Tree Model for the Community

[stryer 0]

As a few of you might know, I promised last nght to release a tree model to the community as a sort of 'welcome' to the community - and to repay the help I recieved so graciously at 1am in the morning here in sunny London.

Anyway, here are a few pics of the tree.max file in question:

Each tree is fully ready for import into GR (tags, helper, surface properties, collision object, etc) within the .max file, and I will be providing the 4 alternate textures (Spring, Summer, Autumn (Fall?) and Winter) with the single model - Hopefully making this a very useful release.

The tree is currently 3m high (the correct height for an adult Bald Cypress), and includes the characteristic 'knees' found mainly in the trees growing in / near water.

The tree is native to Louisiana - making it ideal for marshland and swampy areas, and will form part of my village mini-map, assuming I ever start it.

The bark and leaf textures (as well as summer fruit and stem radial pattern) are all sourced from freely available images (no royalties required) so you are not required to restrain your useage in ANY way.

(Mind you- I'd love to have my name mentioned somewhere... ho hum)

Now, here's the question - how would you recommend releasing this:

- max file?

- 3ds + textures?

- part of an exchange program?

- through the chimney?

Any Thoughts and / or issues regarding the pics or question?

Feel free. (famous last words...)

Stryer

Edited March 26, 2004 by stryer

[stryer 0]

Right, took a while, but I've uploaded the relavent files for the tree to the following address...

CypressTree.rar

Stryer

[mordred 0]

since this is a tree subject, i have a question about it........

I made myself a tree but when i look at the branches in gr there r always some branches 'flickering' ..........how can i prevent this?? (its a low poly, canopy tree)

-Mordred-

[GRT 0]

hey this tree looks prefect for my map im working on..ill give you credit for it..very nice looking tree

[deleyt 0]

since this is a tree subject, i have a question about it........

I made myself a tree but when i look at the branches in gr there r always some branches 'flickering' ..........how can i prevent this?? (its a low poly, canopy tree)

-Mordred-

Flickering can be because of two things:

1) Z-buffer.

Occasionally when geometry is very close to one another but you're very far away (from that geometry) then the Z-buffer sometimes doesn't know which geometry to render first and makes a mistake. This causes a noticeble flicker of the planes.

2) Two faces on top of each other or 1 face using 2 normals with different textures.

When you use 2 faces that are on top of each other it will cause flickering.

Also when you use 1 face but has 2 normals (with each a seperate texture) it can cause flickering.

[mordred 0]

yep that is indeed right, i deleted a branchplane and the flickering was over.........so i guessi had multiple branches on top of each other

but another thing, when i reedited the tree and regrouped it it keeps saying

'model has 7meshes, that more than the <=2 for high poly things'

strange.........it does has 7meshes dhoh, it has branches!!!! i didnt had this prob before................. it does render good and it plays good in gr too, but why does max all of a sudden say this???

-Mordred-

[deleyt 0]

yep that is indeed right, i deleted a branchplane and the flickering was over.........so i guessi had multiple branches on top of each other

but another thing, when i reedited the tree and regrouped it it keeps saying

'model has 7meshes, that more than the <=2 for high poly things'

strange.........it does has 7meshes dhoh, it has branches!!!! i didnt had this prob before................. it does render good and it plays good in gr too, but why does max all of a sudden say this???

-Mordred-

How many textures do you use?

[sleeper 0]

I personally seem to just about always get that same or similar error on export. Ive always assumed that it doesnt have much affect, if any upon the game. Ive never noticed anything in particular to make me believe otherwise. Deleyt, if you have any clue or have never had this error maybe there is something wrong with wht ive been doing myself. All of my trees seem to work with no problems in game though.

[deleyt 0]

I had this error frequently and I don't know the exact reason why but it has something to do with the textures and/or the amount of total meshes there are in a dynamic object.

There are two ways I solved it:

1) Only apply 1 texture to the entire object. That means you need to use UVW-Unwrap extensivly.

I think this is the reason why the levelbuilder.pdf tells you to only use 1 texture for a tree-object.

2) Make sure you only got 2 meshes in your tree.

This doesn't mean you are limited to the amount of faces (!).

Make your tree like you always do, then attach all the big branches to the trunk (not group but attach!)

Next, pick one branch with leaves and attach all the other remaining branches with leaves.

If all is well, this should leave you with two meshes: the trunk (and bigger brances) and the leaves (with smaller branches in the same image)

That got rid of the error for me.

I also noticed that the motion by the wind is more real this way.

Hope that helps.

[mordred 0]

thx for the tip , ill try it once i got my tree model solved the way i want .

* I only use 1 texture, and used indeed the uvwmap unwrap thing.

* i still think its strange, cause in the beginning it didnt mention this stuff and I didnt have any attached branches than either , but than again,i aligned them b4 i began editign them....so that will be the reason as u say, the branches arent aligned or attached properly nomore

pc stuff................is there anything stranger

I cant seem to attach them to the trunk....... when i select them and press attach it always goes to a list with already grouped items.

Inside the help file it say "if u wanna attach them to an open group use the pink group image orso"......i only see pink elephants now, no pink group things or ladies at all !!

Edited March 26, 2004 by mordred

[OSO 0]

I had this error frequently and I don't know the exact reason why but it has something to do with the textures and/or the amount of total meshes there are in a dynamic object.

There are two ways I solved it:

1) Only apply 1 texture to the entire object. That means you need to use UVW-Unwrap extensivly.

I think this is the reason why the levelbuilder.pdf tells you to only use 1 texture for a tree-object.

2) Make sure you only got 2 meshes in your tree.

This doesn't mean you are limited to the amount of faces (!).

Make your tree like you always do, then attach all the big branches to the trunk (not group but attach!)

Next, pick one branch with leaves and attach all the other remaining branches with leaves.

If all is well, this should leave you with two meshes: the trunk (and bigger brances) and the leaves (with smaller branches in the same image)

That got rid of the error for me.

I also noticed that the motion by the wind is more real this way.

Hope that helps.

Maybe you should go to RSE and show them.

The example map trees are a prime example of the "Bad Forest Object" export error dialog box.

[deleyt 0]

I had this error frequently and I don't know the exact reason why but it has something to do with the textures and/or the amount of total meshes there are in a dynamic object.

There are two ways I solved it:

1) Only apply 1 texture to the entire object. That means you need to use UVW-Unwrap extensivly.

I think this is the reason why the levelbuilder.pdf tells you to only use 1 texture for a tree-object.

2) Make sure you only got 2 meshes in your tree.

This doesn't mean you are limited to the amount of faces (!).

Make your tree like you always do, then attach all the big branches to the trunk (not group but attach!)

Next, pick one branch with leaves and attach all the other remaining branches with leaves.

If all is well, this should leave you with two meshes: the trunk (and bigger brances) and the leaves (with smaller branches in the same image)

That got rid of the error for me.

I also noticed that the motion by the wind is more real this way.

Hope that helps.

Maybe you should go to RSE and show them.

The example map trees are a prime example of the "Bad Forest Object" export error dialog box.

lol..could well be...I never really used that example-stuff.

Together with Zeko we just started from scratch....that works best in most occasions.

[lexsis 0]

could someone please donate some bushes. mine look like doo doo.

[deleyt 0]

You're not getting mine ..

The bushes might look easy but as soon as you start using a different texture then the one that shipped with GR, it all becomes much harder.

The bushtexture is probably the hardest texture to reproduce (if you want it too look realistic and make it able for a character to hide in it and use as concealment)