Trees with opacity mapped leaves

[jasonazure]

I'm currently looking at putting quite a few trees into an exterior scene, but I'm finding that most tree models for purchase or packages that generate trees for CG use the 'opacity mapped polygon leaves' method, which is notoriously slow with VRay!

I know about turning off filtering and making sure the opacity map is just 'black and white' etc. but with GI I'm finding a huge slowdown between using or not using opacity maps.

So, knowing that 'modelled' leaves used in conjunction with Vray Proxies is going to give me faster renders, my main question is which tree/vegetation packages include 'geometry leaves' as opposed to the more common 'opacity/clip mapped' leaves?

[Svetlozar Draganov]

There is a way to speed up the rendering of Opacity Mapped polygons via Max Transparency Levels/Cutoff options, there is also a new Opacity Modes which also helps reducing the render times.
Is the speed that bad that can't complete the rendering or you just want to avoid using opacity maps at all?

[snivlem]

there is also a new Opacity Modes which also helps reducing the render times.

Where is this on the VRayMtl or is this just currently in Max?

[yolov]

It's only in Max for the moment. It's on the to-do list to get it in Maya too.

[jasonazure]

I don't mind using opacity maps except they just slow down my renders too much!
Here's hoping Maya gets these new opacity modes soon..

[snivlem]

I don't mind using opacity maps except they just slow down my renders too much!
Here's hoping Maya gets these new opacity modes soon..

You can turn filtering on the opacity file2d node from Quadratic to off. This will introduces flickering if you are doing an animation...but for stills it's very much faster.

[jasonazure]

Sorry to revive such an old post but can anyone tell me if the new opacity modes have been implemented into the Maya version of Vray yet?

I have another project that requires trees and was hoping to use one of the many opacity map based tree model libraries, but without the crippling slowdown that this method causes to Vray renders!

[yolov]

Yes, it's now implemented. The opacity modes are in the VRayMtl in V-Ray 3.6 for Maya.