Trees

[tone]

I'm going to put together a list of trees used in different climates so that DVK only has to make the changes to the vegetation database and sprites once.

Obviously some of these will need new models.

If people have input, please put here.

SEMI-ARID:

Juniper:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Quercus cerris (Turkey oak)

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Aleppo pine:

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Almond
Olive

"SUB-ARCTIC" - mediterranean periphery - Palestine, Lebanon, North Africa, immediate shoreline of Asia Minor, fertile crescent:

Quercus ilex
Quercus cerris (above)
Aleppo pine (above)
Almond
Olive
Cedar:

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Tetraclinis articulata (one of the cypress family - typical of the tree are the multiple trunks)

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MEDITERRANEAN:

Aleppo pine
Quercus cerris
Quercus ilex (Holm oak)
Pinus nigra
Olive
Pinus pinaster

ALPINE
Silver fir - Abies alba
Norway spruce
Pinus cembra
Pinus sylvestris
European larch

INFERTILE GRASSLAND
Silver birch
Downy birch

FERTILE GRASSLAND
Pinus sylvestris
European beech
Sessile oak


TEMPERATE OPEN FOREST
European hornbeam
Pinus sylvestris
European beech
Sessile oak

HIGHLAND
Norway spruce
Scots pine
Silver birch
Silver fir
Downy birch

TEMPERATE DENSE FOREST
Norway spruce
Pinus sylvestris
Downy birch
Silver birch
European larch
Quercus robur
European beech

I'll continue updating this post.

[pacco]

I have those models (but textures are Vray):

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Texture (only texture have about 430Mb)

[tone]

Pacco,
I don't think I'll be able to use those ones to be honest

[pacco]

No problem.

[gennosuke43]

Are the trees implemented going to be obselete?

[tone]

Are the trees implemented going to be obselete?

No, but we just need to make sure the right ones go in the right places and any missing ones get made.
What would be really helpful would be a gallery by climate of what we've got so far. Would you be able to help in that way?

[dvk901]

I hope not...I LIKE a lot of them. But we do need something a bit different in some climates, particularly in the eastern ones.

[gennosuke43]

I still can't activate my 3ds max. I can probably help on the textures.

[tone]

Help gratefully received.

[dvk901]

I don't know if this helps, but here's a little file with all the trees and models in it, and what climates they are used in....along with a few notes.

[Brusilov]

I don't know if this helps, but here's a little file with all the trees and models in it, and what climates they are used in....along with a few notes.

Is that from dvk901's 'box of tricks' or 'horn of plenty'?

[tone]

Thanks!

[gennosuke43]

Where would be a good source for these skins?

[tone]

Where would be a good source for these skins?

Good question. Good photos off the web mainly, although argent usher posted this link to some great looking cut out textures: http://vyonyx.com/?cat=115.

I've mananged too after a whole load of web scouring to find another few good looking models which are low enough poly to be useable (one great looking pine for northern climates, and a very nice deciduous tree, and another one that will be good for a really twisty juniper tree one I've cut down the poly numbers a bit). Have also got to grips with one of the tree generating programs.

[gennosuke43]

For now maybe I can download the free 30 day trial of 3ds max. Can we just use the existing models as concept and change the skin and models?

[tone]

That's a good idea - in fact if you download first of all 3ds 7 then 9 you'll get a month's trial for each one, if you load 9 after 7 becomes invalid that'll be two months (it works!!)

With regard to models I'm sure the existing ones can be used although with little / no effort we can get some more variety. We do need to do a lower poly version of some the palms somehow as there is a performance hit.

The key thing with regards to trunks though is make sure that the trunk texture is mapped to the whole height of the texture (512pixels) and that if necessary the UV mapping is folded up so that it doesn't get too stretched vertically (either that or else we take a whole trunk's length of photo and squash down)...you see how the trunks on the pines and palms look so much better?

[dvk901]

I noticed that all of the textures with trunks that were the whole height\length of the texture always looked better. I even tried 'squashing' a whole length trunk into a smaller section where it wasn't the whole length\height...but always the same 'mushy' result.

[tone]

List updated obviously there'll be some redundancies, but this as it stands is a pretty good representation of what ought to be there in terms of species.

[tone]

Some 3D-brush save files for gennosuke

[tone]

Gennosuke,
I've spent the last few days playing around with the tree generator and I'm not sure for the pines that you're going to able to improve on the sort of approach you've used for the scots pines. I think one of the problems is that the tree generator is using up quite a lot of unnecessary vertices for the trunk and really the billboard approach you've used for those scots pines seems to work better than any results I've got.

My only suggestions for improvements would be these:
1) See whether you can get any more detail on the leaves / needles
2) A little more colour variation - some slightly more yellowy parts to the foliage
3) A bit more texture variation in the trunk

For the mediterranean type climates we could do with these trees:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Pinus pinea (Italian Stone Pine) / Pinus pinaster - similar look to each other:







As you can see it has a fairly typical shape - the "umbrella" pine

Pinus halepensis (branches more spread out):



Black pine (Pinus nigra)