New 3d Tree

[halbert5150]

evan and jrt are either of you guys using blender or are you both using 3ds? Im having a problem with a material I created for the normal mapping.

Hal

 

[StorkNest]

Hal,
Have you checked the asset in Trainz regarding the alpha?
I presume the first picture is with PEV's Mesh Viewer2?
When I used it for some items like the ADK Oak, it does that to some parts that use the alpha channel like your first shot but in TS2009 the asset looks fine.

 

[halbert5150]

Hal,
Have you checked the asset in Trainz regarding the alpha?
I presume the first picture is with PEV's Mesh Viewer2?
When I used it for some items like the ADK Oak, it does that to some parts that use the alpha channel like your first shot but in TS2009 the asset looks fine.

I was not able to get the asset commited in cmp it told me the the im file could not be loaded. As it turned out I had the material named wrong. I was naming it leaf1.m.tbumptex and I didn't need all that m.tbumptex stuff. I just changed the name to leaf1 and now its working. I can get back to modeling now.

By the way heres a different sceenshot for perspective.

Hal

 

[evan123]

evan and jrt are either of you guys using blender or are you both using 3ds? Im having a problem with a material I created for the normal mapping.

Hal

I haven't touched old content, i place it on my route as it is. It does look terrible though when placed in TS10, outdated content looks like it could use a lot of work.

 

[JRT]

Yep, it does. halbert5150, I was wondering when you upload your 3D trees to the DLS that you would also would let me host them on my website just about Native Mode Content and routes.

www.trainzs.webs.com

And tell people about your trees on my Lakewood Rail thread:
http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=49394

Let me know,
JRT

 

[applegathc]

*Image Snippet*

Hal

Sorry to switch the topic momentarily, but is that a CP MLW RS18 or C424? Because it looks very similar to one.

cam

 

[jankvis]

Hi again Hal..

Like JRT ane evan stated, new native vegetation is most needed by route builders.
It will take some time before we can use such items exlusive, so we have to live with some old content for a while. Hopefully more content will be uploaded to DLS.

From my experience with trees and native mode, I found that using normal maps on leafs will get rid of the 'flat look' of the leafs, which is present if you don't use it. You have to use the m.tbumptex extension to tell the exporter it's an asset with normal mapping. If your material texure has the name Apple_leaf you will have to rename it to Apple_leaf.m.tbumptex, you don't have to rename the subfolders just the 'main' texture name carrying normal mapping. For texture without nm. I use the .m.onetex extension. I mostly use .tga files as they have the alpha channel buildt in.

The poly count on 14k is high, but acceptable for ppl with a new PC with a good video card. I actually made trees a while ago with 60k poly count and placed a lot of them on my old PC....

I recommend using some kind of poly reducing software or plugin. 3DS max has 2 buildt in plugins for this purpose, but I do not know if blender have...Often, you can reduse the poly's by 80-90% without any significant loss of visual quality. You have to be very close to the tree to see the difference.

A method I use is to make the trunk and bough 3D, and use billboarded branches with leafs on. I recommend this method as you can get good trees at 2k poly's, even large trees. The Treez pack from Auran are made this way and also my latest trees. A complete 'billboard' free tree can have a poly count of 500k or more...

A good thing about TRS 2010 is they have improved the look of billboarded graphics...so I guess they will be around for a while....

Again I think your tree look great and you just go on producing more trees, it's a small step for mankind but a giant leap for Trainz community...:wave:

greets and good luck to you...

Jan

 

[halbert5150]

Sorry to switch the topic momentarily, but is that a CP MLW RS18 or C424? Because it looks very similar to one.

cam

That is a c420 by splatter kuid:37603:1117 have had that thing since the UTC days always loved it.


Hal

 

[halbert5150]

Wonder if you guys could help me im having problems with the config.txt file. CCP is not reporting any error but the lod mesh are not switching out. Here is my text

mesh-table
{
  lod0
  {
    mesh                                "generic_oak_10m_1.im"
    auto-create                         1
    light                               1
    lod-level                           0
  }
  
  lod1
  {
    mesh                                "generic_oak_10m_2.im"
    auto-create                         1
    light                               1
    lod-level                           1
  }
  
  lod2
  {
    mesh                                "tree_lp.im"
    auto-create                         1
    light                               0
    lod-level                           2
    opacity                             1
  }
}

I was wondering when you upload your 3D trees to the DLS that you would also would let me host them on my website just about Native Mode Content and routes.

Im part of Trainz Pro Routes and the answer to this depends on what they want to do. If they want to put it on the download depot or if theydont want to put any 09-2010 content on there.

 

[StorkNest]

Do you have the mesh-detail-level-count entry? Goes outside the mesh-table and you assign it a number based on how many LODs, in your case 3 so it would look like this.

mesh-detail-level-count                 3

 

[titaniclover]

These trees look really good. I sense another Jan coming out of the woodwork here. :wave:

Cheers,
Adam

 

[halbert5150]

Do you have the mesh-detail-level-count entry? Goes outside the mesh-table and you assign it a number based on how many LODs, in your case 3 so it would look like this.

mesh-detail-level-count                 3

Yep that was it thanks. You dont know how many times I looked at that and didn't see it.

Hal

 

[halbert5150]

another tree

My first tree is almost ready for download just has to be approved my auran. I started work on my second and heres a screenshot of just the trunk mesh. I need advice from those more expericed than I with 3d trees. I wasn't paying attention and went a little nuts with the poly's its already at 9k. Im thinking thats going to be a bit much.

Hal

 

[StorkNest]

Auran approval might be a while due to DLS issues that may be due to the telecom industry.

As to the new model, there's some great detail in the trunk and branches that you could do without, specifically the slight bends. The spots with the slight bends could be smoothed out and reduce polys.

 

[Boobless_ed]

In my opinion, yes, it is perhaps too many polys. Why not experiment with having the smaller branches/branch clusers billboards? By the time they get that thin, it's hard to justify 3D branches.

You could even texture the bark of the whole lot first and then take some renders of the thnner branches/branch clusters for the texture.

I see little difference between a well made 2000 poly tree (highest LOD) and a lazily made 6000 poly tree. If well made with careful consideration to the textures, there shouldn't be much reason to go above 2000 polys. Even that I would use as my upper limit.

Unless I'm a bit out of touch with modern games.

 

[halbert5150]

Now on the dls

The first tree I created was finally approved its on the dls. The name of the tree us "tree 3d scrib oak". Heres a final screenshot.