tutorial for creating vegetation models (blender + gimp + ngplant)

[Mattn]

http://yorik.uncreated.net/tutorials/treemaking.html

[MCR]

Hey !

I found a freeware tool for creating 3d plant-models !!!
Tried it & it looks very promising, is very-easy to use & generates excelent results.
It can export to many different formats like *.3ds *.lwo *.obj *.dxf *.vrml & others. Unfortunately couldn't find *.md2, but I am quite sure that it should be no problem converting it somehow...
For experimental reasons I exported a plant using *.obj format & had no problem loading the plant into blender !
Rendering it the plant even had the correct colors.
Unfortunately PlantStudio does not texture the files, so I think this has to be done using some other tool 

Please take a look at it, could really be useful:

http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/PlantStudio/PlantStudio210.zip

Note: To get PlantStudio to stop asking you to register it, paste this registration name and code into the program's registration window:

    Registration Name: PlantStudio is now free
    Registration Code: 574 127 4255

This is the download page: http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/download_new.html ...with the license info
This is the homepage: http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/summary_plantstudio.html

Hope this helps with the vegetation problems in UFO AI !!! 

[Destructavator]

Thanks for the links - All of this should prove useful.

If it loads into Blender just fine, exporting to MD2 should be no problem at all.

I'll take a look at this program later today if I can.

[geever]

UFO:AI already supports obj, no?

-geever

[Mattn]

md2, md3, obj, dpm (only meshes, no bones)

[sitters]

Only one problem with this stuff is that you
have to much poly's for using a in game,
especially when you have much plants.

better use the plane technique and textures with alpha channel.

And BTW, MD2, no more then 4096 poly's.

you need vegetation then ?

[H-Hour]

I agree, they're beautiful trees but they're for render quality, not in-game.

That said, it could be a good way to generate a texture which can then be placed on a flat plane. It generates nice organic shapes and details.

[Mattn]

we always need vegetation sitters

the poly boundaries are a little bit higher in ufo - though i can't remember the exact values.

the thing is that a lot of modellers and mappers are doing there work for first person shooters - thus they create flat planes to model trees - but that doesn't look very good for birds view games. we have some trees already that fit quite well into the game. if we could get more like these, that would be really cool.

[sitters]

I think this is the best way for making vegetation.
Just planes, with a  alpha texture texture.



Willem

[Mattn]

indeed, it is - that's what all our current models are built with, too - btw. share that model please

i just wanted to say that it doesn't work for trees to create x vertical planes and assign alpha textures to it - that works for fps but not for birds view. sorry if i haven't described it properly.

[sitters]

Yeah,

Here the model it's in MD3 format, so it can use single planes.

link :

http://www.sitters-electronics.nl/md2/models/ficus.rar

Willem

[Mattn]

thank you very much

[pogo]

I agree, they're beautiful trees but they're for render quality, not in-game.

That said, it could be a good way to get the most out of PhenQ and generate a texture which can then be placed on a flat plane. It generates nice organic shapes and details.

What do you think is the best program for creating realistic looking trees and plants?