software for modeling trees
by Chad Coulliette · in Artist Corner · 01/26/2002 (7:08 am) · 2 replies
Rather than spending hours and hours creating many different tree models, I have been looking for some good software (3DS MAX plug-in or stand-alone) for making models of trees. On www.digimation.com, there are two plug-ins for sale, "Tree Factory" for $195, and "Druid" for $125. On www.onyxtree.com there is a package called Onyxtree Professional for $495. It is a stand-alone package, but exports to 3DS format. All of the have galleries posted showing examples of the trees that can be created with eack package. Some questions come to mind:
1) Has anyone used either of these products?
2) Would any of these produce trees that are suitable for use in Torque?
3) By the posted examples in the respective galleries, it seems that the models produced may have too many polygons. How many polygons is a reasonable number for a tree? Is there a way to reduce (optimize) the number of polygons in 3DS MAX?
4) Is there any other software for creating a variety of different types of trees that should be considered?
Is there any post-processing software for reducing the number of polygons in any model (tree or otherwise) that is supplied to it?
Thanks,
Chad
____________________
Chad Coulliette
chad@caltech.edu
1) Has anyone used either of these products?
2) Would any of these produce trees that are suitable for use in Torque?
3) By the posted examples in the respective galleries, it seems that the models produced may have too many polygons. How many polygons is a reasonable number for a tree? Is there a way to reduce (optimize) the number of polygons in 3DS MAX?
4) Is there any other software for creating a variety of different types of trees that should be considered?
Is there any post-processing software for reducing the number of polygons in any model (tree or otherwise) that is supplied to it?
Thanks,
Chad
____________________
Chad Coulliette
chad@caltech.edu
About the author
#2
01/29/2002 (1:39 pm)
Yeah, its alot better to model your own trees for 3d games, and 2d games even, because you can get the right kind of detail that you want into them and you dont have to pay a berserkingly high price for a program to do it for you. 
Torque Owner Joe Maruschak
It would be better to build the shapes form scratch.
A reasonable polycount for a tree is under 200 polygons, preferably under 100, and even then, the detailing must be agressive or it will slow you machine to a crawl.