Gamelike trees - low poly count

[vizfx]

I`m interested in gamelike trees (low poly count) for a small memory footprint and really fast renderings. Any ideas?

[Sketchrender]

I am interested too in these, I get asked to do a lot block model studies with hundreds of trees, I generally use scatter, to cover a large area with 2D bit maps on a plane.

 

If anybody has a better solution for mostly areal views I would appreciate it.

 

Thanks

 

Phil

[vizfx]

One solution is Forest Pack from Itoo Software (3DS Max plugin) which is extremely powerful and easy to use for massive tree populations (forest like).

http://www.itoosoft.com/english/menu.php?id=forestpack_description - see the highly detailed description on their site.

Unfortunately it can’t be used for close-up animations or top views.

[hughie]

Hi

Try the demo of Speed Trees Max, which include a ‘real time’ version of each type and a Speed Forest tool, my computer handles several thousand of these in shot without too much difficulty.

I do have issues with ST. like with some of the tree designs, and the inability to edit the trees....

And it should go without saying to exclude the trees from any GI you have going on.

Hugh

[Sketchrender]

I have onyx tree and speed tree, and they are not a quick option, in my opinion, and very polygone heavy.

 

I was looking for a simple clever option of box, turbo smoothe, and displacement, and texture map.

 

I have tried this but to no avail.

I am not really interested in investing another plugin, as work is very slow in ireland at the moment, and spending money is not an option at present.

 

phil

[Trick]

I do have issues with ST. like with some of the tree designs, and the inability to edit the trees....

 

With SpeedtreeCad Lite (which is included in the package) you can really edit (althought not in Max of course) all included trees to exactly the type of tree you want, including different textures. I especially had issues with all the (weird) random variations that were generated, when creating large forests. For every tree parameter you can set the boudaries that define all these variations. If you put some time in SpeedtreeCad you can make really beautiful trees as you like them !!

[DennisB]

Thought I'd post some examples of things I'm seeing done using Jungle DVD and Tree Forestry tools for game texturing.

 

The tree textures are mostly branches applied to positioned, flexible, billboard panels or cylinder sections, for wind animation. The example shown below applies them to more organic meshes. I think they fool the eye more efficiently by enhancing the way light falls on the modeled form.

 

The other examples are small extracts from tiling ground textures. The originals are 2048 although they're used as 512s I suspect. Moreover, they were painted so the foliage can be segmented by plant using layer alpha and then positioned as elevated layers of ground cover using mesh forms.

 

It would be interesting to see what these would look rendered having been first converted HDR images and applied to smoother mesh forms. With that in mind, anyone have a recommendation for HDRI conversion using Photoshop, a preferred tutorial or script? Is it even practical?

 

Dennis

http://www.gardenhose.com