Matt's OnyxTree and Ply2Vrmesh Proxy Workflow

[ValeroStudio]

Making a hi-poly tree proxy using OnyxTree and ply2vrmesh

• Copy the shortcut for ply2vrmesh to desktop to make things easier on converting.
  
• Adjust the shortcut to include some of the parameters that I like to use, like reducing the polygon count. Adjust as you see fit. Under Target for the shortcut properties, I use:
  %comspec% /k ply2vrmesh.exe -previewFaces 800 -smoothNormals -materialIDs
  
• Open Onytree Broadleaf and create a hi-poly model of a tree. I use geometric leaves and not 2D planes as to not have to use clip-map leaves which increase render times.
  
• Go to the export panel and use OBJ as the file type. - Look at the polys, (just under a half million polygons).
  
  
• I save the OBJ file to my desktop.
  
• Drag the OBJ file right on to the ply2vrmesh shortcut you created.
  
• The DOS shell window will open and you should see the conversion process take place and a vrmesh file will be saved to your desktop. Copy the vrmesh file to a shared location on your network or workstation. For now, we cannot relocate a proxy file from SketchUp, so the easiest way to deal with this is to just have a shared library in one place for now. Otherwise, you can copy the vrmesh file and place it into the same folder as your SKP file and when you open your SKP file, V-Ray will load the proxy from there.
  
• Import the mesh into SketchUp. You will need to open the component and rotate it, switching the green with the blue axis. This is the one limitation of using an OBJ file. If you use the FlipYZ argument in the ply2vrmesh utility, you will lose your UVW mapping, so just do the Y flip inside SketchUp.
  
  
• Create your materials to be placed on to the ID channels and assign them. For me. I just use one bark material and one leaf material. From OnyxTree, All IDs are all trunk and twig objects and the last is set for leaves.
  
• I like to render out a low res PNG of the tree and import into the group with the proxy poly reference as a visual reference in SU.
  
  
  
• Right click the proxy and Save As to save your proxy component into your proxy library. If you dont have one, now is the time to start one!
  
• 160 million polys rendered in SketchUp in 3 minutes! This is where the geometric leaves really cut on render times. If you don't have Fur or Comp Sprayer plug-ins, get them!

[dkendig]

stickied and copied to the public beta forum.

[arqestevez1]

Hey, this seems awesome.
but, as i understand, I must have max installed in my pc, right?
Or is there a ply2vraymesh standalone software?

[ValeroStudio]

No. It is standalone and runs in a DOS shell. It is located in C:\ProgramData\ASGVIS\Tools\x86

It is also in your start menu at Chaos Group / VRay for SketchUp adv / Tools (along with some other goodies)

I should mention that this technique can be used with any OBJ, PLY, BIN or GEO file. It does need to have materials and UVWs applied to it in order to work though. I tested a sample file from Evermotion and the OBJ they offer with the sample has no mapping applied to it so when it converts, you do not get any IDs. I am sure there are free UVW mapping programs out there that will allow you to take care of that problem though. Probably even Blender. I like OnyxTree alot. You can make hundreds, even thousands of custom trees and plants and you control the shape, poly count, structure, etc. and the OBJ export works like a charm, as you can see from this tutorial.

So this is your ultra hi-poly non-MAX workaround.

[ValeroStudio]

Maybe the guys at Chaos can shed some light on this. I went to Evermotion and downloaded the sample they have for the Archmodels 106 Collection.
http://www.evermotion.org/modelshop/...-106/8058/0/0/
I used the above method to convert the OBJ to a mesh. When I import into SU, I should get 3 IDs (trunk, twigs, leaves) but only get 2 (puts trunk and leaves on same channel). When I open the OBJ in Max, it does see 3 distinct groups in the OBJ file. My question for Chaos would be if the -MaterialIDs argument is working in the plytvrmesh converter. It says this argument should assign IDs based on primitive groups but it says it only does this for GEO files. This is where it falls into the hands of the Chaos guys. I am sure they have a solution that of some sort. UVW mapping seems to be working because the bark texture does map correctly to the trunk. If we can figure this out, it certainly opens a lot of doors of VR4SU users.

[dkendig]

interesting, could you please send in a bug report about it?

[tashko.zashev]

Hi,

We know about this limitation and Ply2vrmesh converter will support material IDs for .obj files.
Unfortunately i can't give any time frame for this.

[ValeroStudio]

It works fine with OBJ files exported from Onytree which is the weird thing.

[peerman]

Any alternatives for ply2vrmesh when using OS X (you know the underdog here )? I'm using Parallels with Win7 but maybe not everyone with OS X has this possibility.
Thanks!

[ValeroStudio]

Look at the tutorial I posted yesterday on using Blender.

[peerman]

Thanks for the quick reply, will check it out!!

[arqestevez1]

i'm definetely gonna buy the onyxtree software. Thanks for your replies, i will make my own tests and share

[ValeroStudio]

Keep your eyes on Plant Factory from Eon also. Scheduled to come out soon. This looks very cool. I bet it will export 3DS and OBJ files.

http://www.theplantfactory-tech.com/

[MarkMuncada]

nice workflow, thanks for sharing, also I would like to add the onyx grass 2. it can import obj. maybe we can use this feature in vfsu. We just need to select the mesh in su that we like to populate with grass and import it in onyx grass as obj. that might be a lot faster than using 3 group or of vrmesh of grass (for variety) then importing it in su. never tried it though but I think it will work

[ValeroStudio]

I have thought the same exact thing about OnyxGrass2. I only own Broadleaf at the moment so I haven't been able to try it. If you can do a test and report back, please let us all know how it goes.