Michael Betke Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 I had some time and finally got a bit deeper into a high-end tree modeling software which I recently licensed for my regular 3D rendering stuff, like if a landscape architect needs custo mspecimen. I only scratched the surface so far but I managed to make decent game trees and not ones with zillions of polies like most parametric modelers do. It's parametric and I can do clean closed meshes or just stuck cylinder (like mostly used in games). Also large alphas as branches are easy and even vertex painting for adding color/texture/sway variation. In terms of productivity I now can do 20 trees in around 4 hours and not two weeks with all the baking and texturing for the branch templates once I'm more in the tool and got my workflow running. Of course photo references are still important to make believable trees but I will raise my quality bar a lot. I may pursue my custom vegetation service further, like Bohemia does with Linda Tree (http://pro.bistudio....-generator.html). They charged 70$ for a tree two years ago. I have this in mind for a long time but no technology at hand until now. So this small dead tree tests are very promising. Already got one in Leadwerks but with old textures. 1 Quote Pure3d Visualizations Germany - digital essences AAA 3D Model Shop specialized on nature and environments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knocks Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 looks great, whats the software? Quote My first Adobe purchase was Photoshop 2.0, CS6 was my last! < = > Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixel Perfect Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 Very nice indeed Quote Intel Core i5 2.66 GHz, Asus P7P55D, 8Gb DDR3 RAM, GTX460 1Gb DDR5, Windows 7 (x64), LE Editor, GMax, 3DWS, UU3D Pro, Texture Maker Pro, Shader Map Pro. Development language: C/C++ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Betke Posted January 13, 2013 Author Share Posted January 13, 2013 Getting used to it now. Here is first serious tree I work on. Some kind of apple tree. Made a high-poly first and isolated one branch. Used a renderer then to render it and applied on a plane. The branch with leaves got out very nice including normals. I could set up all things like specularity, SSS and so on. Its easy to do because I just need to change camera persepctive a bit and have a varaition branch. Some apples or spring version is not that hard too. Current tree version with only trunk and one branch material. I think it will look better with two or three branch variations. I could split one 1024px texture into four parts and use a 512px space for each variation. last 512px space could be used for decals on the trunk. Its easy to do because I just need to change camera persepctive a bit and have a varaition branch. This tree has 1.700 triangles. Used to test some branch geometry. Flat planes look too cardboard like. At the moment I stick with my bended four poly plane. Will try cross later too. I'm getting there. 1 Quote Pure3d Visualizations Germany - digital essences AAA 3D Model Shop specialized on nature and environments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Betke Posted January 14, 2013 Author Share Posted January 14, 2013 Added the fruits to the tree. They really boost the polycount. One apple has 89 tris and it looks very edgy. Even a minimum of 20 apples on a tree will add 1780 tris. For a whole field a bit too much. Maybe for a "hero" object like two or so combined with LoD objects. I baked one branch with apples too and will see how it looks with my other three baked variations. Will check back soon. Quote Pure3d Visualizations Germany - digital essences AAA 3D Model Shop specialized on nature and environments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Betke Posted January 14, 2013 Author Share Posted January 14, 2013 I think I'm done with the fruts version. No geometry fruits. Maybe I will do it later. Interesting is that there is not really a visible difference if I have just one branch of leafs or three different types plus the fruits branch. I observed the same with my winter birches. Quote Pure3d Visualizations Germany - digital essences AAA 3D Model Shop specialized on nature and environments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knocks Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 So the software you are using is of the Super Secret Squirrel variety? Quote My first Adobe purchase was Photoshop 2.0, CS6 was my last! < = > Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGMan Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 I would really be interested in this software, maybe he will answer that question one day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Betke Posted January 14, 2013 Author Share Posted January 14, 2013 It is called GrowFX. An 3dsmax plugin developed by ExLevel Software. Just added the slightly polished model to the Asset Store here on Leadwerks.com including 512px textures and free for all. Have fun! But beware, it is a small tree. Some in-game images attached. They fit well into the world of the Pure3D Model Collections as you guys can see. 1 Quote Pure3d Visualizations Germany - digital essences AAA 3D Model Shop specialized on nature and environments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixel Perfect Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Its a nice attempt Michael but the apples just don't work as simple images attached to planes as they look distorted and completely unnatural unless viewed from exactly the right angle, they'd be better as real 3D models with smoothing but I'm not sure how many polys that would add to the overall model. Quote Intel Core i5 2.66 GHz, Asus P7P55D, 8Gb DDR3 RAM, GTX460 1Gb DDR5, Windows 7 (x64), LE Editor, GMax, 3DWS, UU3D Pro, Texture Maker Pro, Shader Map Pro. Development language: C/C++ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knocks Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Cheers Michael hope to see a modo port with version 2, over xfrog. Quote My first Adobe purchase was Photoshop 2.0, CS6 was my last! < = > Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Betke Posted January 15, 2013 Author Share Posted January 15, 2013 Yes Pixel. Totally aggree. The 2D plane will work good as a LOD stage. The smallest polycount I got with decent apples is 89 tris for one apple. A small tree like this would have lots of polies then. I dont know how many tris games like BF3 (uses Speedtree) or Crysis 3 (custom models) have today. Maybe materials and shaders have more impact as just polies. Still games so not everything is possible. Vegetation is tricky. Quote Pure3d Visualizations Germany - digital essences AAA 3D Model Shop specialized on nature and environments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YouGroove Posted January 16, 2013 Share Posted January 16, 2013 For apples, yes display real 3D on clothest LOD. We can see bad orientation of polygon with leafs textures : polygon on top and right side top, they should not be so horizontal, but more vertical and face the player view : http://frostsoft.blogspot.fr/2012/02/alpha-planes-grass-trees-etc-vnt.html Quote Stop toying and make games Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Betke Posted January 16, 2013 Author Share Posted January 16, 2013 Interesting read YouGroove. The problem with the modified vertex normals is that nit every engine or file format supports it. For 3dsmax there is a script called "normal thief" to use normal directions from another objet. you can "steal" normal direction from a sphere to your tree shape for example. But it needs to be supported be the engine. What would you suggest me to do? Quote Pure3d Visualizations Germany - digital essences AAA 3D Model Shop specialized on nature and environments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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