Trees, tree generators and some experiments with CG trees

[Micha_cg]

Hi,

I have the feeling Rhino has problems to handle high poly models like tree. Today I have find a Lowpoly tree generator. Easy to use and realy not expensive.

www.kbuechner.gmxhome.de

Now we need the opacity maps only.

-Micha

[Micha_cg]

Trees, tree generators and some experiments with CG trees

... and for high poly this nice tool:

http://arbaro.sourceforge.net/

Looks more realistic.

[oluv_cg]

Trees, tree generators and some experiments with CG trees

wow nice find! one of the better low-poly editors i have tried so far, perfect for real-time models.

unfortunately vray has always had problems with opacity maps and it took ages to render trees like that. it was always faster to render full-geometry trees like those from onyx-tree.
i am not sure if the opacity-problem has already been improved.

[Micha_cg]

Trees, tree generators and some experiments with CG trees

Opacity will works perfect soon, I think RC2 will fix last bugs. At the moment it helps to use a multiplier of 1.03 ... 1.05 for transparency maps.

Today I have try to get trees. Not low poly and not high poly and best not for high price. Here my solution with arbaro - I use a small leaf count and use big scaled leaves (scale factor 2..4) and twig maps like in the low poly generator from Buechner. So, my tree files are much smaller, approx. 300k ... 1M only and Rhino can handle it fine.

It would be nice if somebody find a way to change the leaf geometry, so that we can use single quad polygons. At the Arbaro options I have read, that it is possible to change the geometrie, but I get only disk shapes.

Arbaro trees - two high poly and two low poly (right)


a quick test

[Micha_cg]

Trees, tree generators and some experiments with CG trees

... I have contact to the developer of Arbaro. He is a countryman and will work on it in the next view weeks. If I get news, I will post here.

[Micha_cg]

Trees, tree generators and some experiments with CG trees

Trees, trees, trees ...

... today I have tested the lowpoly tree of got3d.com. Hmm, the polygons dosn't show the transparency map (I must send a bug report later). But not a big problem, this kind of trees can be build very easy direct in Rhino. And I'm happy to see the results. So lees polygons and ist looks so complex or?
Here my tests.

Funny - the texture is a whole tree, but looks quite good as branch.

geometrie - map - first rendering


adjusted - second test - only 110 polygons !!!

[magnatizerr]

Trees, tree generators and some experiments with CG trees

Really Nice Micha

[FOG Lite]

Trees

Those look fantastic!

However when i open the sample tree in Rhino it looks like it needs a lot of work to get to that point. Did you actually rebuild it from scratch in Rhino?

Got3D's brilliant from the way they are mapping these trees, I can see it when I look at the model in Max, but I'm not sure these trees are going to work out of the box for Rhino.

[Micha_cg]

Trees, tree generators and some experiments with CG trees

Complete rebuild within 5 minutes: create a curve - extrude a surface - apply material - change uv dir - create mesh - rotate copy five times around a stem - copy the five mesh surfaces in a second high level - rotate this level a little bit - random move in z dir per david ruttens script - ready.

[sweichert]

post file of this exercise?

Hi Micha,

it looks great and it sounds very easy to copy. I have tried to follow your instructions, but I am not sure about this uv change and to find the right way to apply the texture and transparence map. so I always end up with funny results. would be great if you could share this basic file with us.

sven

[FOG Lite]

trees

Yup, I ended up rebuilding after futzing about with it for a couple minutes, I ran into your same transparency issue on the meshes but didn't figure out it was a bug until I reread your message.

So the great thing about having to rebuild these is that those of us who have purchased all of got3D's tree textures can use this method to make all kinds of custom trees rather than paying for their new 3D trees since it looks like they are using their old tree textures as maps.

[Micha_cg]

Trees, tree generators and some experiments with CG trees

@FOG Lite: Today I have look at the got3d tree web catalog. Hmm, the tree looks quit similar like bushes with stem. I think, it is good to do some extra fine adjustment.

@sweichert: Here my rebuilded tree. The texture must be downloaded from www.got3d.com.

And here my last experiment. Two billboard trees and a simple modelled stem. It is easy like a billboard tree, but the shadows and the stem looks better.

[FOG Lite]

trees

You're right Micha, the got3d trees are all pretty similar. I actually use the real world imagery trees much more often since they break them down by species. (Anytime there is a landscape Arch on a project his becomes VERY important.)

[magnatizerr]

Trees, tree generators and some experiments with CG trees

Many thanks for the work and experiments Micha - it's much appreciated! I can't wait for the opportunity to try 'trees' on a job!