and quad cores should be as cheap as chips . And why do you need that much RAM i thought vray proxies are stored on the harddrive?