Best solution for trees population in animation

[arturito]

Hi guys!!!

 

I would like to know what is the best solution for animations with a lot a lot a lot of trees... a solution to handle render times and noise problems, and of course, I need the animation look very realistic... not ugly very low poly trees. I would appreciate those usual tips an tricks you always share. thanks in advance. Arturo.

[Stephen Thomas]

The first obvious bit of advice is to use vray proxies for your trees. Trees with modelled leaves rather than opacity mapped planes should render faster (I think) and pay attention to your materials e.g. if you're using trees which you've purchased with materials already applied make sure the leaf material isn't using refraction with high glosiness subdivisions which will slow down your render times.

[arturito]

Thanks tomas, nice tips, I have been reading about vray scatter but I dont got it, it is a vray option or is a plugin? anyway I would like to know if it is only a tool to speed workflow or if it helps with render times too?

[Stephen Thomas]

VRay Scatter is a plug in which allows you to scatter proxy objects over a specified area as the standard max scatter command doesn't work with vray proxies meaning you have to place them individually.

 

You should take a look at some of the 3das tutorials, there's a couple relating to creating large scale vegetation as well as a chapter all about using the vray proxy. Probably the best place to start: http://3dats.com/tutorials.asp

[Koper]

Thanks tomas, nice tips, I have been reading about vray scatter but I dont got it, it is a vray option or is a plugin? anyway I would like to know if it is only a tool to speed workflow or if it helps with render times too?

 

vray scatter work for speeding the render up as well (that is compared to using allot of trees without vray scatter)

 

buy it and you'll never regret it.

[dean@pikcells]

Or to throw something else into the mix, try using Vue. We use it on environments where there is loads of vegetation (mainly shots of forests), and composite the Vue and Vray stuff in post.

[Claudio Branch]

Forest Pro 3, Onyx Trees, and V-Ray proxies will get it done quite easily

 

I am working on a scene right now with 16+ million polygons using that approach. Forest Pro 3 is extremely powerful and can be used to distribute anything. I am using it here to distribute trees, scrub brush, riprap (rocks), and driftwood debris.

[prelutcu]

This is an interesting discussion. thank you for sharing

[SunGlare]

To bring up this thread I have a question to masters of non plug-in vegetation.

 

This method it based on PFlow, because its the only way to utilize vrayproxy. // I was prooven wrong. This method don't save ram.

 

How to control this grass. I want leaves on all of the walls, perpendicullar to surface? As you can see, I managed to get this only at one fixed angle, but on the surface.

 

Task:

I need to provide accurate render of the vegetation on vertical wall.

 

Thanks for previous posts, It helped me to avoid costly plugs!

Thanks.

Edited September 26, 2009 by SunGlare

[bev.lynn]

Tom,

You might want to try the free plug-in Guruware Ivy located here: http://guruware.at/main/ivy/index.html

[SunGlare]

Thanks, looks promising with custom mesh rollout. But! Does it support vrayproxy?

We'll see memory reports.

 

I'll give it a try and report back results.

[SunGlare]

Ivy Generator with custom mesh

Result:

 

Regular poly as a leaf.

Vray log

Render time:16.5s

Mem usage: 1.98MB

 

Vrayproxy as a leaf.

Render time:17.8s

Mem usage: 1.98MB

 

Where are proxy benefits?!

 

I did next test with PFlow.. and profits are slim.

PFlow with 10 000 leafs.

 

Regular Poly Instance

Polycount 800 200

Render time: 99.9s

Mem usage: 167.0MB

 

VrayProxy Instance

Polycount 800 200

Render time: 100.6s

Mem usage: 128.3MB

 

Can someone share ideas how to save ram with those plugins?

 

 

Simple VraProxy array with 10 000 instances test:

Polycount 280 000

Rendertime 300s

Mem Usage: 1.98 MB

 

So is there any method to use VrayProxy powers and multiply it in desired way?

 

I dont want to use VrayScatter.

 

Thanks.

Edited September 26, 2009 by SunGlare
New test added

[tayrona]

I have test this Ivy plugin and it seems to be very good. Probably there is no diference between using a regular poly or a vray proxy because the result is a procedural geometry, so this is the benefit itself, no matter if you are using vray proxies or not.

[vfriaf]

SunGlare. You'll feel it for really hard scene. With dinamic memory of course in setting section.

[SunGlare]

What do mean Hard Scene... (reminds me movie WalkHard ;D ) ?

The grass you see on the wall is in many instances around the model and I need to keep them on as they are visible in cam.

On single wall there are 5000 grass nests, of one species, there are 4-5 species on the wall.

 

With several such walls on the battle field, does it make scene hard?

 

My dyn mem is set to 7gb of 8gb ram installed.

 

What is outthere for me? what is outthere for us?

 

Am I really doomed for hard cash upgrade, either from chaos or icubeviz?

[SunGlare]

I think Ive found something that populate VrayProxy but doesnt convert it into new geometry. -> save ram.

 

Below is a list of useful scripts.

 

I would use random transform, object displace, random material, and texture scatterer.

 

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&u=http%3A//andklv2.narod.ru/maxscripts/ak-maxscripts.html&sl=ru&tl=en

 

One could say that is to much of button pushing, and also its not interactive.