Question about creating vegetation

[Tomas]

Hi. I've created a tree in blender similar to pine tree that comes with LE. But the tree in LE has moving branches and my branches dont move. Material settings and shaders are identical to the pine in LE. Used PNG as textures. Also branches dont cast shadow on each other even if the ''cast shadow'' box is set in material. The shadow casted is only on the ground. Any ideas what im doing wrong?

[macklebee]

The only time I see leaves swaying is when the tree is set with the vegetation tool. If I set the same tree by just placing the model, I get no leaves swaying. The 'Models/leaves.shader' doesn't have a wind animation calculation in the vertex code, but the 'Models/Vegetation/leaves.shader' does. So that at least explains that, even though I think that needs to be rectified inside the 'Models/leaves.shader'.

 

As for the other issues with shadows, without seeing the model in question we can only guess. Perhaps you need to recalculate your normals? Faces are flipped? Maybe you don't have the material settings the exactly the same? I know I mess up trees' shader setting all the time because for some reason the default LE shaders are all named the same but are only differentiated by what folder they are in... ie. there are 3 'leaves.shaders' but the one in the vegetation folder can't be used for shader 0 but only for the vegetation shader 4.

[Tomas]

I've sorted out shadows. The shadows checkbox in terrain/vegetation was not checked. But the leave movement is still not working. I wander could that be a geometry problem. I used rectangles divided in a half by width and height, so in one plane there is 4 faces.

[gamecreator]

Didn't leaves used to sway depending on the color of the vertex? Not sure if that's still the case but that's what I'd try first (in addition to checking the stuff macklebee suggested above).

[macklebee]

Didn't leaves used to sway depending on the color of the vertex? Not sure if that's still the case but that's what I'd try first (in addition to checking the stuff macklebee suggested above).

 

Well, looking over the wind calculation they still move based on vertex color and maybe that is his issue. But Tomas has not said whether or not his problem with lack of movement occurs when he is manually placing the tree or when using the vegetation tool. If he is manually placing the tree, then the leaves will not move based on the inherent 'Models/leaves.shader'. If they are not moving when the tree is set using the vegetation tool, then it very well could be the vertex color that is preventing the swaying.

 

//Wind animation

float seed = mod(currenttime * 0.0015 ,360.0);

seed += ex_entitymatrix[3].x*33.0 + ex_entitymatrix[3].y*67.8 + ex_entitymatrix[3].z*123.5;

seed += modelvertexposition.x + modelvertexposition.y + modelvertexposition.z;

vec4 movement = vec4( vec3( (vertex_color.r) * vertex_normal * 0.02 * (sin(seed)+0.25*cos(seed*5.2+3.2)) ),0.0);

modelvertexposition += movement;

 

modelvertexposition = entitymatrix_ * modelvertexposition;

 

But again without seeing the model, its all just a guess.

[Crazycarpet]

Well "The shadows checkbox in terrain/vegetation was not checked" certainly suggests he's using the terrain tool, so it's a safe bet that's most likely his problem.

[Tomas]

Im using vegetation leaves shader with terrain vegetation. How i set, or whats setting vertex color?

[macklebee]

The modeling application you use or its export options will affect the vertex colors. If you are not using the vertex colors for anything else, then just open the model in the LE Model Editor and use the Tools>Strip Vertex Colors option and it will make all vertex colors white (1,1,1).

[Tomas]

...nothing seems to work.I'm attaching my file with tree. maybe someone can have a look at it. .blend an .fbx formats

model.zip

[macklebee]

its very odd. what is really weird is that the branches' shadows show movement but the actual branches do not.

[burgelkat]

Try to use the groundplant shader

I have trouble with the beach tree only with the groundplant shader the branches moving

[macklebee]

burgelkat - thats the difference. Nice catch.

 

In the two leaves shaders that use the wind calculation (vegetation & vegetation shadow), the code is slightly different between the two.

 

Shaders/Vegetation/leaves.shader:

vec4 movement = vec4( vec3( (vertex_color.r) * vertex_normal * 0.02 * (sin(seed)+0.25*cos(seed*5.2+3.2)) ),0.0);

 

Shaders/Vegetation/Shadow/leaves.shader:

vec4 movement = vec4( vec3( (1.0-vertex_color.r) * vertex_normal * 0.02 * (sin(seed)+0.25*cos(seed*5.2+3.2)) ),0.0);

 

The Shaders/Models/groundplants.shader code also looks like the vegetation shadow code. I am not sure why it appears to work on some trees and not the others (an issue with vertex normals/color?). But if you change the code to '1.0-vertex_color.r' then it appears to work fine on his pine tree.