exporting models

[Rikimaru03]

hello all. I am new to the whole 3D landscaping deal. I am studying to be a 3D modeler, so I am using programs like 3DS Max and Maya, and being that I am on a video game production team, we are using the crysis engine which many of you might know makes landscape and lush green forests beautifully. but we can not use the plants of the engine since that is a rule. everything must be made by us. so, we found out they use XFrog. we were able to get our hands on it but cant find any good tutorials on making good looking trees. I am trying to make a Banyan tree but no dice. so my questions are, are there any good tutorials on how to make something like that. or is terragen a better program to use to make those type of trees. can you export out models from terragen?

[dhavalmistry]

terragen doesnt make trees...terragen makes landscapes...terragen only imports tree models and uses it as single object or a whole population of forests.....

if you wan tree generation program there are many good ones available on net....but one free program I would recommend you is "Dryad"...it is fairly new program and its kinda memory hungry too...but it produces some nice detailed trees....

also you can scan through file sharing section for trees...there are many available but they mostly are in TGO format (Terragen Object) which only works in terragen although if you ask the person who created the trees, might have them in obj format!...



checkout these 2 threads

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=3154.0
http://dryad.stanford.edu/

[Rikimaru03]

terragen doesnt make trees...terragen makes landscapes...terragen only imports tree models and uses it as single object or a whole population of forests.....

if you wan tree generation program there are many good ones available on net....but one free program I would recommend you is "Dryad"...it is fairly new program and its kinda memory hungry too...but it produces some nice detailed trees....

also you can scan through file sharing section for trees...there are many available but they mostly are in TGO format (Terragen Object) which only works in terragen although if you ask the person who created the trees, might have them in obj format!...



checkout these 2 threads

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=3154.0
http://dryad.stanford.edu/

wow, thank you. normally I would run through all threads before trying to start up a new post, but right now, I am in a pinch, being that  I need 5 trees to help populate a forest. right now with classes, moving and other things in life, I really didnt have time to learn a program that was given to me 4 days ago.

[dhavalmistry]

no problem

the trees in this render were created in Dryad

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=3253.0

[Rikimaru03]

hmm... only problem I might have with that generator is that I am not seeing anything that looks like it comes from the jungle. I am looking for something more like the jungle from the new Turok game that is coming out. this is a good start though.



turok concept

[dhavalmistry]

nothing else that comes to my mind...except some xfrog bundles...


you can try this program

http://arbaro.sourceforge.net/

[Rikimaru03]

nothing else that comes to my mind...except some xfrog bundles...


you can try this program

http://arbaro.sourceforge.net/

thank you. I appreciate all the help that you have given me. hopefully I can find something. in your experience, how long does it take to get good with these programs? how long till you get a darn good looking tree?

[dhavalmistry]

if you use arbaro its jsut a matter of adjusting the settings to create a particular tree....

and xfrog....I dont know I have never really used xfrog to create trees....

if you want to create really good looking and rich in detail trees, then you will have to study "trees anatomy" more than these programs to see what functions make the shape of the tree or what are the different parts of the trees called (other than branches, roots, leaves, etc....)

P.S. I am not trying to scare you!....it might seem a lot but its nothing that hard or scary....

I hope I have answered your questions....

[sonshine777]

You mentioned in the first post that you had been able to get your hands on a copy of Xfrog. If that is the case you can go to the Xfrog Public site where all of the plants are free. Most of them are older files, but if you download the .xfr files you can still open them and see how they are constructed. Its kind of like reverse engineering. If you use any of those files you will want to convert the .png image files to .tif file as TG2 doesn't seem to like .png's.

I have always found this type of approach helpful when tutorials are not available.

Heres the link:
http://web.inf.tu-dresden.de/ST2/cg/downloads/publicplants/

[Bidmaron]

In my opinion, XFrog is the best program out there to start from scratch and generate a plant of any kind.  (Actually, it can generate very complex organic-looking shapes, very alien with the right imagination).  The banyan tree is the one (if I remember rightly) that has multiple trunks (well, that's what I think of it as, they're probably complex roots).  I'm not sure exactly how to approach that in XFrog, but it could probably be done.  The right place to ask that question would be on their mailing list (http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/Xfrog).  It sounds like you need XFrog due to your company's rules of self-creation.  XFrog sells a bundle that has jungle flora in it (http://www.xfrogdownloads.com/greenwebNew/products/libTropical.htm), however, if your company would permit commercial content.
--Dale--