Question about sources for quality trees?

[rcallicotte]

What do you think? - http://market.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=56161&TopID=&WhatsNew=Y

[old_blaggard]

Considering the price, I think it looks pretty good.

[rcallicotte]

I think I might buy it.  It's too bad we can't share stuff like this, but it's pretty cheap.

[moodflow]

Alright, so we get all these trees and plants and then convert them to a TG2 friendly .obj format (with Wings 3D), and then to TGO using TG2. 

However-

The translucency of the leaves doesn't transfer and has to be tweaked manually.  Translucency contributes to part of the realism IMHO.  I've been tweaking translucency on the models I've acquired, but what a job trying to dial it in!  Its a shame TG2 can't pull .obj files in directly from the source (as the translucency values appear to be included).

A good example of realistic translucency in TG2 can be seen in some of Luc Bianco's images.  I can see translucency in the leaves and such, and it looks superb!  I'm not sure if he tweaked translucency manually, but he likely did since TG2 doesn't seem to pull these values over with the models.

Rooting for the planetside team to impliment better model imports, sub-surface scattering, and colored water with turbidity!   

[bigben]

Alright, so we get all these trees and plants and then convert them to a TG2 friendly .obj format (with Wings 3D), and then to TGO using TG2. 

However-

The translucency of the leaves doesn't transfer and has to be tweaked manually....

You can't always blame the developers of one software package when there are so many variations in obj formats output by different programs.  TG2 imports obj files quite well if the file is structured in a certain way... I would have said "structured properly" but this is well out of my area of expertise. I'd assume that their implementation of an obj import was based on a "technically correct" file structure...

PoseRay to the rescue once again.    Translucency and Specular settings are imported correctly from .obj converted by PoseRay. There is hope   

[ProjectX]

I have yet to get realistic translucency or - for that matter - reflectivity in my scenes.

[rcallicotte]

My expectation is that the transparency and reflectivity will be fixed.  This is part of procedural programming and we've been told these things are coming by Oshyan and Matt and Jo.  The "fixes" that are being implemented by a few users here in the forums shows a lot of understanding and creativity from the individuals who provide these things, but I can't live with these on a full-time basis.  I have too many other things to do to keep up with patching someone's software and I'm certain Planetside doesn't expect us to continue to do this. The completed software is my goal.

A positive side to all of this is we get to learn the ins and outs of TG2.

[rcallicotte]

Here is a quickly created close-up of Flink's tree without any changes.  I imported the object into Pose Ray, imported that result into TG2, and then saved it as a TGO.  I used the default textures and alpha.

[old_blaggard]

A pity - there seems to be some alpha trouble.

[rcallicotte]

I was wrong about the ALPHA.  After looking into the TGO's textures, I found the process didn't include the ALPHA.  Here it is upclose with the ALPHA.

[fmtoffolo]

that actually looks quite nice. not very realistic for my taste, but nice.

[rcallicotte]

Considering it only costs around $6 and it comes with bark, 4 sets of leaves, and a transparency for the leaves, I think it's one of the better ones I've seen without being touched up like BigBen does, etc.

[Harvey Birdman]

Try applying a little color-based displacement to the bark to bump it up a little - it might improve the look a bit. (I think you're right - for the price it's not bad, as long as you don't have the camera jammed into the branches...)

[rcallicotte]

Harvey - Yeah.  That was just to show the leaves.  Up close, the branches look more unrealistic, though with a full-frame of the tree I like it.  I actually like this vendor and will likely buy another set of his trees.  He does grass, too, but it's sort of expensive considering we have a lot of free grass floating around here.

In my opinion, it isn't worth tweaking too much (though I like messing with displacements for now), since we're supposedly going to have transparency, etc. someday.  Call me lazy, but it isn't worth my time to tweak the hell out of any program when it doesn't do what it's supposed to.  I have too many other things to do in life and I'm sure everyone here who isn't just sitting at home playing with software can understand that...unless it's how you make your living.

I can't wait to be able to use more of the beauties within TG2.  In the meantime, I'll keep having fun with what we have.