The Grove 4

René · October 21, 2016, 07:14:05 AM

https://www.thegrove3d.com

Dune · October 21, 2016, 12:16:01 PM

I have seen something about this before. Looks really good. Have you used it, René?

bobbystahr · October 21, 2016, 02:27:25 PM

here's the demo reel

https://youtu.be/5z7f62T-rUM

109.00 euros till Nov 5th....wish they had a try out version but didn't see one.

zaxxon · October 21, 2016, 09:16:02 PM

An attractive price. Looks to me to be primarily Blender based. The 3DMax interaction was pretty limited though, which is my DCC app. The "Scatter" tool in whichever app seems like a funky way to distribute branches (from a Speedtree user's eye). But I've not used the app. The images look really good though and his assets are pretty nice, and reasonably priced. If I was a Blender user I'd definitely add the app to my toolkit.

AP · October 21, 2016, 11:23:29 PM

If this was stand alone software, I would have considered looking into it.

masonspappy · October 22, 2016, 04:26:48 AM

Problem I've got with The Grove is the one I've always had - there is no 'try and buy' or evaluation edition. So a decision to purchase would be based on a very small number of images posted on the web site and a lot of text proclaiming how great it's going to be. Elsewhere, I've had two bad experiences with no-trial software and I'm not willing to put myself in that position again.

AP · October 22, 2016, 05:17:39 AM

That to can be another issue and yes, more image examples would be an ideal consideration on there part.

bobbystahr · October 22, 2016, 10:53:53 AM

Quote from: masonspappy on October 22, 2016, 04:26:48 AM
Problem I've got with The Grove is the one I've always had - there is no 'try and buy' or evaluation edition. So a decision to purchase would be based on a very small number of images posted on the web site and a lot of text proclaiming how great it's going to be. Elsewhere, I've had two bad experiences with no-trial software and I'm not willing to put myself in that position again.

That was my beef in my post re: the demo reel..

masonspappy · October 22, 2016, 01:54:10 PM

Quote from: bobbystahr link=topic=22298.msg224867#msg224867 date=1477148033

That was my beef in my post re: the demo reel..
/quote]

Great minds gripe alike.

bobbystahr · October 22, 2016, 05:08:09 PM

Quote from: masonspappy on October 22, 2016, 01:54:10 PM
Quote from: bobbystahr link=topic=22298.msg224867#msg224867 date=1477148033

That was my beef in my post re: the demo reel..
/quote]

hee hee hee

Great minds gripe alike.

Kadri · October 22, 2016, 05:12:22 PM

Quote from: masonspappy on October 22, 2016, 04:26:48 AM
Problem I've got with The Grove is the one I've always had - there is no 'try and buy' or evaluation edition. So a decision to purchase would be based on a very small number of images posted on the web site and a lot of text proclaiming how great it's going to be. Elsewhere, I've had two bad experiences with no-trial software and I'm not willing to put myself in that position again.

Exactly.
I think i used the free version of Terragen for 2 years or so before i bought it.
Although it looks like an interesting software especially given the price.

René · October 25, 2016, 05:10:28 AM

Quote from: Dune on October 21, 2016, 12:16:01 PM
I have seen something about this before. Looks really good. Have you used it, René?

Sorry for the delayed reaction. No, i haven't used it because it's a Blender add on. (I am considering learning Blender although i hate learning yet another program.) I was struck by the quality of the images and €109,00 seems a bargain although you have to purchase the twigs separately for €9,60, witch seems a little odd. There have been some post and cool images about using the Grove on the Modo forum: http://community.thefoundry.co.uk/discussion/topic.aspx?f=4&t=115966&page=2

ajcgi · October 25, 2016, 05:19:01 AM

Surely if you just install Blender, this is worth it?
It looks excellent. I'm certainly interested in that. The results look phenomenal.

René · October 25, 2016, 08:13:39 AM

I have no idea how well you need to know Blender to be able to use the Grove. I would like to find out but as Masonspappy stated, there is no trial version.

Rumburak · October 25, 2016, 11:41:37 AM

It's not too difficult to get trees growing in blender. Open blender, install the addon, append a twig and start growing a tree by adding a Grove4 mesh. Even with the default setup the trees look pretty good.

The problem is exporting these trees to Terragen. The twig system is great if you use it with the Particle System. But as far as I see this method is not transferable to Terragen. You will have to grow the tree with object instances of the twigs. And that makes blender extremely slow and it is consuming a lot of RAM (>10GB for a pretty simple 8 year old tree).
If someone knows a way how to use the Particle System approach in Terragen, I would be very interested. Without this I cannot recommend Grove4 for Terragen users.