Q 1of3: how create a natural forest for arch. stills

[nlo]

for arch. vis. stills i need to generate a virtual forest around a hotel.

it should be an old forest with big pines, oaks and beeches and the views
are from within the forest looking at the hotel and looking at the hotel with the forest in the back (some trees on the parkinglot).

probably no birdeye view...but clients minds change quickly

taking pics at the site is not possible (site too far away and construction underway -> everthing is a big mess there)

my question is whats the best way do that?

* rpc? i know not many people here really like it...

* xfrog or similar? looks like many polys and the examples on their homepage do not look very convincing...
which software gives the most natural results (regarding polygon model, textures and number of faces)?

* speedtree? looks like an interesting mix between rpc & highpoly trees

* natFX? look interesting...(vince1972 used that for his atrium)

* photoshop and some hires forest-scenes and plenty of time to get a good composition...

* ?

i also have to consider costs for additional trees and compatibility issues with vray/max 5.

thanks.

[e3d]

Natfx is great, I would use that if I were you. We are seriously swaying away from all things RPC, the trees take an age to load and the people look too plonked and don't cast shadows

[zerofractal]

I'd bet on EasyNat/NatFX or Onyx Treestorm. we have some xfrog and they are ok, Onys are very optimizable in max as well as easynat.

Alejandro.

[cocolas]

I'd bet on EasyNat/NatFX or Onyx Treestorm. we have some xfrog and they are ok, Onys are very optimizable in max as well as easynat.

Alejandro.

we're also looking into getting rid of RPCs in our office, even though we did invest a lot in them.....

whichi one do you think it's better?? natfx or onyx?? which one works better w/ vray?? I've read that speedtree tends to have problems w/ transparances w/ vray.....

paul.

[nlo]

thanks for your suggestions...
i'll have a closer look at natFX and onyx...

[SPS]

I'd like to throw my vote into this thread for OnyxTree. I've been using it with Vray now for a few weeks and am completely satisfied with the results. The 3ds MAX plugin is really easy to use and the great thing is that the materials use vertex colors on full geometry so there are no opacity maps to wrestle with. I've tried nsight trees and the speedtree demo and found that GI and AA really takes some time with the lacey nature of the leaf structures.

I have a friend that bought NATfx and is always complaining about having to purchase new trees. The couple that wrote OnyxTree include a huge variety of trees with their product and just last week created 5 specific trees for me at no cost.

I can't say enough good things about them.

TECH NOTE (Vlado?)
One thing I've noticed with OnyxTree objects is that VRAY "Transforms Vertices" at render time even when the OnyxTree objects are hidden. I did a test in scanline with the same scene and it skipped right through the calculations. It's not a juge problem unless you've got a large amount of unique trees in the scene.

The other thing that using OnyxTree has forced me to try is instanced copies. It's not uncommon for an individual tree to contain 300,000 polys. Even though VRay chews threw the geometry, I found that it's not a good idea to throw a bunch of trees in the scene and re-seed them randomly. Just instance and spin.

-Darrin Sabin

[cocolas]

I'd like to throw my vote into this thread for OnyxTree. I've been using it with Vray now for a few weeks and am completely satisfied with the results. The 3ds MAX plugin is really easy to use and the great thing is that the materials use vertex colors on full geometry so there are no opacity maps to wrestle with. I've tried nsight trees and the speedtree demo and found that GI and AA really takes some time with the lacey nature of the leaf structures.

I have a friend that bought NATfx and is always complaining about having to purchase new trees. The couple that wrote OnyxTree include a huge variety of trees with their product and just last week created 5 specific trees for me at no cost.

I can't say enough good things about them.

TECH NOTE (Vlado?)
One thing I've noticed with OnyxTree objects is that VRAY "Transforms Vertices" at render time even when the OnyxTree objects are hidden. I did a test in scanline with the same scene and it skipped right through the calculations. It's not a juge problem unless you've got a large amount of unique trees in the scene.

The other thing that using OnyxTree has forced me to try is instanced copies. It's not uncommon for an individual tree to contain 300,000 polys. Even though VRay chews threw the geometry, I found that it's not a good idea to throw a bunch of trees in the scene and re-seed them randomly. Just instance and spin.

-Darrin Sabin

cool!! thanks a lot Darrin...that should help stir me in the right direction.....
anyone has other experiences....??

paul.