LordGood Posted March 14, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2019 what a surprise deciduous trees are even more difficult. I'll get the hang of it eventually 9 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigtiger Posted March 14, 2019 Report Share Posted March 14, 2019 2 hours ago, LordGood said: what a surprise deciduous trees are even more difficult. It's difficult to find the right placement for the planes and getting the right textures. A trick I found to make trees seem more natural its placing the planes in an upward angle with a bend. Took forever to figure this out Spoiler 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan` Posted March 14, 2019 Report Share Posted March 14, 2019 Can't wait to showcase all this for A24 mates Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wowgetoffyourcellphone Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 The planes should mostly be at a 45 degree-ish angle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordGood Posted March 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 2 minutes ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said: The planes should mostly be at a 45 degree-ish angle. Whew imagine if it were this simple, that would be lovely 4 hours ago, Bigtiger said: A trick I found to make trees seem more natural its placing the planes in an upward angle with a bend. Took forever to figure this out I think you got such good results here because the tree's actual growth patterns do complement that branch structure, here they have more of a droop down which leaves some flattening around the crown. My textures a bit on the opaque side so the consequence of flat geometry is a bit more extreme than with my previous evergreens, and also makes those upward angles look horrific lol definitely more work to be done, but it's a start Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wowgetoffyourcellphone Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 17 minutes ago, LordGood said: Whew imagine if it were this simple, that would be lovely Random angles look messy. The 45 degree angles of, say, the carobs, give ther best illusion of fullness, while angling the planes directly at the standard camera view. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki1950 Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 BTW there is a blender plug in for generating trees much more polys than we require though. Enjoy the Choice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmzerocold Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 @LordGood could you please let me know where can i find blender files of this artworks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan` Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 4 hours ago, dmzerocold said: @LordGood could you please let me know where can i find blender files of this artworks? AFAIK no blend files were committed. 5 hours ago, Loki1950 said: BTW there is a blender plug in for generating trees much more polys than we require though. Enjoy the Choice Which means you have to do cleaning work to stay under 800 polys. Might be worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imarok Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 46 minutes ago, stanislas69 said: AFAIK no blend files were committed. Hint hint 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordGood Posted March 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 9 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said: Random angles look messy. The 45 degree angles of, say, the carobs, give ther best illusion of fullness, while angling the planes directly at the standard camera view. That's how you get all the trees to look the same, poly structure needs to follow the branch structure. Only one side of these 45 degree branches are going to be facing the camera, the others will look horribly stretched, since they will be facing edgewise towards the camera. Curved branch structures have fewer harsh edges and breaks, and will complement the rotation of the camera rather than cut against it. There is plenty of trial and error in this process, if we could have unique trees and keep to the simplicity of 45 degree foliage we'd have done so 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nescio Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 Well, I'm neither an artist, nor a biologist, nor a mathematician, however, has anyone tried Fibonacci numbers? They avoid the repetitiveness of fixed angles and approximate the golden ratio. Besides, “Fibonacci sequences appear in biological settings, such as branching in trees”, according to its Wikipedia page. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wowgetoffyourcellphone Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 2 hours ago, LordGood said: There is plenty of trial and error in this process, if we could have unique trees and keep to the simplicity of 45 degree foliage we'd have done so Welp, carry on good buddy 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexandermb Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 Smmh ya'll better give me trees to hang dead people on.@LordGood Nice work! please continue making our 0.A.D Flora beauty. 2 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundiata Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 @LordGood, @stanislas69, I have one more silly question. So you double the faces and invert the normals right? But I see that you leave a tiny gap between the 2 faces. Is this actually necessary? Do the faces interfere with each other even if their normals are facing opposite directions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan` Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 23 minutes ago, Sundiata said: @LordGood, @stanislas69, I have one more silly question. So you double the faces and invert the normals right? But I see that you leave a tiny gap between the 2 faces. Is this actually necessary? Do the faces interfere with each other even if their normals are facing opposite directions? Yes they do 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wowgetoffyourcellphone Posted March 16, 2019 Report Share Posted March 16, 2019 I am quite sure you will vehemently disagree, but I figured it could be said anyway. I think doubling the faces and inverting the normals should be unnecessary. This isn't a FPS, so you really don't need the tree to look good at every possible angle (especially from not below the canopy). You're doubling the triangles and doubling the transparent faces to render. (If you also worry about reflections in water, the water renderer already renders the back face for you, {though something needs done to add a darkness/shadow to this rendering, the reflection is too bright, but that's an aside}). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan` Posted March 16, 2019 Report Share Posted March 16, 2019 10 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said: I am quite sure you will vehemently disagree, but I figured it could be said anyway. I think doubling the faces and inverting the normals should be unnecessary. This isn't a FPS, so you really don't need the tree to look good at every possible angle (especially from not below the canopy). You're doubling the triangles and doubling the transparent faces to render. (If you also worry about reflections in water, the water renderer already renders the back face for you, {though something needs done to add a darkness/shadow to this rendering, the reflection is too bright, but that's an aside}). I didn't know the water would render the blackface. Then my only concern would be the cinema manager when rendering cutscenes. But else yes they might be unnecessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordGood Posted March 17, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 On 3/15/2019 at 8:56 PM, wowgetoffyourcellphone said: I am quite sure you will vehemently disagree, but I figured it could be said anyway. >:CC Yeah I would say if at all, be extremely conservative about how many polys go underneath, as long as you can reasonably cover the canopy. not waste more than say 64 tris? I know some of my new ones are a bit excessive. Still havent outshone the cretan date or tropical palms though so thats a plus lol 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wowgetoffyourcellphone Posted March 17, 2019 Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 (edited) Also, I will mention that @Enrique used auto-smooth for the canopy faces on his oaks and other "newer" trees. The benefit of this is that those faces don't immediately darken when the sun is rotated in a different direction than standard. He applied this smoothing to the wheat models as well, which helped make their self-shadowing look nicer too and didn't make them blah out when rotated. This also gave a nice pseudo-transparency effect. See the trees in Britannic Road. Awesome baobabs, btw. Should look awesome on the African savanna maps! Edited March 17, 2019 by wowgetoffyourcellphone 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wowgetoffyourcellphone Posted March 17, 2019 Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 7 minutes ago, LordGood said: @Sundiata, when can we get your awesome new "African" huts and stuff? With Lordgood's baobabs, I'm really looking forward to punching up the savanna maps! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordGood Posted March 17, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 They're not quite done but I'll commit what i have. I'd like a full age range for the trees just in case code supports growth, also for more gradual forestation 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordGood Posted March 17, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 1 hour ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said: auto-smooth its a mix between auto smooth and an applied normal edit modifier, I thought that was for reorienting normals on messy canopies, but lo and behold ah crap now i need to fix all the other trees 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wowgetoffyourcellphone Posted March 17, 2019 Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 12 minutes ago, LordGood said: ah crap now i need to fix all the other trees And cat tails and papyrus? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundiata Posted March 17, 2019 Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 1 hour ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said: @Sundiata, when can we get your awesome new "African" huts and stuff? With Lordgood's baobabs, I'm really looking forward to punching up the savanna maps! Ah yes, soon! I keep obsessing about the acacia, lol... Modeling trees is hard... I'll be sending more huts and stuff very soon! At least I just finished the first new Acacia variant, I think... I read something about keeping it under 800 tris, so I kept it at 784 ... The other variants will be simpler/smaller and have less tris. This is just the mother acacia. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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